Dark Ambient Review: Mithra

Review By Casey Douglass

It’s a real pity that we can’t hop in, on, or don our own time machine and flit back in time to the periods that interest us. Actually, knowing humans, it’s probably a damn good thing that we can’t. We always seem to want to rewrite history in a purely mental fashion, the damage we’d cause if we could actually go back would probably be apocalyptic. Music is safer. Ager Sonus’ Mithra is a dark ambient, atmospheric journey back to the time of Rome, and to the time of the Cult of Mithras.

Mithra is an album that is very strong on the instrumental front. There are piano notes, strings and horns, to name but a few. There are also plenty of instances of environmental sounds and drones, delicate plucked string notes often sitting easily with the sound of the wind, or the quietly echoing dripping of water. The eight tracks of the album are all pretty smooth and chilled. Mithra feels like the quintessential album to listen to by cosy firelight.

Beneath is one of the tracks that most appealed to me. It opens with a low drone and a vocal-like resonance. The soundscape has the dripping, echoing aesthetic of a cave, with new tones and quiet pipe-like notes emerging as the track progresses. There are swells of pulsing tone, and at some points, a kind of “laughing” feeling suggested itself to me, like something malignant in the atmosphere chuckling at the audacity of humans. This felt like a lovely dark track to me, one of delving into the earth and into a different realm.

Ritual is another track that evoked similar feelings. This track starts with an echoing chiming and what sounds like distant, ghostly vocals. There are string notes, shimmering cymbals and a deep, slow drumbeat. This track felt like it was full of chittering shadows. It’s the kind of track that would accompany someone as they walk into a dark cavern, flaming torch held aloft, strange air currents carrying the distant scent of incense and dark workings to the explorer. Exploration and darkness is a heady mixture.

Mithra wasn’t all darkness and creepiness though. Dawn is a much lighter track, and one that I enjoyed for different reasons. It begins with low string tones and a relaxed piano melody. There is the sound of the wind and a bird chirping. There are footsteps lightly crunching through grass or leaves, a warbling, horn-like tone and a sparkling quality to the soundscape. This, unsurprisingly, felt like seeing the golden sunlight of dawn bathing a peaceful landscape in warm, soft light. The soundscape does have undercurrents of things twisting later on, notes and tones that create a feeling of things not being as idyllic as they appear. I enjoyed this track for this very reason, as things are never wholly good or bad, lucky or unlucky, in my opinion at least.

Mithra is a peaceful dark ambient album, one that takes the listener into landscapes and scenes of yore, mixing in the light and the dark elements in a pleasing ratio and manner. It has a dream-like, magical quality, and also the feeling of antiquity. On a personal note, I also enjoyed that it led my mind to pondering the concepts of Stoic philosophy, Marcus Aurelius etc. as this would also have been around at about the same period as the Cult of Mithras, as far as I’m aware. A very fine album.

Visit the Mithra page on Bandcamp for more information. You can check out the track Ritual below: 

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Mithra

Album Artist: Ager Sonus

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 26 March 2019

Dark Ambient Review: Necropolis

Review By Casey Douglass

Sometimes, I get review copies of dark ambient albums, fully intending to review them, but for reasons of health or other life things getting in the way, they slip down in my mind. I do have periods where I go back and try to get to some of them however, and Ager Sonus’ 2018, Egyptian-themed Necropolis, is the target for this review.

The album description of Necropolis sets the scene of someone having awoken in darkness, the ceiling and walls feeling far too close for comfort. The air is lacking, the only sound more than likely the person’s pulse in their ears, and there is a feeling of being buried deep underground. As a reality, that would be scary as hell, but as the mental daydream of someone looking for some peace and quiet, it sounds like just the ticket!

The first track, Buried, cements the scene. There is a rumbling swell of distant sound, framed by falling pebbles that click and pop in the oppressive atmosphere. A drone and a deep slow beat emerge, metallic echoes and clattering sounds birthing a variety of higher tones. Later are piped notes and scuffling sounds, a sense of gritty particles and a hint of whispering and voices. This is a track of shifting earth and claustrophobia, but also of other things moving around in the darkness.

Necropolis is a track where this sense of other things moving comes to fruition. It begins slow and low, a faint rumbling, pulsing sound joined by the sound of a distant beat and a high shimmering tone. As before, some of the tones give a hint of a vocal, but hear them again and they sound like they’re just a tone once more. There are sounds of sliding and scuffling, along with the odd rasping sound. Pipe notes begin around the midpoint, before the track deepens and darkens to a rumbling conclusion. For me, this track described being in a tomb where the long dead are starting to stir and to edge back to life.

I think that my favourite track is probably Of Ashes and Dust. I think that this is partly due to how the swells of malice and the bubbling echoes not only continued the Egyptian burial theme, but also brought to mind some of the elements of the score of Alien. There is an impression of sand sliding through cracked stonework, and in some instances, the sound of dragging and chains. This is a quiet and insidious track, the tones low and relaxed, backed by a howling wind or draught. There is a peaceful male chanting vocal, and a slithering in the shadows. It’s great fun to ponder what is really going on here.

Necropolis is a dark ambient album that takes the listener on a journey deep into an Egyptian tomb. The instruments used evoke a great sense of place, and the field-recordings and rumblings create a dense, dark and soothing series of soundscapes to mentally explore. It’s funny how locations and themes that bring the dead closer to mind can be some of the most relaxing, if you are anything like me that is.

Visit the Necropolis page on Bandcamp for more information. You can check out the track Of Ashes and Dust below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Necropolis

Album Artist: Ager Sonus

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 20 Feb 2018

Dark Music Review – Book of the Black Earth

Dark Music Review – Book of the Black Earth

Review Written By Casey Douglass

The old leather bound book smells of crusted honey. Flecks of dust and dried parchment rain from it's interior as you open it. Ancient hieroglyphs and diagrams point the way to the obsidian gate.

A year later you walk through long forgotten caverns with lantern lit. You've finally found the underground lake. A tired face stares back at you from it's reflection. The air tastes sweet down here and in the distance flutes echo of a buried civilization. The feeling of dread washes over you. This is your last chance to get her back from the underworld.

Dark bass drone rumbles in the caverns under long forgotten cities. Ager Sonus has succeeded in creating an Egyptian backdrop that is accentuated with flutes and atmospheric layering. Occult and ethereal, this album is for lovers of Necromancy and the unexplored ruins beneath the sands of Egypt.

An Ager Sonus album (also known in the world as Thomas Langewehr) was one of the very first dark ambient albums that I reviewed that wasn’t from an artist on the Cryo Chamber label. Now, a good few years later, I am really happy to see that Thomas has joined one of the best known and respected dark ambient labels out there. I know that he has wanted to make an Egyptian themed album for some time as well, so the fact that it's his first Cryo Chamber released album just adds a cherry to the icing on the cake. Hang on, this is dark ambient, so maybe it should be that it added the field-recording to the drone on the soundscape. Dodgy jokes aside, lets get on with the review.

Book of the Black Earth is a dark ambient album that makes tremendous use of the ideas that an Egyptian backdrop would bring to mind. Wind blows hot clouds of hissing grit against old ruins, animals howl, and when there is a lull in the soundscape, it becomes something steamy and pregnant with echoes and strange rustlings. Opening track Through the Desert is typical of this sandblasted vista, with the added ingredient of some flute notes. This sets up a pleasing balance between the harshness of the environment, versus the mellow music notes. A bit like someone saying “Yes it’s harsh out here but it can also be beautiful!”

Second track The Dead City is an example of the other style of soundscape. The Dead City has an echoing shimmer to it, for want of a better description. A little like a lone adventurer finding an abandoned desert city at night, but a city in which every surface has baked for so long in the hot sun, that they give off a kind of anti-heat, a voidal coating of darkness marked by the absence of the light that birthed it.

Discoveries is up next, another soundscape in which uneasy movements jostle against the listener, the sounds of searching, flapping paper and other raps and tappings setting the scene with the suggestion of movement and secrets being unearthed. I had the mental impression of someone pulling back a curtain and revealing the true form of the wizard from the Wizard of Oz in some strange, half-linked way.

The next track is probably my favourite on the album, Inner Sanctum. Beginning with the sound of a gong, it soon evolves into a wind brushed environment with animal howls and an introspective air of abyssal meditation, a sanctuary against the light in some ways, as it made me feel like I was deep in the guts of an old temple. Add in a dose of some chanting and strange guttural sounds, and I felt it was one of the darkest soundscapes of the album. One element that didn’t really chime with me were the piano notes that came later in the track, if only for the reason that I had been enjoying the darkness, and they added a slightly unwelcome higher energy to things. A personal taste thing though to be sure.

Osriris’s Courtroom next, another echoing soundscape punctuated by metallic shrills and vibrating tones that hint at dead eyed statues and ornate gold detailing at war with the dust, and also at war with the latest intruder to their space. Layers of tradition rubbing against the era that came after, causing a friction that sets the air to tingling against the skin.

Apophis is the penultimate track, and the flavour of this one is very much deep bass throbbing and lots of interesting detail sounds like bubbling, tapping and rubble falling. Around the midpoint, things shift to hint at presences that grow and phase in and out around the listener, a feeling of movement, threat and fragility all rolled into one.

The final track is Awakening, a 12 minute piece that is quite quiet and introspective. Whispers and a fast flapping rhythm are joined by insect-like effects, creaking and instrumental notes. A fitting track to see the album to its conclusion.

Book of the Black Earth is a fine dark ambient album, one that takes the listener from sun to shade, from scorched to chilled, and from open horizons to sealed chambers. It gets a big thumbs up from me, even though I must admit that Egyptian themed media doesn’t often appeal to me. If you enjoy your dark ambient, your Egyptian lore, or even both, be sure to check out Book of the Black Earth.

Visit the Book of the Black Earth page on Bandcamp here for more information, and be sure to check out Discoveries below.

I was given a free copy of this album to review.

Album Title: Book of the Black Earth

Artist: Ager Sonus

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: May 30, 2017

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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.

Visit the Liminality page on bandcamp here or Baboom here for more information and prices.

I was given a free copy of the album to review.

Album Title: Liminality

Album Artist: Ager Sonus

Release Date: 30 September 2015

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Dark Music Review – Shortwave

Written By Casey Douglass

Anything to do with hidden messages and secret codes usually grabs my interest. When that interest mingles with one of my favourite music genres, the effect is more than doubled! Shortwave, a dark ambient album from Metadronos & Ager Sonus has caused one such marrying. The album description:

For decades, all over the world, people have been trying to transport information and vital data over shortwave-radio-frequencies, unbeknownst to the general public. Those unknown parties used a multitude of encryption systems to their advantage. This album invites you to get a feeling for the mystery of... shortwave transmissions.

One thing that I really really like about Shortwave is the device of using spoken numbers throughout various portions of the music. Numbers can be ‘beaty’ things at the best of times, but the effect of a voice monotonously reading numbers, or repeating one a few times before moving onto the next, creates a very nice rhythm that manages to mingle with the dark drones and beeping sounds in a very pleasing way. Shortwave, the track, is a prime example of this.

Another track that I particularly liked was Glowlamp Machine. This track makes great use of strange yet child-like melodies, yet they jostle uncomfortably with strong tones and the repetitive intoning of numbers again. The swelling sounds and sweeping droning created an image for me of a boffin in his or her lab, code running down green LED fed computer screens. If you have ever seen the film Pi, you might know what I mean. If you haven’t, seek it out!

Wireless Intercept Station is also a great track. More orchestral in nature and featuring ominous bellchimes and strings like unimpressed bees. Then the distorted and drained-of-life voice of a man begins to speak. A great track.

What you get with Shortwave is a dark ambient album that stays on theme the whole way through, yet each track is varied enough and different enough to keep giving the repeated theme in fresh ways to your ears each time. I give Shortwave 4.5/5. It used numbers in a way I’d not heard before and every time I listened to it, this fact re-impressed me over and over.

Head over to the Shortwave Bandcamp page here for more info.

I was given a free copy of the album to review.

Album Title: Shortwave

Artist: Metadronos & Ager Sonus

Released : 6th February 2015

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Dark Review - Interdimensional

Interdimensional Review

Written by Casey Douglass

Interdimensional is the first dark ambient album to be released by musician Ager Sonus, a composer who enjoys mixing real world ambient sounds with electronic and synth to create deep soundscapes that entertain the ear.

In this review, I take a listen to Interdimensional and try to give an impression of how it affected me.

The first thing I noticed was the crispness of the real-world sounds used in many of the tracks. Rain, footsteps and nature all managed to blend into the soundscape and yet still seemed defined and separate. I found this with most of the other sounds in Interdimensional too, they all seem to occupy their own space and claim it, rather than, as with some other ambient tracks, undulate and oscillate in a more symbiotic way. It’s not a bad thing, not at all; it's just something I noticed.

Now for each track in turn:

Nocturnal Stroll

This is the longest track with a running time of around ten minutes. It begins with footsteps and the sound of the falling rain, leisurely and at ease. As the track continues a catchy background melody chimes in, which to me hinted at crossing into a fantastical dark city.

Distant Water

Starting with more footsteps and the sound of water, a background droning carries us through this track, changing as it progresses to what I could only liken to sounding like sci-fi energy rushes building around a great machine.

Voce Arcanum

An echoing voice recites verses in an unknown language (to me at least) with a pulsing simple sound for accompaniment. As the composition continues it becomes louder and slightly discordant as it nears the end.

Orbital Exploration

Light and bouncy sounds seem to reverberate back into your ears. I found that it conjured images of trajectories and star charts in my mind.

Hive

Aptly named as begins with the sound of distant droning, like bees far away. It also features chimes and sounds that you aren't sure are music or screams.

Magnam Noctis

Begins with the sound of an owl and the broader sounds of night time. A crackling fire and insects a joined by an ominous drone, with a main melody that sounds like an insect swarm mingling with the howling of wolves. It has a certain majesty about it that hints at lofty events unfolding in a strange valley.

Pillars of Creation (Featuring Ivan Black)

This track feels spacious and peaceful, conjuring the image of a row boat on a still lake under a starry sky. Then things flip upside down half way, you fall into the sky and everything becomes cold and abyssal dark.

Dystopian Visions

Simple and light tones with an airiness until the drums and bass guitar comes in. A pleasing melody.

Horologium

The simplest way to describe this track is it makes me think of a chittering darkness, alive with the movement of strange insects.

What’s in those sewers?

Footsteps on a journey to find out the truth. Strange cries and haunting piano hint at the answer being something familiar yet all the more fearsome for it.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed listening to Interdimensional, as attested to by the fact I am on my third or fourth listen as I write this review. I appreciated the sound quality and the variety of soundscapes conveyed. The tracks themselves take you between nature and ruins, to space and the void, and right back down to the ground again. I thought they all had a great feeling of space (as in a large area rather than the black starry kind) and used some interesting melodies to give the mind something to focus on amongst the drones.

I give Interdimensional 4/5. It was a very enjoyable listen but as I stated in another dark ambient review, wasn’t twisted enough to my own personal taste, but that's just me.

Visit Ager Sonus on Bandcamp here to view buying options.

I was given a free copy to review.

Album Title : Interdimensional

Artist : Ager Sonus

Released : 22nd October 2014.

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