Saturn Form Essence — Alpha & Proxima / Signals
On Alpha & Proxima / Signals we have extended to short slabs of focused drone that sound dense, atmospheric, and quite organic in nature. You’ll find drifting resonance of varying tones contrasted with deep, low-end drones that really give my speakers the workout. That said, I often find albums in the ambient drone realm to be terribly difficult to describe. I find it even more so on this one. It’s hard to find any discernible instrumentation to describe in length, so rather than trying to remark on the sounds presented, I’m better off describing what thoughts circled around my mind while engrossed in this epic sound journey.
Imagine there’s a violent storm approaching and the only cover in sight is an uninhabited cave. You take shelter in this massive rock formation gazing at the impending force of nature approaching in your periphery. There’s no perceptible thunder, lightning, or rain at this stage just the forming storm’s slow moving presence. The cave’s solid walls reverberate with low-end and atmospheric acoustics. Despite mother nature’s destructive force, everything sounds and feels quite tranquil at this stage. And it’s that quiet before the storm moment that this album resides. That about sums up my experience with this album.
The most glaring difference between the EPs compiled on this album are their lengths. “Alpha Centauri” and “Proxima Centauri,” which make up the Alpha & Proxima EP, occupies more than 43 minutes of the disc’s time (a far cry from what I would consider EP length). The 2 Signals EPs offer far shorter tracks, ranging from 1:16 to 6:39 in length. Certainly music of this sort tends to lend well to long extended tracks to ensure maximum drone zone exposure. Surprisingly, the shorter tracks feel no less mesmerizing. Truth be told that outside of length, it’s really subtle variances that differentiate the tracks on this disc…. a slight difference in tone, a little more aggressive bass drone, you get the idea. If you're sold on track 1 you should enjoy this all the way through.
This release is right in my comfort zone: dense, atmospheric, focused, and highly meditative. It’s a damn shame that Nahàsh Atrym is now defunct, because each and every one of their releases (at least those that I own) are top notch in both sound and presentation. Aces all around on Alpha Proxima / Signals!. Head over to the label to check out samples & pick-up a copy here:https://nahshatrymproductions.bandcamp.com/album/element-of-cosmos-explorer-one