A moody image that is somewhat focused on times past greats us from the album cover here. The cars look like they are from the 70’s, the sky is devoid of colour and the cobbled streets from an unspecified European town are empty of people. It could well be an early Sunday morning but the imagery is very much up for interpretation. The mysteriously named Regen Graves is an Italian multi-instrumentalist known for his work predominantly in strange occultist doom outfit Abysmal Grief as well as working with Tony Tears. Here he is allowed complete freedom and has stepped outside the box with what appears to be his third solo work of dark ambient music. It was originally released on cassette last year and now finds its way hopefully to a wider audience via CD.
Naturally the first thing I did here was went looking for clues via translation of album and track titles. This helps a lot descriptively and we are in the German tongue with the album meaning ‘Autumn Light’ and tracks such as ‘The Dawn’ and ‘Empty Streets.’ I can’t help but feel a bit smug with myself but it is hardly rocket science, a picture paints a thousand words and obviously it has worked very well as a companion to the themes within the music.
Despite ominous throbbing tone at the opening of ‘Das Morgengrauen’ this dawn is a very gentle one and the whole of this 46-minute album is on the whole quite chilled and relaxing despite the darkness behind its ambient strains. Sure, there’s plenty of futurism around the synthesized palette and we could be as easily in an alien place as on earth, perhaps humanity has been removed from the planet and we are in a place completely devoid of life? This is very soundtrack orientated and it will possibly have the listener thinking of aged equipment utilised by the likes of the BBC radiophonic workshop as we wander down its haunted, deserted streets to ghostly organ work. Atmospherically evocative, there is a feeling of familiarity about this which delves back in time to the genus of instrumental Krautrock as well as space-rock although don’t go looking for the beat of a drum or flash of guitar here it is all formed by strange and somewhat sinister synth sounds. Sampled voices drift in as the ‘Der Erste Schnee’ (first snow) begins to drift in. You strain to listen but their formation is background noise carried off in the breeze. This is a long segment allowing you to drift, comfortably numb along with it. Listen carefully and there are other things to hear, namely what sounds like a school assembly singing caught up like leaves gathered in the wind. It’s all very soothing, like an empty world and kind of leaves you hungering for just that although a glance back at the cover will have you questioning just where the corpses are hidden.
‘Besuch’ is a ‘visit’ from galactic overlords perhaps, their machinery humming and pulsing like a Tripod like creation mopping up any hidden survivors. Buttons are pressed and waves of sound summoned by our composer at the helm. The tinkling of a xylophone giving it all a more spectral atmosphere along with the voices formed from a long-abandoned radio post. These aliens have done their job and leave us with ‘Zersetzung’ (decomposition) I am kind of glad they did too as I am still wondering about those bodies. Eerie synth weeps mournfully as everything slowly turns back to dust in the earth where it lies. All that remains are ‘Rote Blätter’ the red leaves falling in the autumn but the odd noises they make clanging and reverberating suggest they could be some non-indigenous species planted from space to repopulate the earth with pod-like beings from another galaxy….
This is certainly a rich and atmospheric listening experience that will get the imagination and the juices flowing as you travel through it. My interpretation could obviously be as out there as the music itself but then again maybe there is a story here to be uncovered and there are no right or wrong answers. Whatever the case is, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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