This is the first release on Cyclic Law, a promising label from Montreal. Their mission statement: “We will strive to release obscure quality music and will also emphasize on unconventional packaging.” Well, this debut album is directly succeeded. Instincts / Bustum is a collaboration of Instincts, a dark ambient project of Frédéric Arbour, and visual artist Yvan Arseneault, aka Bustum. This combination of aural and visual arts really works well. The album comes in a fine looking A5 sleeve. The package also contains no less than 15 great duotone cards designed by Arseneault. You can find some previews here. The images are very dark and apocalyptic, which suits the music perfectly.
“The Mystery Visions” contains 10 long untitled tracks. A dark ambient sound is combined with majestic neo-classical and a few folky elements. The music is a nice mixture of acoustic and electronic means. The atmosphere is solemn and somber, but not very dark, but more melancholic and emotional. The first piece features acoustic guitars, church bells and nice melodic layers. It has a hypnotizing effect. At times the music gets a little more martial, like with the fifth track, which reminds me of the likes of Turbund Sturmwerk. My personal favourite must be the epic second song, which really is overwhelming with all its tension.
A fabulous debut, which enchants you for almost an hour…
