RAUDUSKOIVU

The artist addition sure was a quick one! Here's the first review for this new Finnish electronic music artist hiding behind a moniker -- plainly a pseudonym instead of a real (sur)name. Without further speculation let's go straight to the music. The tracks are averagely pretty short, only one piece of the twelve exceeds even five minutes. Also the album in total remains rather short, but I don't see that as a downside here.

Dark Ambient is a suitable description, and so is Dungeon Synth, which was a new term for me used in the promo sheet. Despite these terms, the music doesn't turn out to be distubingly sinister or depressive. In fact any listener deep into the world of Electronic Music (or "Progressive electronic") will feel fairly at home and probably think of reference artists within the genre that may come to mind. TANGERINE DREAM sounds sometimes a bit similar, for example on their soundtrack album The Sorcerer.

The overall sharp soundscape has perhaps more in common with some post-70's stuff by artists such as ROBERT SCHROEDER or ED STARINK. And something you might hear on the compilations of Innovative Communication label, although they're usually not this dark in tone. Rauduskoivu's approach is also rather minimalistic, leaving a lot of empty canvas in the background instead of building layered sonic carpets. In that sense one could think of VANGELIS at his most minimalistic (Beaubourgh for instance), with the crucial difference of tighter track structures.

On some tracks there's a threateningly throbbling low sound joined by crystal-bright higher sounds sometimes slightly reminiscent of morse coding. The low, see-sawing sound may make you think of John Williams' soundtrack for Jaws. On 'Lurking III' the see-sawing low sound sounds a lot like cello and makes me think of sleeping. This album could be used as a soundtrack for somewhat disturbing Sci-Fi/horror series. The deliberately blurry and synthetic cover art -- indeed very fitting for the music in spirit -- features a submarine and some men on its top deck, I think.

These days pure Electronic Music isn't too crowded as a genre, so initially I warmly welcome this album. However, on the long run the impression may soon wear out and the listener is bound to turn into old classics instead.