No, this is not the new cd from This Morn’ Omina. It’s also not the musical style you would expect from this Belgian ritual industrial act. In fact this material is a bit older, and was supposed to be released about 2,5 years ago. But due to some delays at the label Tantric Harmonies, this release has not seen the daylight until now. “The future has taken root in the present” contains more ambient-oriented material. The band formulates it as such: “Although there is reference, these recordings are not part of the Hegira. They are the wanderings of the mind that travels. This is an empty cycle.”
Though you can hear connections with TMO’s other work, it’s still quite different. No energetic beats and tribal rhythms, but cold and dark soundscapes. The album contains only 5 tracks, but lasts over 50 minutes. The first track is the most epic one, consisting of 3 parts. Some tribal and ritual sounds can be heard, just as various mysterious vocal samples. The tension is built up well with some deep drones. The overall atmosphere is quite mysterious. After a minute of 5 the sound gets more spacious, cathedral-like. Lots of things happen in the background, strange noises, heavenly choirs, distant voices, didgeridoos… very beautiful. In the third part of the track things get more industrial, with factory sounds and high noises. The music is rather monotonous here, with a trancelike effect. Towards the end of the track things get more tranquil and cinematic.
Four more tracks follow on this album, combining ambient soundscapes with more noisy and ritual elements and quite a few vocal samples. At various points you are surprised by sudden elements. This is not the minimal dark ambient we know from older Lustmord releases, too much happens in the music for that. Though different than I am used to from This Morn’ Omina, this is a very nice album, which is more varied than most ambient albums I come across. In 2003 the new album “Nyan I” will be released by Ant-Zen (it seems as if ever TMO release is issued on another label).
