"Winter Malaise" is a collaboration between IOK1 and Ajna, both making dark ambient and drones.Track 01 (all tracks are entitled as "Winter Malaise") begins with dark, mid frequencies, which comes in like waves on a shore. The main sound is a continues and all present, bleak and choir-like soundscape drenched in reverb, later joined by a metallic, ringing drone. The choirs run kind of slow and calm on the background, but seem to be getting more present towards the end of the track. The second track begins much brighter, but that could be mind play. Its actually a wolf in sheep clothes, quickly showing its true nature. Here, soft and remote scapes are joined by ominous upcoming and fading drones, which are changing the course of this track. Halfway the track nasty yet calm and crunched up noises come in, and the remote scapes are getting darker in tone, much darker, to eventually turn into a slow, eerie, sine-like wave. The third track opens with a very silent drone. Slowly building towards massively, reverbed scapes. The silent drone gets louder and changes in course occasionally and is than joined by low breathing, which sounds a bit like a troubled giant. Also reverbed metallic sounds join in towards the last minutes. The last track has the mood of the first one. Utterly bleak and "no hope" are also the keywords here. Its like being stretched out in a landscape, with all your hopes and dreams, stripped down from their last illusions.
It was the cover/photograph which made me listen to this album, and I didn't regret it one bit.
If you are a dark ambient fan, defenitely try this one out.
Download:
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