Dark Music Review – Liminality
Review Written by Casey Douglass
This is my third album, sort of an conceptual album. I tried to give a sense of place to places you might never visit or scenarios you might never want to go through. I appreciate all of your support. Please enjoy!
As the album
description above says, Liminality is the third album that I've reviewed from
dark ambient artist Ager Sonus, following on the heels of the
excellent Shortwave and Interdimensional, my reviews of
both you can read by clicking the album titles. I did hear a snatch
of the Metro track from Liminality when it was posted on
Twitter so I am pleased to see that it made it onto this album, as I
thought it was very good indeed. It seems I have strayed into
reviewing the tracks before I even meant to so I guess I should just
get on with it!
The Tracks:
The
Monastery – The first track on the album gets things off to an
atmospheric start. It begins with the sound of wind and rain but with
an underlying vibration that is soon joined by swells of notes and
chimes. Chanting comes later and later still, rasping sighs and
cries. The Monastery is a great example of a potentially peaceful
soundscape being the false face of something far more sinister.
Lunar
Outpost – This next track begins very softly, wafting tones and
water droplets creating a lovely spacious soundscape for the
listener’s mind to decompress inside. I felt the the voice-like
sounds, drones and echoes all served a great purpose and created a
real sense of being on some kind of lunar outpost, far away from help,
with only ghosts and memories as your friends.
Foggy
Resort Town – A deep watery drone gurgles up into the listener’s
ear, a breathy exhalation joining it that moves from ear to ear. If
you have ever walked in a fog and had the impression that someone was
nearby, but you just couldn’t see them, this track will conjure
that feeling quite nicely. Things turn decidedly metallic as the
track progresses, giving more the impression of a foggy junk-yard
than a seaside town.
Metro
– Now we get to the aforementioned Metro and I will say right now
that I think it is my favourite track on the album. What begins with
the listener surrounded by the babbling voices of a crowd, the clanks
and rattles of turnstiles and clinking of coins, soon turns into a
tunnel exploration nightmare of echoes and strange noises. I half
wondered if the protagonist of the track might be someone suddenly
taken over by an external influence and only awakening when it is too
late, already lost in the dark of the eerie tunnels. I think I also
clicked with Metro as it triggered some pleasing memories of playing
the video-game Metro 2033, it and its sequel being two of my
favourite games in recent years.
Capsized
– This track gave me the impression of a hapless soul coming up for
air in an underwater cave, complete with slithering things and
ominous distant sounds. It certainly felt like somewhere that you
wouldn’t want to hang around in too long.
Pripyat
– Titled after the ghost town of Pripyat, of Chernobyl disaster
fame, this track is full of grain and shuffling, electrical notes and
tinkling clatterings. It is a very atmospheric and eerie place to
mentally roam, distant cries and slams, crying babies and sirens
going off. Echoing metal bangings carve out a beat in the desolation as
the main melody begins too. A great track.
Cave
Of Crystals – An ominous wind seems to blow outside, a resonance
hanging in the air as water drips in the recesses of a dark space. A
quiet melody begins, simple but growing more complex as the air
currents swirl and taste the listener. The wind noise fades and a
looming bass note pulses beneath everything. The melody stops and
gives way to a more furious swirl of wind, a sinister banging and
resonance rises, hinting at energies awakened. Harsher electronic
notes stretch from ear to ear as the track enters its last third or
so, soon joined by human cries of alarm. This cave begins to seem
like the last place anyone would want to stay.
Meadow
– Gentle evening sounds start this track, crickets and wind setting
the scene. The wind begins to seem a little strong after a few
moments, giving a sense of threat to the soundscape. An ethereal
sound swells up and down, bringing to mind what it might be like to
be sat near a meadow that an alien craft decides to land in. The rest
of the track builds on this impression, the wet plopping sounds and
creature calls sound stranger and stranger as a thrumming hum
vibrates the scene, piano notes joining shortly thereafter.
Extra Tracks if
bought through Baboom:
If
you purchase Liminality on music site Baboom, you will get two
bonus tracks to add to the already generous eight on the regular
album. I give my thoughts on these below:
Unearthed
– An undulating sound is soon joined by a kind of bell-tolling, the
sounds pulsing in a pleasing fashion. A deeper noise joins them as
things swell into what sounds like a string-based ominous soundscape,
the odd scraping and footfall joined by insect-like chitterings. The
strings come out very strongly as the track approaches the midpoint,
their notes hanging in the air as other movements happen around them.
The last third of the track falls quiet to plucked strings and a deep
drone before reaching a haunting choral crescendo.
Beyond
– A busy, insect-like noise looms near at the start of this track,
a little like the listener pushing through some kind of bead curtain
and emerging somewhere new. A ringing note oscillates around
everything, a light hearted soundscape that isn’t as dark as the
tracks that preceded it. Until something sputters into life, a thing
that sounds like a Transformer trying to emerge from a dark cave.
Things go quiet with a dark and brooding beat, swirls of activity
dancing around the echoes. This is joined by strings later in an
echoing electrical melody. A bit of a mixed feel to this track,
unless it was just me and how I listened to it, a good listen none
the less.
Thoughts
Liminality is
another fine dark ambient album from Ager Sonus. In a broader sense,
it’s great to see how his sound has progressed from his earlier
compositions, the crisp sounding Interdimensional, moving on
to the intriguing Shortwave and now onto Liminality.
In Liminality,
we have a collection of tracks that for the most part, all start out
in a disarmingly pleasant way and yet by the end, most of them have
twisted into something a great deal darker and more grimy. Each track
is also a great piece of audio tourism, whisking the listener from
one location to another after the dying notes of each track have
faded.
I give Liminality
4.5/5.
I was given a free
copy of the album to review.
Album Title: Liminality
Album Artist: Ager
Sonus
Release Date: 30
September 2015