Today we are presenting two tracks from a split, one by each band. They create a fascinating complement to each other. Both are mysterious, barely tethered to our material plane. Both of them are capable of provoking wonder, and both create trance-like reactions. But one is enlivened by a kind of eerie brightness, while the other is the stuff of nightmares.
That’s only one person’s impression, and you may take other sensations away from hearing them. But what’s undeniable is that both tracks nourish the imagination. The resulting visions will be highly personal to the listener, and maybe not even intersecting with the visions of the creators, but both are triggers for waking dreams.
The name of the split, almost 80 minutes in length, is Prisoners of the Solar System, and the participants are both one-person projects, Satanath from Russia and Striborg from Australia. All the songs are new. It will be released jointly by GrimmDistribution and Death Portal Studio on the 31st of May.
Whatever your own imagination may fashion from this music, here is what we were told about its conception:
“Prisoners of the Solar System tells about the imprisonment of mankind in its tiny space prison for the next hundreds or thousands of years — the solar system.
“The governments of almost all countries of the planet willingly support the creation of a consumer society, and most people are interested only in entertainment, but not in science. In such a world, the creation of modern technologies that would allow interstellar flights will take much more time. However, among us there will always be dreamers whose driving forces are development and the desire to approach a future full of incredible discoveries.”
SATANATH: “ASTRAL SYMPHONIES”
For newcomers, Satanath is the one-man space/dark ambient project founded by Aleksey Korolyov, the boss of Satanath Records and a member of both Abigorum and Taiga. Almost three years have passed since the last release of Your Personal Copy, and 2021 will bring an anniversary in honor of which we’re told something special is being planned. This split bridges the gap.
The Satanath song we’re presenting, “Astral Symphonies”, is haunting ambient music, a glimmering sheen of sound, through which playful spectres seem to dart like quivering arrows and deeper vibrations shiver like pulsing ectoplasm within the voidspace. Deeper undercurrents begin to heave in ominous timbres, but the sound almost dies out. The volume ebbs, and mysterious sounds come and go, including a bit of percussive rhythm, and eerie glowing resonances, as if the specters have returned.
At least in this writer’s imagination, there is a brightness to the music, creating an entrancement of wonder that overshadows the more chilling aspects of the sound, as if beckoning us forward to something better.
STRIBORG: “EMPTY SORROW”
Striborg is a venerable project, originally founded by Sin Nanna under the name Kathaaria in 1993, but operating under the name Striborg (the appellation of a Slavonic wind god) since 1997. Black metal provided the original inspiration, but over time Striborg has reinterpreted those sounds, now composing electronic music in its own genre — Blackwave.
The Striborg song we are presenting, “Empty Sorrow“, is nearly 10 minutes long. It unfolds through a methodical, echoing drum rhythm, cymbal whispers, long oscillations of unnerving ambient waves — and a blood-congealing voice, the sound of an ancient gasping and snarling vampire that has risen from long-fouled ground. As the shimmering ambient waves flow, cresting and subsiding, the feeling of frigid menace intensifies, and the immersive effect of this nightmare does as well, as if pale hands are pulling us into the maw of hollow-eyed death.
The drum rhythms grow more agitated, and the vocals more insane, and maybe a hunger within the music grows as well, behind red eyes. You begin to realize that there is a seduction being practiced here, and the gloomy singing that surfaces (surprisingly), together with a noticeable pulse within the sound, only makes the seduction more powerful, as if to prevent you from seeing the sharpened teeth awaiting within this hallucinogenic mist, or feeling them as they sink slowly into your neck.
But again, that’s just one person’s attempt to describe the feeling. You’ll have your own.
Credit for the artwork goes to Benua Isya from Sorrowtonin, and credit for the mastering goes to Digivision Records (Belarus). One more song from each band is available for streaming at Bandcamp, where it’s available for pre-order.
PRE-ORDER:
https://grimmdistribution.bandcamp.com/album/062gd-satanath-striborg-prisoners-of-the-solar-system-split-2020
https://deathportalstudio.bandcamp.com/
SATANATH:
http://satanath666.bandcamp.com/
STRIBORG:
http://striborg.bandcamp.com/
TRACK LIST:
SATANATH
01. To Cosmic Prisoner
02. Uncivilizacio
03. Astral Symphonies
04. Kilasanthra
05. Darkspace Aura
STRIBORG
06. Interdimensional Transcendence
07. Empty Sorrow
08. The Burden Of Existence
09. A Nighttime Perplexity
10. Proceeding From A Dark Place
11. We Are All Prisoners
Length – 79:42