Dark Ambient Review:
HORS
Review By Casey
Douglass
How we see the world
has a profound impact on our view of life, so when photography and
dark ambient music come together to create a new or a different way
of seeing, it’s something to take a closer look at. An album that
does just this is HORS, an experimental ambient project
inspired by the photos of photographer David Siodos.
Browsing David Siodos’
website, and perusing the photos used for the HORS album
artwork, it’s easy to see why the interplay between the
photographer and the musician is a tasty one. David’s photos have a
kind of graininess, for lack of a better word, a darkness and
dreaminess that falls across certain of the images like snow, the way
that some of the elements become silhouettes amidst a Silent Hill
style fog, lending the photos a dreamy, yet realistic quality.
The music of HORS
strikes up a pleasing parallel with the moods evoked by the
photographer. The tracks have a droning, industrial texture, creating
some lovely fuzzy walls that the small, detail sounds struggle to
pierce. There is a warmth to be found in the soundscapes though,
alongside some darker impressions of things shifting or encroaching
on the reality presented.
Wasteland is my
favourite track, as I felt it to be the audio-equivalent of a tiny
flower managing to grow in the middle of an abandoned factory’s
floor. A throbbing bassy drone emerges with muffled snatches of fuzz.
An undulating tone screeches forlornly and is soon joined by warm
piano notes. Things burst through into a soft summery haze of lighter
melody and texture, with flute-like notes playing at the high end of
the soundscape. A pleasing harshness persists however. This track
also feels like sunlight piercing the gloom, and the hints of what
seem to be bird tweets in the second half lend weight to this
feeling.
Industrial Things is
another track that gave me some fun mental images, but certainly
veers towards the darker end of the spectrum. The track opens with a
pulsing, throbbing mixture of static and bass, with a strange almost
vocal-like mewling, stretched out into a tasty slab of reverb.
Twisting high pitched tones accompany it, with a low pulsing below. A
rhythmic collection of vibrating tones kicks off, giving the
impression of a mechanical heartbeat. Expansive swells of guitar-like
tones wail along with proceedings too, lending a sharpness to things
at times, which I particularly liked. This track, for me, was part
train journey through a neglected industrial area, part demonic
printing press stamping out receipts for the souls yet to be
purchased. Dark and rhythmic.
The first track,
Incoming, is also a track that I wanted to mention. This one also
features a guitar-like fuzz and hum, droning into existence alongside
wailing high tones and scratchy notes. These notes seem to take on an
alarm-like feel, and the static-filled space led me to feeling like a
tiny particle in the midst of a fuzzy storm. This track felt part
electron-mating call, part digital-ghosts infesting the TV signal. It
felt warm and peaceful, although it was probably the kind of warm and
peaceful that only a dark ambient or experimental music fan would
appreciate.
HORS is a dark
ambient album that is both noisy and muted in different, but
interesting ways. The interplay between the elements of each track
strike up some pleasing friction and textures, and on the whole, it
felt very “switching the foreground and the background around”,
which I think gels well with the photography that it’s based on.
Definitely an album to check out if you like your dark ambient
industrial, drone-heavy, and interplaying with another art form.
Visit the HORS
page on Bandcamp for more information. You can also see some of the
photography that it is inspired by on the David Siodos website.
I was given a review
copy of this album.
Album Title:
HORS
Album Artist:
HORS
Released: Nov
25, 2022
