I saw recently someone exclaim “Hey this dark ambient is a piece of piss to do…” Joking or not the difference of course is that bad, dull, average may be accessible to anyone with a rudimentary software package and a pc. But of course *good* dark ambient is a lot harder to compose and construct. Intent, atmosphere, choices, field recordings, construction and layering and production all play into but so does talent. Go and listen to something like God Body Disconnect, Dronny Darko, Black Mountain Transmitter or any of the Lovecraftian Collaborations released by Cryo Chamber (particularly the immense Azathoth) and you will understand. They are talent and produce great soundscapes.

And then there is Lustmord. I consider his album ‘Heresy’ to be not just a magnificent, dark and deeply unsettling work but a pivotal moment in music. His talent has contributed not just to a dizzying array of hugely respected artists’ work (way too many to list but from TG and Current 93 through to Melvins, Tool and Jarboe it is some list) but also film, tv and games. He is legend.

His album [Other] was released round about 2009 on Hydra Head and featured guitar work from Aaron Turner and Buzz Osborne, a first for Lustmord. And it is that album which forms the basis of the record here.

Sixteen frankly extraordinary artists have been gathered and offer their takes on tracks form [Other]. This is not a tribute album though, these are not covers; more they are interpretations, variations on the theme, music conjured by the images the original music has summoned into the minds of these musicians.

Sixteen artists, sixteen passages which equates to a triple LP. No, I will not go through it track by track: For a start it isn’t that kind of album, and for another we would be here longer than the album.

But be assured this is quite the most magnificent working and I have listened to this over and over and will continue to do so.

But allow me to try and give a flavour of this project.

We begin with Enslaved. The offer ‘Eon’, and in their explorative hands this is a strange, calm if desolate place. Perfectly in keeping with their current musings, and yet also beautifully interpreting the Lustmord passage. Deep time, void, tidal passage. Voyage. All come to mind in a subtle, enveloping sound.

Ihsahn brings a ‘Dark Awakening’. Desperate voices seems to drown beneath an otherworldly onslaught before being drawn out into a bleak landscape.

The presence of extraordinary cellist Jo Quail binds herself to ‘Prime’. This is both ominous and melancholy. The strains of the cello weaving and swaying like threads of iridescent silk across a sky filled with dark clouds and monolithic, slow turbulence. This almost feels like a sibling to the following track, ‘Plateau’ by Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, which in its minimalism and subtlety threaded with simple piano and haunting saxophone leave me with the most compelling painting of a world in stillness and silence since Ulver’s ‘Perdition City’.   And speaking of the wolves themselves Ulver give us ‘Godeater’; a slow, simmering sound on some dark plateau.

Some create more of a song structure from the cloth Lustmord provides. The Ocean give us ‘Primal’, and avalanche of their epic post rock, sludge and noise infused sound that they absolutely make their own. Least successfully for myself, Jaye Jayle offers a doomy neo-folk inflected song.

The unmoveable Godflesh in ‘Ashen’ splice Lustmord to something black that leaks from the soundtrack to Tetsuo: The Iron Man and is manipulated into an abrasive industrial crawling horror.

Steve Von Till imbues ‘Testament’ with his striking guitar style; sparse but spilling atmosphere before morphing into a strange juddering rhythmic bit of electronica.

Highlights, a snapshot diary of this album. You will also find excellent contributions from Arabrot (who close this in excellent style), Katatonia’s Jonas Renske, Crown, Spotlights, Hackedpiciotto (Alexander Hack of Einaturzende Neubauten), Mono and Zola Jesus. It is one of those wonderful moments when artists come and fully embrace a work and yet still take away their part and add to what inspired them.

For something wonderful, enthralling and totally unique, for anyone interested in any of the artists mentions…this is essential. It transports, it offers possibilities and it produces some amazing art by some true creative spirits willing to explore.

Truly exemplary.

(9.5/10 Gizmo)

https://www.facebook.com/Lustmord.Page

https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/the-others-lustmord-deconstructed