Dan Söderqvist, Karl Gasleben and Jocke Söderqvist have been together under different guises, making music since 1981, though they are best known as Twice a Man.. They are on DependentRecords and Twice a Man have dropped the single “Birds eye view,” off the soon to be released album The Coloured Breeze is a New Dimension.
There is almost a gentle calm in the beginning, though the echoing is unsettling. The vocals take strength and synths are soaring above the rhythms, pure and clean. An explosion of warmth as if the sun’s rays are gracing us through music.
“Overview can light sparks in the place where your roots are waiting. If you follow the time you can destroy the eradicating wheels of commerce. Don’t drown yourself in pretended sleep! There is a common knot that must be untied. Our thoughts are the light and nature sings our lullabies.” – Twice a Man
Between the video and the lyrics, Twice a Man seem to be tied to the natural world, using electronics to delve into their connection and love of the environment versus the industrial world. The crows in the video, make their way through different art styles and they look beautiful. “Birds eye View” is an ambient lullaby and Twice a Man have proven they are as relevant as ever.
We are going to touch the dark musical mire that is the harsh, ambient electronics of German based VERFÜHRERVERGELTER, in the new EP From the Void: Silicon Signals to a Dead Brain.
“Aschewüste” is the ash desert and that wasteland is present in your ears. Abrasive and sand blasted by storms, echoing with the past where something abominable happened. The looping electronics grate and gouge at your psyche. Next is the lurking “Deathpile,” which slowly consumes the will to live and the Reaper could be knocking on that door. The music vibrates and rolls with the death throes, in anticipation of a painful cellular end. Starting to to get saggy skin due to a lack of collagen? No worries for there is a “Siliciumsale,” and in truth I involuntarily shivered a little as it has a sharp cruelty to the tone. Behold the unbridled electric guitar as it brings you into the “Untitled Abstract Void.” Shards of light try to penetrate but this is pure darkness that will break the mind of the strongest if you ponder it too long. A yawning abyss of terror echoing the fear endlessly. Maybe there is nothing more terrifying than the thought of never reaching a weekend, perpetual groundhog day for the whole week, over and over again. “Bonus: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday Tuesday…..” drones on without joy or meaning, only with the intense ticking letting you know that there is no rest.
What does it all mean? Hmmm, I might take a guess that this could be about a body on life support. The brain no longer present but the nerves keep trying to contact central control with no response. VERFÜHRERVERGELTER has unleashed another release of infernal doom that can drag its cold fingers and nails across your soul and make you ponder From the Void: Silicon Signals to a Dead Brain.
Hisham Zreiq is a Palestinian visual artist and film maker living in Germany. He is also an electronic musician and the Goddess Asherah Project is his outlet of experimenting with ambient soundscapes which in essence could be a soundtrack for one of his movies. August has seen the release of the album The land of Joy, which contains thirteen instrumental tracks.
The album is full of light with its chimes, oriental styled sounds and rhythms. It flows with the titles fitting so well and the feel of each track is conveyed through the music. “Delight” invokes a taste of India and it truly is a delight to listen to, while “Frisky” has playful bleeps that run at a whirlwind pace. The land of Joy should be listened to when you want to unwind or need to be taken away to a place where you can be free to dream. The Canaanite GoddessAsherah has the power to grant you joy in the electronic world.
Out on the British label UtopianMechanics, Stockport based ThroughTheGloom have just released the new ambient electronic EP, DarkPatterns.
Opening track “PerfectDark” gives the atmosphere of an anti sunrise, as if the shadows are creeping forward, encroaching on all. Deep tonal aberrations escape from the virtual abyss, with a tribal electronic twist in “HostileArchitecture.” An ancient drone with a female vocalisation, almost Middle Eastern in sound, creating a mystical allure. There is a reverence in the beginning of “WhispersWithin” and indeed there are the hushed voices within the mix. The piano wanders, as if a lost train of thought, trapped in a slowly decaying cycle.
“Llanto” is gently laid before you, analogue sounding keys greeting you intermittently, which is nothing like the track “Cut Their Tongues.” Finely abrasively with foreboding, building with divine and ancient righteous portent, setting your teeth on edge. The vocals are strained and full of warning as the background is filled with tribal rhythms. Final track, “NostromosReckoning” is like a breath of fresh air after being compressed by the last track. It soars on gossamer wings, expansive and billowing into an infinite horizon
For me, this style of experimental and soundscape electronic music should fuel the imagination, taking you away from the mundane, inspiring joy, wonder and even fear of each new world opened to us. Through The Gloom has this in spades on Dark Patterns.
RobertBenaquista brings you Cucurbitophobia, the project so grim, it is named after the fear of pumpkins, and after sowing the seeds, he has reaped the new album called IV. Cucurbitophobia is a darksynth/neo-classical project hailing from New Jersey.
You have entered the time of nightmares where nothing seems real and all is covered in a pall of dusky sorrow. The fires burn cold in this hellish wasteland that is “IgnisSatanae,” dragging you into the shadow realm. “GaleofLucifer” is the quiet before the oncoming storm, an entourage of building anticipation of dark angelic release, ticking like a timebomb, never getting any faster, as if your doom means nothing in the whole scheme of things. The solo guitar sets your teeth on edge in opposition to the piano. You are now on the “SoilofBelial,” and the devil is going to welcome you. From within the cacophony, if you listen carefully enough, you might hear the voices of lost souls wailing in the distance.
Like something from BlackSabbath, the guitar holds sway, the creator of organised chaos and then, yet, there are periods of reflective electronic dismay, distant and disconcerting. You shouldn’t be here and the tension rises for whatever is in the dark is baying for your blood. The creature in the “Bay of Leviathan: Chapter I” calls out from the deep and it almost feels like sanctuary, a ray of light in the gloom. The piano takes its place, making you feel most uneasy, rippling through the surrounds, and into the murky unknown. Unlike the previous track, “Bay of Leviathan: Chapter II” starts so differently, tasting of gentle breezes and fingers of sunshine breaking through to the shimmer water’s surface….though is it almost a lament in a way, the piano plinks in a sporadic wandering, modern avant-garde style. Final track “Memento Vivere” continues in this vein, conjuring shadows of memories along with raising the ghosts of what is lost.
If you haven’t quite caught the drift yet, Cucurbitophobia is very much entrenched in the horror genre. Music that imprints on your psyche and tugs at your base human instincts that recognises fear and aberration. Why is the album called IV? It isn’t the fourth album. Curiosity abounds. Benaquista has said that the inspiration is from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” a poem about the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden… a loss of innocence that can never be regained and the full realisation that what we do not know terrifies us, captured in a mirror like reflection by Cucurbitophobia.
ChooseEuphoria is the latest album from UK project TheResonanceAssociation, released in 2023. The brain child of DanielVincent and DominicHemy, has been around since 2006, and according to their Bandcamp page…. ‘They seek to produce hallucinatory music to transport the listener to uncharted realms of space and time.’
The first track off the rank, “ForceMajeure,” leaps out at you, its enthusiastic rock guitar with walls of sound bursting forth joyously, adventuring like a cosmic snake. The electronics continue this journey of sound with “Invocation,” more subdued than “ForceMajeure,” but equally full of intonations throughout, as if the solar winds are gracing your ears in the background. “The State of Things” is semi angelic, though some of the effects are near paranoid inducting, especially with the slowly played guitar and it has been combined with a rather psychedelic froopy video. Cool liquid bass lines are the backbone for “No Fear of Falling,” with wailing synths crystalline and smooth, even when faced by the solo guitar reaching out the listener.
There is something very early 80s about “SomeKind” that I just cannot quite put my finger on, but it is hypnotic and all together far too enjoyable, even with the computer created sirens. I somehow doubt the track “TripHazard” is about unfortunately falling over one’s own feet, but rather, flights of fancy, and as we all know, some journeys are fraught with real dangers, such as minding the gap, which perfectly leads into “Elsewhere.” Again, we are within the winds that whip around the meandering guitar, courting you to go along for the laid back ride. We finish with prog odyssey “SpaceTimePolitics” which kind of reminded me of a scaled back version of PinkFloyd’s “Journey to the Heart of the Sun,” full of lulls that build up into Hendrix like explosions of guitar.
ChooseEuphoria is an eight track album, and indeed TheResonanceAssociation have done exactly as they said they would, using music to transcend our space and the current limitations, opening up movement and achieving wonder, as well as creating textures via experimentation and instrumentation alone. Choose life and ChooseEuphoria.
NaturalDarkness is the new album offering from German born, London based MadilHardis, with twelve original tracks and six remixes, meaning not only is there quality, but you are getting quantity too!. Hardis is known for her gloriously angelic vocals, married with very emotive musical scores that she has created.
The first cab off the rank is “Absence,” settings the tone for the album. Crystal like shards of life experience and poignant, filled with longing that is heart felt. “Crucifixus” has those deeply religious tones of devout exultation given by angels to the heavens in the form of vocals. The track “To The Heart” floats with an internal rhythm and the ever-present piano, caressed by the synths, as if trying to bring comfort, all the while Hardis‘ vocals soar above. Just one of the songs that showcase her talents.
One of the shortest numbers is also, for me, one of the most sublime. This is “Disintegration,” and it is one of those songs that can just cast you adrift on a forlorn sea. The title track, “NaturalDarkness,” has a rather preternatural echoing air, haunting and ethereal, as if yesterdays spectres are waiting at the vale.
The remixes are done by the likes of AshburyHeights, VortexFour, WanderingStars, BérècheYou, and ElectroSpectra. There is a version of “NaturalDarkness” that isn’t really a remix but rather features the cello talents of MichaelHyman, which just creates a feeling of welling beauty and haunting desperation. The others range from modern, through to experimental electronica, giving you new and intriguing ways of perceiving each track.
That is just a taste of NaturalDarkness, from a lady with an abundance of natural talent. MadilHardis carefully entwines classical tendrils with electronic ones, weaving music that is otherworldly and, at the same time, grabs your heart strings.
It has been two years since a project called Voidant took flight, with the release of their self titled album. A deep love of music and experimentation, as well as a friendship across an ocean, brought about an electronic gem. UK based David ‘Wolfie‘ Wolfenden, guitarist of the iconic RedLorry,YellowLorry and CarolineBlind, from the USA, solo artist and lead singer of SunshineBlind, are celebrating their debut album with a remix EP, featuring other extraordinary musicians, fiddling with those delicate stems.
Kicking off with “Vortex,” this is ElenorRayner, front woman of New Zealand’s RobotsInLove, who has a knack of drawing beautiful, dark sweetness out of her remix projects and she does not fail to cause a quickening of your heart, as the barbed tendrils hook into your skin. CWHK is from SunshineBlind, and he has taken on the ephemeral “Ghosted” with the Brave or Silent Remix, upping the tempo and adding a very exotic feel to the track. The one cover on the EP is Love’s “7 and 7 is” and has been given the treatment by DannyC from 2Forks, a member of yet another famous US goth rock band, TheWake. The remix rocks harder than ever and yet has developed this disco/dance orientation.
I cannot think of a better bunch than the UK’s DecommissionedForests, who have taken the shamanistic “LaLoba,” into a cosmic realm, swirling and mystical, centred around Blind’s vocals. MaxRael of DecommissionedForests and HistoryOfGuns, has truly put the funk into “SGTruth,” and it is nearly trance inducing. The original “PhantomEx” was a very free form piece, that Wolfie has taken, creating the Birchremix, adding more guitar and rhythm, giving the bass filled track a heavier air.
“Writing these lyrics and vocal melodies was a cathartic practice of embracing sadness and grief. It’s all in there. There was no return. It’s terminal. There are no hopeful bits, it’s all goodbye. The vocals stand on their own, and those who have remixed the songs have understood that, in perfect alignment. That’s why I called it ‘Abandon Hope’, from Dante’s Divine Comedy: “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” Give up and give in. Join with the heedless infinite.” – Caroline Blind
AbandonHope is a wonderful way to relive some great tracks, or if you are new to the music of Voidant, then submerge your ears in the myriad of styles and talented artists which could lead you to finding even more favourites.
Should you dare slip into the wooded areas of Marietta, Ohio, after dark, you might happen upon the ambient and industrial musing of PressedFlowers. Blake Pipes is the man bringing forth the electronic magic/madness in the single, “The Ascension.”
‘I composed “The Ascension” using, among other things, the sounds of hammers on large nails, the sounds of vehicles barely able to bear the weight of their load, and a mess of synthesizers. These elements were each stretched to their limits and sculpted carefully into place. In the track, there is a choice to make, a choice to stay or to go. The choice is made to go. The path forward is not necessarily a pleasant one, but neither is the path back. Too often, we can only hope to outrun what we try to leave behind.’ – Blake Pipes
This track is saturated in growing dread, from the scraping metal into the nails being knocked in. There is a near Hitchcock shower scene , which prevails and then collapses into what could be described as the warblings of an estranged classical orchestra, which is oddly satisfying. It is an intriguing use of elements and experimentation. There is a horror filled majesty with “This Ascension” by Pressed Flowers.
Harsh Reality Music has been a purveyor of electronic music since 1982 in Memphis, Tennessee, and they have released the latest MadMasks single “Structures.” Based in the French Alps, MadMasks has been around since 2013 and is made up of duo, ZioVoodoo and DominiqueStela.
For one dollar US on Bandcamp, you can purchase this thirty-five minute epic. The guitar strums away as the electronic waiver and fuzz. I believe I hear a ghostly female vocal in the mix, a sighing phantasm into the computerised morass. Eerily ambient, interspersed with twinkling chimes, there is the ebb/flow of the synths and a sombreness that feels un-naturally ancient and alien. “Structures,” by MadMasks, is a perfect experimental and atmospheric electronic piece that invades your senses.
Onyx Music Reviews 