This split release on a sub label of The Sinister Flame sees a meeting of deformed musical minds playing with experimental sounds and frequencies; they have 2 tracks each. On the one hand we have cult composer Hermann Kopp, renowned for the added atmospheres and rank auras accompanying Jorg Buttgereit’s visions of death and decay on seminal Nekromantik and Der Todesking films. Bathory Legion is however new to me and described as a Luciferian Composer with several albums and various other releases to his name. The title of this release means “uncanny” or “eerie” so you should be well aware of what sort of contorted sounds you are going to summon from a pressing of the play button and be warned of what awaits you within.
It is Bathory Legion up first and we are welcomed into his sect via ‘Lahko’ and some ghostly cold war era shortwave radio transmissions from UVB-76. A sort of urgent pulse and low-end booming tones emerge thumping and piercing in equal measures and the dark ambience moves into throbbing drone. Its certainly unsettling but some may indeed find it calming too as it rhythmically settles into a near heartbeat and then sounds of static and distortion. Suddenly the volume goes up and panic is induced as the beat increases momentarily until it all fades into the background. After a pause the track changes direction with some pulses that sound like they are transmitting code, which reminds me of both Kraut Rock and the sort of strange sonics achieved by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark on their ahead of its time Dazzleships album. All very odd. ‘GAS n.71’ is actually Legion’s interpretation of one of the Kopp tracks. Definition is summoned via creepy organ work, the pipes played by a phantom, ushering the dead through the veil perhaps. Solemn and funereal its baroque approach is mediative and brings atmospheres and visions to your head that you may not want to explore. With some creaky sounds one can almost see and feel each individual passing through to the other side and I can’t shake off the picture of them doing so via two iron pillars with spheres on top, straight out of the mortuary home in Phantasm.
I didn’t find what could be described as Kopp’s signature sound in his compositions as immediate as it was on the recent Psicopompo album. ‘Scapinelli’ is rooted in German expressionism and silent film ‘The Student Of Prague from 1913. It’s a Faustian tale and harsh-electronics are its bedrock here as it creates alchemical electricity and sounds as though it is creating a monster of Frankenstein proportions. This abrasive start moves into more organ sounds and what is maybe the hoot of an owl in the background. Before you can say “the children of the night, what…” a strange voice speaks quoting the movie at the theme of it all. Very odd and ancient radiophonic keyboard make this feel like an echo from the past and with the harsh electronics back something is very much trying to escape from the beyond. Kopp’s ‘GAS n.71’ is the final piece of this puzzle and the pipe organ sounds calmly flow from the fog like ether sounding like a macabre piece of Victoriana memoriana (perhaps I made that word up but it seems apt). Its dirge like qualities and presence have melodious touch and if one were looking for a film for this soundtrack to accompany something in the vein of Herk Harvey’s Carnival Of Souls would be quite apt.
So, for those looking for experimentation in ghoulish gloom, these crypt-keepers are on hand to welcome you through the curtain to a place of lillies and remains
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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