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The Swedish label gterma continues its musical exploration of mystical secrets hidden in the Far East, focusing primarily on the Himalayan region. This time, thanks to these two artists, one from Russia, one from Ukraine, we discover the ancient kingdom of Zhang Zhung, located in present-day Tibet. The region was closely associated with the Bon religion, the spirit of which has already been present on other publications issued by gterma – surely you remember Parikrama.

Sij's "Vale of Forgotten Sounds" contained nine tracks of sweeping dark ambient tracks that were as charming as they were blissful when it first released. However, while it was well received, I would guess that many people felt that there needed to be more physical copies of the album considering there were originally only 12 copies of it. That limited edition copy also contained four more tracks purely exclusive to the CD. But now Reverse Alignment has eagerly accepted SiJ into their ranks, and has provided a re-relase of "Vale of Forgotten Sounds".

The newest album from SiJ, called "Way to Dream," offers a lesson in constructive wistfulness. On first reading, the title almost sounds like a teacherly imperative; a better way must be found. The best dreams are structured far from home. This is how SiJ frames the new instrumentals, tagged as "ambient" and "cinematic": "The final rays of the sun are reflected across the smooth, azure waters of the sea. They capture the purest, most cherished desires and dreams; together they strive like an impassioned sailing ship towards a distant horizon. The light vanishes, giving way to a lullaby of starlight."

The concrete setting of these nervous outlooks is front and center in the instrumentals of SiJ (aka Vladislav Sikach from Sevastopol, Ukraine). Tags such as dark ambient, industrial, and drone are liberally applied. Sikach meets the generic expectations of those dour styles with field recordings taken from "mundane city streets and abandoned military or industrial facilities."

The Earth Shrine is not your typical eco-ambient. It pays homage to the global mystic paths once trodden in reverent balance, while hanging like the shroud we may need to wrap the planet if we continue to turn a deaf ear to its cries for more moderate behavior.

Behind SiJ is hidden Vladislav "Vlad" Sikach, an Ukrainian dronecarver, based in Sevastopol, Crimea, as the main protagonist, although also visual artist Alena Perepadya is often mentioned as additional member. Vlad Sikach has begun his recording career during 2011

What I got here is a Himalayan-inspired, slow evolving and grand sounding soundscape meticulously put together by Ukraine composer Vladislav Sikach (aka SiJ) and ethnomusicologist Sergey Gabbasov.

Lots and lots of music come to our attention and we'd like to keep good track of all of this. One of the most used words in reviews in Vital Weekly is ambient, atmospheric and drone, by whichever variation they come to us. One of things we don't hear a lot, luckily enough, is all those things that can be loosely labelled as 'new age'.

If we combine these various absences, they eventually start to dovetail within the overarching melancholy of SiJ (aka Vladislav Sikach from Sevastopol, Ukraine). Tags such as dark ambient, industrial, and drone are liberally applied. Sikach meets the generic expectations of those dour styles with field recordings taken from "mundane city streets and abandoned military or industrial facilities."

It's this persistent tension or disconnect between self and other, citizen and civic norms, that leads to projects like SiJ (Vladislav Sikach from Sevastopol, Ukraine). Tags such as dark ambient, industrial, and drone are liberally applied. Sikach meets the generic expectations of those dour styles with field recordings taken from "mundane city streets and abandoned military or industrial facilities."

Anusaya had a chance to interview the owner of net-label “GV sound,” which releases a lot of electronic albums, and self-named music creator SiJ.

New Year is all around already, all the parties ended, and now it's time to talk about a quiet music that will give an opportunity to have a meditative journey before new stressful weekdays. One of the biggest discoveries for me last year was Moscow based label Radiodrone with a pack of interesting releases. It is really nice to see new faces on the scene of dark ambient and drone music, the genres that were not that pampered with attention recently. One of those records was from Ukrainian dark drone project under the code name Sij 'Influence of Darkness' which in its conceptuality tries to make a research on a thin border between light and darkness and the impact of dark times on human being.

This is a review of a split album between SiJ and Particula called "Age Of The Future" which was released by Kalpamantra and we will start of the review with Particula which plays a very atmospheric form of dark ambient/drone