MERITSEGER CULT

'Cult Meritseger' - Senmuth (5/10)

By the end of 2010, it can be safe to say that anyone keeping up with the Russian experimental project Senmuth and and the dozen-plus albums it released over the course of that year would undoubtedly be wearing thin. While the music has it's fair share of strengths, the music ultimately would start feeling very dry and recycled after Senmuth stretching his talent over so many works. 'Cult Meritseger' (or 'Meritseger Cult', however which way you want to call it) is a little different than the mainline ambient Senmuth we're used to hearing, but it unfortunately doesn't have the distinctiveness to really be considered anything past mediocre.

The music here is brooding, generally quiet and very minimalistic. While this formula has already been done to death by Senmuth in the past, he does take a different approach with this one, instead loosening up on the 'heavier' sections by creating a piece of music that has parts neither completely listless and ambient, or driven and percussive. Instead, the music generally keeps one flow throughout the entire piece without switching between these too sounds. While that can make 'Cult Meritseger' dreadfully boring at parts, it is a welcome change from the tired dynamics that contributed to Senmuth's ethno-ambient work wearing out it's welcome.

The music here is melodically driven by a harp-sound (all sounds are computer generated) and it gives a sort of celestial tone to the music, although things are still kept very eerie. 'Cult Meritseger' also makes better use of percussion than many other ambient Senmuth records, forcing the recycled tribal drum beats well into the background, so that the more harmonious instruments are kept in the limelight.

Strengths aside, the album is still very mediocre; while the music may be better produced that much of Senmuth's other stuff, there's no denying that the music keeps the same tone throughout, and each harp-driven, brooding track is virtually indistinguishable from the other. 'Cult Meritseger' is still a good piece of background music however, and a possible sign that Senmuth is finally beginning to move on with his style.

She who loves the silence. The Cobra-faced Goddess who protects the pharaoh's tombs. She is full of mercy but she will byte an poison whoever will try to enter a tomb. She is Meretseger (or Mertseger).

"She who loves the silence" is also the title of the first, unusually relaxing, track. This goddess is capable of mercy and loving silence means that the dark element of Senmuth's music is initially relegated in the background but grows slowly. Look at the album's cover, you are in a squared while a strong light comes from the top. It's like a regression driven by the harp-like sound. The first step to the darkness, like falling asleep or, for an Egyptian king, the first step into the world of death.

Some percussion introduce "Malkaty Gates". Malqata is "the place where things are picked up", the palace of Amenothep III. The melody is unusual, apparently disconnected. The harp sound is leading the track and the ethnic element remains in the background even if tribal percussions can be heard throughout the whole album as well as the harp. There are some good passages but nothing more.

Google translates the next track as "Beach Ablutions Priestesses". I think that a couple of "of the" put in the right places should make the translation more effective. Rites connected to water and ablutions are present in all the ancient cultures, and the flutes together with the gamelan sounds give this track a sense of ritual enhanced by the chill-out rhythm. Here we are very close to NewAge, if only a thing like "dark newage" could exist.

Google has problems also with the next track. The best that I can do is translating it a "Above the one hundred gates of Thebes". This track is minimalist. Few slow percussions and a string instrument playing sequences of three notes while other instruments and sounds come and go slightly in the background. This track shows the goods and the bads of this album and of most of Senmuth's albums: it can be really enjoyed only if it's associated to images, knowing what has inspired the composition. This is why I indulge so much in Wikipedia researches when coming to Senmuth.

"Whispers in the crypts of Dendera" is one of the darkest tracks of the album even if not too dissimilar from the others. Dendera appears quite often in Senmuth's discography. It's a site famous mainly for the temple of the Goddess Hathor, the Egyptian equivalent of Aphroditi. A good track with an indolent tempo that I would see optimal for a documentary soundtrack.

"Encountering The Solar Boat" despite the title is a descent into the darkness made of minor chords, harp and mandolin (all synthetic, of course) with a final which takes minutes to fade out. Very suggestive.

The album is closed by "Ritual of Loving Silence". The oriental elements make me think more to Greece than to Egypt, but the two civilizations have always had a lot of contact points, even in music. Just think to Demetrio Stratos and Demis Roussous. This track is very repetititve with very few variations. It proceeds hypnotically for over 11 minutes in a way reminding of Tangerine Dream, but the last two minuutes are occupied by a sitar-like sound over a tick-tock of percussions, closer to Vangelis. I would have added the sound of some desert wind to the final, but it would have sounded too Floydian, perhaps.

three solid stars.