Visions Of Darkness (In Iranian Contemporary Music) Label: Cold Spring – CSR242CD Format: 2 × CD, Album, Compilation Country: UK Released: 25 Sep 2017 Style: Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental, Noise
The simurgh is depicted in Iranian art as a winged creature in the shape of a bird, gigantic enough to carry off an elephant or a whale. It appears as a peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion, sometimes however, also with a human face. Iranian legends consider the bird so old that it had seen the destruction of the world three times over. The simurgh learned so much by living so long that it is thought to possess the knowledge of all the ages. We hope this mythological benevolent creature could be a hope and a a guide in our dark times.
Hiemis – Nachtstücke Label: Gradual Hate Records – GH04 MP3 Format: Digital Country: Spain Released: 2018 Style: Drone, Dark Ambient, Esoteric Ambient
Nachtstücke is a tribute to the world of the paranormal, especially to the mesmerism that permeated the exalted work of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Hoffmann was not only a man of letters, but also a musician and a painter. During his lifetime, he published many stories, some later profoundly influencing Poe. We could mention ‘The Devil’s Elixirs’, ‘The Sandman’, and «Vampirismus». History, technique and style are the tools to create a masterpiece, which the author uses to create chilling, dramatic and deep stories where many of the innovative ideas are anticipated, from which many writers and musicians would be nurtured, including Strauss at Elektra .
The environments are gloomy. The night, the silence, the inexplicable forces of nature serve as a resource to accentuate the horror. The outcome, like any good story, leaves a doubt about death and madness, since both serve as an appetizer to a constant engine: fear. As Adolfo Bioy Casares would say «old as fear, fantastic fictions come before letters».
«Nachtstücke» is a look at that universe where disturbing characters live that become oracles, supposedly trivial images that contain a mystery, as well as threatening inventions that never cease to amaze us. Thus, dreams, magnetism, telekinesis, sleepwalking, hunches, premonition, and telepathy compose the stuff of this disturbing reality. That parallel world in which we all live, and it is made of chance, intuitions, fears, mysteries. . . Hoffmann explored, in everyday life, that hidden reality that can be guessed in dreams, visions, ghosts, funeral stories, scientific machinations. In short, a world full of strange and mysterious forces, which are capable of playing with the life and illusions of all of us.
Anemone Tube – The Three Worlds – Forget Heaven Label: The Epicurean – cure.18, La Esencia – LER019/2017 Format: CD, Album Country: Europe Released: 23 Oct 2017 Style: Dark Ambient, Industrial, Experimental
Far reaching pleasures will be at hand – Anemone Tube reveals a series of three CDs entitled “The Three Worlds: Allegory of Vanity / Forget Heaven / Vanity of Allegory”, referencing a cosmological treatise on the universe from the Theravada Buddhism of the 14th century, the subject matter of which is the description of three levels of existence of all beings and mythical creatures.
This extensive retrospective release contains selected tracks from various tapes released between 1997 and 1999 – mostly rare and unavailable today – as well as yet unreleased tracks recorded between 1997 and 2013, a.o. outtakes from the “Death Over China” recordings, handpicked and recontextualized by Anemone Tube, representing the project’s roughest and most atmospheric material up to date, ranging from depressive ritual experimental ambient over dark rhythmic industrial soundscapes to whirlwind noise. Sharply mastered by Hunter Barr for a powerful, contemporary sound, each CD comes in a 6-panel digifile featuring beautiful photography by Dario Lehner.
“The Three Worlds” is a work about transience on many levels, perfectly elucidated in the Buddhist Sutra “Far Reaching Pleasures”, “The three worlds are transient like clouds in autumn / Birth and death of all beings unfold like a dance / Their lives rush away… more credits
Music composed, mixed & edited by Anemone Tube. 1–6 recorded September 1996 – February 1997, previously released as Forget Heaven cassette (Bawler Productions, 1997). 7 + 8 recorded September 1997, sounds: Thomas Gith, 7 previously released on Forget Heaven/Angel Falls CDr (Solipsism, 2000). 8 voice: Sven Birker, previously released on Basisgleiche Verschiedenheiten comp. cassette (Bawler Productions, 1997). 9 recorded September 1997, loop: Origami Galaktika, previously released on Ambient Intimacy 3 comp. CDr (EE Tapes, 1999). 10 recorded 2000, previously unreleased. 11 recorded December 1998 – August 1999, previously released on Split CDr with Tarkatak (Trümmer Kassetten / Transfixional Entertainment, 1999).
Concept, art and design by Anemone Tube 2015/17. Photography by Dario Lehner 2015, set design, photo editing by Anemone Tube 2015/17. Mastering by Hunter Barr 2017
