Recently I had the honor to be part of a jury within a contest / award organized by Unexplained Sounds Group’s chief Raffaele Pezzella. The most interesting thing was, of course, the ‘Music’ involved. I was trusted with several acts that contributed (for some of them I did write reviews in the past), others I just knew by name, and there were some projects I did not know yet at all.
Well, one of the acts I wasn’t aware of came from the Greek capital Athens: The Black Monolith. Out of twenty-six projects and a many compositions, this outfit, and its track Creating The Door, intrigued me enormously. No doubt that they made it to my personal top-three. Okay, ‘musical taste’ is a personal, and therefor (partly) subjective thing, but I am only human after all (in case you might doubt it: I really am!). Apparently, they also made it to the whole jury’s top-three (even-though each contributor was a winner)!
Ergo: I recently found out that The Black Monolith seemed to be extremely productive last year (2023), with many truly stunning recordings. Seriously, what this one-man project has done, is impressive, not only because of its creativity and productivity, yet also because of such majestic Aural Art (once again: a personal opinion).
…which easily brings me to this: End And Beginning Are Dreams, the first (and hopefully not the last) The Black Monolith release for 2024. I was kindly asked by John to write down my thoughts on this release, and after a first listen, there was no doubt, no reason, not to do so. Yet, before going into the sonic matter, first a brief introduction.
The Black Monolith is a conduit for the forces that lie beyond the veil of existence. Through frequencies, we summon the primal energies that stir within the earth, invoking the spirits of the void. Each drone is a beacon for the entities that dwell in the darkness between the stars. [taken from the biography]. This new epos was written and recorded during the winter solstice of 2023, and independently released both digitally as well as on compact-disc. That physical edition is a four-panel digipack with intriguing, yet cold and ghostly black-and-white artwork (which is, by the way, taken care of by The Black Monolith himself).
End And Beginning Are Dreams consists of five individual titles, yet it must be considered as one total experience with a total running time of almost fifty-three minutes. It finds its inspiration into the realms of mysticism, esoterica and ritualism, influenced by Thelemic and Enochian mysteria, ‘channeling the spirit of the Bornless Ritual’, to invoke powers of a higher order.
It is one huge aural ceremony, finding inspiration within Ambient, Drone and Industrial, in its widest approach. As from the short opening sequence (He Will Work Wonders), one cannot escape from the overwhelming, almost claustrophobic heaviness: bleak frequencies of mechanoid turmoil, created through a multi-layered amount of rumbling and roaring drones, ominous, eldritch, spectral. Soon additional samples join, and then comes a voice; the voice that preaches one’s return to outer dimensions, the belief that one’s roots are celestial-like, the symbolization of mankind’s truth that might not be the one and only certainty at all. It’s a metaphor for divinity; not in a monotheistic sense, yet seen from a wider spectrum. Anyway, He Will Work Wonders is an intriguing manifest to start off this sonic illusion of beginning and end.
Frater Perturabo opens in a mostly ominous sense, with deep-burbling drones and some unusual soundscapes which exhale a ritualistic sense. Here too, spoken words join the stifling waves, like a speech rather than preaching, but with that predictive yet portentous tone. This piece crawls forth, slowly yet imminent, within a certain monotony (which does not bother at all). These static basic bass-lines have an intoxicating effect and paint a desolate, deserted landscape. The conjuring atmosphere creates a feeling of post-apocalyptic isolationism.
And that’s exactly where the opus The Thing That Wears The Skin Of Man endures, while evolving into bleaker, more oppressive territories of post-industrialized misfortune. The spellbinding voices, the inclement ANW-oriented noises, and the horrific, stormy textures get gathered into a huge spectacle of almost obnoxious discomfort.
After all light got absorbed by an all-devouring darkness, things move towards areas of blackened ambience. Nuit slowly steps away from the slowly-floating sonic paralysis while exploring ranges of Post-Ambient (which exists as from now on). This piece comes with a more abundant palette of sonority, based on a balanced equilibrium of multiple sound-manipulations. After about four minutes, the whole gets interspersed by female vocals, ‘singing’ at the very same timbre for most of the time, somewhat meditative and sedative. The second half of Nuit expands in sound-setting, when turbulent injections of rough, scraping and mechanic origin enter, causing subtle pitch-shifting suspense.
Things move further, higher, deeper, lower, and larger, through the very lengthy title-track (having a duration of approximately nineteen (!) minutes. The first impression is like the sounds of war-horns, or (danger) sirens, slowly evolving into brass-like proportions. Manifold synth-layers mingle, morph, collapse and expand, procreating an asphyxiating ethos. After about seven minutes, esoteric female chants pass by, whilst the dismal energies climb up towards arousing sizes. At thirteen minutes, things turn even nastier, when End And Beginning Are Dreams evolve into purest post-industrialized domains. Loud machinery gets unleashed, including colossally-droning string terror and apocalyptic structures, eventually ‘spiced up’ with an ominous speech (unknown recording source).
This gigantesque effort is one that continuously augments in tonality, in sphere, in execution, and in concept. It is not an easy-listening recording, but it is the result of exertion and opinion by the creator behind The Black Monolith. …an obscure ritual to celebrate both dissolution and infinity…
https://the-black-monolith.bandcamp.com/album/end-and-beginning-are-dreams
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/various-artists-idil-2024