BETIMES BLACK CLOUDMASSES

After two years, enough time for much to happen, much to be done and much to be created, Æthenor, for which the recommendations work usually more than one way (electronic, post-rock and even metal grounds) are back with a second major work, Betimes Black Cloudmasses, one that, given the capacity of the material, could be consider bit small, but applies actually to the band's ethics, as 34 minutes of heavy experimentation was also the degree of refinement that was provided back on the debut. I also think the release was done, as previously, in two formats, if not even three: LP, CD and likely Vinyl.

By this already second burst, it's past the time to talk any longer about what Æthenor brought new in the genre (or the borderline genres - we'll get back to this a bit later), but more what's new and better in their own complex equation of making music and expressing art, through the new offering. The results are satisfying, it seems that the old recipe is put into the making of it, but signs of maturity build in the round form that Betimes Black Cloudmasses' suite of three electro-dark experimental parts sounds like; in parallel, changes in the lineup happen: the Sunn O))-Guapo-Shora trio has now evolved to a sextet, the big new man being for sure Kristoffer Rygg from Ulver, Arcturus and such - who, realistically, has only brief ("but perfect" is said in the official presentation, "but unnoticed" I'd say myself) vocal interventions, it will be more pleasant to see in him in concerts. Meanwhile out of two other musicians, Alex Babel and Nicolas Field, the latter's got more studies, in drumming and even electronic fusion (read: chemistry-making, probably sounds & stuff), but tad less participating credits, being more of a soloist. The essential question is probably this: are there major transformations happening in Æthenor's bottled up essence? Not by how I personally feel it, the adherence - in terms of musicianship and, afterwards, in style - truly pays off, seems welcomed.

As influences, Daniel O'Sullivan mentions himself, on the official BlogSpot, at the time of announcing that Betimes Black Cloudmasses is done & delivered: "Musically, Æthenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu and Charlemagne Palestine." Highly interesting orientation, and while we know how does the lean of Schulze or Coil translate in Æthenor's own embodiment, the more academic names like Wakhevitch and Dumitrescu are also put up for potential, without shallowness or such, as indeed, at least through the dynamic, accidental parts of this album's flow, there's a feeling of true "post-modern experimental composing".

Three parts (numbered again with roman letters) are mostly equal as importance and gravity, their stitched continuity giving the impression of an epic that has it all (contrasts, climaxes, abyssal nuances, etc.). Electronic is the prime color, though experimenting is extremely refined and the dark trance parts could also relate to "black, doom, hollow" brushes. Of course, post-rock emanates through several "indie" stretches, both emotionally and in the veil of the sound. If previously Æthenor could only have been placed in modern electronic (from dark ambient to more crushing, experimental tones), this time the drop into drones, the "void" kind of dark ambient and sound-sampling can virtually be referenced to certain kraut-electro techniques of the Golden Age.

[Part] I is slow, haunting, of an elevated ambient-empty drone mix, the contrast, in the middle part, being noise/silent music, with percussion interventions. The return to accidental sounds happens swiftly. What these 10 minutes infuse is practically a regular invitation to heavy, treacherous, hypnotic meditations. What [Part] II has, on a superior note, is wildly dynamic, extremely experimental yet of a controlled mechanic experimental slurps, bangs and ample flashes, guitar and the entire dark force of the percussion being added to the electronic engine. This is very good, weird, intense music coming from Æthenor. The climaxes are several, but the burn & screech added to the last one gives, afterwards, the signal of a complete fall into shadows and silences, with bass waves and stuff like that. [Part] III gets back to some kraut tinges, but overall samples sounds, rhythms and forms of artificial music for the first 5 minutes, while afterwards it goes back to less interesting, still full of juice ambient drones, elongations and irregular electronic-voices, coming to life through modulators and similar sampling instruments. It's, in all, a 34 minutes exploration of darkly imagined points of the Universe - either the void, either mortuary caves, either depths where sound is deformed or amortized, either the one place where chaos and noise can translate into a form of wicked music.

Resuming, Betimes Black Cloudmasses is primarily electronic with intense experimental findings and a post-rock cracking, dissonant ideal of expression.