Proscenium – Behind the curtain

Proscenium (a theatrical term) is the new project of Anders Calderon from Sweden, who used to work under the name of Mortaur. From that early incarnation I only heard the album “Horror Vacui”, which was available as a free download for a while and which displayed pretty solid dark ambient. Proscenium seems to lean more towards a neo-classical sound, though a dark ambient background is still present.

There are female choirs, synthetic strings, piano and other orchestral elements. The atmosphere is still pretty spooky, which is largely caused by the grim male voice whisper-declamating haunted tales. Torrents of torment, pain, wounds and fears are populating the lyrics.

The album has a modest length of 36 minutes. Enough to fill your room with a filmic sound, which could of course be the soundtrack of a dark medieval murder mystery or even sheer horror at times, something with evil monks and dusty castles. The label names Profane Grace, Each Dawn I Die and Arcana as some of the musical inspirations, as well as some classical composers. “Behind the curtain” is pleasantly dark and sounds quite convincing, though the vocals are a bit over-the-top perhaps.

artist: Proscenium
label: Memento Mori
details: 9 tracks, 36 min, 2005 [Mori 18]