‘Time
Frost’ by Rapoon (aka Robin Storey) is the third release
from the Italian based, Glacial Movements record label who specialise
in putting out music that documents images such as “the
boreal dawn that shines upon silent white valleys in the Great
Northern lands”. ‘Time Frost’ is a limited edition
of 750 and features nearly 60 minutes of music spread across 5
movements.
The
album is based upon the concept of a new ice-age which could envelope
Europe, and uses tiny fragments of Johann Stauss’s ‘Blue
Danube’ as starting points for the five compositions. The
opener, ‘Glacial Danube’ is a sonically uplifting
journey into an ethereal void due to its angelic audio-tones which
ooze effortlessly above subtle nuances of sub-drone and sonic
crackle. ‘Thin Light’ starts with a slightly more
recognizable piece of the original source material but slowly
warps into a thick and foreboding slice of dark-ambience which
documents the ebb and flow of glacial–interglacial periods
within an ice age. ‘A Darkness of Snow’ is a warm
and bubbly piece featuring a fizzy and pulsating tone which interplays
with contrasting layers of drone to create an engaging sonic-journey
akin to discovering a ‘geothermal “hot” spring’
in a ice-laden wasteland. ‘Horizon Discrete’ is a
far more bleak and inhospitable track which conjures up images
of blustery winter winds over deep, throbbing droneage. The final
piece, ‘Ice Whispers’ weights in at a mighty 34minutes
and brings a number of aforementioned trends into play. It is
defiantly the darkest and densest track on the album and shifts
across the vast sub-polar spectrum from ‘effervescent scrapes
of micro-electronica over temperate harmonic effects’ to
Sunn 0)))-esque pitch-black deep-space ambience and back to desolate
and baron icescapes. Towards the end there is some great ‘disorientating’
effects made by switching signals from left to right and one only
wishes that this was an effect that was carried throughout the
album.
Rapoon describes the sound of ‘Time Frost’ as “an
imaginary recording of the mutational process of sound locked
into ice and transformed over millenia. Like ghosts of music trapped
in an evershifting permafrost.” This is a very accurate
and apt description of the album although there is much warmth
portrayed by the sound. The crystallized microtones, aquatic drones
and shimmering sounds show that there is life behind the frost,
and this ideology is perfectly summed up by the cover art. Such
an interplay between the deep-freeze and the fragile warmth makes
‘Time Frost’ a captivating and engaging piece of sound
that will transform your listening area into a distant place,
far removed from the hustle and bustle of the world outside. All
in all, ‘Time Frost’ is an icey yet warmly produced,
slow-motion deep-thaw audio documentation of Glacial mega-trends
and Isostatic depression.
For fans of: Loscil at -50°, Lustmord, Nordvargr,
Phill Niblock, Sunn 0))), Sunroof!
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