One-man project Onasander is an outfit by Italian musician Maurizio Landini, who’s active under the moniker Les Anges Morts as well. As Onasander, Maurizio did record and release some collaborations via Winter-Light (with e.g. Kloob and Ashtoreth), and he was part as well on some of Cryo Chamber’s Cryo Chamber Collaboration epics, amongst other material.
His newest effort, called Under Unknown Stars, was recorded at this guy’s home studio in 2024, with mastering and visual assistance by the young yet extremely fine Canada-based label Dark Odyssey Records. The six elegies were recorded in 2023 and have now been pressed on CD, i.e. a four-panel digipack with stunning sci-fi-oriented cover artwork. It does remind me of the visual artistry by Simon Heath for his label Cryo Chamber, for what it’s worth, and it surely does fit to the conceptual content of this album. It’s about the discovering and exploring of a strange, unknown and previously uninvestigated planet, where hidden dangers lurk beyond the dark abysses. It’s a theme not that new, yet this soundtrack accompanies the listener into these precarious vales, deserts and caves …
For some reason, the aural side from Under Unknown Stars too reminds me of some of Cryo Chamber’s projects / releases (Eighth Tower Records too might come to mind), for this album represents eerie, long-stretched soundwaves of utter obscurity, injected by Lovecraftian additions and horrific soundtrack-alike details. The basement stands on pillars of monotonous yet spacious drones, lushly multi-layered, with down-tuned rumbles, hypnotic soundscapes and ethereal waves. The amalgam and interplay of several collaborating synth-manipulated lines creates a rich, abundant texture that enchants and fascinates. It gets smoothly interrupted by some scarifying samples, like sounds from unknown yet menacing origin. Water-drops, narrative voices, footsteps, waves, animal sounds, metallic noises; in a mostly finicking and delicate way, these field-recorded or found sounds add an element of almost asphyxiating usurpation.
The remarkable thing is the equilibrium in between darkness and enlightenment. There is that sense of claustrophobia at the one hand, like some scene from a sci-fi horror movie where you just feel that something will happen, despite the seemingly calmth that surrounds the protagonists. You feel the evil eyes lurking at the victims. Yet at the very same time, Under Unknown Stars comes up with a sentiment of imperturbability and serenity, caused by the nebulous harmonies and sedative atmospheres.
[coming up soon: a review on Futuristic Dereliction, a new collaboration from Onasander with Alphaxone (both projects co-operated together, with ProtoU involved), and Heart Of The Swamp by Ugasanie via Dark Odyssey Records]
https://darkodysseyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/under-unknown-stars
https://onasander.bandcamp.com/
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/chaigidel
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/dark-awake-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/cryo-chamber-collaboration-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/cryo-chamber-collaboration
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/various-artists-forgotten-abandoned-desolated-volume-iii