re:mote voices

Title: Consolamentum
Artist: Herbst 9
Label: LOKI Foundation

Consolamentum is a vinyl EP from Herbst 9 on LOKI Foundation, the two tracks showing Herbst 9 at his best, and offering a nice solid and compact dose of his ritualistic dark ambient works.

The first side is Blood Moon Ritual, which starts with a beat sequence - 1-2-3 - with greater depth being added in each step. Slow gong strikes and echoes, then those 3 beats repeat. Developing the ritualistic space through the atmosphere created. The sound of monks singing can be heard in the background darkness. Metal sounds saw as slight detail to accompany the bass wash.

Past 3 minutes the drumming starts, steady skin rhythm, strikes for the rise of the blood moon. Surrounding and thickening beats join with the raised voices. Additional drummers fill the spaces between beats, developing overlapping patterns.

This form stays consistent towards the 9-minute mark, when the chanting and beats fall off, leaving waves of bass drones. The whitened tips of this wash comprised of glints and chimes. Glimpses of a ridge, something throwing ripples by it's motion. Eventually slow voice calls layer into the weave, along with the sound of a single drummer, striking wooden rim rather than skin. Slow drift, stripping to conclusion.

The second side is the 11-minute title track Consolatmentum, where deep bass groans up, strokes playing a periodic jangled rattle. The groan layers, an open abyss, crackled rip and drone. Wooden lines flick in a percussive suggestion, played off wire brush strokes. The groans shifting, an equilibrium between vocal and spatial, describing the present body of the piece. Other details are shimmering and transitory motions. Ritualistic creep comes in past 8-minutes, slow wooden drums. With that comes a muffled vocal bass hum, contrasted by the trails of passing things, liquid surface strokes.