[neuma] – Mourning Star

March release of 2009 on Biodata Netlabel appeared to be [neuma]’s “Mourning Star”, an experimental noise ambient single-track album. It starts with high-tone sounds, which immediately start pulsating, with the progressive addition of new elements, as if a frame, becoming overgrown with new elements. On the fourth minute of the track, you can hear some shot-like sounds, which turn to become rhythmic, and after the seventh minute, they fade out, leaving place for almost melodic part, which, in its turn, disappear in the initial pulsatings. Jointly with the strange cover art picture, the album give rise to mysterious feelings. The casuistry of “Mourning Star” and “Morning Star”, which made me be strongly mistaken (great thanks to attentive and thoughtful readers!), and also made me rewrite the whole review, may play a significant role here, implying some kind of disastrous phenomena or object, which causes sorrowful emotional experiences. So, watch the “Mourning Star” of [neuma].

Official release on Biodata Netlabel

ABLUONIHIL – R100%=G

Another interesting specimen from Biodata Netlabel turns to be ABLUONIHIL’s “R100%=G”, with very peculiar title, and as much peculiar music – the product of experimenting with the nature of noise. You can hear low drones, as in the first track “Tiempo”, chaotic swirls and changes as in “Vacio”, high-toned pipes, as in “Pensamientos”, enveloping humming, as in “Ruido Interno”, some strange abrupt textures, as in “Ruido Externo”, and sandwiches, made of different layers of noise, as in the last track “Medio Final”. In the whole, the sounding is unobtrusive, moreover, it represents a very pleasant and expected item in the collection of an experimental-music-lover. The idea of the album is original and worth listening. So, have some “R100%=G” with ABLUONIHIL.

Official release page on Biodata Netlabel

Mike Shiflet – Llanos

Today’s featured artist turns to be Mike Shiflet, an Ohio-based ambient musician, whose self-released album “Llanos” is really mind-explosive. What makes me glad in his work is the softness of the noise structures – they don’t make you throw your headphones away, but keep you cosy and warm. If studying the name of the album, we can learn, that Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain, located to the east of the Andes in South America, and may be a travel to this place appeared to be the “inspiration-agent” for the artist. All these noisy hisses, against the background of hardly distinguishable ambient melodies, may represent the chirring fauna in this location. The album is full of energy, and sometimes overdriving energy, as in “Sunbathers” – there seems to be some boiling and hissing. However, the most of the tracks are like quiet, crackling spheres, with slightly ringing drones and some kind of radionoise. In the whole, the work produces pleasant, sunny and warm impressions, as if their noise particles, in the process of friction, generate heat radiation. So, have a nice listen to Mike Shiflet’s “Llanos”.

Mike Shiflet’s official site

Self-release official page

Found at Deleted Scenes Forgotten Dreams Blog

Willy Stamati – La Folie En Bouteille

Willy Stamati is an experimental noise ambient project from Donetsk, Ukraine, and “La Folie En Bouteille” is one of his albums, which is dedicated to absinth. On the cover picture you may see the painting of Viktor Oliva “Absinthe Drinker”, where the green muse (“La Verte Muse”), perhaps, gives inspiration to the lover of this beverage. All of the four tracks of the album are connected with absinth, and their sounding reveals, that certainly it is not a very blissful experience – you can feel some kind of heaviness and doom in these distorted drones, fuzzing and crackling. But inspite of these hard feelings, it is obvious, that it is a good specimen of experimental music with interesting transitions, solutions and textures. Meet the Green Muse with Willi Stamati.
Willy Stamati’s “La Folie En Bouteille” on Noise Reactor label: http://www.noise-reactor.com/?menu=2&mp3=44
Willy Stamati on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/willystamati

Disturbance Ambient Project – Nidhoggur

Disturbance Ambient Project is a dark ambient/industrial project from Yekaterinburg, Russia; now I’m going to review its album, called “Nidhoggur”, released on Qulture Production label. In fact, Nidhoggur is a name for a mythic dragon, who gnaws at the root of Yggdrasil – the World Tree. As you can notice, the track names are connected with mythology, religion and philosophy: “Aeon” – age, epoch; “Eos” – the Titan goddess of the dawn; “Erebus” – the son of the primordial god Chaos, the personification of darkness and shadow; Fenrir – a monstrous wolf from Norse mythology. The sounding of the album is aggressive and powerful, it is full of tough rythms, distortion and overdrive – as if some prehistoric energy was released from the ocean of oblivion. So, I invite you to gnaw the root of the World Tree with “Nidhoggur” of Disturbance Ambient Project.

Disturbance Ambient Project’s “Nidhoggur” on Qulture Production label: http://www.qulture.ru/?menu=2&mp3=211

Bardoseneticcube – Time Of Mars

Bardoseneticcube is a dark ambient project from Saint Petersburg, which nowadays ceased its work, but in spite of it, musicians continue their activity in other projects and collaborations. Today’s target of my reviewing is their album “Time Of Mars”. It begins with strident high sounds, that adjust a listener to some dark kind of mood. All tracks are untitled, however, they are rather expressive. You can feel a little bit prostrated and lost in a spacious cavern of subconsciousness. You are surrounded by unknown echoes, that attack you from every quarter. These sounds are aggressive, that could be the reflection of a possible conception of the album: Mars is a god of war, and now his time has come. Bardoseneticcube’s work is full of this brutal vibration, that strikes through all of your mind and body. Another feature, that is evident, is wide spectrum of all kinds of sounds – from resembling screams – to resembling bursts. You can hear harsh noises, sharp sqeakings and buzzing; all of them are synthetically made, but they successfully reveal the main idea – the time of Mars and everything, that accompanies this terrible phenomenon. I must specify, that this idea of the album’s conception is just my point of view, and it can differ from the authors’ creative intentions. It is obvious, that Bardoseneticcube’s album is an important contribution into the field of experimental music, and I recommend you to make the acquaintance of this work.

Bardoseneticcube’s “Time Of Mars”: http://www.roilnoise.com/webreleases27.htm
Bardoseneticcube’s official site: http://bsc.radionoise.ru/
Bardoseneticcube on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bardoseneticcube
Bardoseneticcube on lastfm.ru: http://www.lastfm.ru/music/Bardoseneticcube

Gasgruel – Inwardness

Total destruction. Ubiquitous death. Apocalypse here and now. Gasgruel’s music makes us aware of the danger of our dark sides. His work “Inwardness” gives a picturesque view of war and its horrors. There is not so much information in the Internet about the author, which hides behind the pseudonym Gasgruel, but it is known, that he comes from Kaliningrad, and the project was founded in 2005. Album “Inwardness” is released on Liminal Recs label. The first thing, that bursts upon the eye is the stratified and rather complicated texture of the sonic narration – sounds of shooting weapon, suffering people, damped conversations, explosions, much noise are mixed into a terrible sense attack, creating a picture of a bloody battle – a result of allowance of human stupidity development, which may certainly be its inwardness. All this seems to be the musical embodiment of Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” and other of his novels, which through naturalism try to awaken people’s mind and to show, that wars occur like an avalanche – from an insignificant snowball to a shattering great mass. From greed and wish of power to killing. In one of Gasgruel’s interviews, he says, that gold is dust. Furthermore, he adds, that we shouldn’t live for earning money, because we don’t have so much time for wasting it on such trifles. I completely agree with him and support the idea of his album “Inwardness”. Almost 40 minutes of death, fire and tortures reveal the self-annihilation potential of our modern world. Almost 40 minutes, that must make us become deep in thoughts.

Gasgruel’s “Inwardness” on Liminal Recs label: http://www.liminalrecs.com/index.php?q=lr025

Dime[drone] – Bottomless Pit

Today I’m going to review an album of Dime[drone], under the title “Bottomless Pit”, that saw the light on 6th of May in 2008 on Qulture Production label. It is the drone ambient music project of a musician from a Russian city Petrozavodsk, who later renamed it from Dime[drone] into OMUTT. “Bottomless Pit” is a short album, lasting 21 minutes. It has three tracks, but I want to focus attention on the last one – “Inevitability Of Immortality”. Droning background, high-pitched wind chimes and singing of a choir make an impression of a deep, heavy sleep with eyes bound together forever. Listening to it, it comes to my mind, that the name of the project – Dime[drone] may be somehow connected or even derived from Dimedrol, a name of a sedative remedy, though it is only my own supposition, that may be mistaken. “Inevitability of Immortality” is remarkable for its soothing, bringing into trance, and mystic climate. It’s good to listen to it in a repeat mode while falling asleep, you are sure to have bright, rainbow dreams, full of vivid imagery; it’s a real song of Hypnos.

Dime[drone]’s “Bottomless Pit” on Qulture Production label: http://www.qulture.ru/?menu=2&mp3=22
OMUTT on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/omutt

Lost Aether – Noisewaltz

Lost Aether is a musical project of two musicians, from a Russian city Obninsk, with nicknames DaFT (synth, noise, vocal) and Stolb (guitar), who write experimental/field recording/dark ambient/drone/noise music since 2008. “Noisewaltz” is considered to be their first album. First thing, that you can notice, is the structure of the album – the noisy core is enclosed by the first and last mild ambient tracks, which may be to smooth the rigidity of the central pieces, which overwhelm the listener by the rush and bursts of noise. For example, “The Noise Of The Sun” and “1989” are full of unexpectedness and unpredictability, while the first track “Untitled” and the last “In Search Of” are classical ambient compositions, in spite of their grungy sounding. In the exact center of the playlist of “Noisewaltz”, there is the transitional – in respect of noise/mild sound ratio – track, called “III”. So, here we can certainly observe the symmetric architecture of sounding – from almost tender atmosphere to furious, explosive attacks, to some kind of transition, again to bursts, and at last – to the happy ending. Lost Aether doesn’t have any official release, the band publishes their albums on lastfm.ru and on Myspace, however, it has grateful listeners. At the moment the group stopped its activity, but I hope they did it just to gather up with subsequent continuation of making music. Their music is really gripping and interesting, and it is worthy of attention.

Lost Aether on Lastfm.ru: http://www.lastfm.ru/music/lost+aether
Lost Aether on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lostaether