Traces Of Nothingness
No Passage To The Innermost...
Lost In Reveries
Misanthropic Odyssey
Through Apathetic Eyes
All The Colours Are Fading
...But The Fire Burns No More

Bonus: Emptiness Is Form (Remix by Northaunt)

Cyclic Law…will you ever put a foot wrong? A part of me…small I must admit…just wishes that you release something I won’t like. Some mediocre recording where I can write ‘yeah…you got it massively wrong. Not so clever now are you. Take this. Take that.’ That time will eventually come. The fall from grace must happen. Not yet though. Not at this precise moment. The Gods smile down on Cyclic Law and the lucky streak continues. How Svartsinn must give thanks to make this label his home. A label that fully appreciates and can help nurture and promote his talents. In return we the record buying public reap the benefits from both artist and label. Music is the food of life.

This third release from Jan Roger Pettersen as Svartsinn sees a growing maturity from the artist. His debut release "Devouring Conciousness" showed some very neat flourishes and his follow on…and first for Cyclic Law…"Of darkness and re-creation" deserved a place in everyone’s record collection. Now he has released "Traces of nothingness" and we should all get excited. Sweet, sweet dark ambience. Who can’t help falling under the spell of that old black magic.

These eight tracks are beautifully rendered sonic sound sculptures encapsulating the sadness and depression that effects us all. All the naturally to be expected components that so typify this type of recording have been successfully utilised to make one all encompassing aural experience. The electronics are brimming with depth and atmosphere and suitably chilling and nightmarish. Even the inclusion of samples…an old and slightly stagnant device…are sparingly used so enhance instead of hindering the recording. In fact one of the samples used appeared on the first "Back and Forth" release by Skinny Puppy. Strike one smart ass point to the reviewer. No matter how great or exemplary the recording (which this is by the way), the question remains as to whether "Traces of nothingness" adds anything new to the dark ambient genre. The answer of course is that it doesn’t. Nor does it need to. This genre is already full to the gunnels with like minded recordings but there’s always room for one more…especially one oozing with the quality on display here. The labyrinth of desolate sounds makes for a highly rewarding and pleasurably dark and unsettling sonic voyage which is thoroughly engaging and tempered with the odd flashes of brilliance here and there.

So there you have it. In a nutshell "Traces of nothingness" is another dark ambient recording to be added to the ever expanding library of bleak sonic masterpieces. One to be savoured time and time again. Here’s to the next instalment in the creative development of Svartsinn. We justifiably wait with baited breath for its arrival.

ANM