DESIDERII MARGINIS / MOAN / ARTEFACTUM "Lost Signals from Unknown Horizons"
Silver Charisma / Beast of Prey | BOP 1.2 | CD-R | 2003

Recently, our local martial industrial/neo folk fraction closely linked with Apostazja magazine has been giving new signals that bespeak a great sprightliness of theirs not noticed before! Count how many CD-R labels have grown up on the magazine's soil - Beast of Prey, Wrotycz, Silver Charisma, add some satelite agendas like Wyrm, War Office Propaganda and surely a few more which I'm not aware of at the moment. See, quite prolific they are indeed! I hope they won't stay on the surface of being virtual ephimeres, or small manufactories that churn out dozens of crappy releases for the sake of doing so. Anyway, what we have here is a debut on Silver Charisma label - a split release between Swedish dark ambient star from CMI, one pretty known and one not really known project from Poland. All share their love for dark ambient.
'Lost Signals from Unknown Horizons' (I actually gave some thought to the meaning of the title but finally I gave up! - it still sounds to me like a mere juxtaposition of accidental words; sorry guys!) is opened by Desiderii Marginis who may seem bound to be seen as the main attraction of this release. However, I am of the opinion he fails the expectations. The software dark muzak (alas, it's very obvious!) puts you off with its artificial sound! Dark ambient in the almost classic sense. The tracks lack good ideas, nothing to keep your attention here! Some cheesy beats, sacral choirs, dark ambient blows and tunes can't satisfy anybody except newcomers who've just started started digging CMI catalogue. The entire piece by Desiderii Marginis sounds as it was done in one afternoon with one hand on a PC, the other hand holding a cup of cofee at the same time. Great disappointment.
Moan's light is shining brightly on the local firmament while the others have faded away. Because of the absence of a few main groups, Rafal Sadej seems to be the top Polish dark ambient maker. The three tracks included here show his serious approach to every undertaking he's involved in. The experience gained through a large amount of releases brought progression Moan's style. No more straight inclinations to Lustmord or anybody of that ilk. Moan possesses the knowledge of how to execute his ideas, and realizes them well in various situations - the initial track seems a bow to old times - interstellar journey with star dust, distant outburts, and dark cold matter. The second is like wandering across a mourky dungeon - lots of dark and cold cells to visit - a delicate voyerism towards contemporary music - sonorous parts, electro acoustics, musique concréte, micro tones; all that drenched in dark ambient. The final part of Moan's set is a fine conglomerate of dark ambient streams with samples! Very good!
I didn't expect much from Artefactum, and indeed I haven't got much. Curiously, the project consists only of a woman, and the forthcoming release will be out on Athanor (Bardoseneticcube, Exotoendo, Zero Kama, Psychonaut.). At first I tended to think quite high of Artefactum, but the more I've listened to her three tracks, the more I've been wavering. The music comprises all techniques and tricks of the trade known from an elementary book for a dark ambient beginner - 'deep breathings', sonic hazes, streams, keyboard passages, sad tunes, and Artefactum employs them skillfully, but so what if dozens of other groups do the same? The cheesy electro beats in the last track were a nail to her coffin. To be avoided.
A few words about the packaging - the black, pro-printed CD-R is wrapped in an envelope purporting to look like a previous century letter with a stamp and a seal. Inside, you can find a postcard, some flyers, and small picture of mouldered sculpture. The whole set reminds me of Les Joyaux de la Princesse products, but generally, looks fine. Silver Charisma plans to edit 3" CD-R from pop / neo folk project Out Of Sight this year...

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