Review: Clara Engel - 'Visitors Are Allowed One Kiss'

CLARA ENGEL
'Visitors Are Allowed One Kiss'
PARADIGMS RECORDS /AUDITORY FIELD THEORY

Pulling together contributions from fourteen collaborators, this record manages to become a fully formed organic entity, the third mind in action. There is no info on whether the contributors recorded their part in person or if they sent their tracks in via the inter-tubes, but from the first second the ambiance gives a vivid impression of the sounds having been captured in a bare room in an old house. The way this creates a space in which the listener hovers like a ghost is quite extraordinary.

Visitors Are Allowed One Kiss starts ravelling its threads from the first second of 'Swans', a sound poem of slow motion disaster enveloping like an inescapable dream. The beauty of the experience only serves to make the horror all the more poignant and profound. "Uneasy spirit let go of me" Clara Engel sings on 'Uneasy Spirit', but its grip is tight and cold, even as the sound is as hot as the breath of the hell-hound on our trail. The arrangement is deceptive in how it leaves so much space. Two guitarists, backing vocals, percussion and ambient sounds are layered the way a master painter will layer dozens of layers og glazes to create graceful and flowing image. On 'Swallow Me' Clara Engel's vocals hover above the martial pulse and portentous drone like an angel intoning promises that come across equally as threats as assurances. Salvation or perdition, what is held out to us, and which brings the greatest ecstasy? We don't know. The symphonic swell of violin, flute, saxophone, marimbas and vibes that build to the end impel the listener onward like fate.

Life on earth is a temporary, miraculous impossibility. Even the presence of life itself is a blip in the forward motion of space-time. 'I Love An Evil Queen' encapsulates the human condition using the  light of this thought in projected shadow puppet forms of handed down folklore. Our existing is impossible, humans plan and god laughs. In the wreckage even a malevolent monarch is loved. Herein is the promise of redemption that is eternal and wield a might even the expansion of the universe can not match nor outlast. Owls symbolize mortality in many cultures, and the sound of an owl is said to warn of imminent death or to bring messages from the realm of death. We feel this keenly from 'Once A White Owl'. The ghostly bird flies in and opens up the mind's eye to revelation. This is the last step in this world and the first step into initiation. Visitors Are Allowed One Kiss comes to an unsettling, eerie conclusion here, the following silence heavy with its echoes.

The space inhabited by this album acts as a power centre of intersecting ley-lines of disembodied stories that whisper into the ear of the listener. The characters weave through the shadows of the space, desiring to be heard. Also intersecting here in this quiet space are the traditions born in the Mississippi Delta and the Ozark mountains, feeding a powerful, slow burning creation. It is within the economy with which every aspect is built that repeated listens reveal the treasures the contained in the songs. Listening feels deeply personal while also gorgeously apocalyptic.

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Review: Z'EV – 'A Handful Of Elements'

Z'EV
'A Handful Of Elements'
COLD SPRING RECORDS

Armed with decades of sonic material created in the course of his long career Z'EV comes with a meditation on the elements of ancient Greek philosophy and alchemy. This concept in some hands may require the listener to connect sounds and elements, but Z'EV can be expected to take a more esoterically learned approach to this alchemical concept. The elements map the states of matter and spirit, and each of the elements of matter take up precisely the same space – twelve-minutes, two seconds and the fifth ('Spiritus, the quintessence'), twelve-minutes exactly.

'Terra', the centre, the seismic basis moves like the aeonic shifts of the ground beneath the feet of the seeker. In its mutability one finds the eternal essence. 'Aqua', covering, the essence of dissolving, of submersion. This piece is at once evocative of oceanic movement and invokes the esoteric qualities of the element of water. One can feel the presence of the elemental spirits and the life that dwells therein. Sylphs encircle the listener as 'Aer' weaves its disquieting spell. Their voices may be heard from within the track, or it may be the airy spirits whispering, having been summoned by the vibrations. Fire beats and crackles as 'Ignis' takes hold. The atmosphere carries the character of gross matter being consumed and the purity of the flames at the same time. It seems the order of the elements may be intentional, charting the journey of consciousness up the middle pillar from Malkuth to Kether, dust to spirit, each step containing the spirit of all the others. 'Spiritus' rests at the end of the journey, flowing gently in its eternal light.

This is a meditative release, but it inspires a meditation that awakens and occasionally jolts, instead of lulling the listener into a dream-state. 'A Handful Of Elements' is the work of a master that rewards exponentially more for every listen. Ambient music created for concentrated attention.

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Review: Skullflower / Mastery – 'Skullflower' / 'Mastery'

SKULLFLOWER / MASTERY 
'Skullflower' / 'Mastery'
COLD SPRING RECORDS

Cold Spring bring us a very interesting pairing on Skullflower / Mastery. Both halves leading tours through lysergic levels of hell. Or perhaps each their own alternate cosmos. The Skullflower tracks on this split release have a vastly monumental feel to them. The approach is centered very much around the guitars, which are low, slow and the distortion is distorted. Skullflower has played in many fields of sonic carnage, from power electronics to industrial, psychedelic to an idiosyncratic and twisted form of black metal.

'Wolf Age' would go down well with fans of doom metal. Over the central mighty riffs layers of guitars add harmonies and atmosphere, the result as symphonic as it is battle-worn. 'Red Crystal Serpent' has a martial feel to it, percussion and feedback flowing around a structure sketched out by a lone guitar. Layers of high tremolo picked guitar notes coupled with a subtle synth line combine to almost manifest electronic voice phenomena around the central ostinato on 'Black Sunshine', creating a sorrowful atmosphere.

And Mastery's lone track... Well, damn! 'Blood Electric' is a veritable rifferama with a necro sensibility delivered with a staggering guitar skill. Black metal rarely works when a shredder puts arpeggios all over it, but Mastery manages to make it seem primitive even while pulling off the impossible on the fret board. Don't let the mention of arpeggios cause anxiety, this is speed as texture. To find the closest equivalent to the evocative atonality of Mastery, one would have to look to 20th century classical. Riffs with how they charge in, twisting and contorting and leading to the next have something in common with the frenetic glitchiness of the most out there breakcore. This track in its snaking, shifting 17:40 long shape never lets up in ferocity, and hangs together for the entire hellish ride. The information sheet says the music of Mastery is improvised, which really makes the track that much more impressive.

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Weekly Compendium 22.02.13

While Editor Sean (aka The Birthday Boy) takes the day off to celebrate getting a year older, I, once again, am in charge of this week's compendium, and it's one of the biggest yet!

We had news of albums, festivals and even radio shows from the shadows this week. Cold In Berlin announced a new single with a video and tour and  Melotron announced the release date for their latest EP 'Stuck In The Mirror'. Homegrown talent 'Partly Faithful' released a free download of 'Underset' which was nice too!

Reviews came in the form of Three Winter's new EP, Hocico's latest, new darkwave from Dperd and musical offerings all the way from Belarus courtesy of Kaltherzig.

Videos from Bogs Of Aughiska on the website and from Joe Black via our Facebook both darkened and brightened up our week

More free releases, this time from ambient-electro artist Steve Roach, festival news from the almighty Wave Gotik Treffen and radio news from The gothic fantasy author Neil Gamain gave us all something to look forward to.

That about does it! Cup of tea in hand I'm going to stalk Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy until they give me an exclusive preview of 'Neverwhere' live, in my frontroom. Have a fabulous weekend and we'll see you Monday.

Photo by David Moss Photography

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