***

The contents of this 3" CD from Ukrainian Dark Syndicate's is just about the last thing you'd expect from such a diminutive media: there is nothing brief, cute, or endearing about "Innerself...isolationism". In fact, the 21 miunute track is a harrowing journey through a grim goth/sci-fi soundscape of echo, subconscious moans, and electronic howls. This is a potent soundtrack looking for one depressing film.

Tamizdat Org. (Czechia)

***

Второй релиз сольного проекта тов. Gorgoroth`а. На нем представлены две композиции и одно видео. Сразу скажу пару слов об этом элементе релиза. Я не поклонник видео-клипов, тем более в моей голове сложно прижиться мысли о том, что может существовать такой вид искусства, как индустриальное видео. Такого рода музыку я всегда ценил именно за то, что она рождает в сознании образы, некие визионерские переживания, которые не обязательно дополнять картинкой "извне". Тот вариант, который предложил нам Горгорот и его соавтор, меня не впечатлил. Ну, видео, сделанное на компьютере… больше добавить нечего.

Теперь о звуковых дорожках. Два трека, минут по 10 каждый. Если вы слышали полноформатный диск, выпущенный поляками на Soulworm ed., то, вероятно, вы будете озадачены. Нет псевдо-космических пассажей, ушли в прошлое delay-эффекты… Вам предлагается погрузиться в музыку, которой имеется очень точное название - "изоляционизм". Довольно аккуратная работа, без свойственных большинству death-industrial актов аляповатости. Приглушенные шумы, атмосфера полной клаустрофобии. Единственный минус - не совсем удачный сэмпл на русском языке из советского B-moves во второй композиции.

Денис - Машинное отделение (Россия)

***

3-track maxi-CDR with ultra-dark ambience and spheric music with a ritual touch from a ukrainian project around UKRAINIAN DARK SYNDICATE.
Very good!

Stefan - Drone Records (Germany)

versatility of perception

Ukraine has put itself on the map for ambient and experimental music a long time ago. There are quite a few artists coming from this country that have shown they can do quite some beautiful music. Amongst those is Filius Macrocosmi.

On this double cd-r set, we find 16 beautiful tracks. Nearly two hours of beautiful ambience. Ranging from quite dark atmospheric ambient to more light and open ambient.

An additional reason for wanting this set is the beautiful artwork. The two cd-r's come in a beautiful dark blue cardboard packaging with golden print on it.

All in all, for people who like atmospheric ambient music, this set is definately recommended. There is some pure beauty to be found in the music on these two cd-r's. And once again, I am very impressed with the Ukrainian music scene.

Stefan - Electronic Music World (The Netherlands)

***

This is actually my first exposure to this project though I have been curious about it for quite some time now. What we have here is an incredible looking double CD digipack made out of sparkly blue paper with beautiful gold print, I've never seen any like it and it is impressive. So before you even pop it in the player you get the feeling of a vague nostalgia mixed with a sense of mysticism, which goes along nicely with what is found inside.

The first CD (I guess these are technically CDrs but that's really a moot point since the are printed so nicely you can barely tell the difference) is a re-release of the "Microcosm 1-9" full length released on Soulworm Editions a couple years back. Has it stood the test of time? I'd say definitely. The tracks here follow a similiar theme: heavily delayed pulsating synths with a lot of harmony thrown in. The atmosphere represented here being one of inner space, an intimate vacuous space, if ever you could have such a thing. This is not for the noisy crowd, this is more for the contemplative and spaced-out. If you are looking for a nice cohesive trip to an inner world this is the ticket to get you there. The question of cheesiness only arises once and that one time is a vague aroma that quckly disperses in the beginning of track 5, where some old school choir synth presets are used almost envoking a Phillip Glass feel. But again, this is quickly faded into the reverberating netherworld, and the cheesy "electronicness" of the pad sounds like it is actually a conscious decision, again playing off our feelings of organic and electronic associations. Whether it's actually successful or not is up to the listener.

This is all really, minimalistic and synthy but with enough fx to drive originality into the recording.

The second disc kicks off with an outright cheesy track. The neo-classical bits are not well hidden enough to excuse the fact that these are cheap pizzacato string sample banks. Reminds me more of a black metal intro track or something though before you get the good stuff because following this 2'45" intro is an excellent track full of drones and noise and more synths this time taking the rhythmic route, if this had more distortion it would be power electronics but instead if comes of as kind of noisy dark ambient, an amazing track. This newer material seems more on the industrial-ambient side of things, with a little of the synth-influenced stuff to compliment it. Still enjoying this, a nice save from the intro track. There are truly some great moments in this album probably one of my favorite being the end of "Isolationism II: Tayga Stillness" which features eerie melancholy drones and some old samples mixed with whooshing industrial and synth sounds. Definitely top notch material on that track. Filivs Macrocosmi really lets down enough of the outright synth influences to feed the listener some (to use the Aural Pressure term, because it just fits so well here) excellent "black ambient". I'd probably say I'm actually enjoying the second disc more even though it doesn't have as much character as the first, but this is more my kind 'o' shit: deep abstract industrial ambient textures with hints of synths mixed in.

Overall this is a great CD set and recommended for any fan of harmonic synth-based industrial ambient drone. Not extremely original but a high quality release that should be heard.

xdementia - Blood Ties Webzine (USA)

oxymoron structures

Symphonic & cosmic ambient from Ukraine, very dark and deep and melancholic, mostly based on analogue-synth work and ultra-slowed down samples, between dark ambient and more cosmic synthsequencer stuff, done very carefully & with passion.

Stefan - Drone Records (Germany)

stalker

Трибьют фильму, микс из звуков, слов и сцен, один трек на 46 минут. Компактное изложение знакомого с детства образца классики советского кино в персональном видении. Хочется назвать музыку дарк-эмбиентом, но для этого она слишком неоднородна: скорее, альтернативный саундтрек, динамичное звуковое полотно, раскрывающееся постепенно и неторопливо.

Дмитрий Васильев - Monochrome Vision (Россия)