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Рецензия от Sputnik Music на альбом «Reflections Under The Sky»

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SiJ (Vladislav Sikach) is a dark ambient artist from Ukraine. He has built an impressive body of work, with over thirty compositions since he embarked on his journey back in 2011. SiJ creates many tracks which feature other ambient producers, including Robert Rich in his more recent work. For Cryo Chamber’s latest release, Reflections under the sky, SiJ teams up with Textere Oris (Ilya Fursov from Moscow) for both of their debuts on the label. Their first interaction involved Oris re-mastering the title track of SiJ’s album The End. It is from this re-worked song both artists forged an ambient duo. This album marks their first full-length joint effort.

Рецензия от Casey Douglass на альбом «Reflections Under The Sky»

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Reflections Under The Sky is a gentle listen, the focus on field recordings of rain and water lulling the mind while the echoes and beats wash over the listener. I always tend to lean toward dark ambient albums that use nature recordings and other “real world” sounds as accompaniment to their darker tones, so from the start, I felt quite warmly towards this album. A striking example of this can be found in the track “Lost”, a track that begins with a blaring horn-type sound and then features the sounds of birdsong and the empty interference patterns of a de-tuned radio. Sacral vocals begin to ebb and flow around a deeper beat, painting the picture of someone lost in nature, far from technology or other people. There are other sounds too, snatches of voices, drums, footsteps and thunder but all conspire to paint a lonely, possibly hallucinatory picture.

Небольшая рецензия от Fantasy Forest на альбом «Plæntágose»

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Давно хотел рассказать о музыкальном проекта SiJ. Редкая любовь к музыке с первого прослушивания, назовём это так. Первым же  альбомом оказался «Plæntágose», который я нашёл однажды в ambient-сообществе ВКонтакте. Это было неожиданно-приятное открытие. Редко встретишь эмбиент-проект с уникальным звучанием приятным слуху. Любое каноническое эмбиент-звучание воспринимается примерно одинаково хорошо, а попытки экспериментировать иногда выглядят не очень убедительно, но встречаются и такие вот жемчужины, причём географически совсем не заокеанские.

Рецензия от Andrew Aversionline на сборник «Death Season 5»

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Released on Halloween, Death Season 5 marks the fifth annual installment of this compilation series from Minneapolis, MN experimental noise imprint Darker Days Ahead. This edition puts forth a little over 45 minutes of material from an international roster of artists—some of which have been active since the '90s, while others seem to have built momentum over the past two to five years. Fensch Industrial Orkestra + Flutwacht (Germany) get the ball rolling with "Perfekt/Defekt," which combines clanging, machinated percussive textures and fits of aggressive distortion and feedback with dense rumbles and some obfuscated spoken samples for a demonstration of harsh noise done right—possessing just enough variety and intrigue to create a sense of atmosphere. Longstanding Czech project Napalmed follows with "111104_RK2," another harsh track—more chaotic/less structured—utilizing lots of quick shifts between varying levels of heavy-duty effects that occasionally drop out to metallic scraping sounds. It kind of creates this vision of the artist scraping dense metal into a mic that's running through a series of pedals as he stomps on and off the effects at random. It has its moments, even if it doesn't align with my personal tastes.

Небольшая рецензия от Prog Archives на альбом «Way to Dream»

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SIJ's original member and founder Vladislav Sikach adds up in this 2015 "Way to Dream" recordings a full amount of guests, some already been invited in other projects and some new ones. This fact adds up good results , not only by the presence of Robert Rich in the guest list but in quality, intensity, creativity and "richness" in the electronic musical language. The title of this release (not exactly its cover art's depiction) is actually what you get. A series of trips through a varied kind of an ocean, river, pathway, road or whatever, towards oniric landscapes full of sonic details and tempo changes, to make it both attractive and slow/mid paced dynamic, as dreams are in fact (no frantic nightmares on this one).

Рецензия от Heathen Harvest на альбом «The Lost World»

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For instance, there’s the aforementioned blending of acoustic and electric sound—a mixture of the ancient and the modern. The sound reminds me a lot of the wave of ‘tribal’ or ‘ethno-industrial’ that happened in the early to mid-nineties with artists like OYuki Conjugate, Jorge Reyes, Hybryds, and Alio Die—music inspired by (usually non-specific) ancient cultures that knitted those influence into an electronic or experimental frame. Like much of the music of that time, SiJ’s interpretation of the ancient world (or lost world) is surprisingly gentle and pastoral. Its rhythms are relaxed, its melodies flow, and there are no jarring elements to interrupt the idyll. Maybe it’s my usual negativity seeping in, but I feel like this sort of dreaminess conveys very little of the life of the ancient world.

Рецензия от Hypnagogue на альбом «Zhang Zhung»

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Bring together a dark ambient artist and an ethnomusicologist and give them an ancient Tibetan kingdom as their theme, and you get Zhang Zhung. This release offers two long tracks that cover an hour and twenty minutes, time spent deeply immersed in the sounds of ritual and the sense of the endless vista of the landscape. Gabbasov brings in a host of Tibetan instruments, from airy flutes to the wonderfully cacophonous silnyen (Tibetan cymbals). The ritual would not be complete without throat singing/chant, so you get that as well. The first track, “Bon Sacred Rituals,” carries more of the call-to-prayer aspect. Reminiscent, for me, of the work of Nawang Khechog, the track opens with plaintive cries over a rising drone backdrop from SIJ (Vladislav Sikach). The duo go on to paint a cold and windswept landscape where horns echo in the distance.

Рецензия от Santa Sangre на альбом «Zhang Zhung»

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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.

Небольшая рецензия от Brutal Resonance на альбом «Vale of Forgotten Sounds»

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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".

Рецензия от Massimiliano Mercurio на альбом «The Lost World»

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Piace eccome la proposta dell’ucraino SiJ, perché è un dark ambient delicato, atipico se consideriamo come punti fermi del genere la pesantezza atomica, l’oppressione e quelle frequenze sonore simili a muri invalicabili di cemento armato. Diciamo subito che l’album prende ispirazione dal celebre romanzo di Arthur Conan Doyle: dev’essere stata enorme l’immedesimazione in quelle pagine, fino al punto di omaggiarle utilizzandone il titolo.

Рецензия от Pied Paper на альбом «Way To Dream»

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Как правило, альбомы SiJ не содержат описаний и даже треки в них часто названы на несуществующем языке — но не в этот раз. Здесь все понятно из того, кому посвящен диск и названий треков на нем. И что же еще, как не любовь, может вдохновить музыканта на такие откровенные композиции? Одно дело — полет фантазии, ничем не ограниченный, когда автор дает слушателям возможность придумать приключение на свой вкус, опираясь лишь на достаточно абстрактные границы расплывчатого эмбиента.

A Great Escape: Magnetic Poetry, Kompakt–Katya, SiJ, and King Imagine

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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."

Рецензия от Maharius на трек «Antiquities End»

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Многие в наше время убеждены, что время сказок и волшебства давно прошло. В сущности, так оно и есть, особенно когда период  детства катится к закату, сменяясь неизбежным натиском «рациональной» зрелой жизни, и вера в магию постепенно утрачивается, становясь лишь приятным воспоминанием