As an H.P. Lovecraft fan, I have high hope for any art - be it music, painting or literature - that attempts to cash in on the mythos. Creating a soundtrack is a particularly difficult task without the benefit of visuals, but with only the vague descriptions of primordial terrors penned in the early part of the 20th century the task must seem very daunting. After all, the beauty of Lovecraft was that you got to fill in the blanks, so you projected your own nightmares onto the frame that Lovecraft provided.
In this four-track compilation, Avant garde artists Jaaporit, Aarni, Umbra Nihil, and Caput LVIIIM have come together for the first in a three part series of aural tributes to the mythos. Blending elements such as ambient electronics, progressive metal, and blackened space-doom, the bands aim to split the walls between the dimensions of literature and music to invoke the old ones.
The opening track is the 25-minute long electronic psychedelic monster ‘Kuihtuman Henkivi’ by Jaaporit - the sprawling mix of futuristic synths and distorted noises are as chaotic as they are controlled and makes for interesting listening. Umbra Nihil offer up more disturbing yet beautiful sounds on the ten-minute opus ‘Suur-Nikkurin Virsi’ that makes use of both distorted samples and relaxing acoustic guitars before crashing into crushing spaced-out doom. Aarni’s ‘Lovecraft Knew’ on the other hand is a twisted progged-out slice of doom that sounds like Rick Wakeman after a nervous breakdown. The ritual is rounded off by thirty minutes of Caput LVIIIM’s ‘Resurgent Atavism’ which is probably the most sanity-shattering track on the album; with it’s swirling distorted samples and hanging funeral-doom guitars it is the most disserving of the “Lovecraftian” tag.
This is an interesting album put together by artists who know their stuff. There is a lot that invokes the mental imagery of Lovecraft, but maybe not enough that correctly invokes the horror? Jaaporit and Caput LVIIIM are joint winners here, with Umbra Nihil and Aarni not too far behind, but maybe needing some more work to bring out the darker elements of their contributions. A good effort all round though and I’ll be interested to hear the next two parts.
http://www.myspace.com/yogsothery
