Title: Ontology
Artist: Anhedonia
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: March 2009
Label: Aliens Production
Album Review
‘Ontology’ is described as being “the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations.” And it is also the title of ANHEDONIA’s second album, released on Slovakian label Aliens Production earlier this year. If a project chooses such a word to name their album after that raises some expectations about the musical content on the album and on how it deals with the specific subject matter. Unfortunately, the track titles only lead to one conclusion: It mostly just doesn’t, perhaps except for the title track. Otherwise, nothing even remotely refers to the topic and therefore pushes the term into triviality by making it a mere album title.
That is not to say the musical content is abysmal crap to throw into the garbage. It just gives it a bit of a negative connotation. Actually, the music lives up to the expectations I had after the debut ‘Destructive Forces’. Still, it’s plain to see whose hands were twiddling the knobs; however the material on ‘Ontology’ as opposed to the debut is more ambient. It begins with the ‘Intro’ and crackling, rough field recordings braided into multiple pad layers and later on a constant carpet of low noise. The theme kind of continues with ‘Entire Lack of Joy’, evoking autumnal feelings with cloudy soundscapes and a sense of flying, carried on a strong breeze of wind over the sea and sophisticated rhythmic structures whose noise or distortion proportions increase a few minutes into the track. ‘Drone’ is a peculiar, futuristic-sounding mesh of altering layers and just the drones it owes its name to, while ‘Crossroads of Evolution’ is propelled by percussion-styled patterns and haunted by the disquieting blaze of sinister atmospheres.
The title track itself exposes you to shimmering veils of darkest moods laid out on a ground of rhythmic intricacy that is contrasting more exhilarating melodic cascades with its increasingly harsh and noisy complexion towards its finale and ‘Empty Feelings’ turns out as the only vocalized tune with prominent support of label mates and bosses of DISHARMONY on a compound of partly decaying electronics juxtaposed to expansive ambient ingenuity. To sum ‘Ontology’ up, we don’t need many words anymore. Its intricacy lets you discover new details with every spin and the dense atmospheres are going to captivate you. For the next time though, the project should choose an album title more tied to the theme of the music which wasn’t the case here in my opinion.
Tracklist
01. Intro - 2:48
02. Entire Lack of Joy - 6:09
03. Anhedonia - 4:51
04. Drone - 3:12
05. Crossroads of Evolution - 4:36
06. Emitter Junction - 4:18
07. Empty Visions - 4:23
08. Ontology - 5:48
09. Sounds - 3:23
10. Instincts - 4:20
11. Asmodium - 5:00
12. Empty Feelings - 5:19
13. They have been Released - 4:20
14. Leaving Demons Behind - 5:34
15. Outro - 2:37
Line-up
Vojtech Smetana - Sound design, music programming, mixing, mastering
Website
http://www.myspace.com/anhedoniacz
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 8 / 10
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