Review Summary: A warm space outside the coldness of time.
Smouldering vibrations, more felt than heard, accompanied by indistinct mutterings; these are the ominous greetings of
Ur Djupan Dal. Language and register conspire to leave the echoing utterances superficially unintelligible, if indeed there’s anything between the syllables to decipher, and yet those alien tones impart more information about this humid universe than they first appear to. Whilst our omniscient guide’s identity remains unknown, their dark timbre speaks of a vaguely Eastern landscape (whatever that adjective means in a directionless facsimile), plucked from romanticised meditations and seasoned with non-specific oriental flavours. Here, sound waves are indistinguishable from heat waves, visual and aural hallucinations blend together, and the swirling mirage of transportive synths copulating with understated desert percussion births forth a subconscious world of heat and reflection. Atmospherically uninviting, featuring long-burning melodies disguised as foreboding sentinels, the poorly veiled threat somehow renders this realm all the more enticing. Authentic, even. Atrium Carceri and Herbst9 flesh out their creation with endless details to savour, adding subtle ticks, layered ambience, simmering harmonies – and of course, the deceptively nonsensical narration whispering knowledge that doesn't know itself. Exhausted, tortured notes seem to cry out in warning on ‘Ur Evighetens Pipa’, though seemingly void of the fortitude to properly convey such a message; subdued bass melodies hum sleepily, and the paradoxically empty sun-filled skies bake the barren civilisation below during ‘Österländska Tempel’; but even attempting to isolate singular moments from this amorphous piece does it a disservice.
Ur Djupan Dal is the soundtrack to a story only deconstructed music itself could tell, but more importantly, it's an illusion worth upholding in ignorance, and exploring in vain.
