Subterranean Source "Vivid Circles" CD
[Desolation House]
Here's some superb dark ambient from Italy where sinister synth tones and foreboding textures create excellent soundscapes that certainly create a significant mood without abandoning subtlety or a certain degree of almost disturbing calm. The only setback is that the six lengthy tracks herein basically sound almost identical to one another (sans a few distinct differences), so the disc amounts to about 53 minutes of relatively the same thing. Such consistency is fine, and the work here is strong, but as the CD plays through I find myself looking for more on occasion... "Afraid of Sunlight" is one of the more involved tracks, and while not at all a departure from the very consistent delivery of the record, the piece does stands on its own a bit better than some of the others, often coming off as a bit more emotional due to some very slight melody. Careful melody is also present in "Spiritual Darkness", though not quite as interesting (granted it is still very nice), while on the other hand "Orange Vision" brings in some manipulated vocals low in the mix... and that's an intriguing addition that I'd like to hear explored further, because it leans in a more menacing direction and adds an extra element of curiosity that most of the other songs tend to lack. The final composition, "Ancient Echoes", introduces some tribal-esque percussion and lush hums in the distance that really stand out a lot - this is a great direction that should be taken to new levels within this work. The recording sounds fine to me. Everything is crystal clear and there's a great sense of deep resonance to all of the compositions. Most of the tracks are fairly quiet and deal with a lot of low-end tones, but you can still hear all of the layering that's going on, which is important here. The layout is gorgeous. The CD comes in a nice digipack with a largely black outer sleeve with some subtly colored photographs of sunlight peeking through the trees (flipped upside down to make the images a bit more vague). Inside are some abstract brown textures that appear to be extensive ripples on the surface of a lake or something, and there's one brown panel with a smeared black circle in the center of it (which actually looks quite interesting - though I'm unsure of what it represents). All in all this is a splendid debut from this project, and I would expect better things to come. A bit more variety certainly won't hurt, but the atmosphere explored throughout these six tracks is indeed something that I can appreciate. (7/10)
Running time - 52:43, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Afraid of Sunlight, Orange Vision, Ancient Echoes]
Desolation House - http://www.desolationhouse.com

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