Paysage d'Hiver - Kristall & Isa

Genre(s) - Ambient black metal
Origin - Switzerland
Year of release - 2001
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 51.01 MB

Winter is coming! Put on your thick coat and headphones blasting some glacial black metal. Secretly I'm hoping for a harsh season this year because there's no more welcome way of coming home than from out of the cold. For those grimmest, bone-chilling nights there is Paysage d'Hiver, a Swiss one-man project that manages to capture both the gleaming beauty of freshly fallen snow and the hostility of a february hailstorm, through a unique atmosphere that creeps up on you like cabin fever. If you haven't heard this band, forget what you think of as grimness, because there's nothing like this, seriously nothing at all. Also, Wintherr's shrieks are definitely among the sickest vocals in the genre. Kristall & Isa may perhaps just fall short of the self-titled release, but the harshness probably requires some getting used to and then this one is a bit easier to digest. If you succeed you might also be interested in this great split.

1. Isa
2. Austritt aus dem Körper
3. Äther
4. Der Kristall ist Eis
5. Wachen - innere Stimmen
6. Kälte
   

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Vibrasphere - Archipelago

Genre(s) - Psytrance, ambient
Origin - Sweden
Year of release - 2006
Bitrate - 192-256 kbps

Sorry dear people, my exam week is upcoming so I have had even less time to post than is usual lately, and this will probably be the only entry in the coming week. Don't forget about me in the meantime!

This is a duo from Sweden that weave very warm, lucid dreamworlds together out of electronic sounds, moving back and forth between ambient and psytrance a bit indecisively. Archipelago is clearly more on the trance side of the spectrum, but easingly so and never rushing things, earning the label morning trance if you ask me. There are more ambient tracks on here as well such as the beautiful Tierra Azul and Late Winter Storms which isn't as cold as it sounds, really, while Sweet September is the most memorable trance track my inexperienced ears have ever heard. They're all very engaging atmospheres with a lot of natural grace and melody that make it more than just a pleasant background noise. It was too big to share so I had to snip it in half, make sure you take both!

1. Tierra azul
2. Sweet september
3. Reservoir
4. Landmark
5. Seven days to daylight
6. Morning breeze
7. Sudden comfort
8. Baltic resonance
9. Late winter storms
   

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Part 2: Load it down (62.11 MB)

Lycia - The Ghosts of Lycia

No cover art; so here's Mike & Tara with a rake and some maize

Genre(s) - Ethereal/shoegaze/dark ambient
Origin - Arizona, USA
Year of release - Never officially released
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 26.42 MB

Some very early material by that darkest of darkwave bands, Lycia. There's not a lot of information on this "release" but apparently it's a collection of very early demo tracks that were released unofficially... somehow and years later. I can't even recall how it ended up on my computer though I remember, back when I was still shuttling back and forth between uni and my parents' place, dozing off to this in the train regularly, watching the winter scenery drift by as the sun came up. It'll work for you too if you let it. It may be distressing music but it's unobtrusive enough to just fuzz out your brain into a blissful, druggy half-sleep. Of course it's only a short spell of music and its age is abundantly clear - it's more frail and unfocused than any of their official releases (among which, for instance, this one), but Lycia fans absolutely need to hear this. And for the rest it may not seem like the best introduction to the band, but it sure did it for me.

1. From foam (original version)
2. Torment
3. In the wake of nothing
4. This sacred place
5. Dismissal
6. The beginning of the end
7. Decline
8. Blinding white fire
   

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Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible

Genre(s) - GOAmbient
Origin - Shpongolia, United Kingdom
Year of release - 2001
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 62.66 MB

From the iridescent, colour-shifting plains of inner Shpongolia an embassy has been established in our mundane dimension. The creatures, first looked at suspiciously due to their odd appearance and behaviour, want to show us their benevolence by bringing us strange and lucid tones. There are those who cannot dig it, alien as it is - they do not understand, and may forever be tethered to what is real in the here and now. But those who dig it are frequently seen meditating away to the vibrations in clouds of smoke, or dancing softly to themselves in slow and fluid motions, closed-eyed and smiling. The underlying message from these space creatures (who are really not just two LSD-addled British blokes) is obvious: we bring you peace!

"There is a cheer. The gnomes have learned a new way to say hooray."

1. Dorset perception
2. Star shpongled banner
3. A new way to say 'hooray'
4. Room 23
5. My head feels like a frisbee
6. Shpongleyes
7. Once upon the sea of blissful awareness
8. Around the world in a tea daze
9. Flute fruit
   

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Solar Fields - Leaving home

Band/artist - Solar Fields
Genre(s) - Psychedelic ambient, chillout
Origin - Sweden
Album - Leaving Home
Year of release - 2005

Another of the staple artists of the oft-mentioned Ultimae-label, just like the earlier-posted Aes Dana (check here). There are some differences, however. The former artist plays a sort of slowed-down, ambientised psytrance, but Solar Fields is a bit more abstract than that. This means it's not as melodic but the effect is no less because of it. Of course it's all about the atmosphere, and here it's as soothing and mystic as it gets. I think the best stuff on here can be found in the three longest tracks, Air Song, Cocoon Moon and Monogram. Also the song Time Slide struck my attention as it has a lot more feeling than I'm used to hear in ambient music. This is music to dream away to, literally or otherwise, and that's all there's to it. Psychoactive substances not necessary, but certainly recommended.

1. Home
2. Time slide
3. Insum
4. Star fruit
5. Magnetosphere (Star fruit pt. 2)
6. Stereo hypnosis (Magnetosphere pt. 2)
7. Air song
8. Cocoon moon (Glastonbury festival 2005 mix)
9. Monogram
10. Times are good
11. Leaving home
    

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Trist - Hin-Fort

Band/artist - Trist
Genre(s) - Dark ambient, black metal
Origin - Rosenheim (Bavaria), Germany
Album - Hin
Year of release - 2007

[Semi-repost]
Hin-Fort has nothing to do with the more well-known Czech band named Trist. This is the German band/co-operation between one Timo Kölling (a poet and philosopher) and Benjamin König AKA Aran of Lunar Aurora. It's formally a dark ambient project, but this release is split in two very distinct disks. The second disk, Fort, is indeed comprised of very dark ambient of a cinematic kind that aims to frighten, using a lot of movie samples and the like. The first disk, Hin, is what this is really about. This single, hour-long behemoth of a track starts as an ambient piece too. But twice in its duration the music erupts into long stretches of the most intense, brainwarping and repetitive ambient black metal you might ever have heard. It does remind of Lunar Aurora - the atmosphere reminds of Hier und Jetzt and the Zyklus album to be precise, but the whole sound is more alike to Darkspace without the palm-muted guitars. You could see it as a blend of both, but more persistent in every way. I'd already posted the first disk but a set is a set. If you're not discouraged by lengthy songs and like a musical challenge you should let this unit turn your brain into goo - that's what it does, and it feels good.

Disk 1 - Hin - Load it down

1. Hin (59:54)

Disk 2 - Fort - Load it down

1. (Keine) Angst
2. Unter dem Wolken
3. Hilfe
4. Schlaflos
5. Licht aus!
6. Nachtflug
7. Fort
   

Dernière Volonté - Les Blessures de l'Ombre

Band/artist - Dernière Volonté
Genre(s) - Martial industrial, military pop
Origin - France
Album - Les Blessures de l'Ombre
Year of release - 2003

Les Blessures de l'Ombre is an anomaly in my collection, and a hell of a tough release to review. Applying influences from marching music not to ambient or industrial but to much more melodic pop structures has led DV main man Geoffroy to the creation of what may well be the first ever military pop album. Altogether it's a bit new-waveish in sound, I would guess: heavy on the synths, old-school production, but using darker melodies and backed by the snare drum rolls commonly associated with army parades. Incredibly, the combination works. Dernière Volonté has delivered a ground-breaking album that makes a seemingly awkward, confusing mix of styles a pleasure to listen to. On Le Poison, Les Blessures de l'Ombre and Le Foudre et le Tonnere, the old martial spirit shines through most clearly but the song that got me hooked was the haunting Vienna.

1. Ouverture (Opening)
   
2. Le poison
3. Vienna
4. Les orages du crime (The storms of crime)
   
5. Les yeux fermés (The closed eyes)
   
6. La foudre et le tonnere (The lightning and the thunder)
   
7. Un dernier crépiscule (A last twilight)
   
8. Vers la lumière (Against the light)
   
9. La source
   
10. Ton visage de papier (Your paper face)
    
11. Les blessures de l'ombre (The wounds of the shadows)
    
12. Souvenirs de demain (Souvenirs of tomorrow)
    
13. Si... (If...)
    
14. Au revoir (Goodbye)
    

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Various Artists - Fahrenheit Project part 3

Band/artist - Various
Genre(s) - Psychedelic ambient
Origin - Various
Album - Fahrenheit Project, part 3
Year of release - 2002

The Fahrenheit Project is a series of compilations - seven in total, of which six have been released so far - released by the ambient, dub and psytrance label Ultimae records. A large and recurring role on all of the Fahrenheit comps is reserved for my triarchy of favourite ambient artists: Solar Fields, Aes Dana and Carbon Based Lifeforms, who most usually chip in with a song or two each. With music like this it's hardly possible or rewarding to discuss the tracks separately: it's simply not song-based music, rather it's the totality of the experience that counts. Lay back, smoke 'em if you got 'em and enjoy a sonic dreamworld full of wonder, mysticism and calmly whirling phosphorescent vapours! Oh yes.

1. Koala & Xentrix - Infinite dream
2. Aes Dana - Undertow
3. H.U.V.A. Network - Morning call (ambient version)
4. Cell - Spiritual move
5. Solar Fields - Something crystal
6. Toires - Nabab
7. Carbon Based Lifeforms - MOS 6581
   
8. Mystical Sun - Blue magnetic ocean
9. Solar Fields - Spiritual ocean
   
10. Carbon Based Lifeforms - Metrosat 4
    

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Lycia - A Day in the Stark Corner

Band/artist - Lycia
Genre(s) - Ethereal, shoegaze, dark ambient
Origin - United States of America
Album - A day in the stark corner
Year of release - 1996

You could say that what Paysage d'Hiver is to black metal, Lycia is to the dreamy segment of underground gothic music: they have always been a touch more bleak and distant sounding than their peers. The band is often categorized as ethereal but it's in nothing like Black Tape for a Blue Girl or Dead Can Dance, relying much more on drawn-out electric guitar lines and keyboards over a repetitive drum computer than on acoustic or classical instruments. Mike VanPoortvleets yearning whispers bring a whole different meaning to the lyrics than an 'Angelic Voices' soprano would have done. Though certainly beautiful, Lycia's music is a detached, sedated, sorrowful affair overall, and A Day in the Stark Corner is not an album you listen to for fun. If you can recognize yourself in the eccentricity of sometimes enjoying negative feelings, then don't let this one slip.

1. And through the smoke and nails
2. Pygmallion
3. The body electric
4. Wide open spaces
5. The morning breaks so cold and gray
6. The remnants and the ruins
7. Goddess of the green fields
8. Everything is cold
9. Sorrow is her name
10. Daphne
    

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Paysage d'Hiver - Paysage d'hiver

Band/artist - Paysage d'Hiver
Genre(s) - Black metal, dark ambient
Origin - Switzerland
Album - Paysage d'Hiver
Year of release - 2000

What can be said about Paysage d'Hiver? It is one of the harshest, coldest black metal projects on earth, springing from the mind of one rather singular, reclusive fellow named Wintherr. In an interview he describes the process of creating his music as a highly spiritual, meditative thing and I find that this can be heard in the music itself. Paysage d'Hiver has a very unique sound in combining ultimate rawness and monotony with a hazy, otherworldly sense of atmospherics, using intangible (anti)melodies whirling slowly and quietly through a wall of guitar-made static noise and submerged blastbeats. Wintherr also plays violin, and at times uses it to give the music an extra layer. This self-titled three-track demo (still fifty-something minutes long), like all his releases, is very much inspired by dark ambient, so it is no wonder that at times the din subsides to make way for a bit of quiet introspection. And for the best, as it is a mesmerizing, but demanding experience altogether.

1. Welt aus Eis (World of ice)
   
2. Gefrorener Atem (Frozen breath)
   
3. Der Weg (The way)
   

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Triarii - Ars Militaria

Band/artist - Triarii
Genre(s) - Martial ambient, neoclassical
Origin - Germany
Album - Ars Militaria
Year of release - 2005

When I first heard of the genre called martial ambient/industrial and military pop I was fascinated by the concept and the bands' images. Most of the bands couldn't really interest me, however; I had hoped for something a bit more romantic and less industrial than most projects within the genre proved to be. Triarii is one of the exceptions: with its focus on ominous, bombastic neoclassical arrangements set to slow, heavy percussion and snare-roll marches it's just as apocalyptic as I imagined the whole genre to be. Listening to Sun, Serpent & the World Ending, the most devastating track on the album, or the proud, nostalgic Son of the Sun you can just visualize the legions marching by.

1. Anthem from the iron flame
2. Europe in flames
3. Mother of pain
4. Dark skies over Europe
5. Der verwundete
6. Legio Vi Ferrata
7. Regicide II
8. Marche du capitulation
9. Neuropa
10. Serpent, sun & the world ending
11. For the fallen ones
12. Son of the sun
    

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Aes Dana - Season 5

Band/artist - Aes Dana
Genre(s) - Psychedelic ambient, morning trance
Origin - France
Album - Season 5
Year of release - 2003

Not to be confused with the other French band under the name Aes Dana, because this here project is a far cry from pagan black metal. In fact, this music is perfect for when you can't sleep at night or while enjoying a long, slow morning at home: all manner of crystaline sounds sweep and sparkle through the ether to a downtempo beat intended to draw the listener into a dreamy state of utter relaxation. I can say that it is fairly effective, and all the more so (logically) after smoking a bowl and dimming the lights. Aes Dana is one of my favourite artists from the exalted Ultimae label, and I intend to post more Ultimae albums here in due time.

1. Natti natti
2. Peripherics
3. Season 5
4. Undertow
5. Gatewick (vinyl airport delay)
   
6. Dew (herbal version)
7. Chrysalis
8. Onset data
9. Forest fishes
10. Suspended grounds
    

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