Sádon & Treha Sektori — Symphony Of Dying
Symphony Of Dying originally appeared in 2017. It was a self-released album, however, the Dutch label Breathe Plastic Records released the album on cassette the same year. Two years after the initial release German label Cyclic Law reissued Symphony Of Dying as CD, LP and digital download
So a bit about the two projects-Sádon is a duet of two Russian musicians Donat Mavleev and Sanya Vorobey. The projects debut release of appeared in 2012. Sádon discography features nine releases. The French Dark Ambient project Treha Sektori has existed since 2009. The only participant in the project is Dehn Sora, who is a member of several bands playing in different genres of experimental and extreme music - Church of Ra, Ovtrenoir, Sembler Deah. Dehn Sora is also a graphic designer and makes the covers of his albums himself. Currently, there are eight full-length albums, and a few shorts in their discography.
The album cover is monochrome. And it features dark and gloomy photo of half a fading apple stitched in the middle. It looks like a scar stitched with metal wire. No texts are provided on the cover. The cover makes a pretty strong impression. To this image, you can pick up many different allegorical meanings. It is worth saying that the cover of the new edition of the album differs from the cover of the original album, although it is made in the same style and with the same semantic load. In the original version, the picture also depicted an apple, but instead of a surgical suture, an earring was inserted in the middle of the apple, like a piercing. The original photo was taken by Krista Mizerikord, and Dehn Sora worked on the cover in the new edition. Nevertheless, both cover options fit the albums sound/feel.
The runtime of the album is just over twenty minutes- consisting of five tracks of similar runtime. Due to its length, I think that this work is best regarded as an EP, and not a full-length album. As I said at the beginning of the review, collaboratve albums are always interesting- due to the blending of different approaches to music writing. In the case of Sádon and Treha Sektori, there is the common genre of ambient music, but each has their own take on the form. The solo work of Treha Sektori is a Dark Ambient with a rather gloomy ritual and shamanic background, as well as with a slight touches of industrial. Sádon sets their work in the lighter and airier Drone Ambient with a small share of acoustics, dark ambient and industrial elements, as well as with the addition of vocal lines. The combination of these different approaches on this joint album was, in my opinion, quite successful. We can hear atmospheric passages and rather gloomy parts, along with post-industrial and ritual rhythmic parts. The vocal of Donat Mavleev from Sádon plays a big role here. This is a clean and high vocal, reminiscent of Tor Lundvall, and singing in Russian in a melodic line characteristic of Slavic folk music. The vocal is closely intertwined with the main musical and sound line and creates additional depth and atmosphere. When listening to an album one a completely immersion in sound landscapes. As I said earlier, the album seems pretty successful to me. However, in my opinion, the contribution of Treha Sektori to this work is not very noticeable, except for a few gloomy moments and work with rhythmic lines. Symphony Of Dying is basically Sádon work, given that there are only three collaborative tracks with Treha Sektori. The first and last compositions of the album are entirely owned by Sádon. It is also worth mentioning that the new edition of the album is supplemented in comparison with the original release. Here is added the joint song "Spear Over Our Heads", which was not included in the original album.
In finishing we have a fairly solid and thoughtful joint work from these two worthy projects, which can be recommended for listening not only to fans of these musicians but also to fans of the Dark Ambient, Ambient and Drone genres in general