VA: Muzyka Voln
Zhelezobeton

If Muzyka Voln, the inaugural release on the identically-named sub-label of Russian imprint Zhelezobeton, is indicative of the sub-label's direction, Muzyka Voln's focus will be dark ambient dronescaping. Twelve Russian artists—Kshatriy, Exit In Grey, Hum, RemoteBand, Polaris, and others—contribute to the seventy-eight-minute compilation whose moods range from peaceful (Necropolis's glacial “At the End of the Universe”) to brooding (Instant Movie Combinations' “Boiler Pipe”) to harrowing (Closing The Eternity's “Autumn Dream”). Helping the evocation process along, some pieces are programmatically titled (e.g., Bardoseneticcube's “The Castle in a Fog”) but the material alone is already evocative enough to do the job. The lonely and limitless expanses of deep space are realized convincingly by Cisfinitum's “Moon Room” while “In Gedanken an Russisches Drone” by Anthesteria brings the release back to terra firma with a combination of acoustic folk and orchestral elements that suggests a dark forest setting. If anything, the word cinematic is an understatement where Closing The Eternity's “Autumn Dream” is concerned; no visuals are needed when this gloomy soundtrack conjures so vividly the image of the damned drowning in the fiery waters of Hell.

June 2008