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DARSOMBRA

Krautrock • United States


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Darsombra picture
Darsombra biography
Founded in Baltimore, USA in 2005

Impressive psych-rockin avant-gardist duet coming from the United States. Loud droning and doom-like krautrockin heaviness. Contains a collection of fantastical post-metal sonic driftscapes in a ritualistic-incantatory mood. Their last album is an utterly doomy, hazy and hypnotic rockin artifact.

Similar artists in the archives: Expo 70', Aluk Todolo, Silvester Anfang, Acid mothers temple, German Oak (...)

See also: HERE

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DARSOMBRA discography


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DARSOMBRA top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 1 ratings
Ecdysis
2006
4.00 | 2 ratings
Eternal Jewel
2008
4.00 | 1 ratings
Climax Community
2012
2.00 | 1 ratings
Mega-Void
2012
4.00 | 1 ratings
Polyvision
2016
3.50 | 4 ratings
Transmission
2019
0.00 | 0 ratings
Dumesday Book
2023

DARSOMBRA Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

DARSOMBRA Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

DARSOMBRA Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

DARSOMBRA Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings
Deliriums & Death
2007

DARSOMBRA Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Mega-Void by DARSOMBRA album cover Studio Album, 2012
2.00 | 1 ratings

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Mega-Void
Darsombra Krautrock

Review by paulo_dyer

— First review of this album —
2 stars Eu poderia criticar negativamente este álbum. Considerando que o conheci a pouco. E não há comentários no histórico #progarchives. Porém procurei e escutei. Evidenciei: não há nada de novo, várias influencias, predominantemente Klaus Schlze, Brian Eno, entre outros do eletrônico. Nada de novo, nada a acrescentar. Porém é gostoso de ouvir, sem compromissos. Não contribui em nada para o estilo musical, mas não é maçante. Bom para ouvir.

I could critically criticize this album. Whereas I just met him. And there are no comments on the historic #progarchives. But I looked and listened. I highlighted: there is nothing new, several influences, predominantly Klaus Schlze, Brian Eno, among others of electronics. Nothing new, nothing to add. But it is nice to hear, without compromises. It does not contribute anything to the musical style, but it is not overwhelming. Good to hear.

 Transmission by DARSOMBRA album cover Studio Album, 2019
3.50 | 4 ratings

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Transmission
Darsombra Krautrock

Review by patrickq
Prog Reviewer

3 stars It's been said that every duo has its Daryl Hall and its John Oates. Put another way, no twosome can have two equal leaders. Or another way: there's no shame in being Art Garfunkel , Robin the Boy Wonder, or Sandy the Squirrel. Anyway, synthesist-vocalist Ann Everton is apparently the John Oates of Baltimorean duo Darsombra.* To be fair, she may be the Dr. Watson of the operation, but if Transmission is any indication, Darsombra is a guitar-based project:* Everton's parts essentially support Brian Daniloski's guitar soloing and riffing.

The whole affair's difficult to classify, and the band's promotional materials has Darsombra 'drawing from varied traditions such as doom, musique concrete, southern rock, space rock, and contemporary classical.' I see space rock, but the other prog-rock subgenres I'd name are progressive-electronic and crossover-prog (more on that in a minute) - - but probably not Krautrock, which is how the group is classified on progarchives.com.

Transmission is comprised on one forty-one minute track, 'Transmission,' which, regardless of how you pigeonhole it, is an entry in a tough-to-crack bracket: that type of rules-eschewing studio-assembled music which used to require incredible technical and music skills to pull off - - something that probably wasn't worth trying fifty years ago if you didn't have the dedicated time of, say, Geoff Emerick or Teo Macero. In 2019, of course, it's a different game. Personally, I appreciate the democratization engendered by Garage Band and Pro Tools, and I think one of its effects is the proliferation of musicians who can create works like 'Transmission.' So, like wedding photography, it's a crowded field. It's much, much more possible to create good-sounding computer-based recordings, and it's much, much tougher to stand out. To Darsombra's credit, there were only one or two obvious edits on the entirety of this album - - and while there are sections that are copied and pasted, I never got the sense that such repetition was done to extend the length of the piece.

The other thing this group has going for them is Daniloski's ability to devise catchy guitar hooks, which accounts for the crossover characteristics of 'Transmission' (perhaps this is the 'southern rock' mentioned in their publicity materials). 'Transmission' is not crossover-prog (by that logic, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' would be opera), but if you extracted those riffs, you'd have a good start on a pop/prog hybrid album. In one sense, 'Transmission' can be viewed as guitar motifs dispersed among a wide-ranging variety of background ambiances, akin to the way the vocal snatches appear on the hidden track on Yes's Open Your Eyes. But there are many ways to approach 'Transmission.' It has substantial drone sections, some synth-based, others based on guitar arpeggios, and yet others built around rhythmic vocal samples. And given the catchiness of some of the riffs, there are points at which the whole piece feels like a medley.

Transmission is an absorbing listen: I can't say it's constantly enthralling, but it never gets boring, which is a genuine feat for a group which chooses to make a forty-plus-minute track. While this album is unconventional, it does observe the conventions of Western music; if you're into periodic improvisation that stops short of experimentalism, give this one a spin.

====

*Everton's role in live performances is different, according to P.R. materials on darsombra.com which refer to 'guitarist Brian Daniloski's current project Darsombra ... with the help of projectionist Ann Everton, whose psychotropic video work...'

 Transmission by DARSOMBRA album cover Studio Album, 2019
3.50 | 4 ratings

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Transmission
Darsombra Krautrock

Review by TCat
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

4 stars Darsombra is a Krautrock band from Baltimore that actually started as the solo project of Brian Danniloski, who, at the time, played all instruments and provided all of the vocals. In 2016, he was joined in the project by Ann Everton, who brought her synth and keyboard skills to the project for their 2016 album "Polyvision". In August of 2019, the project released it's 6th full length album "Transmission". This is a single track album with a duration of over 41 minutes of blissful and dark exploration into the darker side of Krautrock, or, what they like to call "Trans-Apocalyptic Galaxy Rock".

The music definitely takes its time, taking you into a trance-like atmosphere with repeating loops that build one layer upon another in a very slow manner. With this continual pulsating sound, the intensity slowly builds. Each layer is introduced, including a layer of repeating, chant-like vocals from both Ann and Brian, which continues in a repeating pattern, becoming part of the trance like atmosphere of the building layers. In the meantime, heavy guitar lines improvise over the top of all of this. At the 16 minute mark, when you have becoming totally immersed in this bliss-fest, rolling cymbals introduce a fuzzy and louder guitar layer and keyboard patterns come in to help anchor the sound, creating another drone layer, this time with changing chords, to replace the previous one. The music is less layered now giving a simpler sound, but the guitar takes more liberties as the synth continues to act as a foundation. The intensity amps up to another layer during the 19th minute as more rolling cymbals take everything up a notch and the guitar becomes even more powerful, screeching and squealing along, then another heavy guitar layer takes over as the previous one becomes part of the repeating background. Things suddenly calm to a simple bass pattern that and a feedback pattern establishes a simple and minimalistic melody. Power chords bring in short heavy bursts of energy, but the sound remains minimal for a while, even when the organ comes in. A short build comes along, then a nice, chiming melody brings the music out of the darkness and brightens the tone at around the 35 minute mark. The overall sound continues to be lighter, which eventually grows when more wordless vocals come in, this time with more volume, and the vocals and guitar passages match each other, the music fades and we are left with a choir-like singing of the final melody, which also fades to silence.

The musicianship is excellent here, however, many might find it somewhat redundant, but then, that is the whole point. The music floats along with hardly any fluctuation in the tempo, which is mostly generated by the looping effects and pulsations in the music. It does the job of transporting you into a blissful state, but also works well as background music for meditation or just free-floating along. The additions of the vocals in different sequences help to mark the passing of time, as there seems to be only one major fluctuation in the entire track, coming along around the mid-point of the track, when the built up drone made out of the introducing of layers drops out of the mix and it all turns to a mostly ambient section for the 2nd half, yet still adding in some dynamic changes to keep it all interesting as mostly the guitar continues to improvise. But that pulsating feel continues to keep the track at an even keel and tempo, which you actually feel more than you hear it. The 41 minutes of this track seemed to pass by quickly for me, and I found that instead of being bored with it all, I actually slipped into its trance inducing sound. That is one way to tell if this music is a success, that it is consistent enough to be considered Krautrock and "mind-freeing", yet dynamic enough to still be interesting. Understanding that this kind of music isn't for everyone, and that you have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it for what it is, I find that it is effective in it's purpose, thus I can easily give it 4 stars.

Thanks to Philippe Blache for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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