Buried Under Time And Sand
Lord Of The Shining Crown
Nanab Ishtar - Exalted Light Of Heaven
Etemenanki - Foundation Of Heaven And Earth
Sennacherib, Lugal
Purifying Ceremony
Of Gods And Demons
4000 Years Of Damascus
From Dilmun, The Far
Admonish The Living

Third album from this German duo sees Herbst9 continue their soundscape oriented expeditions to uncover the spirituality and soul of ancient times. Yet, even if the cover did note state that "Buried under time and sand" is: “a musical journey to the cradle of mankind, to summer, to assur, to babylon”, it’s the group’s evocative ritual / tribal infused dark ambient style that instantly transports the listener into the realms of the archaic world.

The multi-dimensional compositions evade easy description, given they contain a broad filmic air and progress very much as an actual movie soundtrack would. But if any sort of attempt is to be made at forming an overall description, the broad framework of the tracks are constructed around a core of sweeping cavernous drones, underpinned with tribal percussion, disembodied vocal / choral textures, ethnic / ritual instrumentation & field recording elements. In fact this music is as evocative and visually stimulating as any that forms the backing for the absolutely stunning religious / spiritual / environmental documentary "Baraka" (albeit Herbst9’s music is slightly more abstract), whereby this initial perception seems to have been vindicated when a late album track appears to have sampled some tribal chanting from the movie itself.

With seeming effortless ease Herbst9 have succeeded yet again in sonically evoking the aura of aeons past, resulting in compulsory listening and is yet another triumph for Loki Foundation.

RJS