About one year after the grandiose recording Particle Void, also released via mighty Cryo Chamber, the duo Martin Stürtzer and Christian Stritzel return with their fourth masterwork. It was a coincidence, or a prophetic omen, but the day before label owner Simon Heath did send me this album’s download link, I had listened to Particle Void once again because I just felt like. Karma or not, but it made me aroused for some (understandable) reason.
In our countries, we see Iran as an exotic area, far away from our (narrow-minded) (capitalistic) ideas and thoughts. But their musical scene, well, is not known. I do know some hands full of bands / projects (often anonymous, cf. religious fundamentalism – no further comment) that dwell within the (Black) Metal scene (and hey, there are some truly underestimated yet worthy and excellent recordings from Persian soil!), yet there is a small / vivid (delete as appropriate) Ambient / Experimental / Drone scene too.
Well, when it comes to Cryo Chamber, I am very often enthusiastic about the projects involved and their releases. Some of the better Ambient artists release their material via this label. So does Atrium Carceri, which actually is the main project of the owner of Cryo Chamber, Simon Heath. With this project, Simon created some hands full of fine and stunning stuff in the past, always taken care of with eye for detail, diversification and soul.
This is not my first review for Alphaxone, a project by Mehdi Saleh, who originates from Iran. You can find out some enthusiastic descriptions for Echoes From Outer Silence or the collaboration with ProtoU, called Stardust, both released via Cryo Chamber; and I did refer to this project in my reviews for the compilations Heresy and Visions Of Darkness too. If interested, you know where to find it.
Cryo Chamber have never been afraid to release collaboration – I am not talking about split releases, yet about recordings based on a co-operation of different artists. Label owner Simon, for example, has several collabs with his (sublime) project Atrium Carceri, but the same goes for quite a lot projects that are closely related to this label (Alphaxone, Cities Last Broadcast, ProtoU, Council Of Nine, God Body Disconnect and so on).
We go back in time. It’s thousands of years before the birth of the Christian messiah. What if a northern soul wakes up in ancient Mesopotamia, at the source of Middle-Eastern civilization?
As from September 5th from last year, we could enjoy the great conceptual album called Black Corner Den, being a collaboration in between Pär Boström’s Cities Last Broadcast and Simon Heath’s main project Atrium Carceri. Unfortunately, I just found out that I did never publish a review for that release. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
Cryo Chamber, run by Atrium Carceri’s Simon Heath (amongst other projects), must be one of the greatest Drone / Ambient labels ever. I have never been disappointed by any release done via this source. So, it’s quite exciting when coming in touch with a project I have not heard any material of before. This is the case with Wordclock, a solo-outfit of very young Portuguese musician Pedro Pimentel.
One of my ‘favourite’ artists on Cryo Chamber must be Randall Collier-Ford – no, stop! I have no favourites, for the Cryo Chamber roster has nothing else but great Drone / Ambient musicians. So I’ll start all over…
(copy-paste from my review, posted on December 24th 2014, for Bring Down The Sky, released via the superb Belgian label Consouling Sounds, as introduction – sorry; it’s not out of laziness, and the essence remains the same):
Northumbria was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the east of England with quite an interesting history. As from about 500 A.C. on, it was quite an important and mighty kingdom, until Danish Vikings conquered the region in the ninth century. But since we’re not an online encyclopedia…
