Apotheosis
Farthest From the Sun
Nocturnal Art
This record is a bit hard to pin down, and the music is a listening challenge as well. Written, programmed and performed by someone passing himself off as Sauron, it straddles a netherworld between classical, head-banging heavy metal, and opera. With four largely overlapping cuts, the individual pieces pass through all these forms and a few I may have missed. There are calm passages and light flute segments, and anthemic barrages of metal guitar and orchestra. What can one make of all this? I somehow feel there ought to be a Dungeons & Dragons movie with no dialogue showing over this, or it might back an evil Kabuki play in an experimental film.
There are dense and hard to read liner notes, describing Sauron’s attempt to merge ambient and black metal music on an 8-bit Amiga computer. Technically challenging, he may have done what he set out to do. The Apotheosis song I most remember is his raging techno cover of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” (not on this disc, go fish). It’s one of those pieces you’ve heard, but can never place. This disc moves further into S’s individual struggle to merge these disparate musical styles. I think the effort is effective, but it’s not a product that one adapts to in a casual listen. It took me three or four attempts to get through this disc once, but it continues to grow on me. Who knows, it may end up on my all-time favorite list, but I’m still not ready to pop it into my car CD player and risk the ride down I-4. It’s music for musician, art for artist, and I long for some video accompaniment to clarify what runs thought the composers head.
Nocturnal Art Productions: http://www.nocturnalart.com
