Arktau Eos — Dormiveglia
Dormiveglia is the first new album in five or so years from Arktau Eos - the Finish two-piece who create sinisterly ritual ambient music, which at its best sends unease & chills bone deep. The album is six track affair, which focuses on subdued-yet-brooding-to-forbiddingly hovering soundscapes- utilizing both acoustic, electronic, and organic/ low-key field recording elements.
Arktau Eos began in 2005, and is part of the mysterious & occult-focused collective Aural Hypnox- which takes in projects such as Halo Manash, Aeoga, & Zoät-Aon. I’ve followed the project since it began, and are always excited to get a new release from this two-piece. Dormiveglia is the duo’s 8th album, and really it feels like a suite of connected pieces, instead of an album of six individual tracks. The release is Ltd to 500 copies and can be purchased direct here.
The CD comes presented in a black and white mini gatefold. It features on its front cover a monochrome presentation of an oil painting of a cliff set temple- this image is repeated in green, grey, and blue colour on the inlay card. Also, the gatefold features minimal texts/ track listing- with the album's concept detailed as being ‘inspired by loci found beyond the trodden paths in Transylvania and Occitanic, their secret signs, and the dreams they bring’.
We open with “Fossus” which begins with a slow & simplistic vibe pattern being repeated. This is surrounded by a mixture of darkly glowing on ‘n’ off reverb tone hover, distant woozy chants, and subtle vault-like clanks & hisses. After we follow the slowly building -then-receding structure for a time- the vibe element is replaced by an eerier pitch-wavering keyboard playing out the same simple, though now even more unsettling flowing patterns.
The third track “Titan Sleep” feels akin to watching tentacles of mist gathering and swirling around you as you’ll slowly but surely make your way through an ancient underground crypt. It begins with slowly hoovering & sinisterly warbling organ key patterns- these seem to warp & bend with each slowly-pressed sequence of notes. In due course, more chiming ritual percussion, and dark monk-like chants are added- these seem to nicely curdle the already unease atmosphere to an even darker hue.
The final track is “A Cavernous Visitant”. Here the album's vibe is pulled out to its most haunted and spectral. As we find a hazed & half-formed mix of foreboding bass drones, wavering ritual pitches, and sluggish chiming- all underfed by subtly wind whistling, and crypt floor-scaping elements.
With Dormiveglia Arktau Eos once again lead us into their dusty & dark ritual-tinged sonic crypts. Though this time around everything is more pared back, and often sinisterly hazed. It took a handful of plays for this to fully sink in. But when it did I started to gloomily relish the subtle details, as I get pulled further and further down the seemingly endless, crumbling and shadowy steps.