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Finnish ritual dark ambient label Aural Hypnox has distinguished themselves from their contemporaries with the deep organic timbre of their work, often sourced from acoustic instruments, and the otherworldly transporting energy they put forth, with great sincerity. This new cassette, Transcendental Radiations I, is the beginning of a new multi-artist series for the so-called "Helixes" collective, which encompasses all of the label's major artists. This first album in the series is created by the pair of Anti Haapapuro (of Arktau Eos, Halo Manash, Aeoga and more) and Jussi Saivo (of Tiermes and Aural Holograms, an Aural Hypnox project also including Anti).

The album is split into two 20 minute pieces, sides A and B of the cassette. The first several minutes are stygian drones and gothic pads, muffled and muted lower octave 'aahs' which spell forboding and conjure images of volcanic subterrain. The cave-like environs are a familiar space for fans of this label, the distant monstrous howls and bleats not unlike parts of the early Halo Manash albums. The "acoustic ambient" and tribal feel of other labelmates like Arktau Eos is downplayed here, a seemingly endless well of inky, spacious opacity with no plucked instruments or rhythms for grounding.

What we have here is deep, undulating tone, with a periphery of vocalization from the shadows that reaches intimidating urgency. There is a hypnotic two-note 'bassline', seemingly synthetic in nature: a full, rounded sine wave buzz. It appears first at the beginning of side A, then snakes its way back in around the ten-minute mark after various phases of swelling and dissipation. If the reverb is artificial, it has been implemented (performed?) in such a way that it contorts and shifts quite naturally. It is possible, from the way it sounds, that it is the natural reverb of a cave space.

The visionary, astral mood is thoroughly established, the manic spirit of night awakened. In the mind's eye flash dream-like, shifting pictures. As a tool for reaching transcendent states, this album succeeds. The oozing, luminous quality of its production seems to defy easy technical explanation. The scraping, whining, distant moans could as easily be the mournful call of a beast, a piece of metal being strained and bent, or a rock dragged against the surface of another.

In a way, this is a more traditional 'dark ambient' than I've typically heard from Aural Hypnox, focusing on air effects and negative space. It is among the most minimal on the label, containing few distinct instrument timbres. Yet, its ambiguity is its greatest strength, a billowing smoke that quickly fills the whole of your mind, more successful by my estimation than many of the scene's classic albums.

On side B, the oneiric melancholia intensifies, with organ-like higher octave harmonizations upon the grim bass tones. This gradual, intelligent building of intensity makes the entire album feel like a single piece, a massive crescendo that resolves one or two minutes before the actual ending, a sort of dissipating retreat away from the brooding weight of the chordal tonality, back into the periphery of undirected shadows.

This is some of my favourite work from this Finnish collective of ritual ambient artists. With only ninety-four copies made, this isn't going to be the most widely circulated release, but it is among the most potent of their sound concoctions. For lovers of truly psychedelic soundscapes and fierce nocturnal energy..