psychedelic_mustache Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 Artist: Northaunt Title: Horizons Label: Cyclic Law Catalog: 16th Cycle Format: CD Released: 2006 Tracklist: 01.Until Dawn Do us part 02. Night Came to us 03. Horizons 04. The Autumn Sky 05. Night Alone 06. With the Stars as witness 07. The wilderness Norwegian electronic music is often ascosiated with Biosphere or perhaps Röyksopp for the mor comercially oriented crowd. Still, alot of other intersting things are happening, especially within the realms of darker ambient. Northaut has been producing music since 1996 and have several releases behind them...This time their out with a full album on Cyclic law, a label mainly concerned with icy cold ambient soundscapes.... lets have a listen to the tracks... 01: Until Dawn do us Part Opening rather chaotic this track merges all kinds of sounds ino a metallic and sterile soup, before the deep, lulling drones hurl us into deep introspection. After a while this piece becomes rather melodic, and the long and slowly sweeping horns together with the piano creates a rather majestic atmosphere. Thiss is beatless ambient all the way, and a very nice way to open the album! 02: Night Came to us As you can see from the tracks title there's no hope of moving closer to the light side of things here. The track opens in a rather industrial feeling with some highly mechanical sounds alongside the howling of the wind. The track slowly moves around, and all though it evolves slowly it does not become dull or boring. Clocking in at near 15 minutes this is an ambient work of proportions, but as with the album, this stuff requiers a ceirtan mood to be enjoyed. 03: Horizons With the albums third installment everything becomes a tad more warm and fuzzy than what we've so far come to excpect. Samples of something sounding like burning fire, together with rather harmonious backdrops of sound actually causes a rather euphoric atmosphere at times... Even so, this is still completely beatless ambient so take that into consideration before you run off to the shops. Good track! 04: The Autumn Sky With the autums sky we're intoduced to something that vaguely resembles a beat and a rythm, which is nice for a change. Essential to this piece are the various samples of typical autumn weather phenomena such as rain, thunder and wind. Works well as a collage of sound, and the drone-like background ambience is nice as well. Solid! 05: Night alone This is an interesting track. It begins very dark, very deep, but gradually over the course of it's nearly 10 minute journey turns lighter and lighter. In this track the long, sweeping atmospheric syths gets to play the main role almost alone, and as a floating experience this is a good piece of music. 06: With the stars as witness This is perhaps the piece of music on this disc that will have the greatest appeal among the more psy-oriented listeners out there. I for one cant help but think that this piece would fit perfectly on the more ambient of Solar Fields works from last year "extended". This is very spaced out free-floating ambient in the purest beatless form there is. Not particularly dark either, but very, very nice... 07: The wilderness The wilderness finishes the album, and I must say it does so in style. Exploring several different atmospheres and feelings, froom the deepest most depressing darkness to the euphoric waterfall-sampeling together with optimistic melodies. Very nice use of samples here as well, and it all turns in to a very dynamic piece of music. Final Remarks: Cyclic law is one of those labels I really enjoy purchasing cd's from... They do everything themselves and are the definition of how to be independent and original. Here they deliver a quality release that should please more listeners than their average release does, as I find this stuff pretty accessible. As a bonus you also get a music-video with an alternative version of the final track "the wilderness". Even so, you have to take into account that this is ambient with absolutely no beats involved and I know thats not something everyone is able to enjoy. If you're one of those people who are lucky enough to be able to enjoy a quiet meditative hour by your self I wouldn't hesitate to recomend you to bring this disc as company... Tomas (Psychedelic Mustache) Buy it here: Wirikuta Cyclic Law Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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