Desire To Be Initiated
Skriptum
The Secrets Watchers
Silence And Circumspection
Black Codex
Voice Of The Silence
Out Of The Darkling Light...
Into The Bright Shadow
The Secret Doctrine
Untitled

The Erebus Odora record label was set up by Peter Bjargo ( Arcana & Sophia ) back in 2001. This is the eighth release from that label. Gustaf Hildebrand released the awesome space opera that was "Starscape" on the Cyclic Law label. Now they’ve joined forces for the first release, of many hopefully, that combines the best musically from both artists. Arcana and I never really gelled as possibly we should have. Some of their releases were quality with a capital ‘Q’ but others left me cold with a capital ‘C’. Sophia is another matter entirely. I could take even their worst output…which was as rare to find as an honest politician…over any other artists best of work any day. Gustaf I’ve already raved about elsewhere on this site. With such a pedigree behind them surely this would be a monumental recording?

Kind of. For me definitely but for others, I’m not so sure. There are nine tracks to this recording. Within those tracks I felt the presence of Gustaf looming larger than life. All the spacey black ambience with its resulting swirling cavernous electronics had his stamp of excellence forcibly enhanced. Peter’s musical contribution seemed to go against the grain. For interwoven within all the blackest of ambience was touches of Industrial rhythmic beats circa The Leather Strip or other such acts to be found on the Cleopatra label. Which when you think about it is a pretty unusual combination. These beats sometimes taking a shine off the eclectic sound sculptures being creatively interwoven into the fabric of the dark music.

Then I got to thinking. Who's to say which parts belonged to who? After all this is a collaboration so both artists contributed equally to the recording. Which got me thinking even more. Why shouldn’t a mixture of beats and dark ambience not work? The mind has to focus even more on the music and instead of being as what was first perceived as a distraction the beats actually added to the whole atmospheres of the recording. With this in mind I viewed the recording in a completely different light. And you know something…Peter and Gustaf have got it dead right. This combination works brilliantly. The heady giddy electronics with reverb and sullen atmospheres are spruced up by this collision of styles.

But whether it’s to everyone’s taste is a point which only they can discern. It pleased me no end…which is all that I, as a music fanatic, could wish or hope for in a recording.

ANM