Title: Cocytus
Artist: Famine
Genre: Ambient
Release Date: 14h December 2008
Label: Bugs Crawling Out of People
Album Review
In last year’s May, FAMINE surfaced with his first official album release ‘Every Mirror Turns Black’ on Canadian brand Bugs Crawling Out Of People and let loose an orgy of extreme rhythmic complexity mixing it up with an extreme music form from another genre: The Black Metal. Shortly before last year ended he came across with another release. The EP ‘Cocytus’
“In Greek mythology, Cocytus, meaning river of wailing (Greek kokutos, "lamentation") was the river in the underworld on the banks of which the dead who could not pay Charon wandered…” “In Inferno, the first cantica of Dante's ‘The Divine Comedy’ Cocytus is the ninth and lowest circle of Hell.” And that’s the part, where FAMINE enters the game. He’s making this unreal world audible... sensible for us. He’s bringing to life the frozen regions of the lowest cycle in Hell in the centre of which Lucifer is imprisoned, desperately trying to escape. It’s astonishing that ‘Cocytus’ has not become another realm of insane complexity, but an ambient manifesto of sorts, which starts with ‘Cocytus I (Caina)’ putting upon our souls dark humming drones and from afar we can hear the raging screams of Lucifer before a realm of lush ambience opens up, confronting the listener with deep, soft textures carrying a subliminal undercurrent of sadness within. Our path leads us further to ‘Cocytus II (Antenora)’ where a daunting mood takes hold that is being multiplied along the path and in ‘Cocytus III (Ptolomea)’ manifests as stark fear when the ghostly calls of the souls, captive deep inside the frozen lake penetrate the surface to haunt you.
On the fourth part of ‘Cocytus’ named ‘Judecca’ we’re being exposed to a wall of sound made of textures, pads, abstract choirs and samples. Each and every single layer seems interlaced with the others. The spatial depth of the sound is breathtaking even multi-dimensional and excels everything we’ve come to hear in the other three pieces by far and takes everything to an entirely different level. The last track on this disc is called ‘Names of Dead Kings’ and grasps almost 17 minutes of duration. Listening to this piece makes me feel like roaming through an old subterranean crypt and every new corridor that’s emerging in the darkness bears more tombs and more names of a royal dynasty that’s long forgotten. Still you can feel the sublimity of this place and it makes you shiver.
Well, I can say that I didn’t expect FMINE to come up with such a release, really. That’s totally different from what was going on ‘Every Mirror Turns Black’. Three of the tracks on this release actually originate from 1996 and were re-mastered for better sound quality. Sometimes you can hear the age streaming through, but for me who’s grown up with tapes it adds a nostalgic factor to the whole thing. To cut a long story short: I think is a top ambient release and it’s free to download, so what are you waiting for? If you’d prefer to have something in your hands, there’s a limited CD edition available as well.
Tracklist
1. Cocytus I (Caina) – 4:58
2. Cocytus II (Antenora) – 3:58
3. Cocytus III (Ptolomea) – 4:03
4. Cocytus IV (Judecca) – 4:30
5. Names of Dead Kings – 16:43
Line-up
Famine – All Music & Production
Website
http://www.myspace.com/chxstfamine
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 8.5 / 10
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