Arktau Eos — Scorpion Milk
As with most Aural Hypnox releases the packaging here is fairly arty, with the cd coming in a fold-out dark brown art card cover. This features gold inked front cover which takes in a round symbol that takes in the projects name & a selection of ritually arranged bones. As well as the CD you get a 8 page art card/ paper booklet, which takes in a write-up about the work & black ink prints of various ritual items. Also there's a inlay card taking in the same dark brown & gold ink look of the outside cover.
The release features just a single forty eight minute track, and as I mentioned in the reviews introduction this is some of the project most sparse & stripped back work. The track is centred around a series of eerier & reverberating ritual gong type hits, when the track starts up it purely revolves around the grouping of the three or four repeated hits, and drifts of complete silence. As the track progresses they slowly add in some extremely subtle & subdued elements in-between & around the gong hits, and these take bleak drone reverb ‘n’ drift, gloomy like buzzing organic dark ambient sweeps, brooding & stark string plucks & echoes, very sparse chime hits, & whispers / groans & stripped back ritual chants. Though-out the whole thing remains very pared back & minimal.
This really is Finnish ritual ambience at it’s most bare bones form. I’ll have to admit it did take me a plays to fully take in & appreciate what’s going on here, but now I find the whole thing fairly satisfying in it’s bleak & nocturnal ritual air. This certainly is not a release for those new to the world of Arktau Eos, the Aural Hypnox collective & Finnish ritual ambience in genreal, but if you’re a long time devotee then I can well see you getting something from this.