Album: White Silence
Year: 2013
Label: Cryo Chamber
Genre: Drone, Ambient
Website: cryochamber.bandcamp.com
Basics:
New droning ambient release from Ugasanie. I don't know anything about this artist. This one seems to be something akin to arctic ambient in the vein of Necrophorus, which I am always up for.
Stuff:
White Silence begins with a minute and a half of water/waves before opening the gateway to it's true design. This first track is quite good and sets the tone of the album: heavy, immersive drone that has an arctic / white feel to it. I feel that this song ends too soon, but it's an adequate introduction. After this point, the album is hit and miss. There are some enjoyable, enveloping tracks like "Transparency" which is quite hypnotic and meditative. It's very light and draws the listener towards an ascended state. In addition are tracks like "Permafrost" and "In The Northern Lights" which have similar positive qualities but feel much darker and more earthen. There are a good balance of "light" and "dark" moments on this album. Unfortunately, this album relies too heavily on simplistic composition; most songs seem to follow the formula of 1 high drone + 1 low drone + 1 (or none) sound effect. On the above-mentioned tracks, Ugasanie is able to keep the drone(s) moving and evolving over time such that they don't become boring; but on several others things are too minimal & unchanging and fail to capture my attention or set them apart from myriad other works of generic drone. He also has a penchant for using overly loud and annoying sound effects such as the extremely annoying vocal sound on "To The Lord Of the Polar Desert With Seven Faces" and the seagull-esque sound on "Transparency". I absolutely think this music should utilize sound effects (Necrophorus does it masterfully, for example), but in many cases the ones here simply get in the away of the tranquil, meditative atmosphere. I'd love to hear these tracks utilize more properly integrated sfx.
Overall:
Overall this is a mediocre drone album. It's got several good to pretty good songs and several tracks that I'd skip. Ugasanie definitely has the potential to write engaging, transcendent pieces, but the skills aren't fully realized / refined yet. I'd like to hear more & better integrated sound effects and more character / development in future tracks.
1 comment:
I hope you will be reviewing the new album by Ugasanie, Call of the North. This is the album you are looking for I think. He seems to have progress quite a bit in his talent, although I still have to admit that I love the White Silence album as well. Also the new Northaunt, Istid I-II is an arctic dark ambient masterpiece in my humble opinion.
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