Enclosed world / liberation
Behind curtain of life
Impaled butterfly
Maintenance tunnels
Wrapped cloth
A stroll through the ancient city
Synaptic transmission
Ruins of desolation
Torn citadel of the autarch
Monolith of dreams
Stained pipes
Thermographic components
The corruptor
The carnophage

A quandary. You’re an up and coming artist who also composes music. You release your debut "Cellblock"’ to critical acclaim. You take some time out. Recover and plan. You then release the ‘oh so’ difficult to follow second release "Seishinbyouin" to even greater plaudits. People are calling it the scariest recording ever committed onto shiny disc. The response scares you. Doubts creep in. Suddenly you’re thrust even more into the limelight. The expectations weigh you down. The third release seems a long way off. You fret. Gathering your thoughts you start doing what you do best. You lay down track after track. After weeks of sweat and tears you’ve finished. The tracks are finished and a title given. "Kapnobatai" it will be known as. You go over and over each piece of music making final tiny adjustments and adding the polish to make it shine. You can do no more. And here is the quandary. Do you submit it to the record label that has shown so much faith in your talent… knowing that it will be forever compared to your second masterpiece…or do you admit defeat and give up the ghost completely.

Simon Heath is no quitter. Simon Heath knows his shit. Simon Heath has the self belief in his music. "Kapnobatai" acts as a companion piece to the horrors that "Seishinbyouin" projected musically. In film terms "Seishinbyouin" is to "Alien" what "Kapnobatai" is to "Aliens". A more grandiose and intense exhilarating experience with more effects and a bigger budgeted sound. "Kapnobatai" ("those who walk in smoke") is a 14 track triumphant intelligent black ambient magnum opus…and you’ll not see those words written down too many times about any other piece of music. With this work the aural landscape is one populated by decay and desperation. Of buildings falling apart and machinery rusting as the acid rains fall. Of multi lingual people taking shelter from the prevailing storms aware that something evil is within their mist. Echoes of a past and present on a collision course to oblivion. Through the music doors open and close in the darkness and desperate voices speak with fear and dread. The occasional jaunty beats and electronics clash against the threat of an oncoming onslaught where there will be no winners. This then is the key to Simon Heath’s work. To go against the grain when least expected. To lead into visions of hope then cruelly shatter the illusions with dramatic effect. What appears normal suddenly turns into something completely different within the same track. A massive jolt to the body. A cattle prod thrust into the chest by a maniac laughing deliriously.

"Kapnobatai" is all of this. A huge Pandora’s box of delights. Dare you open it? Dare you peer inside? Dare you face the demons laying in wait? Well…dare you? The difficult third recording is finished. Laid to rest. To be savoured and relished. To be played back to back with "Seishinbyouin". For they are both on equal footing. They are statements of an artist in total control. A master of all he surveys. A virtuoso of black ambient music. Miss this at your peril.

ANM