Released
1997
Label
Art Konkret
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Durmersheimer Str. 9
76185 Karlsruhe
Germany
Visit
Last Edit/Update
24 august, 1998
Nymph Faithest
LONGING FOR THE OTHERWORLD
Track Listing
1. Creed
2. And Upon Them Great Vengeance Will Be Executed...
3. Longing For The Otherworld
4. Derelict Core
5. ...With Wrathful Chastisement
6. Tranquilized At Last
7. Crimson Filth
Longing For The Otherworld is a rich and powerful album that combines
electronically generated soundtracks with classic structures. It is a very personal work,
guided by its creator's life experience, and faith in an Eastern type of martial and
spiritual ethics. The sound is often grandiose and dark, but it is a cathartic darkness
aimed at transporting the listener into the otherworld of the self, there to find
the keys to transcendence. Thus, the CD describes a circle or journey, beginning with
laden and uneasy atmospheres, moving through foreboding soundscapes into aural
battlefields, and finally on to more serene territory at the end.
"Creed" sets the stage
with subtle, melodious piano and guitar arrangements of an anticipatory and restless
quality. Thunderous clouds of distorted harmonies rise and fall in the sound picture,
constantly threatening to throw everything into a full-fledged apocalyptic storm. Instead,
the piece slowly ebbs, until only the lonely sound of piano keys -- struck at great
intervals -- remain. A trek, across a frozen field of nightmarish echoing, streaming and
simmering sound effects, follows. The mood is again very leaden, giving the impression of
a stasis that will eventually lead to insanity if unbroken. And, the stasis of "And
Upon Them Great Vengeance Will Be Executed..." is eventually shattered with a short,
violent electronic snort that gives way to the more traditional arrangements of the CD's
title piece.
Strong beats and the cries of a
hovering falcon propel "Longing For The Otherworld," while Nymph
performs vocals in a defiant voice that at times lend his words a cadence, as if he was
preaching a sermon. Underscoring the piece are looped melodics, and the distant metallic
sounds as of weapons being forged, and preparations for battle made. The tension builds on
"Derelict Core," which otherwise carries over many of the musical elements of
the former piece. Impressions of sword fight, occasional tremorous impacts, and all
manner of other rattling and rustling metal effects echo through this track, leading to
the moribund opening of "...With Wrathful Chastisement." At first this piece
appears to be a reprise of "And Upon Them Great Vengeance Will Be Executed...",
but the sounds employed here are even fiercer, and at times break into vibrating
distortions. Yet, weaving in and out of the composition are also the first signs of
resolution in the shape of a beautiful string theme, soaring triumphantly above the
wasteland of dark and decayed electronics.
Moved forward by layers of marching
percussions, "Tranquilized At Last" takes the CD into brighter territory. The
sweeping quality of harpsichord thematics and Karin Anund's beautifully
controlled vocals seem to speak of a future of dreams and possibility, while at the same
time intimating that the same future also inevitably leads into darkness. Nymph
once more sings lead, in a voice that is at once battle weary and tempered by a sense of
victory. After "Tranquilized At Last," only the brief coda -- "Crimson
Filth" -- remains; a piece that to some extent returns to the musical mode of
"Creed." A subdued layer of dark aural presence serves as the foundation for a
ticking synth loop, the sounds as of massive structures being torn down, and a voice
recapitulating what would appear to be the guiding theme of Nymph Faithest:
transformation and growth through destruction of the old.
Nymph Faithest
is the solo-project of Nymph, who has worked with In Slaughter Natives
in the past, and received a helping hand on two of the CD's tracks by another prominent Cold
Meat Industry artist -- Peter Andersson (Raison D'Étre).
The CD has been in the works since the early nineties, and has now been released by the
German label Art Konkret, through whose mail order department it may be
ordered directly.
