All hail Hecate “the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy”. It is not in an Enthroned sense here and this is no black metal album but a journey into dark ambient from a practitioner in deepest sunny Greece. Its hard to think of an underworld is such warm climes despite relating to the Ancient Gods of the country here but do not worry too much about that as there are dark stygian ruins to explore aplenty on this expletory journey. The composer behind this work is no stranger to them and goes by the name of Shelmerdine releasing a plethora of material stretching back to 2008. I think this is my first encounter and I trod cautiously in to the caverns, vaults and catacombs of the music with expectations and interest.

We start at the title track, the first of four and it takes up a good half of the album, deliciously sprawling at an epic 24 minutes running time. It feels like we are in the bowels of the earth as things ominously slither and drip, wind wails somehow gaining entry and all sorts of strange noises haunt this shadowy domain. It’s unsettling and sounds like a place no man has trod in aeons, ancient witchery has been the only thing practiced here since time immemorial perhaps. The earth trembles slightly and reverberations build as it is unsettled. Chants subtly invade and bass tones throb. Eventually Hecate enters ‘The torch bearing triple goddess of the crossroads” In the earthly domain and as far as the recording process is concerned, she is Sekte and this is the only track she vocalises on leaving the rest of the album purely instrumental bar chanting. The voice is suitably witchy, OK it is a little “mirror, mirror on the wall” in my mind and does detract from the dark ambient, ‘settle down with a scary book vibe’ of the rest of the album but one can hardly dispute her place among the “corpses and tombs”. Naturally it brings a flair of theatricality to it which in my mind is somewhat reminiscent of the sort of “children’s” TV drama we used to watch in the 70’s and get scared to death by as a result. Grotbags she is not and this is the type of witch we are told in the liner notes of the disc who will “tear the black lamb to pieces” and “summon up the souls of the dead” in vile necromancy. Once she ceases her spellcraft it is a tribal tap tapping of a drum and rattles being shook that takes things down a shamanic path and towards the short next segment ‘Erebenne Arkuia Nekui.’ Booms and crashes are emitted here, something dark has been awoken and atmosphere builds along with tension as chanting from this unholy temple clings in the background. Prehistory and monolithic sound rumbles into ‘Triformis Dadouchos Soteira’ now one can really concentrate on the turmoil in the sonic sounds without distraction. Beastly distorted inhuman roars suggest that something is trying to break through from the other side. In 950 AD Theodore Philétas of Constantinople made a Greek translation of the Kitab al Azif it was called the Necronomicon, perhaps it is in that time and place we find ourselves here.

The 15 minute ‘Damnomeneia’ is the last part of the ritual and here it feels like that term is not out of place. What could be but strangely fits in, is the sound of a didgeridoo, it is all part of that aforementioned prehistory and things are very tribal with thumping slow drum beats and the trembling sounds of the earth in these humungous chasms in revolt. I admit this all flowed over me on the first couple of listens but sitting down and properly immersing oneself in this in as close to a scholarly fashion (if that does not sound pretentious) as possible is where the reward truly lies. Lovers of dark ambient and strange unearthly noises should certainly enjoy this “dark” descent and it will definitely “awake” something in you until silence finally descends once more.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

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https://darkawake.bandcamp.com/album/hekateion

https://www.aestheticdeath.com/releases.php?mode=singleitem&albumid=4860