The Signature Dark label focuses mainly on dark ambience, drone, minimalism and experimental music. [ówt krì] ‘s soundscapes have been fitting this bill for quite some time so it would seem to be the perfect match. There’s not so much information out there about this album, other than its theme is the fragmentation of the mind under pressure – a suitable subject for this musical genre, I’d suggest – and I welcome that. We listen and form our own impressions.
Orchestral strains melancholically reflect drifting stars through space. The void that is represented could be our mind of course. The echoing and haunting sound could be a voice. But there are no words. It’s like a dream – not a nightmare, but one of a passing world with its assorted revolving sounds. With [ówt krì] we’re never on terra firma, and nor are we here. We are floating in the sky or deep in the ocean, depending on your perception. It’s through “Arcane Fields” that we go. A piano is not what we’d expect. It’s an old piano sound, but with the mystical accompaniment of quietly howling sound waves. “We Flow” is its title. “Drowning in Melancholy and Depression” might suit it better. Life comes from the obscure background sounds and moans. “Shards” is sharper. More like an electric storm, the sounds are a disturbing mish-mash of many things: seagulls on a shore, industrial process, grey, throbbing soundscapes, headaches. “Deep Pressure” suggests that we’re going to get something to soothe us at this point, and sure enough electronic pressure is applied. Those sound waves drift around aimlessly but where there never has been any light, the world has become darker. With the lightly screeching sounds like wind vacuums, the atmosphere is sinister and repressive. That seagull sound is back but amid the depth and drone of this ultra-dark cauldron, it’s as if the machine hasn’t been oiled and it’s another problem to deal with. Logically this leads to “Overload” – of our brain, perhaps? We’ve been in this fog for a while now and the dream-come-nightmare isn’t getting better. The drum signals doom. More sounds gather in the background and fill or brain. The drone represents a hymn but although this is a lonely place with so no sign of human intervention, the waves and haunting echoes, the squealing but constant wind rush, the intense noise, there is too much around us. And without being able to pinpoint this panoply of sounds and sensations being imported into our mind, it is scary. The atmosphere intensifies as the echoing drone broadens on “Crystal Mines”. Melancholy mingles with the revolving sounds of external forces. It has a kind of beauty as we float along but darkness prevails, and it may ultimately drive us insane as these sounds drift through our mind’s powerless void.
It’s strange to say that I enjoyed listening to the equivalent of mental torture but I did. The array of sounds is obscure and tantalizing as they put dark thoughts into our minds without revealing their identity. “Shards” is another great, thought-provoking and psychologically disturbing work from [ówt krì].
(9/10 Andrew Doherty)
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