Dark Ambient Review: Werifesteria

Review by Casey Douglass

According to Urban Dictionary, Werifesteria is the word used to describe someone walking through a forest, on the hunt for mystery. French dark ambient artist Hiemal’s Werifesteria album, brings this notion to audio life. The album consists of three tracks. The first two clocking in at over 30 minutes each, the third lasting almost 20. Each offers the listener their own forest mystery experience, and each adds a slightly different feeling or texture to that experience.

The first track opens with the sound of a strong wind rustling the forest canopy. A mid to high pitched drone begins, nestling comfortably among the field-recorded sounds of the elements. The drone is both mercurial and stable, simple yet complex, depending on how you listen to it. The best analogy I can think of is how visible light is made up from all of the colours of the rainbow, and you can only see the individual colours when it passes through a prism. I felt that the drone on Werifesteria sets the listener’s mind as the prism, and the drone as the light. If you listen for the lower tones, you hear more of them. If you set your ears to the higher end of things, you’ll hear things too. Other tones do emerge but they are matched so well to the drone that they almost appear to sneak in.

The drone also changes over time, but it proves decidedly slippery to notice. I’ve listened to Werifesteria a decent amount of times, and the number of occasions that I’ve settled back and told myself “Pay attention to when the drone changes!” and I’ve just not managed to. If you click through the tracks it’s very noticeable, but in real time, it might take quite some time to think “Hey, has this changed?” I really like this element of the album. The drone itself is a great thought magnet too, sucking everything in. I once tried to meditate by holding a continuous “Aum” sound in my mind’s ears. It left me feeling quite strange, and the drone on Werifesteria seems to tap into this same feeling. There is something about a sound that just goes on and on and on...

The first two tracks of Werifesteria feel quite similar. In the first, the field-recordings feel more wind-based, in the second, more water-based. Both share the same kind of mind-focussing drone, with slight variations, although I felt the drone in the second track seemed a little less bold. The third track opens with the crackling of a fire and the sound of night insects chirruping. The drone/tones on this track seem like a continuous string-note floating in the air. There is also an ominous hollow feeling to some of the bassier sounds, maybe hinting at darker things roaming the shadows behind the fire light. I enjoyed this feeling.

One of the key qualities that I enjoy in a dark ambient album is if it is conducive to nodding off to sleep while you listen to it. Werifesteria has this quality for me, and then some. The evolving nature of the drone and the soundscapes means that I didn’t really notice many moments that were harsh enough to break the spell it casts on the listener. If anything, the only times I seemed to wake up were when a track was fading out. Maybe my mind missed the drone and began to wonder where it had gone. The field-recorded forest sounds and droning tones make this a lovely album to listen to, and a great escape from the mundane, into the mysterious.

Visit the Werifesteria page on Bandcamp for more information. It’s currently “Name Your Price” so it’s a great time to check it out.

Album Title: Werifesteria

Album Artist: Hiemal

Released: 25 Oct 2020

Dark Ambient Review: Metta

Dark Ambient Review: Metta

Review by Casey Douglass

I first came across the word “Metta” through Buddhist loving-kindness meditation. Reading Metta was the title of Dronny Darko and ProtoU’s latest dark ambient release, alongside its Buddha statue in the mist album art... I thought I had a hint as to how this album would sound. I was kind of right, but also pleasantly wrong.

Metta makes fantastic use of field-recordings, particularly wind, water, thunder and rain. There are also many instances of bird song and insect calls. For me, these sounds painted a picture of a wet and humid tropical jungle, with misty valleys and fast flowing rivers racing past leafy temples and precarious rope bridges. I just got a mental image of Indiana Jones in the bridge fight near the end of the Temple of Doom. I don’t mean that kind of experience, but I hope you understand what I’m getting at.

Something I noticed that I also rather enjoyed was the way that certain of the field-recordings ebbed and flowed as various tracks progress. From the very first track: Energy Forms, and throughout various others, you might be listening to rushing water, it will fall away and then come back a short time later. Or you might be listening to rainfall during Secret Skin and notice that it has gone, only for it to come back anew. I felt this “long duration pulsing” of the large field-recorded elements really helped draw the attention and helped to keep things fresh. It also lent a nice rhythm to things.

Speaking of rhythm, there are a number of occurrences of drumbeats in Metta, strongly bringing to mind the kind of drums that you might hear being played in a ritual setting. An element I particularly enjoyed was the way that the beats often had an echoey quality to them, as if being played in a cave. There are also instances of chant-like vocals, shouts, or simply distant voices. I did half wonder if there would be more chanting, based on the album title and artwork, and there were less than I might have thought. It doesn’t matter one bit to me, the field-recordings and other elements are strong enough to create some lovely soundscapes.

If I had to choose a favourite track, I think it would be Astral Winds. It opens with the rustling sound of wind, and it gave me a strong mental impression of a crinkly brown leaf slowly being blown across a stone floor. Maybe a temple courtyard that hasn’t been swept for some time? The mixture of the drone that arises and other sounds, turned the soundscape quite dark for me. I had the impression of shuffling shadows, heard an electronic “spinning up” kind of sound, and also a possible hint of distant voices and sigh-like vocals.

Metta is described as a “spiritual successor” to Dronny Darko and ProtoU’s previous collaboration: Earth Songs, which happens to be one of my most played albums in recent years. Whereas Earth Songs tracks, for the most part, vary more in feeling and tone, I think the tracks on Metta are more tightly linked by their field-recordings. This doesn’t mean anything good or bad, it's just a highlighting of the differences. If someone forced me to choose between the two, I still currently favour Earth Songs but it’s incredibly early days in my getting acquainted with Metta.

Metta is a smooth trip into a wet, contemplative tropical space, where bird calls and drums mingle with elemental forces and human existence. The soundscapes are full of movement and life, and the feeling, for me, was one of taking a step back, taking a breath, and gaining a more holistic view of reality.

Visit Metta on Bandcamp for more information. You can also check out Astral Winds below:

I was given a review copy of this album.

Album Title: Metta

Album Artist: Dronny Darko & ProtoU

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: 23 June, 2020

Dark Ambient Review: Manifestazioni

Dark Ambient Review: Manifestazioni

Review by Casey Douglass

I’m a big fan of dark ambient music that makes clever use of field recordings, whether to bring forth creatures snuffling in the dark, or more simply, to bring the real world into a soundscape. Carlo Giustini’s Manifestazioni falls into the latter category, but manages to turn the various rumblings and bumpings into something far more magical and otherworldly.

Album Blurb:

“A manifestation is an object that clearly shows or embodies something abstract or theoretical”

These are five untamed field recordings captured between the desolate streets of suburban Treviso in late June 2018. Five explorations of the secret language whispered by its houses and by the slow and mysterious movements of its inhabitants exhausted by the summer heat. […] All five recordings are first single takes, recorded on worn out tape rolls found here and there. All recordings captured with a rusty Phillips portable tape recorder and a contact mic.

The first quality that really came to my notice was the “cushioned” feeling to what probably should have been some quite harsh sounds. Throughout the album, there are instances of industrial type activity, clattering metal, thumps and scrapes, but they rarely caused me to startle or jolt. The word I almost used was muffled, but that doesn’t really fit. They never seem that close to the listener, and the other elements of the tracks seem to take part in this cushioning effect, which is most welcome.

The first of these are the staticy sounds of what appear to be wind and rain. I always find these to be quite relaxing when listened to, the whitenoisey effect lulling and soothing at the same time. There are also pops and crackles that seem to keep the mind of the listener from drifting too deeply into “startle” territory. The other element that takes the sting out of the potentially harsher sounds is the way that the soundscapes often react to them. There is a higher tone that sits above the soundscape, and when a harsher noise happens, it “bings” and resonates in response. It’s like the aural equivalent of dropping a pebble into a pond, the water smoothing out the ripples of its passing. This was a really pleasing effect and one that I enjoyed listening for.

As a whole, Manifestazioni lets the listener eavesdrop on the muted activity of people going about their day or night, from the comfort of the listener's own chair or bed. I’ve always found the sound of others doing things quite relaxing, and Manifestazioni channels this into my mind, with a healthy dose of the magical. Each track is smooth and calm, but each has its own temperament. A3 Ció Che Resta (What Remains or What’s Left if Google translate isn’t lying), is a track that seemed to make me think of an open loading dock at night, with flapping plastic and quiet industry. Yet A2 Manifestazioni itself, was a soundscape that made me think of a dusty basement where something might just step out of thin air and grab me. They are all worth listening to and revelling in.

Check out the Manifestazioni page on Bandcamp at this link. 

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

Album Title: Manifestazioni

Artist: Carlo Giustini

Record label: Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series
Publisher: ROHS! RECORDS

Released: 18 Sept 2018

Dark Music Review – Alpine Respire

Dark Music Review – Alpine Respire

Review Written By Casey Douglass

ProtoU (Ukraine) and Hilyard (Maine, US) group up in this field recording heavy collaboration. Alpine Respire immerses you in field recordings from two continents. Warm drone contrasts raindrops and the call of animals in the wild. This damp album invites you to explore the unreachable corners of the Earth. From the harshest mountains to the darkest forests. Recommended for fans of Field Recording and slowly progressing drone.

I do enjoy it when sounds that might normally be calming and relaxing, such as rain, when put into a certain context, sound off and a little sinister. I’m probably weird that way but I can live with that. Alpine Respire is a dark ambient album that sees ProtoU and Hilyard working their magic on a bountiful selection of field recording heavy tracks, tracks that mainly serve up enough calm threat to keep the bleakest amongst us happy.

Wind and rain make a number of appearances on the album, but the most intriguing for me was on the track Boreal Distillate. It begins with a kind of electro-transformer hum but soon opens out into a lovely expansive soundscape in which rain seems to blanket and surround the listener, a chant-like drone and “plinking” echoes are a few of the other sounds that you can expect to hear too. While it might fly in the face of my first paragraph, this track was pure relaxation for me. I’m a bit of a rain slut.

As mentioned in the album description, there are other field recordings beyond wind and rain. Animal and bird calls often appear, from the wolf-like tones on title track Alpine Respire (I say wolf-like as I wasn't sure if they were recordings or electronic notes that took on the aspect of wolves), to the moments of birdsong in Blood Grass Sojourn, they all seem to pierce the soundscapes in different ways, sometimes providing comfort, sometimes threatening to tear open a darker soundscape beneath.

A track that I particularly enjoyed for its level of menace was Cave Lights on the Bay of Bengal. This track starts with a sustained tone that just goes on and on, the other sounds in the soundscape: birdsong, piano notes and a strange “snuffling” sound, to name just a few, all having to compete with the strong thread of this tone’s sound. There are muffled rumblings too, which add some deeper sounds to the composition. Everything about the sustained tone and the sounds around it seemed to me, to suggest a scene in which something is about to happen, and then begins to. A little like looking at a peaceful lakeside view, everything looking normal save for a sound that permeates and taints everything else. I felt it was a very intriguing track, and I would say probably one of my favourites.

The other track that I would mention as a favourite is Final Refugium. It’s another track that makes great use of rain, but this time marries the sound with a melancholy funereal aesthetic. It suggested to me someone wounded or dying, and after days of travel, finding somewhere to finally hole up and await their death. A bit like a bleaker version of Robert the Bruce’s legend, where, instead of watching a spider in a cave and gaining confidence from its pluckiness, the cave dweller settles into a calm acceptance of the inevitable and gives themselves over to peace.

Alpine Respire is a windy dose of wet nature wrapped up in notes and tones that both invigorates and subdues the listener. If you, like me, enjoy your dark ambient with a higher ratio of field-recording than might be usual, you will find plenty of “the real world” to enjoy here. And as I said above, if you like things to sound a little malevolent, or at the very least for them to sit in an uncertain space of safety or threat, again, you will probably enjoy Alpine Respire.

Visit the Alpine Respire page on Bandcamp here for more information, and be sure to check out Cave Lights on the Bay of Bengal below:

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

Album Title: Alpine Respire

Artists: ProtoU & Hilyard

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: July 25, 2017

Contact Me

Dark Music Review – Endtime Psalms

Dark Music Review – Endtime Psalms

Review Written By Casey Douglass

Aegri somnia returns with his long awaited second album on Cryo Chamber. The hum of the Endtime Psalms echo through burnt out buildings. Awaiting impending death as the sky grows dark. Black smoke wheezing from charred windows. We were born from stardust, but are but puppets in a mindless game of DNA manipulation, life. Deep analogue drones rumble under the heavy boots of the human machine. Aegri Somnia plays the role of field recorder and audio manipulator with surgical precision.

The analogue drones of Endtime Psalms really put me in mind of some of the 80s synth-type soundtracks seen in sci-fi or horror movies of that era. While not the same, I must admit to half expecting a sun-glasses wearing leather jacket clad hero chewing a toothpick and squinting into the twilight of sunset to appear. Those images soon left me once I broke into the album proper though, the soundscapes created by Aegri Somnia far darker than any film.

Most of the tracks feature a selection of field-recordings that sit well with the drones, from water-based dripping or waves, to more industrial metal creakings, clankings and scrapings. Some of these effects are toyed with and twisted into something more sinister, distortions and strange echoes creating an immersive narrative, even if you don’t fully know what is happening and can only guess. A good example of this is the very first track C.A.H.R, a track that begins with the gentle sound of water, is met by a textured analogue drone and android scream-like distortions, but ends with what sounds like a pursuit through crunching snow.

The track Endtime Psalms also features some wet field-recording, but I must admit that the wet flapping at the start made my mind think more of a body being skinned for some reason. Maybe that is just me being twisted though. A sacral drone and a deeper counterpoint interplay with static as things thicken. The midpoint of the track features voices, insects and more wetness, before a lighter melody sees the track to its end.

DNA Cult is another track that I particularly enjoyed, its gentle start of static and quiet squeaks soon joined by pleasing tones, but around the midpoint changes into a grinding insect-leg scratching space, furtive scurryings accompanied by a quiet bell tolling and chimes. The track ends with delicate beeps of Morse code, changing slightly into a more buzzing-beep as it ends. I liked DNA Cult for creating the sensation of lightness and darkness, and with the title of the track in mind, the inference of a future-looking immortality project being thwarted by human frailty and evil intentions.

Something else that Endtime Psalms does very well is to toy with the listener’s expectations when it comes to how a track is behaving. A number of tracks feature the building of layers, maybe a drone, other tones and field-recordings, but sometimes, just as one element sounds like it is slowly fading out, it might end even more abruptly than you thought, leaving a void that the other sounds still playing make seem even more powerful. This isn’t glaring or disrupting in any way, just a very clever device for keeping things slightly unpredictable.

Anyone who has read enough of my dark ambient reviews will probably know that I appreciate albums that make quite heavy use field-recordings, so I found myself almost naturally liking Endtime Psalms. The analogue drones were something that I was struggling to find words to describe, they certainly feel like they have a warmth or texture that other drones might lack, and I appreciate their effect on the way the other sounds are received by the listener. The soundscapes created are dark and interesting, and the level of talent that has gone in to making this album certainly shines through. If you like drone-heavy field-recorded dark ambient, this is an album well worth checking out.

Visit the Endtime Psalms page on Bandcamp here for more information, and be sure to check out DNA Cult below.

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

Album Title: Endtime Psalms

Artist: Aegri Somnia

Label: Cryo Chamber

Released: March 7, 2017

Contact Me