Øystein Jørgensen should need no introduction to those who follow ambient experimental music. He has been quiet over the past few years, but I came across this old recording from 2010 which showcases his more sound designer influences.
Tag: Dark Ambient
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Scott Lawlor – Theotokos
As Orthodox are still going through the process of Advent, we share our second post of the year in honor of the Birthgiver of God (Theotokos), as composer Scott Lawlor has titled this 2019 release. Time flies, but great electronic and ambient music maintains its station.
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Sonologyst – Shortwave Spectrum
It has been far too long since I’ve had the pleasure to review albums by Sonologyst, perhaps the finest dark ambient project to come out of Italy in the last decade and impresario of Unexplained Sounds Group, who have introduced dark music from all over the world.
This album offers lush drones that wrap themselves around your ears. Best to let Raffaele explain further:
“The new Sonologyst “sonic documentary” delves into the secretive realm of shortwave transmissions; a chronicle of clandestine shortwave transmissions culled from a span of nearly four decades (1982-2021). These mysterious transmissions – repetitive voices, signals, sound pulses, short pieces of music – were collated and edited to compose the tracks of the main album.
Immersed in an isolating fog of dark ambient, deep drone music and cinematic sound art, it provides an auditory exploration of the ongoing Cold War. Originating from covert radio stations engaged in military and espionage endeavours, the tracks unveil a hidden sonic landscape of strategic communication.
The second disc, in its extensive presentation, provides a deeper immersion into these enigmatic broadcasts. Each recording remains unaltered, accompanied only by a ghostly drone. It offers an unfiltered glimpse into the world of clandestine communication, where words are transmitted beneath the radar and in the shadowy confines of the electromagnetic spectrum.“
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JOHN 3:16 – Azathoth
Our friends, the ever-amazing JOHN 3:16, come in with a track that clocks in at around 5 minutes and manages be blend cinematic ambiance with heavy tension. Quite a captivating listen.
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Corrado Maria De Santis – Over a Long Time
One of the great joys of my vocation is discovering musicians I would probably never otherwise encounter. Enter Corrado Maria de Santis, courtesy of our dear friends at Lost Tribe Sound:
“Corrado Maria De Santis, an Italian guitarist, skillfully combines the raw spontaneity of improvised guitar with computer-generated sounds, crafting captivating sonic landscapes characterized by ambient drones and glitch-infused textures. Having contributed to various notable music labels, he now presents his inaugural album on Lost Tribe Sound.
‘Over a Long Time,’ is a deeply personal collection for Corrado, capturing an extended and challenging period of life surrounding the passing of his father. Through this recording Corrado was able to journal some of the pain, confusion and emptiness he experienced because of this loss. The sound palette of raw, churning noise, buried rhythms, and minimal classical inflections can be intense, but also quiet life-affirming. At LTS, there is a focused interest in how repetitive noise and low frequencies seemingly have the ability to cut through or alleviate the poisonous cycles our minds often fixate upon.
‘Over a Long Time’ is a brilliant example of low-end droning and rhythmic noise can hold both structure and a sense of musicality in equal standing. Corrado has done a great service to this music, allowing it to be both searing, heavy, and abysmal, while still offering some hope and some catharsis, which allows for new life to take root in the charred soil.
The more recent and crushingly gorgeous works of Rafael Anton Irisarri come to mind while listening to ‘Over a Long Time,’ as well as some of the raw, gritty arpeggio-based sound of Jon Hopkins. The album was a hard-fought effort, from the subject matter to finding the right texture or ear-feel for the final sound. A lot of subtle decision making and deep listening lead to the creation to this entrancing work.”
Something perfect for Halloween, this soundtrack released by Sounds For The Soul should be enough to either scare trick-or-treaters away or leave the more interesting ones intrigued by the dark and heavy sounds coming from this album.
Lost Tribe Sound has another release featured this week! This one pairs two leading composers, Dag Rosenqvist & Aaron Martin, working together creating a filmic masterpiece. The music is tense, influenced by everything from classical music to ethereal. From the press release:
“American and Swedish composers Aaron Martin and Dag Rosenqvist came together in 2011 under the name FROM THE MOUTH OF THE SUN. Their first album Woven Tide was released by Experimedia in 2012 and they returned in 2015 for their second album Into the Well. In 2016, three pieces from Woven Tide played an integral role in David Wingo’s score for Jeff Nichols’s Warner Bros. feature Midnight Special. Their third album, Hymn Binding was released with Lost Tribe Sound in September 2017, followed by the EP Sleep Stations in 2018, and 2021’s acclaimed Light Caught the Edges. Also in 2021, the duo released an original score for the Oscar shortlisted documentary by Jimmy Goldblum, A Broken House (Dronarivm).
Using a vast array of acoustic and electric instruments, including cello, piano, banjo, pump organ, and guitar, while utilizing analog equipment, Aaron and Dag craft unique musical landscapes full of contrasts, where melodies and ominous textures intertwine. Since 2005, both artists have also had their solo efforts released by influential imprints like Preservation, Miasmah, Type, and Fang Bomb. Dag and Aaron also created the original score for Joshua Weinstein’s film Menashe (A24), released in 2017.”
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Mykel Boyd – Fever Dreams
Somnimage impresario Mykel Boyd, a stunningly good composer in his own right, has released a 20-minute work of a grim, hazy, yet beautiful soundscape where you feel trapped in the bowels of the set of a sci-fi epic.
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Sanr – Ramak (Şiddet Denetimi)
Sanr is a project out of Turkey who has released an album so drone-laden and so darkly ambient that it would have fit perfectly between a collection of Cold Meat Industry records and the Terminator 2 soundtrack. It’s heavy, foreboding and magnificent listening if you like a horror vibe.
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若潭 ruò tán – 石 Stone
ruò tán are China’s more organic answer to old post-Industrial/cassette-culture bands like Germany’s Cranioclast. The music is eerie, yet so utterly engaging. Probably the best reference to this music is for those of you who remember not only the aforementioned band but the early works of projects like O Yuki Conjugate out of Great Britain. Not at all music to meditate to, but it did make for engaging music to lay back to and simply absorb.