YANTRA LIGHT

I've been quite surprised to see "Novus Ordo Seclorum" associated to "Aquarius" in the title of the opening track. It's a latin sentence from masonry that's printed on all the US dollars. Which is the relationship with the Aquarius age? Forget it. From a musical point of view we have a very good acoustic guitar solo within an ambient track, but it seems that Senmuth has found an equilibrium so this is not totally ethnic, or ambient or newage. It's an enjoyable instrumental which contains a bit of everything. I have written in other reviews of Senmuth's album that I like more when he has guest singers and when he plays acoustic or classical guitar. This is the case.

"Akhu Shemsu Hor" sees Senmuth back to metal or at least to heavy sounds. It's probably another connection to the "Egyptian" masonry. The title means "The venerable followers of Horus". Also in this track the melody is more consistent respect to the previous albums. There aren't the randomic changes of pitch and the pauses and restarts are more structured. This track is a bit repetitive, but it's powerful at the same time. I really like it.

The "Diorite Vase" is an ancient vase found in Hierakonpolis. It's not known what the Egyptian have used for its manufactoring, as diorite is a material that can be cut only by a diamond. This is one of the typical ethnic instrumentals of Senmuth. Not bad, but there's plenty of this kind of tracks in the about 100 albums released by this project.

I don't know anything about "Ta Kut", apart of a place in Burma. It's a track more metal oriented on which there's an excellent guitar work. It's a little unstructured but this is not disturbing. Let's concentrate on guitar here.

The "Galactic Halo" surrounds all the galaxies, so why should Senmuth be interested in it? Likely because an unusual Halo uncentered and made of heavy elements has been discovered around M81. There's no scientific explanation for it. For Senmuth it's an "industrial metal" track with something hypnotic inside. It's a track that I really like.

"Imprint of Vital Belief" is one of the songs present on the E.D.I.E.M. compilation. I don't like it particularily. It belongs to the industrial metal side of Senmuth and contains some good things, but I think it's just an average song.

"Plain of Jars in Xieng Khoang". This is a megalithic place in Laos, an iron age necropolis. The local legends say that the place was inhabited by a race of giants. On Internal Images there's a track about another place in the mediterranean isle of Malta which shares the same legend thousands of miles far from there. It's an intriguing ethnic instrumental with a percussion's base and a good guitar. Typical for the ethnic side of Senmuth.

Also "To Call The Matangi" is on the mentioned compilation. It's a bit chaotic and unstructured but it flows quite well. Not my favourite but not bad.

It's a 3.5 stars album for me. some of the tracks are very good but some weaknesses are preventing me from giving it the fourth star.