New Review on JudasKiss

A new review for “We Waited For A Subtle Dawn” posted on JudasKiss:

We Waited For A Subtle Dawn contains 15 tracks totalling 67 minutes. ‘A Subtle Dawn’ opens with a passage of a cappella wordless female vocals, which give way to a gloriously uplifting orchestral overture mingled with a confusion of looped crowd noise and staccato violins, which recall the work of modernist composer Steve Reich. Cymbal crashes and snare drum rolls add a bombastic martial flavour, but the track is over all too quickly, giving way to the choppy strings and strange scrabbling noises of ‘In A Chalice Shape’. Again, pizzicato strings and heavy rolls of percussion lend this track a cinematic, neo-classical quality. Life Toward Twilight are operating in the same general area as Shinjuku Thief, Frederik Klingwall or A Challenge Of Honour, at the point where neo-classical, orchestral compositions take on narrative overtones, evoking visions through sound. ‘”Time”, She Says’ is very different, though, eschewing orchestral instrumentation in favour of thunder effects rumbling across the stereo channels and a dense, gloopy morass of dripping and whispering, with a steady ticking clock fading in to mark the passage of time, a theme which continues into the following two tracks, ‘”Time”, She Points Again’ and ‘Years’, all of which reminded me a little of the recent Eight Studies In Transition collaboration between K. Mietzer and Horologium. All these tracks use cold, bleak dark ambient soundscapes, only occasionally introducing conventional instruments – a brief passage of cello, a lonely, remote piano melody, a dissonant blast of horns. The next few tracks are rather samey and indistinguishable – low, industrial ambient drones and subdued strings punctuated by deep, reverberating percussion and vocal samples, but the tenth track, ‘Eclipse II’ stands out, opening with thin, scraping high frequency tones, and bringing in dense barrages of textural noise and whistling feedback, something like Toroidh or Droin. Elyse Reardon’s vocals float above this uncompromisingly bleak backdrop. ‘Horbehutet’ is the lengthiest track on the album, at nearly nine minutes, and it’s a mesmeric, immersive experience of deep, Ain Soph-like esoteric drones and muffled, distant beats – I’d have been delighted by a whole album sounding like this, but Life Toward Twilight is a very eclectic and diverse-sounding project, ranging far and wide across various musical styles whilst preserving the prevailing dark mood.

“We Waited For A Subtle Dawn” is still available on CD, and can be downloaded for free from the Bottle Imp Productions site.

Sorry again to JudasKiss for disc mixup, normally promo packages go out with a lot of material. Will send you a better package soon!

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