Bisclaveret - Theu Anagnosis [Zoharum/Steinklang Industries - 2014]Theu Anagnosis offers up a heady, sleek yet mysterious, and often highly memorable mix of: ritual dark ambience, moody & stark piano/ sitar/ koto structures, atmospheric synth/ synth orchestration, & stark electronica, which is all topped off with layers of haunting & mumbled arcane vocals. The album takes in eight tracks in all, and these run between just shy of the four minute mark, and the six & a half minute mark . So each nicely sets it’s own mood, yet no track ever feels over stretched, and it makes the whole thing quite effective as dip in & out listening experience ,yet the album also works well as a whole too. The tracks also have a fairly nice mix of pace & textural variation about them too, moving from brooding yet bounding piano led compositions. Onto dark yet spritely mixes of picked string & amass ritual hazed vocals, through to slow shadowy ebbs & drifts of dark drone elements & echoed vocals. Onto chilling 'n' stripped back electronica beat structures, which are edge with gothic & creepy melody lines. Where a lot of dark ritual music often brings to mind ancient rituals been carried out by gowned figures in either midnight forest glades, musty underground crypts, or derelict ancient structures. Bisclaveret’s more sleek, polished & defined take on ritual sonics summons up more of organised & stylized form of ceremony. Bringing to mind rituals been played out in either the shadows of angular modern architecture, or under bright spot-lit futuristic structures in the last hours of the night. Yet for all the music sleek-ness, there’s a very chilling, foreboding & mysterious vibe running through-out the album All in all Theu Anagnosis is one of my surprise discoveries of 2014, and even from my first play through I was captivating by both the albums distinctive/ original take on ritual music, and the consistent yet varied unfold of the whole work. Roger Batty
|