This experimental project has always been hit or miss with me. Sometimes I enjoy what they do, and sometimes I hate it - often all within the same release. Curious artwork and song titles had me hoping for the best here, and thankfully opener "Am I a Coward When I Fear Death?" delivers in full force with eight minutes of consistent and minimal dark ambient drones, with plenty of low-end and some ethereal textures seeping into the background. "Hell is the Other and the Other is Me." follows with another eight minutes of very similar aesthetics: Lots of deep rumbles, monotonous hums, etc. The difference being that things are made much more sinister and immediate by some hugely resonant percussive textures that sound out from a distance, as well as some subtly more electronic sounds that mingle with the reverberating bass drones. Not as consistent as the opener, things become slightly more musical towards the latter half of the piece, with some nice synth melodies forming underneath another more concrete percussive element. Slightly shorter "In Life There is Nothing I Fear More Than Death." comes next with one of the bleaker passages, quieter and more chilling in atmosphere, keeping in line with the simplistic and flowing dark ambient nature of this release, and using a few crisper textures to add a little brightness over a distant sample that's almost impossible to make out. Very tastefully executed. The last composition is the title track, which runs an astounding 24+ minutes - a smidge longer than the other three tracks combined! The pace is perhaps even slower and more deliberate, with some of the distant samples making a return for added effect. This piece is absolutely desolate, with deeper rumblings and brighter, more involved midrange ringing textures developing midway through. Some of the samples change over into faint singing nearer to the end, with a few smatterings of instrumentation sparsely peeking through - a little out of character with everything else, but manipulated in a manner that does work. The CD-R comes in a stark package that looks to have been printed from an extremely high quality printer, though not professionally duplicated, but I really like the blank white space and crisp, unusual imagery used throughout. Simple but effective. The release is limited to 100 copies, which is a bit of a shame, but hopefully that would meet the demand - though really the release deserves a bit more attention than a mere limited CD-R, granted it gets the job done. This is by far the best release I've heard to date from Ellende. It's much more mature and linear in approach, with a delivery that flows flawlessly from start to finish. Very much recommended. I hope this is the road Ellende continues to follow from this point on. Great job.
[Stridulum]
Running time - 47:17, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: all four are very nice and consistent]
Stridulum Recordings - http://www.stridulum.net
