Kerovnian was a solo-project by the Croatian guy Vladimir ‘Vlad K.’ Krytiuja, whom you might know from Ashes You Leave (before they turned sort of mainstream). Actually, he started this project in 1996 in order to support some poetry evenings the aural way narrated by his friend Herr Skoko Georges Angelovsky.
As Kerovnian, Vlad K. released two albums, which were extremely influential for the origins of the worldwide Dark Ambient scene: Far Beyond, Before The Time and From The Depths Of Haron, in 1999 and 2001 specifically. The first one, Far Beyond, Before The Time, has now been re-issued by Cold Spring Records, one of the most important Industrial / Ambient labels nowadays, with some bonus tracks. His main inspirations were the stories of H. P. Lovecraft and the Necronomicon.
What this album brings is a collection ultra-cold, abyssal deep, grimly bleak noiscapes, balancing in between the extremest b(l)ackwaters of Dark Ambient, Minimal Industrial, noisy Cold Wave and Esoteric Ritual. Truly sublime is the contract in between a certain aural calmth and tranquility, and a mostly oppressive, asphyxiating, coal-black atmosphere, leaving the listener with a double feeling: creepy discomfort at the one hand, yet emotions of enlightening and revelation too.
For sure there is something sinister, macabre, horrific and terrifying going on, thus defined through eerie and somewhat long-stretched soundscapes, which do include haunting synth passages, graveyard-tones, low-tuned sonics, creepy voices, mysterious melody fragments, soundtrack-alike noises and more of this. Far Beyond, Before The Time is a listening experience, a mystic yet frightening journey through the mind, like a soundtrack to celebrate a full moon eclipse.
Despite a certain aspect of monotony, there are quite some thrilling excerpts that maintain the high level of performance, besides the contrasting elements throughout the different ‘compositions’. The very same continues with the previously unreleased tracks, which were actually recorded during the very same recording sessions back then. But these ones are much noisier, much more intensifying, and much more expressive
Highly recommended if you like, well, about everything that sounds like The Seal Of R’Lyeh, Aghast, Lamia Vox, Sephiroth, TeHÔM, Master / Slave Relationship’s Music For A Sadomasochistic Scene, Sembler Deah, Arkham Inmate, Apócrýphos – I guess you got the picture…