Under the moniker of Scorpio V, the Serbian guy Alexander runs a truly interesting number of outfits. He’s the guy behind the Prometheus Studio organization (which is ‘dedicated in delivering immersive musical narratives’), which releases (self-made) material by obscure and border-trespassing projects like Monasterium Imperi and Paleowolf, or the likes of Gaetir The Mountainkeeper, Forest Of Yore, Stronghold Guardian and several more.
This review deals with the sixth release in the dark-mythological Tomb series, ‘a dark exploration of the multifaceted entities of Sumerian mythology and the many dark places they inhabit. Places that still resonate with raw, ancient power’. This newest chapter invites the listener ‘to the dark realms of Mesopotamia, where over 5.000 years ago a civilization both physical and spiritual was founded’.
No introduction needed; just adding that Cities Last Broadcast is one of the outfits by Swedish sonic artist Pär Boström. Indeed, thé Pär it is.
Bruce Moallem aka God Body Disconnect, and Cryo Chamber do have a long mutual history going on. Within this love story, The Wanderer’s Dream is like a next phase. And it is a mostly personal, almost emotional one. I come back to that impression soon again.
First this: since both projects involved on this collaborative album have been reviewed several times before by undersigned, I’m not going to give a full history / biography / discography on either Iran-based act Alphaxone nor Ukraine’s ProtoU. Let’s just say that both Mehdi Saleh and Sasha ‘Cats’ Puzan are not a stranger to the magnificent Cryo Chamber label, and this isn’t their first mutual effort either.
As mentioned a 1,000 years of cryo-sleep before… Oops, I’m mistaken. I mean: as mentioned a 1,000 times before, Oregon-based label Cryo Chamber might be an institute, a standard, an authority when it comes to Ambient-based collaborations. With collaborations I do not mean ‘split’ releases, yet really two (or more) artists joining forces to create something new, something that withholds elements from all musicians involved, and focusing on a mutual goal to achieve.
I will be honest (as if that’s my trademark), but I was thinking about how to introduce the project and the label this time. But you know, none of them do need my (evidently professional and comprehensive) promotional talk anymore. So I will keep it short.
Cryo Chamber is a fabulous label when it comes to Cinematic and / or Dark Ambient material in general, with a fabulous roster consisting of some of the best projects around. I mean that!
Residing in Seattle, Washington, Randal Collier-Ford is a very productive (and talented) musician, and a member of the great Cryo Chamber community. However, a great thing to notice that each of his (many) releases are, at the same time, coherent and typifying the ideas of this musician, and always inventive and renewing too. This goes once again for his latest creation, Advent.
Robert C. Kozletsky was a known artist in Psychomenteum, but that project did split up, unfortunately, a while ago. He also collaborated in the high-profile collaboration Kerrstillingskozletskynyströmpetrus, with Stephen Petrus, John Stillings, Larry Kerr and Peter Nyström, and he’s part of the Shock Frontier line-up as well. But I think his best-known outfit will be his solo-project Apócrýphos, which he started almost a decade ago.
Collaborations are a trademark, or better: one of the trademarks, when talking about Cryo Chamber. Being one of the most impressive and open-minded labels within the worldwide (Cinematic) Ambient genre, Cryo Chamber released tens of albums that actually are a partnership of two, or more, Ambient artists from all over the globe. I am not talking about splits, but about mutual efforts, in which different musicians join forces in order to create something new, a symbiosis of their individual craftsmanship, canalised into a unique result.
