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dark ambient

Alone In The Hollow Garden‎ * L . V . X . (mc 2014)

However I ordered this exquisitly packaged tape from Beläten, it was released by Red Cavity Records who also released the Tanz Ohne Musik tape that I reviewed a while back.
The music starts with soundscapes, analogue according to the description. Here and there the sound is quite ritualistic, not entirely unlike Zero Karma or Chöd. Halfway the sound becomes a lot darker with an excellent “Self Eating Serpent”. The last tracks are nicely dark too.
Links: Alone In The Hollow Garden, Red Cavity Records

Rasthof Dachau‎ * … Das Andere Licht (cd 2012)

Rasthof Dachau, I have known the name for decades, but I never really listened to them. This is partly because of the project’s name. I am not much interested in WWII but I do know tht Dachau was one of the two German extermination camps (the other one was Auswitz) and to call it a ‘resting place’ (Rasthof) gives me a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps it was not meant to refer to the camp or it did and the shock value works too well for me, but that is why it took a couple of decades to try out the music. Later I heard music of this project without knowing what it was. Great, dark ‘ambient noise’ with aggressive vocals, so in the end I decided to set out and investigate the project. You cannot listen to extreme music without extreme humour, right?
It proves not too easy to find Dachau material. Most of it has long been sold out. In the Cold Spring mail order I found this limited compilation (350 copies) with material from 1999 to 2002. Unfortunately there is not too much of the noise side of this project. Some tracks are more dark ambient, other tracks old style industrial. There are a couple of very good tracks to be found, especially the great dark noise opening track called “Exitus”.
Rasthof Dachau is a project for people who like noise music, but not of the unstructured, chaotic type. People like me! But you might have to live with the fact that some people have an even harscher sense of humour as yourself!
Link: Steinklang

v/a * Revenge?! Yes! Nordic Audio Modern 2012 (cd 2012)

Yes this compilation is a couple of years old and yes it was released in a limited edition of 500 copies, but my eye fell on it in the Cold Spring mailorder and the line-up looked interesting enough to get it. That was a good guess! Not that this is a superb compilation, but there is an alternative version of Ex.Order’s “Shuchu Ryoku Pt.03” (a more dark ambient track by the way), a wonderfull collaboration of Deutsch Nepal and Trepereringsritualen (the two are apparently working on more material) and the track of Deutsch Nepal alone is good too. Moreover it was nice to hear In Slaughter Natives in the old style again, there are two new names for me (Maldur Atai and oro!oro!) and the rest of the projects included include Land:Fire, Inade and Trepaneringsritualen.
It looks like it that this compilation accompanied some Lithuanian festival. It makes a nice compilation with more dark ambient and a little bit of noise so certainly not such a bad buy.
Link: Autarkeia

Æther & Trepaneringsritualen‎ * Edifice Of Nine Sauvastikas (mc 2012)

Beläten also released a tape of Æther in 2013, but I found that (on quick hearing) a bit too soundscapishly monotous. Since I need to collect Trepaneringsritualen material anyway, I opted for this split. One 10 minute track of each project.
The Æther is indeed a quite monotous soundscape, just a little bit noisy, apparently formed of field recordings. It is not bad, but not entirely my cup of tea.
Also Trepaneringsritualen presents a sort of soundscape, but much darker, more threatening and more industrial in sound. The vocals are left out for this sonic ritual, but Ekelund certainly set a pretty damn dark atmosphere again.
Links: Trepaneringsritualen, Beläten

Ēv Of Isis‎ * Dark Ambition (mc 2013)

This is probably the strangest Beläten tape that I bought (that is to say: the download, the tape is sold out). A dark ambient sound, but a bit weird with even weirder vocals: highly distorted female vocals. There is ambient with drumming on the background, then there are these weird vocals and stretched sounds. The sound is quite ‘ritualistic’. Perhaps thinking of something between Aghast and these dark ritual projects of The Fossil Dungeon such as Hexentanz or Akhkharu gives you an idea.
Not brilliant, but neither the kind of music that comes to me frequently these days.
Link: Beläten

Nature Morte / Douleurfantome‎ * When Trees Fall Down (mc 2011)

Again two projects that I never heard of. Both projects present a few tracks of their own and there are two tracks recorded together. The sound is more dark ambient where Douleurfantome is a little darker and Nature Morte more soundscapish. Not too bad.
Only now when I review it, I see that the tape is a couple of years old, but I got mine from Tesco, so copies still seem to be available. There are 151 of them in total.
Links: Nature Morte, Douleurfantome, Reue Um Reue

Inade * Audio Mythology Two (cd 2014)

Regular readers of these pages will know that I am not too keen on dark ambient. Inade might not be the exception, but I do listen to them every once in a while. I have known them since the 1993 “Burning Flesh” tape, but obviously I do not follow them closely enough. Deezer (a Spotify competitor) ‘informed’ me about this new album. I had no idea that Inade is still active, so I listened to “Audio Mytholgy Two” (more about that later. When I checked Discogs before I started to write this review, I noticed that this is actually one of six 2014 releases! There are four “seasons” of “Colliding Dimensions” with live and rehearsal material (two of these albums are available on Deezer), available as mp3 downloads (in 2005 this was released as a 4cd box celebrating a world tour); also an mp3 album called “Delineation. Metamorphosis. Permanence” which title rings a bell, so this material might have been available before too.
In any case, “Audio Mythology One” was released in 2012 and it seems that I missed it. Number two has the typical Inade sound. Dark, droning ambient with ‘ritual rhythms’ (to call it that), deep spoken vocals. Other tracks are very dark soundscapes with no rhythm or vocals. Great music to read books to!
Nothing surprising when you know this German project, but since the music is always qualitativelly good, you can just get your hands on this latest release when you like Inade.
Links: Inade, Loki Found

Land:Fire * Incandescent Sonic Lodge (cd 2014)

I have seen Land:Fire live a couple of years ago in Wuppertal, but I was eager to see them again at the 2014 Wave Gotik Treffen. When on walking out before the show for something to eat, my eye fell on a “new album” on the merchandise stand which I of course bought since I am very curious if this duo can top their excellent “Shortwave Transmission” album of 2009. The show was wonderfull, but the “new album” proves to contain old material, more specifically the 2007 “Incandescent” and the 2006 “Live At Sonic Lodge 13./14.05.2006” both self-released. You can guess that I had neither album otherwise I would have recognised the title of this “new album”.
In any case, the material is again pretty damn good. Very dark ‘cinematographic’ ambient with noisy elements. A good album to get if you, like me, missed the originals but like the sound of this German duo. Still it is high time for some real new material gentlemen!
Links: Land:Fire, Loki Found

Post Scriptvm‎ * Benommenheit (cd 2014)

I had no idea that Post Scriptvm had a new album coming until it showed up in the Tesco newsletter. It is even released by Tesco. Well, the previous two albums were too, so this is not too strange.
I love “Marginal Existence” (2005), from then on Post Scriptvm seemed to become less dark and more experimental. The following albums were all interesting, but I mostly like this project for the older material. When I put on “Benommenheit”, I was pleased to hear some pretty dark material, somewhat noisy even, great! A bit furtheron this album reminds more of the previous album “Grey Emminence” (2010) which is alright, but less interesting to my ears.
All in all certainly one of the more interesting releases in the style that I will for convenience sake call “dark ambient” and especially the first tracks are great.
Links: Post Scriptvm, Tesco

v/a * Hour Of The Wolf (cd 2013)

Four long tracks of four artists under their given names. Kristian Olsson opens. I know Olsson best from Survival Unit and I also know his projects Blood ov thee Christ and Heid, but Discogs also has projects listed that I never heard of. Olsson presents something that is best described as “ambient noise”, but with most stress on the ambient part. His track is a bit monotous, but moody and quite alright.
Next up is Martin Bladh of IRM and Skin Area. I love the music of both projects and Bladh also contributed the most interesting track of the four. The style we are familiar with: ambient noise with highly distorted vocals. This is only in a part of his track though. The rest is more ritualistic so to way. The outburst is the only really noisy part on what I thought would be a total noise release.
More ambient things get with Kevin Tompson who is active in Sutcliffe Jugend and used by be a part of Whitehouse. He has more active projects according to Discogs. Also here the sound is quite soft, experimental and mostly ambient.
On Joel Danielsson Discogs has no further information and a Google search makes him see more of a visual artist. In any case, following most of the rest of the music, his track is weird ambient with a noisy touch.
I expected more extreme sounds so perhaps I should recommend this to people who like dark ambient. You should not be afraid of some dirty, noisy touches though.
Link: Freak Animal Records