DEATHKNOWLEDGE & LIFEPERCEPTION

Ther fact that this album starts with one of the more trivial and insignificant tracks ever released by Senmuth shouldn't mislead the listener. Skip the first track and you'll find some good music here and there.

This album belongs to the spacey side of Senmuth, so it's tendentially ambient and symphonic and gives less room to the ethnics.

Let's start from "Sargam". The ambient is still symphonic and spacey, but unlike the first track contains the usual darkness. The percussions are the only ethnic element that contribute to make the music more powerful. A dark symphony .

"Pillars Of Creation" is symphonic as well. It's opened by windy keyboards and brass accents. I imagine how this could sound if played by a true orchestra. The symphony is broken by psychedelic intervals that come and go too suddenly breaking the continuity and also the listener's attention.

"Universe Principles" is even more symphonic. Strings Keyboards start very symphonic, but the good suddenly goes to be replaced by a meaningless sequence of percussions and chords driven by a mandolin like sound. Another lost opportunity for a great track.

"Inaccessible Motive" proceeds on the dark-powerful-symphonic line but is more consistent also in terms of composition and continuity. a 4.5 stars track on a 2.5 stars album. It's the longest track, too and the pricipal reason why this album deserves a listen.

"Avatarati" has the ethnic percussions and also the melody can remind to the Middle-East, but the strange bells and the brasses are the new elements. The first add a touch of weirdness, the second give the idea of the orchestra. Not bad, this one.

"Approach Distance I" is unusual. Composed like a string quartet with just a subtle percussion behind and the drone of a violin playing the melody is very close to Vangelis, only a lot darker.

"Approach Distance II" is like the industrial metal version of the previous track. Strong percussions and the normal Senmuth's sounds. The theme is highly dramatic and would fit well into a Sci-fi movie's sountrack if the sudden ethnic stops are cut out.

So the good and the bad are quite balanced in this album. 2.5 stars rounded to 3 because of that couple of good tracks. Not the right album to start exploring Senmuth.