Mphm -- Dominion (2008)

Abyssa

• Dark ambient 
• Experimentalism
• Organic electronica 
• Post-industrial 
• Avant-garde 
• Musique concrète 
• Psycho-acoustic 
• Ambient drone 
• Sound art

Veel üks meeldiv helikummitus minevikust -- prantslaste Abyssa (tegutses nullindate teisel poolel) all üllitatu kõlab kui üleloomulikke nähtusi edastav helitaies, milles kohtuvad nii pelutav kui maine, nii korrastatud kui kaootiline, nii rahutu kui letargiline; milles ka leivapudeme liikumine või kukkumine omaks psühholoogiliselt tektoonilist efekti. See koosneb helidest, mille puhul ei saa kohati aru, et kas lõpptulemus tuleneb produktsioonist või väliskeskkonna sekkumisest (nt siis, kui sõidad liinibussis). Helid roomavad, lagunevad, moodustuvad uuesti jääkidest. Loomulik hävimise-tekkimise tsükkel, mis käitab impulsse ja absorbeerib neid -- teisalt jätab jäljed hingesoppi, ning uued lumepallid hakkavad veerema viisil nii, et inimese psühhika osaleb selle loomises. Reaalsus ja fiktsioon segunevad, aju hakkab genereerima helisid, mida tegelikkuses ei eksisteeri (Maryanne Amacher näitas-tõestas seda). Kus on piir? Või piirid? Ja mille vahel? Meisterlike tekstuuridega helivaip, milles võimalikku toorest vaapa ja kummituslikku umbsust õhutatakse loodushelide ja inimhäälte poeesiaga. Üsna tavatult ei lükka seda kõike edasi ebastandardsed rütmid (siiski vahetevahel -- metallikola vormub rasketeks biitideks), vaid mehaanilise ning orgaanilise müra vastasseisust välja kasvav dissonants annab albumile impulsi.

Porzellan – Mountains Cycles (2008)

Abyssa

Archive.org

• Experimental electronica 
• Ambient 
• Minimal techno 
• Abstract
• Glitchtronica 
• Avant-electronica 
• Drone

Comment: It is said that sit down, close your eyes, listen to the mountain's birth, listen them rising, remain there forever. Indeed, it is a fine introduction by their French imprint Abyssa into this 12-track issue where silence, as it is said, is the most beautiful instrument. Indeed, nature is something unique and monumental and an artist's ambition to relate to it through his/her oeuvre it could be an immense challenge in any cases. I am convinced that an artist's fancy to record natural sounds to convey them to other people with intention to bring nature to their apartment through loudspeakers it used to be a naive, fallible idea. Because nature is an environment with an innumerable amount of sounds, perceptions and dimensions which all together establish a singular, unrepeatable phenomenon. Of course, if an artist's purpose is closely related to mix it with artificial sounds and subsequently synthesise something transgressive then I am going to say yes. This album is the latter case. This set of a 39 minute is an austere and minimal glimpse into the heart of an electronic genre where the basic algorithms are not unveiled only but also magnified in front of us. The examples are fine – one can hear swaying drones and agitated ambient shards and minimally pulsating techno vibes and roughly droning impulses.

Roswell Conspiracy – Les Fragments Anodins (2007)

Abyssa

• Ambient pop 
• Space pop 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Electronic music 
• Alternative
• IDM
• Sampledelic 
• Drone
• Kraut-electro 
• Indietronica 
• Ambient drone 
• Post-rock

Comment: if to compare TT-ram and Lutz Thuns´ collaborative release Hypnosis (2017) to Roswell Conspiracy`s 8-notch outing Les Fragments Anodins I can assume both of them are suggestive enough ambient inflected releases though pushed in different directions and showcased with different accents. The recent one is clearly more pop oriented and do away with morbid dark ambient infections in overall. Yet the term “pop” within the last sentence does not suggest something decayed and inferior at all. More profoundly, it does mean melodic and harmonic and intriguing at the same time while moving on through its multi-layered path. Partly it can be compared to the artist`s compatriots The Air`s more experimental doings. However, Roswell Conspiracy goes certainly beyond the above described adjectives because of employing tight and sticky droning at Rien, for instance. At Non the artist goes into a spacey post-rock/indie electronic quest. Here and there the listener can partake in cool electro-acoustic embellishments, some shreds of samples, hypnotic muffled signals and arousing electronic effects which used to stir the rest of the structure of a composition in a dizzy way. Many compositions are wrapped up in enchanting hisses and microscopic noises. The pre-eminent outing is a part of the discography of Abyssa.

Roswell Conspiracy – Les Fragments Anodins (2007)

Abyssa

• Electronic music 
• Kosmische Musik 
• Synthwave 
• Alternative 
• Space music 
• Ambient 
• Post-rock 
• Indietronica 
• Krautrock

Comment: this 8-track issue was released 9 years ago but its actuality could be even a bit more brought forth today than many years ago. Recently artists within the indie/alternative music exploit electronic devices as a main instrument to express their aesthetic and artistic ambitions. I am quite sure that soon such a sort of ambient music as represented here will be tagged as indie. However, it should not be surprising at all because history used to repeat itself. Its spiral curve was presented many decades ago with the appearance of krautrock with regard to its inner logic of development, from guitars to be left for synthesizers and for poignant electronic manipulation until it would have changed for a new beginning with other accents. It is partly movement, it is partly the consolidation of an old tradition, and the rejection of it. And sometime this pattern gets forgotten while the repetition is again thinkable. Throughout these 8 pieces one can follow these air and elemental part laden layers full of ennobling emotions and lofty sensations. In fact, its sophisticated technical side does not burn out emotions within it because it is artistically finely balanced. This awesome outing is a bit of the discography of Abyssa.

MPHM – Stunted Time (2006)

Abyssa

• Industrial music 
• Avant-garde 
• Post-industrial
• Alternative 
• Experimentalism 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Psycho-acoustic 
• Dark ambient 
• Illbient

Comment: in other words, “stunted” does mean inferior inferior in size and quality. However, it is quite puzzling to imagine temporal moments to be somehow inferior in size. In fact, I guess it does not mean nothing at all. On the other hand, temporal spans could be inferior in quality it is thoroughly viable. I guess one of the artist`s purposes was to have possibility to step back on the occasion. On the other side, maybe the artist`s goal was inclined to have a spot on sounds of lower quality and therefore the title could reflect inferior impulses upon your precise listening times. In fact, it is a span of quality time as it used to be with many industrial issues before it. Just everyone is aware of the fact the embodiment of industrial music embraces topics being provoking, irritating, and even disgusting to a “normal”, average human being. Its cultural heritage is a collection of murky and desolate shards being mixed up into something ennobling even if it might be horrendous, cheerless, morbid and perverted. By listening to this set of compositions it is rounded out by ill-omened orchestrations and sombre droning, morbid drumming being either based on lone gongs or programmed smouldering rhythms, outright desperate vocals and cut-up sonification, challenging electro-acoustic meddling and zombie-alike shit in general. At times one could perceive an interface to be set up between blackened ambient, Teutonic Klingklang approach and sultry rhythmic alchemy. Do not afraid of it while being the subject to such approaches and sounds because it is especially intriguing to listen to it after a day’s hard work. Furthermore, if you are looking at such composition as Slumber Machinery your soul is going to bleed presumably because of being touched so poignantly and painfully. Of course, the situation is getting worse if it evokes adverse flashbacks from your memory. Undoubtedly it does have potential to do it. In a word, the result is outstanding both by scratching one`s strings in deep of his/her soul because of being outstanding by the formal and substantial side. The outing is a bit in the discography of excellent French imprint Abyssa (its active years had passed during the 00s).

Tzii – Fascinum (2008)

Abyssa

9.5

/Dark ambient, Psycho-acoustic, Chamber music, World music, Martial music, Dystopbient, Experimentalism, Avant-garde, Neoclassical, Illbient/

Comment: Abyssa was a French label which had issued a solid array of excellent experimental music for many years. Tzii`s Fascinum is a fine example of being a part of it, more concretely, revealing its crossover nature of treated, brooding chamber music layers and illbient/dark ambient/dystopbient laden oscillations and off-kilter sonic effects and reverberations. At times Tzii adds the ominous, steely punches of martial music into the billowy blend. Furthermore, the ending track bases on a weird skiffle of ethnic/tribal rhythms which are a little warped, however, gradually acquiring the motorik, even ritual pattern throughout the course. Indeed, it is an unexpected and truly weird appearance with regard to the logic of the previous tracks. On the whole, Tzii`s work is as great by depth as it is by proficiency.

Sobria Ebrietas - The Secret Chord (2009)

Abyssa
Abyssa
Myspace

8.8

/Dark ambient, Martial music, Ambient noise, Experimentalism, Soundscape, Dystopbient, Avant-garde, Minimalism/

Comment: Sobria Ebrietas was born around 1995-96 in France as a side-project to such band as Absolutely Curtains. Since then SE has been a profilic plodder, developing his vista about murky and noiseful soundscapes. Here is one album being released under the cult label Abyssa (now being defunct one already). Indeed, The Secret Chord used to "talk" about an almostly omnipotent merge of lush noise, epic dark ambient/dystopbient, "shouting" lopsided soundscapes, exorcized minimal and microtonal music, threatening echoes of martial fields, and reverberating spoken word ghosts. A profound set indeed.