Karol Skrzypiec's Inner Vision Laboratory is back with its third release, Austeros. Thick, spacey ambient drifts and drones, and, unlike most background ambient, this one forces you to listen. Creaking, clacking, sometimes suffocating, this isn't your grandma's ambient. Solid enough to stand on, but light enough to carry you away, Austeros is a real treat for the senses.

 

Thick, rumbling, and distant, "Stalker Trail" opens the album by making the listener find his spot in space and time. Nebulous and everywhere, one is unsure of whether it's a sonic approach or retreat. Is one sitting still while galaxies are being born around him? Growing in strength, the climactic highs signal the center of the glorious event before fading out into the lows that introduced us to this cosmic ballet. Like an ancient sky watching ritual, "Three Until You See" haunts the listener with the sound of old wind instruments and distant chants. The ensuing beat adds a sense of urgency to the frantic ritual, like the summoning of some old one is near. Continuing on this path to enlightenment, "A Tunnel Too Twisted" adds a different vocal and light noise to a low, slowly moving drone. The sky opens wide before the participant's consciousness is vaulted upward among the stars. Floating with full vision, the scope grows. "A Home to None" takes on a more chthonic tone. Tribal and earthy, it helps to balance out the spacefaring essence of the preceding song. Squeaky highs pop into play and work well against the low, constant beat. The sparseness of "Obey the Soil" makes one feel as though the franticness of their trip has ended, and now he awaits for the answers to fall into place. Slowly oscillating, moving like a thick cloud, sparks of light form in the darkness. Thick and enveloping, but somehow open and inviting, this is the Earth communing with the traveling psyche. Taking a different turn, "Rust Vermillion Face" shatters and drones in various ways. While not as natural sounding (meaning more man made than the sound of the universe just being), the underlying tone of "Rust" manages to fit in well with the grand space viewing of the rest of Austeros. The light guitars add a really nice dimension to this track, too. "Bow Before Ancient Mother" closes out the album like a journey into the guts of Mother Earth herself. Traveling to worship deep in her chthonic womb, the listener journeys deep into the subterranean void and is rewarded with life giving water and a trip to the other side.

 

Both cosmic and chthonic, Austeros takes the listener on a wondrous journey of low, slowly moving, earthy drones and bright, eye opening waves of  starlight. If your mind has been opened in the past, Austeros may help you get back to your state of cosmic travel and re-evaluate your spot on Earth. This is definitely recommended