I'm not at all familiar with this project, but offered up on this CD are four experimental dark ambient tracks of epic lengths (all well over 10 minutes, two nearing 20). There's certainly an atmospheric quality to the pieces that references nature on some level, specifically that of an outer space sort of feel. "Lacus Somniorum Sinus Aestuum (Lakes and Bays of the Moon)" contains lots of changes, often abruptly, from soothing ethereal hums to moderately paced panning and slightly more jarring textures. Halfway through things start to hint at melody deep in the mix, just barely - and there's more melody towards the end mixed in with windy tones. It's very interesting and creates an incredibly authentic mood. The title track seems to be slower moving and quieter. Overall the approach is somewhat similar, but indecipherable vocal samples also come into play. Samples of fire become subtly evident around the 10-minute mark, and there are definitely a lot of ethereal ringing tones quietly spanning back and forth. The latter portion of the piece brings in even more manipulation of vocal samples, definitely helping this track stand apart from all of the other songs. "The Oort Cloud" is again very slow moving and quiet with a lot of panning movement. There's more of a hypnotic quality through the constancy of ringing drones and vaporous textures, and there are also some percussive elements as well, but not in a domineering fashion. As the composition comes to a close things become thicker and louder, but remain steady for the most part, again hinting at careful musical elements. This is probably my favorite track. It seems slightly more simplistic, and that works. "Chandrasekhar Limit (Singularity)" is also of a more minimal nature, providing lots of space for the sounds to move around. Again the elements are windy and rather bright on occasion, the atmosphere is decidedly darker though. The end brings in some crisp crackling sounds and heavily treated vocal samples, very similar to the title track. The recording is absolutely pristine. The mix is very clear and covers a great range of tones with surprising cleanliness. This style of music rarely gives me the feeling that I'm being surrounded by the sounds, but that is indeed the case here. The "instruments" used to create some of these sounds consist of an empty bottle, a metal bowl, metal wands, a music box, and wine glasses. There are also a lot of sampled field recordings, some taken with a microphone (burning logs, church bells, evening rain on metal bowls, lake waves, the Thameslink train, and water in a hot frying pan), others with a geophone, which is an instrument used for measuring ground motion (a blueline machine, an iron fence on a beach, a lakefront pier, a Macintosh G4, and a machine shop floor). The layout looks a lot different than all of the previous Triumvirate releases. There are a lot of bright colors, and the imagery is soft with some computer-generated stuff going on as well as photography and painting. All of the imagery has to do with the sun and the sky, so there are photographs of clouds and paintings of circular images and cloud-like textures, as well as some overlapping text that is some sort of statistical graph of information that has to do with the sun, but I'm not sure what types of measurements the numbers represent (aside from the fact that in one area of the chart you can see listings for SESC Sunspot Number, Solar Mean Field, etc.). When all is said and done this is a strong offering from an obviously competent artist. The congruity of the tracks coupled with their extreme lengths is slightly tiresome for my personal tastes, but the quality of the work can't be denied.
[Triumvirate]
Running time - 64:08, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: The Oort Cloud, Chandrasekhar Limit (Singularity)]
Triumvirate - http://www.citadel-gate.com
