Netherworld
is the project of Italian sound-artist Alessandro Tedeschi. ‘Kall:
The Abyss Where Dreams Fall’ is his latest release and follows
the acclaimed ‘Mørketid’ album released just
a month earlier in April 2007. Netherworld attained its name through
Tedeschi’s fascination with a “wired, dark, silent,
glacial and eternal place”. Tedeschi notes that “I'm
interested in catch up sounds generated from the nature's flow.
Through my music, I would like to play the quietness of the silence,
desolate darkness and glacial landscapes.” With ‘Kall:
The Abyss Where Dreams Fall’, he has created perhaps his
darkest and most-rounded offering, deftly exploring the desolate
darkness and glacial landscapes which exist in the parallel reality
he has named Netherworld.
Utilising a highly effective and expertly
arranged soft/loud dynamic, Tedeschi carves a stirring piece of
dark-ambience, pitching tranquil lulls against deep swirling bass
bombs and sprinkling the result with smatterings of micro-electronic
shards. Sonically, it’s like being trapped beneath a massive,
slowly-cracking iceberg in dark, hostile waters. Its solitary,
lifeless, inhospitable and ultra-bleek yet it is an environment
which is utterly captivating, surreal and which has a brooding
serenity.
Across the 52minutes and 5 tracks, Tedeschi
creates a slow-drifting flurry of pensive rumblings via sweepingly
dark atmospherics and micro-managed industrial scrapings which
are sculpted from a plethora of found sounds. Tedeschi notes that
“I switch, shift and record (with my microphones) environment's
sounds and sibilance; for example a gate while it's opening, or
a subterranean noise of a brook's courier, or also, ice's blocks
motion, ghost's voices, gongs and crystals while broken.”
Throughout the album, chilly and prickly bursts of blustery sonic
wind sweep evilly through the intimidating environment whilst
shimmering micro-clangings and ghostly sounds feature indiscriminately
and add immense weight to the overall vision of disquiet. Although
all the tracks fit together and the album should be listened to
in one go, the epic ‘Part 3’ stands out most and is
a particularly unnerving, (bordering upon the terrifying) experience
depending on your personal disposition and the listening context.
Across the 21minutes of ‘Part 3’, inhumane rumblings
and industrial motifs collide with a malevolent tapestry of dark-ambient
soundscapes to disconcerting yet meditative effect.
Overall,
‘Kall: The Abyss Where Dreams Fall’ is a masterclass
in ultra-dark ambience. It maneuvers forcefully yet tranquilly
between dark watery troughs and ultra-dark and highly unsettling
peaks. The full bodied production and exquisite arrangement of
motifs makes the music take a stranglehold upon the listener and
sucks them invitingly into the deep, dark underbelly of sonic-exploration.
‘Kall: The Abyss Where Dreams Fall’ is released courtesy
of specialist Canadian label, Mondes Elliptiques and is released
on a limited run of 441.
For
fans of: Lustmord, Lull, Nordvargr, Tarkatak
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