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It’s quite a while ago I did another
review from a dark ambient release. But strolling through my collection I found
“Mosquito Dream”, a dated but very remarkable album from James Plotkin (also known
from Khanate, a black doom metal band from the US) and the experimental artist
Brent Gutzeit. It’s a collaboration starting from 1994, where Gutzeit reworks
(or deconstructs) Plotkins guitar recordings, and Plotkin remixes the
recordings from Gutzeit. This process went on for a while, till it got finished and
released in 1999.
The first track “Mosquito Dream”, (entitled
as the album name) starts out quiet and very slow with humming, cold drones (which
sound a bit like airplanes) and eerie, glacial soundscapes that sometimes sound
like moving ice caps. It’s like you are watching at this world, which is passing
you by and without interacting in it. The second one, called “Sand Scroll”, is immediately
setting the mood: very spacious, blackened ambient with total bleakness. The universal
feeling of emptiness is at hand. This
song seems to be existing out of two parts. The first part is what I already described.
The second part is longer and sounds more organic and tactile. Here, flanger
like effects mix up with echo and deep, darkened voice-like drones. In “Wires”,
the third track, the guitars from Plotkin seem to be still occurring in their
original state, yet drenched in a nice sounding reverb. They sound much like
the soundtrack from Cronenberg’s movie “Crash”, done by Howard Shore. On the
background are unsettling sounds to be heard, messing around with contact mics
and other guitar noises. These sounds are also accompanied by moody soundscapes
and drones. The fourth one, “Cloud Cover”, returns to the spacious and organic
sound from the second track. Drones and scapes that weigh heavy on the mind,
but there is also a kind of vitality in the mood of this track. Like some kind
of light that is fighting with the darkness. “Halo” leaves no room to breathe, choking
in a putrid, yet solid state it suffocates and attracts at the same time. A
descent into the bowels of Hell, perhaps. This is genial sounding ‘dark ambient’.
Somewhere halfway this track, a repetitive, mechanic guitar strumming falls in,
sounding a bit like bells from a church. The last track, “Mosquito Veil”, returns
to serene atmosphere of the first track. But it’s much more quiet, very quiet.
This release goes along for a while now,
leaving me with a nostalgic feeling. True dark ambient fans should definitely check
this out, if they didn’t have yet. This is a true classic within the genre, still
growing in strength as the years go by.
Buy: