Seven untitled tracks totaling just over an hour of sinister dark ambient that flirts with tactful musical melodies as well as a scarce few slightly more aggressive textures. In general it's very hypnotic (notably the distant background synth melodies in the opening track), and even the more ominous and slightly louder or noisier areas tend to be somewhat calm in a strange sense, perhaps because such moments are few and far between. The bulk of the disc consists of lots of thick hums and drones, at times becoming very quiet and minimal, but never avoiding the consistently powerful and moving feeling of the record. At times things get very ethereal and spacious as far as depth and resonance, and some of the longer pieces integrate sounds that are more natural - what sound like field recordings - along with almost tribal instrumentation/atmospheres (percussion and the like). And, don't get the wrong idea, but there are a few small, subtle areas where the musical elements sort of have a really dark 80's new wave sort of flare going on!? The structures work very well though, and the flowing nature of the compositions really carries not only the longer tracks that top eight minutes (or reach nearly 20), but the overall length of the disc as well. I love the sound quality too, which is very thick and clear, allowing the layering to be condensed but not at all obfuscated. The presentation is very nice, as with most every Somnambulant Corpse release. The disc comes in a DVD case with a full color cover that shows a skyline with a bleak eclipsed sun, and all of the information on the back is presented in tiny, clean text. Not bad at all. I actually really like this release a lot. If this is any indication of what this project is capable of, I would expect to see ?nd gravitate towards greener pastures as far as audience is concerned, because while this is a superb work that should be appreciated by dark ambient fans, I could imagine some of this being a bit more accessible to more open-minded fans of other such experimental genres as well. Very nice.
[Somnambulant Corpse]
Running time - 62:12, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: they're all untitled]
Somnambulant Corpse Recordings - http://www.somnambulantcorpse.com
