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Recommended by us on 26th November 2010
...according to our Brian on Thu 25 Nov, 2010.
I liked the CD by these on 12K. Sparse, moody & sinister Dark Ambient shit from some talented Aussies. This totally falls into the same category but, of course, with the added dimension the analogue realm offers, this is even more unsettling & creepy. A violin snakes quietly into the mix during the second track 'Carving' but it sounds like a dying bluebottle in the room next door. The music here goes from full-on dreadful suspense & desolation to unsettling calm then builds again like the spectre that keeps on passing the door to the room you're hiding in but never actually comes in. Just hovers there, sensing something, then moves on, only to return soon afterwards. There's a 20 minute epic on the flip I really don't want to subject Dave to. He looks fed-up as it is. But you know, as the drone/ambient enthusiast, you're getting utter quality here. Unlike other practitioners within their field, Solo Andata's physical output could hardly be termed prolific. Because it sounds clearly to me like they really take. Their. Time.
‘Ritual’ is Solo Andata’s third full-length album and also the inaugural release for the Buffalo-based label, Desire Path Recordings. This limited edition 12” LP consists of four glorious sonic ‘topographies’ that are altogether spellbinding, eerie, visceral and energetic. ‘Ritual’, similar to Solo Andata’s self-titled album on 12k, is fundamentally made up of organic sounds, such as primitive gongs, bells and bowls, wildlife and environmental recordings, sacred chants, the vibration of human cancerous cells, cleavers, and prepared piano. These four pieces seem to work toward a repetition or ‘ritual‘ between disparate elements so as to transport us, via a magical spell, to dense otherworldly habitats. In fact, the title of the twenty-minute piece Incantare translates as ‘to chant’ (a magical spell upon), which derives from ‘in’, into, unto and ‘cantare’, to sing. For the eight-minute piece Carving, there exists a ‘ritualistic’ image similar to that of Kafka’s In the Penal Colony, where an intricate carving device inscribes the Condemned prisoner's sentence onto his flesh. The whole affair of ‘Ritual’ is bound to leave listeners mesmerized by its vividness and bewitched by its intensity. Mastered by James Plotkin.
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