Equitant — The Circle Of Agurak
In 2018, the Ukrainian label Faust, which is a sub-label of Old Captain label, released Equitant's album entitled The Circle Of Agurak. The album is a re-release of several tracks from the first two demo albums, as well as previously unreleased tracks. The album was released as a 6-panel digipak CD, as well as a digital version. All this, as well as a T-shirt and poster, is available for ordering on the Bandcamp page of the label and on its website.
The albums cover is a black and white engraving- possible an illustration from a book. We see a bearded man wrapped in a white cloak. In front of him stands a witch holding a bunch of burning herbs. Next to the witch is a kneeling man in armour. seemingly, this is an image of a ritual. In the upper left corner of the cover, the name of the project is written in white gothic type. Near the right, also in Gothic type, but with a different kind of it, the name of the album is written.
The album, with a total duration of just under forty-eight minutes, consists of ten tracks. As I mentioned early, in its essence, The Circle of Agurak is a compilation of selected early works and unpublished tracks. In addition to Raymond Dillard Heflin, hiding under the name Equitant, other members of Absu take part in the recording. There’s Russ R. Givens aka Proscriptor, playing several flute parts, and Shaftiel, doing some spoken word elements. Tracks 1-5 were recorded in December 1993, and tracks 6-10 in September of the same year.
Equitant's early music is a very raw and lo-fi synth ambient of rather dark tones based on the work of Tolkien and several other fantasy writers. The first two tracks entitled "The Fallen Walls Of Agurak (A Time Of Misery) Part I" and "The Fallen Walls Of Agurak (A New Beginning) Part II", originally published on the 1994 demo album The Great Lands Of Minas Ithil, are, perhaps, the most successful of all the presented compositions. On them we hear a gloomy minimalistic keyboard Dark Ambient, bordering on Dungeon Synth, against which a quiet voice tells us a story.
The rest of the album tracks are made in a similar minimalist style, but without the spoken word elements, and are slightly different recording quality, for better or for worse. The only exception is the short (less than 2 minutes) fifth track called "Legenden Von Feuer Und Stahl", in which the main role is played by a black metal guitar, which is maintained by the rhythmic low drum beats.
As I have already said, the sound quality here is bad, & despite meant to be remastered, is very raw and not balanced. There is almost no stereo. The compositions previously published on demo recordings have a better balance of frequencies than previously unreleased tracks, in which an abundance of medium frequencies, sometimes turning into a shrill hum, which delivers strong discomfort during listening.
With the exception of the first two tracks, all the other pieces seemed to be compositionally unfinished, as if we're hear a small part of something bigger. At moments it seemed to me that the composition and melodies where completely absent, and I was just listening to synth improvisation.
This album is seen as one of the first American Dungeon Synth recordings. And, despite the poor quality of the recording and the majority of the material presented on the album, this edition has a certain value, if we consider it as a historical document. But, first of all, this album may be interested for collectors or loyal fans. Not for latter day Equitant fans, but for Absu fans. Personally I found the Dungeon Synth style of this album a little archaic and monotonous- but that's just my take on it.