Again a very dark ambient release on the productive American label Somnambulant Corpse, as always in a nice DVD-box. This time they have released a split cd, with 2 tracks by Axone (I previously reviewed their ‘Axone Belli” cd) and 4 by KNOw (a new name for me). I very much like the first Axone track ‘Salvation’, which shows quite some variation, lasting over 17 minutes. Starting with deep drones and some spacy sounds, followed by some noisy layers and sinister sampled voices, later evolving into more spheric regions, before it becomes harder and noisier again, with a ritual feel. On the next track ‘Solution’ Axone brings us a minimal soundscape, combined with a speech about religion, music and more, towards the end harsh noise takes over.
kNOw contributes four tracks, two of which consists of rather harsh noise, while the two other tracks are more tranquil soundscapes. ‘Vaticidal Misoneist” starts with irritating bleeps, followed by weird samples of very bombastic neo-classical music. Then things get really loud, with some extreme industrial noise. More noise attacks, that are never really too straightforward though, follow on the next track, ‘Dimensional Indifference’. ‘The Grand inquisiteur’ is a nice experimental soundscape, a little noisy, some weird sounds in the background, and at times a somewhat orchestral feel. The final track ‘Let this be a night of deliverance’ is a rather soft and monotonous track, not too much happens in it, except for some strange vocal samples towards the end.
This split cd has quite some variation in sounds and moods (though it stays pretty dark), not all tracks are equally captivating, but enough interesting material to keep you busy for a while.