Album: Dark Ambient Vol 18
Artist: Various
Label: Sombre Soniks
Catalogue no: SomSon 140
Tracklist:
1. Akoustik
Timbre Frekuency - Ὀϊζύς Rising
2. SIJ
– Settle Clouds
3. Taphephobia
– The Personification of the Dawn
4. Hellschreiber
– Inside the Labyrinth
5. Cousin
Silas – Tartarus Comes Up for Air
6. Babalith
– Sapho
7. Tzii
– Niké Itta
8. Temple
Music – Io, a Fairytale Romance
9. Druhá
Smrt – Nekromantaeon
10. Seesar
– Hypnos
11. Alone
in the Hollow Garden – Across the Abyss
12. Tribes
of Medusa – Alone in Her Lair
13. Misantronics
– Dark Areta
14. Black
Seas of Infinity – Eruption of the Bleeding Oracles
15. Mørket
– Nyx and Erebus
16. Bathory
Legion – Ερμής
17. Grist
– The Monster Inside thy Labyrinth (08.08.19)
18. Arcaïde
– Hesiod’s Theogony
19. Embers
Below Zero – Andromache’s Lament
20. Uzbazur
– Battles of the Gods
21. [ówt
krì] – Ascend to Light
22. Sheer
Zed – The Sacred Lake of Crocodilopolis
23. Guy
Harries – Minotaur
The latest volume in
Sombre Sonik’s bi-annual compilation of the best of dark ambient has reached
number 18, its coming of age so to speak. Most of the tracks I understand are
unique to this collection, and some might even be foreshadowing future releases
on the label. Any canny individual will discern from the track titles that its
overarching theme is ancient Greek mythology, with all its attendant Gods,
Goddesses, and Heroes. It must be borne in mind that, unlike say Ancient
Egyptian deities who were remote and otherworldly, Greek deities were very much
superhuman analogues of ordinary humans, especially in their actions and
reactions, making them very relatable to us mortals (or certainly to ancient
Greek mortals), their status as Gods and Goddesses the only thing that
separated them from those ordinary human beings. Their lives were as complex
and as simple as our lives were at that time, and that was one way for people
to understand them.
Let’s plunge right in (but
brace yourself because this is going to be a long one - apologies), and start
at the very beginning with Akoustik Timbre Frekuency’s ‘Ὀϊζύς Rising’. Ὀϊζύς
(Oizys) is the Goddess of Misery, Anxiety and Depression, being the daughter of
Nyx (Goddess of Night) and the twin of Momos. Indeed, the atmosphere evoked
here doesn’t much rise above subterranean rumbles and drones, eliciting an
oppressive and browbeating weight that hangs heavily over the entire track.
Strange disembodied voices emanate from beneath the black mists, presumably the
denizens of some underworld realm. SIJ’s ‘Settle Clouds’ takes entirely a
different tack, gloriously ambient chords launching themselves off a deeply
elevating drone, to take flight and soar into a broad Mediterranean sky, the
sun showering blessings on the Greek homeland. Greek myths could be full of
cruelty, and yet could also portray incredible beauty and passion. The two
tracks thus far encapsulate that dichotomy perfectly.
‘The Personification of
the Dawn’ by Taphephobia carries us along on yet more high-flying chords and
drones, as we float lightly and airily on invisible morning currents of wind
while we witness the rising of the new day’s sun. Wispy white clouds brush our
skin, their soft caresses as beautiful as soft maiden’s kisses. Hellschreiber
offer us deeper, more sinister drones, as Theseus enters the Labyrinth, the
domain of the Minotaur, whose grunting breaths are ever-present on this track.
They’re a reminder of what’s in store at the centre of the puzzle, a bestial
half-man, half-bull creature living in deep subterranean solitude, ready to
accept tribute from King Minos every ninth year. Cousin Silas’ ‘Tartarus Comes
up for Air’ burrows headlong into the earth on haunting drones, alighting in
the deep caverns and chasms forever hidden from the light of day where souls
are judged, punished, and tormented, the very same place where the Titans are
forever imprisoned. It’s completely airless and subdued, a fitting dungeon for
wrongdoers to find themselves trapped in.
‘Sapho’, by Babalith, is
sinuous and snakelike, hypnotic and mesmerising like a snake-charmer’s flute.
Sapho (or Sappho) was a female Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, who
somehow became a symbol of lesbian love. Niké is the Greek Goddess of Victory
(not a brand of trainers), and Tzii’s ‘Niké Itta’ track begins with a mass of
reverberant tones overlaid with weird flute-like breathings, followed by
forceful horn sounds shimmering through the air from afar. Perhaps a great
victory has been won, and these are the annunciators of that triumph.
Next up is Temple Music’s
‘Io, a Fairytale Romance’ – the track is doubly appropriate here, as Temple
Music is based on one of the Greek islands. As for Io, in legend she was one of
Zeus’ mortal lovers, and became the progenitor of many kings and heroes. A
voice from the depths of space and time emerges against a background of
woodwind-type sounds, which change into drones and rumbles that build and
build. The voice recites a story in Greek, presumably the story of Io and her
divine romance. Druhá Smrt’s ‘Nekromantaeon’ presumably refers to the
Necromanteion of Acheron, a temple devoted to Hades and Persephone. Suitably
downbeat strings introduce the track, the chords as mournful and doleful as the
region of death is itself, before the track opens out into grandiose sweeps of
power and sound, indicative perhaps of the characters of Hades and Persephone.
The contrasts couldn’t be more startling.
I reveiewed Seesar’s Ghoul-Kin earlier this year for this
blog and, of all the tracks on show here, this project’s contribution is the
most unique, insofar as it takes a very abstract approach to music. His
‘Hypnos’ is no exception, beginning with a series of reverberating scrapes and
howls, personifying Hypnos’ role as the God of Sleep. However, sleep has many
different states, from peaceful, to dreamful, to agitated and on to
nightmarish, sometimes in the same night. This is reflected in Seesar’s lengthy
track (coming in at just under 38 minutes), meaning that one can legitimately
see this as a portrait of the God himself and his powers, in all his moods and
caprices. This might just be one of my favourite tracks on here.
Now comes an act I’ve heard of but not actually heard yet, Alone in the Hollow Garden – and
their ‘Across the Abyss’ is a beautiful drone and voice affair, as if saying
that if one speaks to the void then it will answer you. Following on from that
is Tribes of Medusa’s ‘Alone in her Lair’, a sparkling fuzzed up guitar and
drum paean to some unnamed female deity brooding in her secret sanctum. And broody
it is too, the kind of brooding that certain-types engage in when they’re
convinced that they’ve been wronged – there’s anger, envy, jealousy, and rage
all wrapped up in here. Misantronics, another act with a recent release on the
label (Initium), bring us ‘Dark
Areta’, which initially starts with a low growling drone accompanied by howls
and voice. This is a frigidly cold piece, reminding me of freezing winds
blowing across a forsaken landscape.
Next up is Black Seas of Infinity’s ‘Eruption of the
Bleeding Oracles’, a deeply Lovecraftian piece, with strange calls, rattling
bones, and chill winds. This sounds as if it’s emerging from some deep pit, one
that’s filled with poisonous vapours and sulphurous aromas. Mørket’s ‘Nyx and
Erebus’ is next, a slow machine-gun electronic beat that echoes endlessly over
its running time, oscillating, ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning. Nyx is
the Greek Goddess of Night while Erebus personifies darkness and shadows, an
appropriate companion to Nyx. Seemingly random notes serve as a prelude on
Bathory Legion’s ‘Ερμής’ (which means Hermes), the God of trade, heralds,
merchants, commerce, roads, thieves, trickery, sports, travellers, and
athletes. He also acted as an emissary and messenger for the Gods. Stirring
strings then pick up after the intro, focusing on the deity’s swiftness, before
reverting to those random-appearing notes (they’re not, but give the appearance
of being so). Australian outfit Grist is next with the second-longest track on
the album, ‘The Monster Inside thy Labyrinth (08.08.19)’, announcing its
presence with looping flutes and other woodwind instruments. Gradually these
metamorphose into competing drones, reminding me somewhat of Steve Reich and
Philip Glass. Beyond that it’s a complex, ever-changing track, forever evolving,
roiling and coiling, having morphed into an entity far removed from what it was
at the beginning.
We’re on the home straight now (and I thank you for
your patience) and our next focus is on Arcaïde’s ‘Hesiod’s Theogony’ (Hesiod,
by the way, was a poet active between 750 – 650 BC, contemporary with Homer of The Odyssey and The Iliad fame), which is a poetic work concerned with the origins
of the world and the Gods. Indeed, the start sounds like the deep time before
creation, the period when matter was diffuse and undifferentiated. Gradually,
forms coalesce and assume their familiar shapes. The Gods become embodied too,
and thus is our first mythology created.
Andromache was the wife of Hector, a soldier who was
killed by Achilles, and here in Embers Below Zero’s entry she’s in the depths
of lamenting his death. Swirling, plangent drones float on a breeze of grief,
that same breeze taking Andromache’s tears with it. Uzbazur’s ‘Battles of the
Gods’ burbles its way into existence on fierce winds, whilst being bolstered by
a crackling hammered percussion, as Gods and Goddesses hurl thunderbolts at
each other. [ówt krì]’s ‘Ascend to Light’ states its intentions with deep
drones and ringing sheets of high-end sound, a spiritual flight through layers
of gross matter that becomes diffuser and cleaner the higher we ascend. Grainy
looping structures provide the bedrock for Sheer Zed’s ‘The Sacred Lake of
Crocodilopolis’, which was a religious centre for the worship of Sobek, the
Egyptian crocodile-headed God before it was taken over by the Greeks. It later
became Arsinoë, named after Ptolemy 2 Philadelphus’ wife when he declared her
its protector Goddess. Vaguely Eastern-style drones and figures elicit a sense
of the exotic and mysterious, alluding to both the city itself and the sacred lake
it sat next to.
And now, here we are at the very last track, Guy
Harries’ ‘Minotaur’. We’ve already encountered the half-man, half-bull creature
before in Hellschreiber’s track described above, but Harries describes the
beast in very abstract terms, using resonant, oscillating drones and tones that
convey the threat the creature represented. It ascends into a helicoptering
blast of noise, a giant behemothic presence representing cruelty and danger, a
block to anything resembling beauty or culture.
I apologise for the overlong review, but with
compilations I feel that all participants’ efforts should be acknowledged.
Luckily, however, I can honestly say that there were no duds on this one, but I
would place as my particular highlights the contributions from Seesar and Guy
Harries. I would venture to say that there’s something that will appeal to
everyone on here, and as a name your price release, you can’t really go wrong,
plus it represents excellent value. I urge you to pick this up, and give it a
thorough listen – it deserves a careful listen and a lot of appreciation.
Get your copy from here:
Psymon Marshall 2019.
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