One of the most productive guys from Ukraine is Sergiy Fjordsson, who’s the guy behind projects like Moloch, Silver Sphere Moon, Saturn From Essence and Psilocybe City Life. He’s involved as well with Deviator, thought rather as permanent guest. Besides, he acts as guest or session member in tens of other bands and projects, he takes care of mastering for lots of releases, he does the photography and the lay-out for numerous albums, as well as paintings and logos, and he’s the guy behind the very active label Depressive Illusions Records (actually he founded it as De Profundis Records). And still he seems to have the time to record and release so many releases under the Moloch-moniker…
In 2010 Moloch self-released the album Abstrakter Wald in a limited edition on cassette. It was sort of re-done in May 2012 via Glorious North Productions, once again on tape, and re-issued on CD in late 2012 via his own Depressive Illusions-label, in co-operation with Glorious North, and with other bonus material. Metallic Media did re-release that initial material once again with another additional track in March 2013 (I refer to this one specifically, for I wrote a review for it in 2014; check the update on October 8th 2014), and several other labels did about the same, though then again with other bonus material... Therefore quite a big part of this review is copied from that former description undersigned did… It’s that original stuff, yet with other bonus songs, you see…
Anyway… The initial recordings were based on so-called field recordings, done at the end of 2010 at a live happening in the mysterious Carpathian Mountains, and this under hard circumstances, i.e. by a temperature of minus ten degrees (-10°C, Celsius, to avoid hilarious confusion). The five original tracks, entitled as Abstrakter Wald I up to Abstrakter Wald V, were initially released immediately after this live ritual as live-demo-tape by Moloch (see former paragraph). They stand for naturally-floating, desolate and minimal Ambient melodies with an oppressive and sad atmosphere, focusing on introspection and Nature in its purity. The long-stretched ambience has quite a satisfying sound, despite the primitive recording conditions. It’s not that easy to stay concentrated whole the time, yet then again I would rather describe this material as background music than prominently-active stuff. But it never bores, despite the minimal approach and long character.
This re-mastered edition also consists of the compositions Abstrakter Wald VI up to Abstrakter Wald IX. These are recordings from a rehearsing session, and which did appear on former re-releases too. They are, of course, in the very same vein with an equally adapted sound quality and a comparable desolate atmosphere. The mesmerizing soundscapes breathe the essence of elementary and essential Minimal Dark Ambient once again, but what else did you expect.
This Frozen Light re-issue comes with two additional pieces that are rather ‘rare’: the lengthy track In Dem Gewaltigen Wald Wo Das Echo Sich Selbst Verliert, taken from the EP Horizont (released in Spring 2014 on vinyl and the digital way), and Der Ewigkeit Entgegen 1, taken from the 2015-split with Swiss Ambient / Noise project Voidstar (this one too was released digitally, on vinyl and, in a later edition on tape). It speaks for itself that these two creations too go on within a comparable vein, combining depth with minimalism, and atmosphere with integrity.