This is a nice surprise. Two very fine and kind human beings from our beautiful planet joined forces to create a sonic effort together. By coincidence, both of them are crafted musicians as well, so this must work out well…
Or: The Silent Watchtower is the result of a collaboration in between the solo-projects Alphaxone (Mehdi Saleh from Iran) and Rojinski (Alexei Rojinski from some place on Mater Terra, or elsewhere within our huge Universe).
I do not know about the origins. Who decided to collaborate? Who wrote the basic structures? Who did record what and where, and what about the final mix and so?... I am always eager to know such things (I guess my autistic alter-ego needs to know this, for otherwise I will have a sleepless night later today), yet then again, it is of not-so-big importance. It’s the aural result that counts in the first place.
Their first mutual effort (and I hope it won’t be their last) is called The Silent Watchtower. It’s a single that lasts for 08:33 minutes, only available via digital sources (at this moment). I have a review ‘in preparation’ for a full-length album for both of them (Alphaxone: Interdimensional + Rojinski: Tranquility And Shadows), but first some thoughts about this one-track EP.
The Silent Watchtower opens in mist and darkness, with a rumbling soundscape, like a train passing by on rusty rails. Very soon, an oppressive drone arises, expanding, then followed by a multi-layered amount of dreamlike, hypnotic and ethereal synth-lines. It paints immense spaces, like dark oceans with a distantly moonlit reflection at the horizon. Step by step, things develop into heavier, suppressing proportions, with haunting textures and eldritch drones. At about three minutes, the injection of a distant crackle, and the sonic fade-back into more dense, onerous spheres, veils the whole into a smothering nebula. Dark ‘melodies’ float further, evolving, expanding, waving and rippling, injected by a dark-edged yet mostly modest beat, once in a while, and a moony, chimerical sound-section. The interchange of darkened colors-of-sound, from distant-blue over deep-red to dark-grey, elaborates meticulously, permanently. At about six minutes, reverberating drones join the multifold layers of keyboard / digital harmonies, before fading into, or towards, an intra-sensory repose for a shorter moment. Leisurely, the track returns to where it all started: in mist and darkness, oppressive and untouchable…
The artwork is like the visual similitude to the audible content: a robust tower, without any light (no reflection or whatever behind a window or so), endarkened by a black-clouded sky, only distantly enlightened by a lightning bolt and its mirroring reflecting amidst the obscure, suffocating thunder clouds.
Personally, I do hope that The Silent Watchtower is a first collaborative effort of Rojinski and Alphaxone in an endless series of collective releases yet to come. But anyhow, this exertion does result into the essential equilibrium of elegance and craftsmanship…
https://rojinski.bandcamp.com/track/the-silent-watchtower
https://alphaxone.bandcamp.com/
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/interdimensional
https://rojinski.bandcamp.com/album/tranquility-and-shadows
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/rojinski
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/rojinski-1
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/rojinski-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/insectarium-omensworn-rojinski
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-2
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-3
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-xerxes-dark
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-protou
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-protou-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/alphaxone-dronny-darko