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.
So, I will not start with a huge introduction on this project this time. I will come back to this specific release immediately. The recording is called Edge Of Solitude, and it is the fifth one on Cryo Chamber. As usual, everything was written, composed, performed and produced by Mehdi, and as usual the mastering and the artwork were done by label owner Simon Heath (Atrium Carceri). The album consists of nine titles, having a total running time of almost fifty minutes, and it is available on both compact disc and digitally. Visit the label’s Bandcamp page to order this material, if interested.
The album is ‘recommended for space drifters’ (cf. the bio), created to ‘explore empty space and float above silent planets on the Edge of Solitude’. I think this description surely fits. The compositions are created by opulent layers of synths, joined by samples from different angles (mostly natural sounds, as well as some voices). It keeps an ideal equilibrium in between a dreamlike monotony at the one hand, and a rich palette of ambient soundwaves at the other. All chapters maintain that characteristic hypnotic atmosphere. Beautiful vivacious drones easily create Mehdi’s astral concept (not in an electronic way!), and as listener you get submerged into a whole spectrum of stars, nebulae, dust and the interplay in between glaring light and oppressing obscurity. On top it is the sonic variety that strikes. Edge Of Solitude might have turned towards the most diversified album to date (in a rich history of about ten official albums), with moments of enlightening, wonder, observation and exploration. While Beyond The Edge, for example, sounds almost like an enthusiastic adventure, its follow-up Echosphere sounds like an ominous, uncanny journey through unknown spheres.
In general, the album breathes a thoroughgoing melancholy, for it paints a colourless palette of woeful sensations and mournful emotions. However, this is Dark Ambient yet not ‘dark’ as in pitch-black (cf. many colleagues on Cryo Chamber, or other labels, with their frightening and Lovecraftian heaviness). The unphysical shape of timelessness and space has been defined meticulously, in an almost mystic / mysterious manner. Cinematic Ambient Music it is, and once again recommendable…