I will have this review brief and concise…
I suppose Alphaxone do not need any introduction anymore. This project, run by Iran-born artist Mehdi Saleh, is an extremely productive act, with tens of releases, both independently released, as well as via long-time partner Cryo Chamber, one of the most notorious labels when it comes to Cinematic Ambient Music in its most open-minded definition.
Like before, this newest work, called Subsynthetic Pulseforms (a meaningful title), was written, performed and produced by Mehdi, and like all releases done via Cryo Chamber both mastering and artwork are courtesy of the label owner, Simon Heath (Atrium Carceri, ex Za Frûmi, Sabled Sun, Cryo Chamber Collaboration, Mountain Realm). The visuals are as cold as they are futuristic once more, in a depressed, mechanically life(form)less manner; indeed fitting the sonic side perfectly. Besides the digital option, there’s a limited pressing on compact-disc, being a matte six-panel digipack edition, printed in (only) 200 copies.
The album consists of ten working titles, having a total running time of almost fifty-eight minutes; a lengthy aural journey through a menacing universe indeed. And those trusted with the last releases by Mehdi might know what to expect; those not trusted (yet), immerse yourself into the capricious world of Alphaxone. Opener Illusion immediately sets the tone for what this whole album actually stands for: a sinister, ominous, even asphyxiating form of post-apocalyptic and horrific sound-premeditation, a sonic design of futuro-mechanic ambience and frigid atmospheres. Horrifying soundscapes, thundering drones, claustrophobic sound-textures; this whole adventure accompanies us through a dimension of undefinable isolationism, nihilism, desolation and anti-existentialism (listen to pieces like Hypostasis or Unfolding and you will comprehend).
It has a certain post-artificial undertone, a futuroid, celestial finesse of carefully well-chosen details, ingeniously mingling an apocalyptic and somehow Lovecraftian framework with a maze of synthetic electronics and carefully selected sampling. Reverberating pulsations, dreamy ambient-waves, industrial textures, roaring noise collages (take Interpulse, with its ANW-based structure, for instance), hypnotic sound(e)scape(s) [mind the word-play!], and oppressive drones do rumble, dilate, and levitate; sometimes long-stretched and narcotically sedative, then again hazardous and mercurial in nature - a soundtrack of fairness, suspense, awe and fathom…
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/subsynthetic-pulseforms
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-protou
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-xerxes-dark
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-2
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-protou-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-3
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-dronny-darko
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-4
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-rojinski
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-onasander
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/cryo-chamber-collaboration
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/cryo-chamber-collaboration-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/cryo-chamber-collaboration-1
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/various-artists-visions-darkness