Home

Released
1998

Label
DV

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

Contact

Roonstr. 39
50674  Köln
Germany

Visit



Last Edit/Update
05 October, 1999

EINE SONNE VOLL BLUT
(Audio/CD-Rom Compilation)

Various Artists

         
Track Listing

Audio
1. Final Frontier -- Area 51
2. Null -- Bazillus
3. Hybernoid -- Dread The Time
4. Deep -- Crawl Under The Couch
5. Endura -- The Sleep Of Siloam
6. Null -- Freezing Dream
7. Origami Galaktika -- Rännak Tähtede Vahel (Mix)

Video
Red Harvest -- The Burning Wheel

CD-Rom
The Sleep Of Siloam
Interviews (Endura)
Discography/Biography
(Endura, KK Null, Hybernoid, Final Frontier)
CD-Player
Photostory (Deep)
Area 51

          The German mail order/label DV has produced a very nice multi-media CD entitled Eine Sonne Voll Blut, which presents the music of seven artists/ bands along with various visual and interactive supplements. The featured artists span a rather broad musical spectrum, from doom-laden electronic folk to post- grunge rock to soundtracks for imaginary films. This variety, which could otherwise be somewhat irritating on a regular compilation, is actually refreshing in this context, as the different bands are presented in manners befitting their individual sounds, and thus each section of the CD has a unique look and mood.
          The seven tracks on the CD -- which is in CD-Extra format -- can be played on a regular CD player, or on a computer with CD-Rom drive (the disc comes equipped with a CD-player program); the audio of the final video track by Red Harvest cannot be played on a regular CD-player, however. From an opening menu screen, the tracks of the CD are randomly accessible -- as one runs the cursor down the track listing, the graphics on the right side of the screen change according to which track the cursor is pointing at. A click on either of the CD's tracks leads on to a new screen, which lists the available options in connection with a given track against a background of graphics/ images related to the band or artist in question.
          Final Frontier -- the solo-project of Norwegian Erik Sontum -- opens the CD. "Area 51" begins like a rumbling thunderstorm, and develops into a deeply atmospheric soundtrack, with pulsing bass notes, hovering synth harmonies, and a slew of well chosen samples concerning space exploration and the search for life elsewhere in the universe. The track is supplemented with a brief interactive essay on Roswel, aliens and government cover-up. The essay is illustrated with photos of the infamous alien autopsy and UFO sightings; additionally the Final Frontier section of the CD also contains a brief background/biographical essay on Erik Sontum and his musical work.
          Two tracks are featured by Null (the solo-project of Zeni Geva member Kazuyuki K. Null). "Bazillus" combines noisy metallic sound manipulations with what sounds like rolling, tribal percussions and high-pitched, flute-like harmonies. The second track -- "Freezing Dream" -- is more characteristic of Null's work in recent years: a constant, speeding, vibrating carpet of sound that -- towards the end -- transforms into a skipping metallic grind, and then abruptly stops. The interactive Null section of the CD features background essays and detailed discographies of both Null's individual career, as well as that of Zeni Geva.
          With Hybernoid the CD again completely changes character, wedding 80's death rock with the denser guitar riffs and growl of current extreme metal bands. "Dread The Time" is nonetheless a highly compelling piece, the harsher aspects of which are nicely balanced by layers of melodic guitar themes and female vocals. The biography and discography of Hybernoid is integrated in an interactive essay with cover stills and band photos.
          The multi-media section for Deep contains a brief background essay in German, as well as a fun little photo-story about the band's history in English. Deep's music as exemplified here by "Crawl Under The Couch" owes something to the early-90s guitar oriented punk-rock bands from Seattle and Boston. But, be that as it may, the band maintains a nice element of self-irony, manages to be both joyful and perturbed at the same time, and keeps their music alive with many breaks and shifts in tempo.
          Endura has received the most thorough treatment of all the bands/artists on the CD. Their section not only contains a detailed discography, and a total of six extensive interviews (reprinted from various magazines), but also features a very evocative slideshow composed for their audio track "The Sleep Of Siloam". Images that wed the imaginations of H.R. Giger and H.P. Lovecraft alternate with moody photographs of the band's two members set against backgrounds of religious and mystical design; strange and disconcerting visuals that perfectly complement the dark organ dominated music. Obscure, manipulated whispers rise out of the dense harmonic fabric, rattlings and the sounds of gongs heighten the atmosphere of being in the presence of something mysterious and occult, and triumphant trumpetlike fanfares penetrate the piece at odd intervals, as if heralding the coming of some frightening, unknown entity.
          There is no supplementary section for Origami Galaktika, but their piece -- "Rännak Tähtede Vahel" -- is on the other hand by far the longest on the compilation, running a total of nearly sixteen minutes. The track is another slowly unfolding soundtrack-oriented composition, with strong harmonic elements and strange tonal callings that have a decayed quality, as if they had floated for aeons through space before arriving on this recording. Numerous thematic fragments glide in and out of the soundpicture like aural scenery floating past one's auditory range, and in general the impression evoked by "Rännak Tähtede Vahel" is as of traveling into a future imagined by Philip K. Dick.
          Eine Sonne Voll Blut ends with a video by Red Harvest, who borrows the guitars and drums of death/black metal, and combines these with synth-generated ambient-atmospherics. "The Burning Wheel" is a hard-edge melodic track with good vocals that is supported here by visually interesting video images of all manner of cosmic, biological and mystical phenomena inter-cut with live footage of the band.
          The truly winning aspect of this release is, of course, its multimedia format; DV has really set a new standard for what a music compilation can be. Paired with the audio tracks -- a number of which are truly excellent in their own right -- the various visual and textual supplements give enough of an insight into the featured bands/artists that one is compelled to go out and explore their individual works -- even in those cases where the music itself would not necessarily inspire that level of interest.