Tenebrious/Ascetic Hedonism — Split
Each project here offers up two tracks a piece, and first out of the gate we have two tracks from Tenebrious - this is a Indianan based project brings together Dustin Redington( of blacked noise drone project Crown Of Bone/ many other projects) & Ralph Bates. The pair create a dense, multi-layered & swirling sound that is both darkly psychedelic & grimly hazed – they utilizes a mixture of sinister keyboard ambience, dark brooding electronic drone matter, subtle blacked noise & grim industrial texturing, drifts occult based yet often difficult to discern samples, and all manner unsettling sonic matter.
Open up the release we have the just over ten mintues of “Believers That Conceive Then Sacrifice Their Own At Birth”. This track opens up in fairly searing yet eerier fashion with a thin galloping noise roast, which has a back drop of uneasy ‘n’ swirling slightly industrialized ambience. As the track progresses it slow but surely gets more & more hazed, darkly blurred & unsettling in it’s feel- as the pair swirl into the chilling & dense soup: distant creepy organ hover, slurred & malevolent subtle blacked noise elements, effect bent & melted documentary samples about rituals, slow moving plates of unsettling reverb, sweeps of reversed & muffled chants, & sudden swells of galloping noise roasts- all to create a very unsettling yet nightmare like or drug hazed occult tinged vibe.
Second up from Tenebrious we have the track "Immersed In Total Blackness During Sleep Paralysis", and this comes in at the nine minute thirty mark. This track starts off with amassed yet muffled swirl 'n' ebb of hazed moans/ chants , and slow clunking ’n’ eerier drifts of slurred metal bash ‘n’ drag. Fairly soon a drowning 'n' crawling churn organ simmer appears in the back ground of the track, and this marks out a slow eerier harmonic feel…yet like the first track, it never fully firms up in structure or shape, so once again you have that surreal nightmare or drug hazed feel. As the track progresses the pair slowly shift ‘n’ ebb through muffled & distant black noise drifts, semi harmonic wavering drones, faint industrial bashers & metallic scraps. Once again it’s another very chilling yet hazed sonic journey.
Next up of course we have two tracks from the second project, which comes in the form of New Jersey based Ascetic Hedonism- the project apparently features the guys behind whispering eye recordings tape label. I guess this projects sound is a lot more common garden dark ritual ambience, compared with Tenebrious sound…yet both tracks here are rewarding & satisfying enough examples of the form.
First up we have the just under seven mintues of "Buried By The Shadows of Eternity". This track revolves around a chilling mix of stretched & shadowy blacked ambient tones, sinister & brooding drone ebbs, sudden ritual drum rolls, and a building feeling of blacked ritual tension.
Second up we have "Oblivions Liturgy", which comes in just over the eight minute mark. This track opens up around a urgent, repetitive & chilling synth tone pattern, which is surrounded with by shadowy echoes & ritual drum runs. By the third minute the pace has eased right back, and we get the slow brooding uncurl of shudder inducing deep ‘n’ dark ambient tones, which are tipped by this distant sighing/ rumbling elements.
As splits go this is a rewarding & bone chilling ride- I enjoyed both of the projects two tracks, but I think the two Tenebrious tracks stood out most, as I do very much enjoy this projects fairly unequal brand of psychedelic hazed darkness & nightmare blurred occult dread.