Arktau Eos — Ioh-Maera

Dawn is slowly breaking upon the Northern marshlands as the first rays of the mid-summer sun reflect upon the myriad of mosquito-ridden lakes that dot the countryside. Illuminating the crown of the birch trees as it solemnly rises above the horizon, the nascent solar star composes an irradiating symphony of light which accentuates the opaline hue of the lichen fields and lends the surrounding woodland a pleasantly soft atmosphere, enhanced by the welcome promise of a warm day. Strangely, not a single sound emanates from those vast expanses, as if time itself was holding its breath for the imminent arrival of a new, mysterious and deeply elemental soundtrack.

The brainchild of Antti Litmanen (ex-Babylon Whores) and Anti Haapapuro (Halo Manash, Aural Holograms), active since 2005, Oulu-based, Finnish ritual entity Arktau Eos have, over the course of three albums on Anti’s own record label Aural Hypnox – 2006’s ‘Mirrorion’ and ‘Scorpion Milk’ and 2009’s highly-acclaimed double album ‘Ai Ma Ra’ – and a slew of mesmerising live performances, garnered a solid and well-deserved reputation in the field of ambient music. Last year saw the pair collaborate with the good folks at Svart Records (a name which should ring a bell with any self-respected metal fan) for two simultaneous releases, the gorgeous-looking and equally gorgeous-sounding, vinyl-only ‘Unworeldes’ and this, its compact disc companion, ‘Ioh-Maera’, housed in a six-panel digipack and featuring artwork by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu.

As befits a band stemming from the Helixes collective, the Finnish cagouled lot are among the finest purveyors of ritual ambient music active at the moment. The natural extension of an apparently unquenchable thirst for some long-lost, primeval knowledge, their music harks back to times immemorial and acts as a highly conductive vessel for the mysterious and the meditative. Though unmistakably septentrional in approach, if not intent, it still manages to strike a universal chord on almost every track and is invested of such transcendental power of evocation as to command the listener’s attention with every single note and, what is more, with every moment of silence.

The Enochian incantation that opens the record sees renowned Australian occult artist Barry William Hale reciting what seems an antediluvian prayer over an intimate mixture of bone horns and field recordings, unlocking the door onto a world full of mystery and with precious little human interference. It somehow reminds of the work of Dutch rune-master Freya Aswynn, only more telluric. ‘Noxfaros’ is both more ominous and brooding, and is the first track to showcase the drumming of live percussionist (and now apparently full-time member) Iwowi over a deeply hypnotic bed of guitar reverb. It looks for a moment as though fast-approaching clouds threaten to win the day and obscure the sky. It is a threat that will loom largely over the remainder of the record and give it a constant edge.

‘Sunken Luminaries’ and the title-track that follows both gravitate within a more contemplative canvas, the former with its disarmingly simple and addictively hypnotic dark ambient soundscapes, the latter managing in parts to evoke the shamanic ritual of some remote Finno-Ugric tribe. Closing the proceedings in subdued fashion is ‘Otherstone Refraction’, which sounds like someone manipulating, well, stones of various dimensions over a ten-minute drone and is testament to the band’s apparently boundless knack for the essential as it does so in truly captivating fashion. It proves a smoothing end for a record that ultimately appears a lot shorter than its fifty minutes.

The fact that music as sparse and sonically ascetic as this can have such a tremendous effect upon the listener and captivate their attention with as limited a number of aural anchor points as the band’s modus operandi will allow for is one more proof, if needed, that Arktau Eos have yet to exhaust the possibilities offered by their chosen method of expression. When music speaks to the mind more than it does to the ears, a whole new realm of sonic possibilities is opened up the only limits of which are the imagination both of the performer and the listener, the mental images formed in the minds of the latter while listening to it being as vivid as those of the former when recording it, a rare feat indeed.

All due praise aside, where does ‘Ioh-Maera’ fit into Arktau Eos’ ever-growing body of work? High on the heels of two stunning releases (‘Ai Ma Ra’ leading the pack with ‘Unworeldes’ a close second), the task certainly wasn’t easy for the Finnish pair but given the pedigree of the bands stemming from the Helixes collective, it still unsurprisingly navigates way above anything else that passes as ritual ambient music and comes highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in either music or Northern spirituality. When it is performed with such a sense of purpose and identity, music has the ability to float in a realm entirely of its own and simply defies description. It is, if anything, an initiatory journey we hope to be able to enjoy for some time to come yet!