Description:	USED 2 CD set on Students Of Decay - couple of tiny marks on one disc, otherwise NM throughout
	Format:	CD
	Condition:	Used
	Genre(s):	Experimental / Abstract
	Label:	Students of Decay
	Price:	£15.99
	Availability:	Sold out / currently unavailable. Sorry!

5
...according to our Ant on 12 March 2009.

I've been somewhat blown away by the pure magic flowing from the speakers and into my ears. A double CD set is responsible: 'The Snowbringer Cult' by Isengrind, Twinsistermoon, Natural Snow Buildings. The first impression from the packaging is one of sheer joy at the marvellous Solange Gularte artwork. Then the first disc is crammed to maximum bursting capacity and shared by Isengrid and Twinsistermoon with some of the most enchanting experimental, mystical folk music I've heard in ages and I dont say that lightly. You could really let yourself get transported to another place in time soaking up these haunting strings and ghostly vocals. The second disc is entirely by Natural Snowbuildings and is simply lush. There's some proper psychedelic action happening here It's easy to see how these artists have aquired such a cult following with their releases being extremely collectable. Gatefold package on Students Of Decay. Huge recommendation!!!!

Love this record? Hate it? Tell us.

What their label says...

DISC ONE
01. Isengrind - "From Icy Lands"
02. Isengrind - "To Ride with Holle"
03. Isengrind - "Skull Ornaments"
04. Isengrind - "His Winterbed"
05. Isengrind - "Cat's Cradles"
06. Isengrind - "Wooden False Face"
07. Isengrind - "Sun Disk Wand"
08. Isengrind - "Anima Sola"

09. Twinsistermoon - "Amantsokan"
10. Twinsistermoon - "The Spears of the Wolf"
11. Twinsistermoon - "Order of the Dreamt"
12. Twinsistermoon - "Spells"
13. Twinsistermoon - "Water Barrier"
14. Twinsistermoon - "Bones Memories"
15. Twinsistermoon - "Kingdom of the Sea"
16. Twinsistermoon - "Understars"

DISC TWO
01. Natural Snow Buildings - "Resurrect Dead on Planet Six"
02. Natural Snow Buildings - "Bear Hunting"
03. Natural Snow Buildings - "Ongon's Rattle"
04. Natural Snow Buildings - "Inuk's Song"
05. Natural Snow Buildings - "Snowbringer Cult"
06. Natural Snow Buildings - "Nieve Sacra"
07. Natural Snow Buildings - "Gone"
08. Natural Snow Buildings - "Salt Signs"
09. Natural Snow Buildings - "The Desert Has Eyes"
10. Natural Snow Buildings - "They Do Not Come Knocking There Anymore"


Enter the Snowbringer Cult. Lo, behold the great arrival. Over the course of several
 private press releases, all of which will see much needed CD reissues later this
 year, and the gone-in-the-blink-of-an-eye "Laurie Bird" CDR that we released in
 early February '08, the music and artwork of Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte
 has become the stuff of legend. Such is the case despite the fact that the amount
 of people who have actually been fortunate enough to acquire physical copies of
 these wondrous releases numbers in the mere low hundreds. "The Snowbringer Cult"
 then, in all of its epic glory, is what you might call an entirely necessary and long
 overdue coming out release by France's mighty Natural Snow Buildings.

The album is composed of two jam-packed discs of brand new material recorded
in     the final months of 2007, the first being a split between the duo's solo
 projects: Isengrind (Gularte) and Twinsistermoon (Ameziane). Here, the pair's
 tendency to occupy the full 80 minute capacity of the CD medium proves
 ideal, as both solo projects effectively have a full 40 minutes in which to sketch
 their respective sonic visions. Disc one begins with the exotic ethnodrones of
 Isengrind, with Gularte transporting us to some blasted bazaar where Eastern
 strings, haunted vocals and a marvelous universe of shaken and beaten percussion
 emanates from every dark corner of the windswept streets. "To Ride With Holle"
 could be a merging of the resonant clatter of "Empty Bell"-era Pelt with the enchanted
    peaks of the Taj Mahal Travellers' bleary eyed beachside reveries. Elsewhere,
    Gularte presents us with tribal landscapes that wouldn't be out of place on the
 most captivating of Sublime Frequencies releases, as is the case on "Wooden
    False Face." Ever the chameleon, throughout her half of the split Gularte takes
 us to deep, dark places, such as the barren netherworld of "SunDusk Wand," as
 well as the bright, blue summits found in her magnificent closing piece "Anima Sola."

Emerging from the ashes of Isengrind's lush soundworlds are Mehdi Ameziane's own
 solo flights as Twinsistermoon, which begin with the keening, sprawling "Amantsokan,"
 a truly mesmerizing dirge. It is with "The Spears of the Wolf" however, that the course
 of this split album is wonderfully altered. Here, Ameziane channels the most affecting
 qualities of 70's British folk music with wondrous, transportive results. Ameziane's
    take on the folk song is reminiscent of the pastoral diddies of Vashti Bunyan or
 perhaps some long lost Linda Perhacs or Anne Briggs recording, all plaintive nylon
 strings and warm, whispered voices. It is thus that the Twinsistermoon half of the split
 oscillates effortlessly between two seemingly disparate styles: that of the nostalgic,
 crestfallen folk song ("Spells," Water Barrier," "Kingdom of the Sea") and that of the
    slow burning drone epic ("Order of the Dreamt," "Bones Memories," "Understars") -
no small feat indeed.

For the album's colossal third installment, Ameziane and Gularte join forces under the
 Natural Snow Buildings moniker for the entirety of disc two. It is here that all of the
 diversity and compositional prowess evidenced by the pair's solo recordings coheres
 into the remarkably refined and singular NSB sound. "Resurrect Dead on Planet Six"
 kicks things off, a horde of screaming, lost specters howling across one thousand
 endless starry nights. On "Ongon's Rattle," a doomed mass gathers for a ritual
 processional, with Ameziane and Gularte's moss-laden forest chants floating atop a
 wistful, rhythmic undertow that is evocative of the best qualities of early Godspeed You!
 Black Emperor and the rest of the Constellation Records roster. After the sunlit drift of
 "Inuk's Song," Ameziane and Gularte unleash in the title track what is undoubtedly one of
 their most compelling compositions to date. A deluge of frenzied woodwind tones gives
 rise to a blasted sea shanty lament driven forward by collapsing synth lines, booming
 percussion and increasingly urgent, searing blasts of pure bliss drone guitar. The enigmatic
 forest dwellers raise their voices again on the shambling, reverent "Gone," and, later,
 "Salt Signs" continues the beautiful trajectory established by the title track with its
 impossibly towering summits of synth and string drones that are gradually tempered by
 kraut-inflected percussion and drifting, rhythmic guitar work. Later still, "The Desert Has
Eyes" finds a tribal raga positively eviscerated by blistering sheets of pure whiteout
 feedback and cascading sine waves. The album ostensibly closes with an ocean of
 elegiac organ tones woven into a tight coda. However, an emphatic exclamation point
 to the monster that is "The Snowbringer Cult" occurs with the album's hidden track,
 wherein an utterly levitating torrent of pounding percussion, hummed vocals and
 post-Flying Saucer Attack fuzzbox guitar attack scream out into the void.

If this seems like a lot to take in - it surely is, but such is the nature of the Natural
 Snow Buildings cosmos. Enter the Snowbringer Cult. Lo, behold the great arrival.


"The Snowbringer Cult" is packaged in a gorgeous 4 panel sleeve printed by
 the renowned Stumptown Printers featuring gorgeous artwork by Solange.