[Desiderii Marginis]
Animation
Muffled
Forlorn

[Moan]
Avant I Aube
Fantasmagorie
Absorbe

[Artefactum]
Drifting Through Corridor Of The Stars
Astrofobia (From Fhetys to Rhea)
Pulsar

Arriving in oversized packaging with a stamp (or two) and print on the front, it is held together with a wax seal. Inside there is a photographic print and a card with explanatory text. Even in the disc itself is printed black! This really is a beautiful thing to behold...but what about the music?

Starting us off are the tremendous Desiderii Marginis. They've been away for a while and this is a most welcome return....see Strife for more evidence! Opening "Lost Signals..." is the dark, rhythmic and repetitive 'Animation'; a piece not dissimilar to Vromb and very unlike the DM I've heard before - but I'm a fan of rhythmic noise and this certainly floats my boat. 'Muffled' hints a return to those early days of DM on CMI; chants and strings and drones; quite neoclassical, yet dark and gentle. The same can be said of 'Forlorn' and I would highly recommend these two tracks to Arcana fans.

Next up is Moan. This is my first experience of them/him and I think it's not to be the last. 'Avant I Aube' is a swirling dark ambient piece, moving into more neoclassical realms. I'm reminded of Dead Can Dance and Raison D'Être. 'Fantasmagorie' is a more experimental, clanking, grating piece with drones underneath. 'Absorbe' opens with heavy crunching footsteps then glitches and drones with occasional percussion. I would recommend Moan to fans of Dual and the like.

Artefactum let the side down. 'Drifting Through Corridor Of The Stars' is wishy-washy with no direction and muffled samples. Creaks and voices lie under and try to emerge every now and again....it's rather boring I'm afraid. 'Astrofobia (From Fhetys to Rhea)' is more of the same. 'Pulsar' is, unsurprisingly, filled with 'space/synth' samples that would be a Trekkie's wet dream....but not mine. To be fair, there are some rather good, melancholic, neoclassical moments at the beginning of this song but the samples and a terrible synthpop style-affair for the rest of the song are really unnecessary and spoil a potentially great song...and a great release. I can really live without Artefactum.

JLM