psychedelic_mustache Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Artist: Svartsinn Title: Traces of Nothingness Released: October 2005 Tracklist: 1.Traces of Nothingness 2.No Passage to the Innermost... 3.Lost in Reveries 4.Misanthropic odyssey 5.Through the Apathetic Eyes 6.All the Colours are Fading 7....But the Fire burns no more 8.Bonus: Emptiness is Form The word Svartsinn is Norwegian, and directly translated to english it would mean something like black mind or black soul. This is Jan Roger Pettersen, aka Svartsinns third full-length album, and just like his second offering "Of Darkness and Re-Creation" this is released on the Canadian ambient-label Cyclic Law. This is an album that will demand it's time from you if you want to be rewarded. It requiers attention and you have to be a motivated listener to dig in to this stuff. Let's see what hides inside for the patient listener... 01: Traces of Nothingness "It lives...in the dark....something in the dark"... The opening track of the album starts off with a frightened voice - one of the few voicesamples we find on this album. The atmosphere is freezin, ice-cold and pitch black. The main elements present are long, stretched soundscapes - and every now and then there are hints of subtle melodies. 02: No Passage to the innermost... We continue with floating, but the atmosphere shifts somewhat in the second track of the album. It opens with two distinct sources of sound morphing together. The sound of bubbeling water - like someone is drowning or something, together with something that might be heavy pounding on some sort of steel barrell. The soundscapes here are somewhat more melodic than on the first track. It's gentle and soft, and yet it's also pretty harsh at times. 03: Lost in reveries This is the sort of track I find it hard to describe, but enjoy listening to. It's like a constantly shifting collage of sounds, there are noe real referencepoints here. It has a rather "metallic" feel to it, it sounds like your sitting in some giant tin-can listening to the storms sweeping by outside. It would be easy to use a bunch of clichès about how his nordic, arctic background must have influenced him here, and they would also be quite fitting. It's dark, it's cold and it's quite a fascinating ride. 04: Misanthropic Odyssey This is a more majestic ride, and has a more organic feeling. If I were to characterize this in any way I'd say this is ambient-musics answere to the forest-trance. Quite mystical, filled with little, weird and subtle noises together with an evershifting almost alien melody dribing the track. Lots of substance and change all the way. 05: Through apatic eyes this track is most of all about mood. It's scary, and when I say that I mean it in the true sense of the word - it actually scares you! This is a constantly changing collage of sounds slowly moving around a set of permanently present components. It also builds in intensity and have several "peaks" throughout. There is also a very obscure and fraky voice-sample present, hypnotizing you with a message of "Cannibalism...occultism....satanism...beastiality...mutilation...murder...vampireism". I know it sounds like cheeze, but bellieve me when I say that this is no such thing. 06:All the colours are fading This is one of the more minimal offerings on the album. very One set of synth-sweeps are morphed and changed throughout the track, and there are fewer things going on in the background. It's constantly drifting sound is actually very calming, very relaxing, and this is perhaps the "warmest" track on the album. To avoid making it too cozy, Svartsinn makes us listen to some sadistic screaming far, into the distance a few times. 07: ...But the fire Burns no More This is by far my favourite track on the album..Filled with all kinds of atmospheres, feeling and emotion this is a wonderfull, though a bit too short ambient piece of brilliance. The track feels very fluid, filled with liquids and water. It begins rather warm, again suprisingly cozy. Before you know it however the dark forces have completely surrounded you. There are hints of voices present, but you can't really make out what their saying.. 08: Bonus: Emptiness is Form The last track of the album is called "Emptiness is Form" and the title is quite fitting. It begins as almost complete silence, you hear a noise far in to the distance. It grabs your attention - you have to focus and concentrate in order to hear what it is. It grows, gets stronger, and if you play this loud enough your entire room will soon enough be resonating in bass.Then it just fades out and leaves you in silence. Final remarks: Cyclic law is one of my favourite labels when it comes to dark, ambient music and luckilly enough Svartsinn did not dissapoint me. As I've allready mentioned, though - this isn't an album for everyone, and it's ceirtanly not an album suitable for any occation. It's quite demanding and takes some time as well, it's not an instantly catchy or easily digestible album. Bottom line: if you enjoy your doses of beatless ambient and also has a weak spot for the dark side - do not hessitate! Tomas(Psychedelic Mustache) Buy it here: Wirikuta Cyclic law mailorder More fun: www.sonic-energy.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seraph Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Sounds delicious ! I want to hear it as soon as possible... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoofaloof Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Thanx for the heads up, was totally out of the loop on this one Will investigate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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