Dracones is the latest release from Hüma Utku, who maps and performs a journey from pregnancy to motherhood with astounding clarity and detail. Unlike so many other personal narratives transposed into sound, Dracones is anything but celebratory or self-indulgent. Instead, Utku manages to press our noses up against the immediacy and claustrophobia of the corporeal changes she underwent while making this album, building a dark and moody background through minimal instrumentation. 

From the screeching bellows of the opening track, "A World Between Worlds", Utku announces the sonic character of the ensuing pieces, seven in all, which might just as well be in outer space as in the musician's body: both equally dark and distant.

Dracones is more than texture, though, as evidenced by Utku's manipulation of her source material, detailing the pulsating rhythms of ultrasound machines and the auditory present of life becoming. "A Familial Curse", the third and longest track, sweeps through sequenced bleeps to introduce a thumping kick drum, much slower than a heartbeat but just as incessant. As the piece marches on, said drum becomes thoroughly distorted and its pace quickened, the curse an inevitable heritage of new life. On "Here Be Dragons", a human voice emerges from the miasma of the nether reaches of Utku's metamorphosing body. The technical takes over, if you will, and more predictable sequencing occurs, which leaves the whole thing kind of more alien than human, which may very well be the point – new life begins via distance and delay.

Fans of Utku's other work, Editions Mego, and dark ambient in general, will find much here worth investing in. For those unfamiliar, Dracones is a truly unique take on a familiar subject. Very highly recommended!. For more