There are different definitions, or explanations, for the world ‘arallu’. But most of the time, it refers to the Mesopotamian / Babylonian / Sumerian mythologies, with ‘arallu’ being a kind of entity, or a genie, spawn from Enki, master of storm winds and bringer of darkness, then again referring to the underworld itself, where the dead got judged by the deities Nergal and Ereshkigal; a dimension also known as Irkalla, Kur or Ganzir.
Et toi, divine Mort, où tout rentre et s’efface. Accueille tes enfants dans ton sein étoilé. Affranchis nous du temps, du nombre, et de l’espace. Et rends nous le repose que la vie a troublé. An introduction in French, taken from the album. A band from France, Switzerland or Wallonia? Nope.
Voz De Nenhum is the band’s name, and that’s Portuguese for ‘no one’s voice’. Okay, a band from Portugal then… Yet nope, not exactly either.
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!
I had not heard of this Italian guy before, but apparently Mario Lino Stancati did graduate in ‘disciplines of Art, Music and Theatre’, resulting in a multi-disciplined artistic carrier as author, essayist, novelist, poet, dramatist, actor, director, music composer, vocalist and instrumentalist.
The story of Immortal Frost Productions and Astral Winter are very similar; a relationship with sort of mutual roots. Actually, the label was initially formed by the Australian musician Josh ‘Slikver’ Young, who’s the same guy behind Astral Winter too, a project which he started one year before the label was born. And it was Astral Winter that released the very first recording for (and on) this label.
I had not heard of this band before, but apparently that is not that strange. You see, this combo from Israel was formed in 2017, but they did not release anything ‘huge’ and ‘official’ yet. But hey, they might put their moniker on the international map as from now on. Why? Because of Corroded By Darkness.
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.
Stijn van Cauter is a Belgian artist, a multi-disciplinary one, especially known from his sonic outlets, I think (at least, this goes for me). He is the guy behind truly excellent projects like Until Death Overtakes Me, Arcane Voidsplitter, Inframonolithium, The Sad Sun (with U.S.-based musician E.M. Hearst), The Nulll Collective (idem) and several more.
One of the most creative and productive musicians / producers from Switzerland must be Sergio Da Silva aka B aka Bornyhake Ormenos aka Moplat aka S.Rottenvomit (as studio wizard, not as instrumentalist) as, well, whatever, who’s known from the Swiss Chaos Studio, known as the owner of labels like Azif Records and Rotten Vomit Records, and known for being active in uncountable bands and projects such as Kawir, Borgne
I am in touch with different labels from all over our beautiful planet, and I like a lot of them. But one of my most appreciated ones must be Distant Voices from France. It has to do with three things: 1. the great crew behind this label, 2. the sonic side, i.e. the fine recordings this label did release until now (it’s a personal opinion, of course, but I do appreciate about all of the things offered to the audience by this French team), and 3. the personal approach of each single release.
