abent is pure drone !

Deep reverberations abound, desolation, absence. It builds slowly and trembles at the thought of its' own nothingness. I find focusing on what is not present makes this type of musical concoction more palatable. Then there is movement, like gargantuan creatures soaring and plummeting in and out of the astral planes, through our world as we know it, with only a few being aware. Try reading Theodore Roszak's 'Flicker'. You will see what I mean. Things start to get a bit busier, slowly filling the void, with large swirling sounds, still very cold and desolate. Now, having read the other reviews I'm waiting for the join to show itself, but trying not to anticipate or pre-judge. I think any visuals are going to be perspectival, subjective, imaginative, experiential. Try and imagine 'nothing' and then compare it to this slow-motion fanfare of musical expression. Now the voice is here, the reverberations are less evident, it lightens, very alluring. The structure, as large as it is, becomes more evident, but is still tenuously huge. Maybe imagine an album full of 70 minute tracks, forming a huge musical rendition of what might seem like hell, might seem like a nightmare. Again, it's a personal thing and my 'imaging' centres around old magic, even manufactured (Lovecraft's 'Mountains of Madness' and the Necronomicon etc.), I made my pact with the devil a long time ago. I spend my life surrounded by, and attracting negative spirits, but I don't always show them the light, because sometimes they are meant to loiter and try to retain the aura of Gaia. Thirty minutes in and there is an outpouring of noise, is this the giant snake? I find bureacracy more frightening personally but, like I said, that's my interpretation varying from others. I'm a chinese Snake and I have a pet snake, so I'm coming at it from an inescapably different angle, and I missed the 'nightmare' completely, but then I've had a lot of those. My nightmare is generally based around people, they can be pretty scary. The voice, I can see as an entity in my own twisted mythology. There is some Lovecraftian 'mad' piping, strange ululations from beings beyond description. It excites me, does not make me fearful. Forty minutes in and the track is flying along quite nicely, the movements have more subtle boundaries for me, I'm still in the one track as a progression rather than a differentiation. I have learnt that dissembling things into their component parts is not always a good approach, otherwise sex ends up just being friction!-) I don't get much time for meditation, but this track could be interesting to work with, could present some challenges, open some doors. It's like the music that would be piped around a monastery of leprous monks, preparing to meet their maker, irrespective of direction. Fifty minutes in and I can hear the songs of angels and demons in the aether, wheeling around battling out their various differences. Rather like terra firma and its erstwhile inhabitants. Most of the present ones are misguided idiots as far as spiritualism is concerned. I would now like to single out listeners of Caustic Reverie's work, as being some of the good ones, and I'm not creeping. I don't know anybody that would have the patience in the first place, let alone like it. I loved it. So, personally, and having borne in mind what has been said before, I found the track more wholesome in an epic kind of manner. It works well for me, as does all their productions and many others that I'm finding on Jamendo. If I have caused any offence or interest, get in touch. Ha! Now we are talking the hell of loneliness and solitude. Lack of profound friendship. Absent...

This was the first album I came across by this artist and so far the only one of his on Jamendo I have listened to. A longform electronic piece is my idea of ideal music and so I approached this with high hopes, if not high expectations. I am glad to say I was not disappointed. To begin with, although presented as a single track which lasts for over 70 minutes, it is in reality constructed by the joining together of three shorter pieces, each of around 20 minutes, with short linking pieces and then tagging on an ending to round things off. This results in a single piece which has three distinct movements each of which I will review separately. After a quiet opening section the track really begins once the drifting drone settles in and carries the listener along a calm and soothing plain. Strangely, the feeling is more European than American, more Oophoi/Grassow than Roach/Rich. A really promising opening. Worth the full 10/10. The second section ends the cold beauty of the first and replaces it with a dark terror. This is my least favourite part of the album. The sound is more dramatic and a disembodied voice adds to the atmosphere. Although sparingly used, I am not convinced this "vocal" adds anything to the final product that could not have been achieved by other means. The artist on Jamendo who I would compare this section to is Turmoil (as himself or in one of his various guises). Solid, competent and worth 8/10. The final section is diverse again going more uptempo but retaining the overlapping voice as well. We get some variety and the overall feel of this movement is pleasurable. A more intense energy and urgency is to the fore. A worthy 9/10. The linking parts are just that, OK but just link pieces. The ending is a little weak however; it just comes, fades and simply goes. After 70 minutes I would have liked something a little more involved. It is a little bit of nothing really. For me the missing bit with this work is it lacks a vision. It must have one but so far it has eluded me. Phrozenlight has his Space Travel, Slater his Arctic Tundra, Altus his Winter Desolation but what the mind visuals are for this I just can’t work out. They are simply “absent” or is that the idea? So to sum up - A creditable effort of which the creator can be justifiably proud.

Des vents chauds balayent le paysage.La vie, où est la vie ?Chaleur écrasante et cruelle absence. Errance dans ce milieu désertique.Et dans les brumes vaporeuses et caniculaires, un espoir.Mais sous quelle forme ?

I shall not only be reviewing this fine album but also referring to some of the points raised by ciderlord in his review. So, for consistency, I will be using the same movement breakdown he did. It may help therefore if you have read the ciderlord review before starting on this one. In typical Irish fashion I will start the review with the ending. It is a weak point in the track but easy to overcome. A simple reprise of movement one for say 6 minutes with a long slow fade would round off the album a treat and still keep it under 80 mins for anyone who needs to do a cd burn. For me the problem area of the track is this first movement. I agree it is an excellent drone but it does not sit easily with movements 2 and 3 which do blend together very well. They are the meat of the track and are what this album is about, dark, dramatic and dynamic. I wish this album was just these two movements alone, it would have been a 50 minute masterpiece in its own right! I would not want to consign movement one to the bin as it is far too good for that. With a little looping/extending it could be included on some other release of music somewhat closer to itself in style as against the others on this release. Personally I had no trouble with the music visuals. The early drone is a preamble to sleep leading one into the darkness. It then links to movement two and the nightmare begins. I was in an underground cavern of some size which was haunted by "the voice". Lights came on in individual parts of the cavern but never lit up the one that homed that voice. Eventually the whole cavern was illuminated and the voices identity revealed in all its grotesque form (for me it was a giant serpent). What followed was my need to locate an exit and then escape to fresh air and freedom before I succombed to my ultimate fate. The more times I listened to the piece the more vivid it became. Very effective music, unless you want to sleep that is! One final point, I did find a certain thinness in the sound quality at certain points. I notice that the mp3 bitrate of this recording is lower than other similar pieces. It makes me wonder just how effective it could sound at a higher bitrate. I'm off to discover more of your music and you can be very pleased and satisfied with this particular release.