Cría Cuervos — L'Ombilic Des Limbes
Listening to this album, what first strikes me is that Maggi is not only unafraid to leave the listener drifting in a near-silent maw of foreboding, lonely minimalism, this actually seems to be the purpose of most of his music. We're almost 20 minutes into the disk before we get a sound that would be audible on the bus, or in the car. Dark ambient tracks usually keep a continuous, droning resonance present from the beginning of the song until the end, unchanged by the entrances and exits of other elements; many artists are afraid to use real silence. Cría Cuervos understands that the human mind itself will fill in the emptiness with the most elaborate of visions, should the reverb and panning be adjusted just so. In addition, the hushed emptiness of the mix means the rare louder moments are esquisitely powerful, and that the listener must work at immersion - try and multitask while listening to this album and the sounds of whatever else you are doing will drown it out.
While at times threatening and anxiety inducing, this album has the calm of those hours of near-universal inactivity after midnight, and the monochromatism of that pitch black world. Nature metaphors are the first that comes to mind - wind, caves, lava and water, yet there is something absolutely surreal about all of this music. One could say it's like dreaming of the thing, rather than the thing itself, a quality Maggi's music shares with musicians like tribal/shamanic ambient musicians like Steve Roach. Maggi has his feet firmly planted in the spirit realm.
The particularly quiet opener, "En Verre Et Brisable" is like sitting alone in a small room in a large building after hours or during closing time, listening to the quiet hum of a computer or other machine while distant, unknown persons walk, work or otherwise clatter around elsewhere in the building. In our modern age this is among the most common forms of solitude. Maggi paints in other sonic textures ever so lightly to complete the picture: synth chords feedback in slow motion underwater, the high pitched whines of watching security systems.
"Des Tempes Qui Se Vitrifient Ou Se Marbrent" is somewhere between a gusty, watery wind and a malfunctioning air conditioning unit. As the sound progressively swells to almost frightening volume, sinister whispered voices appear in the mix. I begin to fear being eaten alive. After an abrupt cutoff at 7 minutes, a slow fade in occurs and the second half of the track becomes a more subdued interpretation of the same sonic space - the urgency and sense of danger disappears, but the watery sonic character remains mostly consistent, as if the horde of ravenous shadow beasts have left to find dinner elsewhere and the winds have calmed, leaving the surface of the water placid. Sounds that could just as easily be bomb blasts as volcanic activity boom in the distance. For me, this is the album highlight.
"L'Enveloppement Cotonneux Du Bruit" is the most static of the four pieces. For 12 minutes the listener hangs in a cavernous deep that seems to extend endlessly beneath their feet, punctuated with shrieks almost like the sounds of shoes squeaking along the floor of a basketball court. The most consistent element is an airy low/mid drone which is even closer to the sound of a ventilation system than the sounds in the first track, but still retains a little tonality. It is warm, deep and enveloping, just as the title would suggest. The track trails off, as if the machines producing it ran out of steam.
"Forêt, Forêt, Des Yeux Fourmillent" is another windswept sounding track that begins with resonant chirps and rattles that could be the musical instruments of African tribes played through a cheap radio, or the chirps of insectoid robots, and from there waxes increasingly volcanic in energy. Power focuses into a swirling funnel of ash and smoke. Maggi describes nature in its myriad states of cataclysmic transformation, some of which are quite violent.
I have nothing bad to say about this album, though it will not appeal to everyone. If you are capable of appreciating quiet, minimal forms of ambient, this is a must have. It is a brilliantly produced and remarkably deep work that will keep you coming back again and again