Dark Ambient Review: My House Is Full of Faces

Review by Casey Douglass

Sometimes, it’s the most innocuous things that we focus on. Maybe you notice the sound of a blackbird singing in the garden while you are vomiting into the toilet, or maybe someone is insulting you and all you can notice is the dried skin on the side of their nose. It feels surreal, to me anyway. Mutestare’s My House is Full of Faces is a dark, ambient experimental album that, pleasingly, left me feeling the same way.

Mutestare describes the album in his email to me: “It fits into the broadness of the ambient genre but never really settles into it: There's electroacoustic, noise, modern classical and electro influences throughout. The tone is generally surreal and emotionally, it's got something to do with memory, intimacy, sexuality, regret, and the feeling of being bound to a situation that's inescapable. It runs through the path of darkness and recovery and light.” I have to admit that the mention of feeling stuck in a situation is what really spoke to me, as I often feel quite futile about my own life.

Broadly, upon listening to the album, I found a pleasing blend of tones and drones, from plucked guitar strings to fuzzy vibrating low tones, with plenty of warping and echoing for good measure. Certain of the tracks also included field-recorded sounds that helped give the soundscapes a feeling of depth and distance, whether snippets of bird song seemingly caught through an open window, or the more visceral and central use of the sounds of crowds and applause. What all of the tracks seem to share is a dose of the surreal, and it was fun to ponder what was actually happening during each one.

One of my favourite tracks is the opening track Golden Furniture in a Fading Room. It features guitar notes and other twisting and warping tones. There is a squeaky floorboard aesthetic too, with various beeps and crackles creating a charged but heavy atmosphere. Towards the end of the track, there are snatches of voice and birdsong, along with echoing footsteps. This track really did bring to mind the atmosphere in a room, with snatches of outside life wafting in through the open window.

Predicament is also a track that stood out as, once again, it seemed to deftly embody the track title. A low growing drone gets things started, with higher tones becoming apparent at the edges. A faint jitter and whisper-like vibration dances around plucked notes, creating an airy but dark feeling. There are echoes and a metallic clink, and a sudden buffeting feeling. Things get screechy and distorted, like a storm is brewing, and after a while, a male and female voice can be heard. For me, this track felt like two people who live together having a big row, and the anger and calm that ebbs and flows as a consequence. This track seems to contain a whole host of feelings and moods, and this adds a tension that feels like a maelstrom of peace and frenzy.

Another track that I really liked was Faces. It begins with horn-like tones. These are soon joined by the sounds of clapping and whistles. This track feels like the curtain call at the end of some kind of show, but one in which a hint of dark discord begins to grow. After the midpoint of the track, the notes begin to distort into a kind of self parody. There is a topsy-turvy feeling, a low metallic vibration, and a harsher high pitched tone that chimes and warps and makes everything seem to waver. To me, this track had a number of moods, from the way that our self critic berates us when we make mistakes, to the folly of trying to gain approval from other people and how quickly it can be taken away for no reason. The track ends with a pounding beat that merges with the following track, which I will talk about next.

Feels the Same in the Crimson Room creates the soundscape of sitting in a nightclub, the babble of voices, music and the tinkling of glasses. There is a slight warpy feeling and things halt around sudden laughter. There is a distorted mic thump and a feeling of isolation and anxiety that feels similar to the previous track Faces. This track felt like trying to get away from your mental demons by going out and meeting people, only to find, as always, that you can’t get away from yourself or your shitty mental health. I enjoyed the way that this track was a total departure from the others in the way of being a beaty, dancy affair, but one corrupted by a darkness that still keeps it in line with the general tone of the album. A pleasant surprise.

The final track that I wanted to mention was Imp. Twisting, tinny electronic tones rise and fall, soon joined by piano-like notes that feature a bit of a lumping “spang” at the fringes. A high buzz joins a while later, with a higher tone sitting above everything. For me, this was a track of creeping shadows, of sitting in a dark room with the door opened a crack and a narrow dart of light highlighting the bare floorboards. Later, there are scuffing motions and warbling, twisty plucked notes. A flute-like tone also joins the fun. This track felt like a peaceful exploration of numbness, of that nothing feeling where you and the world both feel like nothing, and all there is, is the light cast on the bare wooden floorboards.

My House Is Full of Faces is a dark ambient album that does a fine job of creating moods that sit at the more subtle end of the spectrum. While it might be easier to give audible voice to more clear-cut and extreme emotions, this album nestles languidly in the grey areas, seemingly presenting those moments of pre or post-emotional numbness and despair that are easy to miss when more overt feelings of doom dominate. If you enjoy music that explores feelings of stagnation, ennui and disconnection, you might like to check out My House Is Full of Faces on Bandcamp.

 

I was given a review copy of this album

Album Title: My House Is Full of Faces

Album Artist: Mutestare

Released: 23 March 2025

Dark Ambient Review: Anima Mundi

Review By Casey Douglass

Interconnectedness is a concept that can provide a great sense of spiritual peace. On the flip side, it can also lead to thoughts about how the worst or most undesirable elements of life are also closer than you might think. BRTHRM’s Anima Mundi is a three track dark ambient EP (among other styles) that brings the mystery of life and nature into energetic, musical form.

I think that the first track, Enchanted Grove, is probably my favourite. It opens with the sounds of dripping water and a low drone, with wooden knockings and breathy sighs soon joining. There are creaks and scrapes that give the impression of movement, and high swelling notes and shimmers that float over everything. There is also a peaceful “ahh” like vocal that seems to wrap everything in wonder.

What I really enjoyed about the first track however, is around the midpoint, there are beeps, radio squeals, and electronic melodies that I feel turn things a little “technology meets nature”. For me, this track felt like a deactivated android lying dormant in a rainforest glade, but something triggers its booting routine and it stands and stares in wonder at the life flooding around it.

The second track, Immortal Legacy, felt more like watching a tiny creature emerging from mud. It begins with a low shuddering beat and a rattling vibration. There is a roaming hissing static and a tone that sharpens into a razor edge. The sound of a ticking clock nestles against this high tone, before an 8-bit video-game buzz and melody joins proceedings. A great whirring begins, taking on the aspect of an air-raid siren punctuated with distant machine-gun fire. Before you know it, a warm melody begins, giving everything a “day out in Candy Land” feel.

The soundscape then buzzes like an insect-hive, and it was at about this point that I had the mental image of evolution, and some struggling organism trying to survive and overcome the obstacles of life. Why my mind went to something emerging from mud I don’t really know, but for me, this track would sit well with the images that are frequently used when talking about the evolution of man, from an ape walking on all fours, to standing upright, to walking along wearing a hat and carrying a briefcase. There is a sadness and a quirkiness to the sense of overcoming, but it’s a fun track overall.

The final track is Divine Offering, and this one features a chant-filled dark space that brings to mind some secluded temple hidden in the mountains, with monks sending their prayers up to whatever force they think is listening. It’s a deep, restive track, with a variety of tones and rhythms that come to play in its droning soundscape.

Anima Mundi is an album that takes the listener on a tour that includes both big picture feelings, such as thousands of years passing, and also the smaller concerns of one individual organism struggling in the mud. The darkness that it sometimes contains is more than balanced out by the uplifting nature of the melodies around it. If you enjoy your ambient/dark ambient music when it’s nearer this balancing point of light and dark, I think that you might want to check out Anima Mundi.

Visit the Anima Mundi page on Bandcamp for more information.

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Anima Mundi

Album Artist: BRTHRM

Released: May 5, 2023

Dark Ambient Review: Aerography, Vol.I

Review By Casey Douglass

Mars is an enigmatic planet, one that looms large in the mind of anyone thinking about how humanity can become an interplanetary species. For a seemingly barren planet, it isn’t half beautiful to look at, knowing how remote it is from us. Aerography, Vol. I is a dark ambient album from composer Rodolfo Pitti, an album themed around Mars and a doomed astronaut mission to its surface. Some of the sounds that are used to achieve this are swirling tones, pulsing bass and electronic soundscapes that seem infused with the triumphant impression of “We are here!” even if things are going very badly for the fictional astronauts.

My favourite track is The Uninhabitable Caves of Mars. It begins with a low drone, one that is soon joined by a kind of rising and falling “spaceship flying over” sound. It feels like a cascade of pressure, with low hisses and barks possibly being the sound of ghost’s voices; maybe the beings who first lived on Mars millions of years ago. High gentle beeps emerge from the swirl, echoing rushing sounds feeling like there is movement where nothing can be seen. A dark, creeping sci-fi track.

Valles Marineris Reconnaissance Drone is another track that I enjoyed, as it is another track that had its own kind of darkness. This track opens with a rising and ominous bass melody, one that almost blares like a sinister horn. It feels like it edges into the kind of heavy you might hear in a heavy metal track; snarling electric guitar and fuzz. There is a roughness to the other tones, and flurries of sound at the edges. I got the mental image of a drone skimming the Martian landscape, each swell of the soundscape revealing the next valley or dried up ocean. The track feels a little lighter after the midpoint, but on the whole, another dark track.

Finally, Our Hearts Yearn For Something Mars Can't Supply is a track that appealed to me for different reasons. Whereas the previously mentioned tracks were dark, this one felt light, but in a strange way. After a delicate start, the soundscape feels like it spins up into a shimmering space of dancing high tones and airy “fluttering”. This combination gave me the mental image of a ball of golden light with strange mechanical red moths flitting around its surface. It felt like something flying in sunlight to me at the least. A sad track, but also a nice one.

Aerography, Vol. I is an album that creates the feeling of vast vistas on an unforgiving planet. There is a sci-fi aesthetic that underpins everything, and as I said in the first paragraph, a kind of triumphant, even celebratory feeling that seems to emerge in each track. I like this mixture of triumph and doom. It feels like the audio equivalent of someone trying really hard to teleport somewhere using only the power of their mind, achieving it, being ecstatic, and then realising that they are falling from the sky a split second later.

Visit the Aerography, Vol. I page on Bandcamp for more information.

Album Title: Aerography, Vol. I

Album Artist: Rodolfo Pitti

Released: 10 July 2021

Syntropy States Review

Written by Casey Douglass

I’ve been doing various kinds of relaxation and mindfulness meditations for decades. My at times rampant OCD and other health issues mean that losing a bit of tension, when I can, makes all the difference between coping, or falling down the rabbit hole. As a consequence, I’m always on the lookout for new ways to relax. It was while browsing the net one day that I stumbled across Syntropy States, a collection of relaxation videos that make use of evolving geometries and soothing music to help the viewer refocus and refresh. The folks at Heartmath UK+IR kindly provided me with review access to Syntropy States, and in this post, I will describe how I got on with them.

Added Nov 2022: These breath pacers now only seem to be available as part of the Syntropy app. You can read more in my review.

Syntropy States consists of eight, five minute videos. Seven of these are themed around the chakra energy centres of the body, with the eighth being a heart coherence breath pacer. If you haven’t encountered them before, chakras are energy centres in certain parts of the body, and are the focus of a variety of Eastern spiritual and healing traditions. On a personal level, I neither fully believe they exist, nor disbelieve it. I do think that they are a nice concept to theme the various videos around, and they do lend themselves to focussing on a particular video with the attributes of that particular chakra in mind, such as the creativity and passion engendered in the Sacral chakra.

The heart coherence breath pacer is a tool to help you reach a ten second breath cycle, and to enter a state of coherence. Coherence is something that is core to many of the HearthMath techniques and devices. It is a state of balance that the experiencer can train themself to achieve, to use in situations where they can’t simply shut themselves away from the world, close their eyes and navel-gaze until they feel better. This state isn’t the same as relaxation, although it shares some of the same benefits. HeartMath sell a range of biofeedback devices and tools to help you monitor and reach this state. Sadly I don’t have one of these devices, so I couldn’t tell you if using Syntropy States put me into coherence. What I can describe however, are the effects that I was able to notice in a bodily, and a mental sense.

I spent around a week with the videos, beginning with the Root chakra video, which is themed around the notions of self-regulation and security. I have been suffering with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder for decades and I find myself in a particularly bad period. Bad enough that I have been cranking out Exposure and Response Prevention charts at least twice a day, trying to expose to my fears and to get my brain to come down from high alert. This is the state that I would often bring into my session with each video, a pounding heart, a racing mind and a fatigue that would have happily seen me go to bed and not wake up for weeks. I didn’t expect a five minute video to flip a switch and make me feel like a unicorn had just pooped a winning lottery ticket into my hands; I just want to paint the picture that it was quite a severe frame of mind I was experiencing. So did the videos help? I think they helped to some degree.

One small fear that I had about using the videos was that the shifting patterns and shapes would cause after-images while I focussed on them. I often suffer with very tired eyes, tired enough that reading a page of black text on a white background gifts me the lovely illusion of floating black line-shaped shadows as my eyes roam the page. The few times I’ve used other visual meditation videos, this effect occurred, and just became irritating. The Syntropy States videos do make a lot of use of white space, but I’m glad to report that the shifting geometries and colours didn’t once cause me any eye fatigue symptoms. So that was a great start. The geometric patterns and colours shift, undulate and flow, and there seems to be so much movement at times that it’s nice to realise that you can’t really keep track of it all, nor do you need to. I think that this is partly what helped me to get out of the hyper-vigilant, controlling frame of mind my anxiety often puts me in. The ambient chill-out soundtrack also helped, even though my mind tends much more towards a love of dark ambient, when I get the choice.

As far as their effect on my stress level, I found that about half way through each video (around the two and a half minute mark) a state of clarity or mental calm did seem to emerge in my mind. It was subtle, but it was there, a bit like the moment you realise that you are holding your breath and you didn’t even realise it. This state stayed with me until the video ended and for some time beyond. Hand in hand with this, I did notice a slight calming of the sensation of my heartbeat. Nothing major, but enough to notice that I felt slightly less “pulsey”. This seemed to be my general verdict on each video, that it did have a modest positive effect on me. Naturally, there were some that appealed to me more than others, with a favourite being the swirly patterns of the Third Eye video (the still at the top of this post is from that video). I also came to realise that I’d also have been perfectly happy to watch a video that was far longer than five minutes.

I enjoyed the time that I spent with the Syntropy States videos. Before I tried them, I was much more of an “eyes shut” kind of meditator, because I like to rest my eyes and focus in the darkness. Having spent time watching pleasing geometries flow and expand in these videos, backed by chill music, I can certainly see the benefits that open-eyed focus can bring. If you think Syntropy States might be something you’d be interested in, head over to the HeartMath UK+IR website for more information.

HeartMath UK+IRL commissioned Syntropy States from The Syntropy Partnership. It features the geometries of artist Allie Joy and soundtracks from Serenity States.

Thank you to HeartMath UK+IR for giving me review access.

Product Name: Syntropy States

Available From: HeartMath UK+IR

Price: £19

Music Review: I Could Go Lucid

Music Review: I Could Go Lucid

Review by Casey Douglass

Dreams, and lucid dreams in particular, have been one of my areas of interest for decades now. From the lucid nightmares that held me prisoner, to the world-crafting that is sometimes possible, they are a domain in which the mind can unleash and run free. I Could Go Lucid, the latest experimental ambient album from Bodyverse, was created with dream mechanics in mind, the improvisation and flow needed by the dreamer to straddle the line between staying in the dream, or bursting the bubble and waking up to everyday reality:

Album Description: I Could Go Lucid is about an instant of awareness in which I realise I could have the chance to create an astonishing reality, if only I could keep consciousness while dreaming, for more than an ephemeral moment. Lucid dreams mean to me a chance to create perfection as I feel they release the power of imagination in its whole potential. Imagination becomes matter to interact with. It’s the brain’ s virtual reality, the off limits oneiric one.

As well as in dreams, also in the in musical creative process I perceive a certain amount of surreal content, and it too links with imagination and with the act of materialising ideas. For this reason I am currently experimenting through improvisation, in a journey between surrealism, expressionism and situationist drift. I try to let ideas flow, so my will subordinates to accidents and emotions. I become an explorer or a traveller with an uncertain destination. This atmosphere has resulted in a creation of six pieces in which the priority is simply to keep the integrity of the original idea itself.

Nothing has been planned nor post-produced. This is involuntary music.

The first thing I noticed when listening to I Could Go Lucid was the general sound of the notes that reach the ear. They have a fluffy, music-box type quality, a plinky-lightness that hints at white clouds floating across an azure sky, or candyfloss at the beach, or even a balloon being carried off by the breeze. Not all of the notes were like this but that’s how many came across to me. There are higher, chime-like notes too, and deeper bassy tones, but the ‘light ones’ usually made me think along those lines.

The next thing that I soon came to appreciate was how each track seemed to build up. Each might start with a handful of single notes, maybe making a melody, maybe just staying really minimal. This initial opening would then gain an extra layer of new notes, freshly dancing around the previous ones. The first track, Pink Sunsets Were Very Calm, seemed to get higher and higher, each layer adding the impression of floating up into the sky. Yet the next track, Poplars Were Made Of Cherry Blossoms, seems to have the initial notes underlaid by lower ones, going down and down. I liked the way in which each track seemed to grow in complexity, but never getting too hectic or busy. The clever use of breaks and pauses no doubt helped in this also.

My favourite track of the album is Waves Against Marble Columns, as I found myself musing about H.P Lovecraft’s Randolf Carter and his Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath. The notes of this track put me in mind of a clock chiming the hour, and the melody led to me thinking about the various temples and churches Carter visited during his dream adventure, the strange architecture and people who worshiped inside them. There is a kind of lumbering quality to the rhythm a little later, one that caused me to imagine what Carter would have made of a strange funeral procession walking through beautiful streets paved with rock quarried from far and fantastic locations. I enjoyed this musing and I must admit that it’s rare for such a “light” sound to cause my thoughts to turn to something as dark as Lovecraft, but it was a genuine pleasure.

I Could Go Lucid is a fine ambient album, one in which the lightness of the notes hides a surprising darkness that seems to cling to certain portions of certain tracks. A little like browsing the religion section of a library, only to find some naughty git has hidden some porn magazines between the various bibles.

Take a look at the I Could Go Lucid page on Bandcamp at this link for more information and to listen to the tracks.

I was given a copy of this album for review purposes.

Album Title: I Could Go Lucid

Album Artist: Bodyverse

Label: LONTANO Series

Publisher: ROHS! Records

Releases: 18 Dec 2018

Dark Music Review – Artificial

Review Written By Casey Douglass

 

Artificial, the latest offering from Drifting in Silence, is a return to form, DiS owing its beginnings to the wave of musical innovation that was just becoming known at the time as ambient music. Derrick Stembridge, the beating heart behind Drifting in Silence, affirms, "This album is going back to the roots of the project for me. Pure ambient." A glimpse back is no denial, however, of new influences and the project's continuing musical growth. Artificial pays homage, of course, as does the entire genre, to Brian Eno. But, Stembridge says, "this album is heavily influenced by William Basinski."

Artificial, Drifting in Silence’s new ambient album, is an album that resides at the lighter end of the ambient spectrum, in my opinion at least. I usually dwell at the darker end of the ambient scale, so I felt a little like a fish out of water when it came to reviewing it. That being said, I had a pleasant time making my way through the tracks, each flowing easily into the next in a smooth and pleasing way. Speaking of the tracks...

The Tracks

Empty – This smooth track features flowing light notes and a simple melody with pleasant variations. It brought to my mind feelings of an empty bright space and purity.

Takeaway – High notes hang as a lower drone joins, layers build and fade with an electronic hum. After the midpoint some distorted vocalization and echoing notes join in. This felt like a warm track to me.

Descent – A dark and brooding start with the faint sounds of waves and a low soft drone. Distorted notes emerge from the drone, fast paced and getting louder. Sounds crystallize in the second third of the track, a pleasing rhythm carrying the listener to the end.

Surface – Gentle piano/keyboard notes set a subdued tone before things lift a little and then fluctuate between light and dark. This track created the feeling of what it might be like emerging from underground to find things have changed above ground in your absence.

Oceans – A quiet beginning with a low melody as a drone rises. The second half has some vocalization and a ‘clippy’ rhythm, some notes sounding like laser blasters from a sci-fi film.

Artificial – A dark and resonance filled start, string notes swelling and fading. This track becomes a bit more varied and harsher sounding towards the end.

Falling – Low notes undulate as they are held. There is a lot of note-bending going on but the track has a gentle feeling. This track also sounds a little harsher as it progresses.

Origin – A very low melody starts things off, as if coming from somewhere low down. The melodic notes feature a metallic tang that puts me in mind of the Machinarium video-game soundtrack. A fun and quirky feeling track.

Across – Bubbling quick notes give the impression of tiny things happening, maybe a boiling impression of the primordial soup or universal foam. Relaxing and a little strange to listen to.

Emotion – A dark rumbling featuring a variety of notes and sounds. This track has a slow pace, but the tone or impression given is a soundscape thick with energy.

Stay – Low notes rising into a dark starry sky. That seems like the best way to describe this track, a brooding but expansive atmosphere.

Intheend – Echoing high notes feel plucked out of the air. A light distorted vocal joins about a third of the way in with the rest of the notes and melody creating a gentle background.

Soulless – A high note meets a low drone. This track is another that feels gentle and also features soft distorted vocals. The overall tone felt sad to me.

Thoughts

I enjoyed listening to Artificial, but I will admit that I’m not sure it would have been an album I would have bought for myself. Not that there is any lack of quality or novelty to it, just on a very personal level, I like my ambient very dark. What I heard in Artificial, with a few exceptions, was more a light ambient album, many of the soundscapes giving me mental impressions of light airy spaces filled with white light or shining reflections.

There are certainly some tracks that did appeal to my darker listening habits, such as the dark feelings of Emotion. There were also some standout tracks for me, in that their sound had something that appealed to me in a novel way, such as the catchy rhythm of Descent and the bubbling notes of Across.

If you like lighter ambient themes, Artificial will probably be a 4/5 album for you. For my own dark tastes, it’s a 3/5 for me. Enjoyable, intricate, but ultimately not to my own personal taste.

Check out the Artificial website here for more information and prices.

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

Album Title: Artificial

Artist: Drifting In Silence

Releases: January 1, 2016

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