The Circular Ruins - Conjunction 2CD (DataObscura 2003)
The Circular Ruins
Conjunction
DataObscura
Jun 2003
Ambient
Conjunction, the dark side of the ruins. So is this The Circular Ruins putting his hand to dark scary ambient? Well yes & no really, while the atmospheres here are dark and brooding with the feeling of nighttime they don't quite have the horror movie feeling of a lot of my favourite dark ambient albums. I have found this album though getting a lot of listening time from me as the music is deep and hypnotic. Melancholic and tinged with ethereal. Softly muttered samples throughout give the feeling of being privy to secrets not meant for you. Call this suspense ambient more than dark ambient because it builds atmospheres of tension rather than horror. The second CD being the darker of the 2 journeys with a dark tense atmosphere dark without the cliches.
The vocal sample in the opening track Evening Of Innocence is about nothing and nothing and helps me reflect on my nihilistic tendencies as does the rest of the music which is reflective of very little yet powerful and inviting like death.
Whereas the strings Throughout Description Without Place make me feel alone in a cold wet world. Description Without Place is a long track exploring a lonely man's psyche. The sounds flit from hope to despair, ambition to rot, violence to serene pleasure.
From Everlasting Image I get a feeling of looming conflict. The subtle background tension you get when your country is at war but when life must go on as usual. Very cold, back of the mind fear.
In contrast Oblique Structures has a calm underground feeling, like sleeping in a cave. The percussion near the end gives it energy as if climbing through the layers of Earth up to the sunlit fields above....
