ISPUTINAW – THE ELMS ARMS [CANADA, DARK AMBIENT / DRONE / DUNGEON SYNTH] (2021)

Standard

Manidoo Gathering | 12-21-2021

As you enter the thicket and climb the branches, the wind whispers, the stars flicker in the night sky, and the sun’s light reflects off of the moon. The nearby lake is patient and calm while the tributaries are alive and flowing. Isputinaw’s debut demo from 2021 is a portal to a scene of naturalistic sacrality. The second Manidoo Gathering tape consisting of ambient passages from start to finish, the first of which was Gawaji’s “Remnants of Agassiz,” “The Elms Arms” is a testament to the Canadian collective’s ability to conjure immersive aural offerings to Ojibwe animism. The demo consists of a unique combination of electronic styles combined with whispered vocals and a collection of field recordings. These three aspects feel like a representation of a relationship between humans, spirits, and the natural world. Hypnotic droning and the sound of footsteps seamlessly transition into the trickle of a stream and eventually into a crescendo of much louder synth, howling winds, and crashing waves.

“The Elms Arms,” while more mysterious than Gawaji’s earthly “Remnants of Agassiz,” is more grounded than Isputinaw’s cosmic dark ambient 2024 release “Made-Makadedanoo-Bagonegiizhig.” The variety of styles and thematic location in the collective’s ambient work is refreshing and shows flexibility yet they never stray from their strong central goal of creating aural landscapes about the current and ancient relationship to the land and the cosmos.

Zwarte Dood – Waanzin [Belgium, Raw Black / Doom / Dark Ambient] (2022)

Standard

Zwarte Dood is one-man raw black metal group that plays an absolutely harrowing mix of raw black and doom metal. Waanzin is the act’s third demo – though it’s remarkably different from the others. Waanzin is one twenty-minute long track that starts in a ghoulish dark ambient aesthetic before evolving into positively catastrophic metal with manic vocal invectives. The man behind this project is also the main creative force behind LVTHN, and it shows in both band’s haywire compositional style. Though Zwarte Dood is far more “off” than LVTHN; I don’t recall LVTHN’s music having a full-on minute of laugh-sobbing. Waanzin is a deeply discomfiting listen but damn if it isn’t powerful as all hell.

Waanzin by Zwarte Dood

Vintlechkeit – Is Vidder… [Norway, Black / Ambient / Drone] (2022)

Standard

Self Released | 1-18-22

It’s been a weird week in the Chesapeake Bay. While we had a lovely month of suitably winter weather (with not a few days getting down in the single digits at night), we’ve been slapped in the face by weather that sadly can no longer be called “unseasonable”. And next week it’ll only be weirder, with highs like a late spring and lows like an late autumn. In times like these, I stick to my frozen vegetables: Paysage d’Hiver, DarkSpace, Arkhtinn, and Lunar Aurora – anything that can trick me into believing it’s actually a frosty wonderland outside (there’s a reason I no longer live in Florida). We can also add Vintlechkeit to that mix. Is Vidder… is just one part of a very, very large discography of instrumental black metal + ambient music – like a low-key (and lo-fi) version of Paysage d’Hiver’s Einsamkeit. These three Norwegians specialize in that kind of slow-burn (or slow-freeze?) type of dirge-ish but not necessarily depressive black metal, being more a long gaze toward an obfuscated sun. The first track is more guitar-oriented, whereas the second track is oscillating drone. It’s icicles made from frozen tears all the way down.

Is Vidder… (demo) by Vintlechkeit

Gaping Maw – Their Sigil was Etched in the Face of the Stars [US, Electronics / Dark Ambient] (2017)

Standard

Self Released | 12-09-17

I do not know if I am seeing more electronic based dark music or whether or not I am drawn to it like opium smoke. Gaping Maw is a reconfiguration of an already obscure industrial black/sludge act called Witches Heart. By the look of the Bandcamp discography page, Witches Heart seems to have wrangled an aesthetic and is employing it like alchemy. Gaping Maw is a new project, one that attempts to ritualize the electronic aspect of Witches heart and present a demo (?) of artificial sound and simulated nightmares.

Continue reading