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Would you like to travel in time? Are you having concerns, scientific or otherwise, about the practical or even theoretical possibility of doing so? Are you worried that you will travel to the far off future, and find that Robot Hillary Clinton and Cyber Donald Trump have patched up their differences, and now rule the universe as king and queen? If so, there are easier ways to explore the experience of traversing the spatio-temporal continuum.

For the third time in three years, the dark ambient label Cryo Chamber presents a collaboration paying tribute to an entity from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.  As before, this is a true collaboration, with the work of each artist seamlessly woven into a single, unbroken track that spans 190 minutes across three CDs.  Unless you’re extremely familiar with the sounds and techniques of each artist, it’s nigh impossible to distinguish one from another; perhaps the limiting scope of the dark ambient genre is also a factor.

Another year is coming to an end, and it is the right time to take a stock of the latest activity in the field of a special interest which is captured by experimental music. And I am 100% sure that there is no better way to explore all the achievements than with a traditional compilation from the gates of the well-known label hiding behind the name Kalpamantra. If you aren’t familiar with this name thus far, check out its Bandcamp page, because it’s better late than never. Just give it a try and you will be pleasantly surprised by what you will discover that's only a few mouse-clicks away from the artificial borders of your current sphere of interests.

'Twas late last night that I found myself dabbling in fiction once again writing away a weird and mystifying tale when I realized I had chosen a previous Cryo Chamber collection as my source of inspiration. That title was Cthulu and it was only after I had put down my pen and laid in bed that I realized I had not listened nor mentioned a dark ambient album in quite some time on my precious little website. So off I went to Cryo Chamber's Bandcamp in search of a piece that would quell my inner hunger for something dark and sinister, yet meditative and placid all the same. Lo and behold I stumbled upon another massive collection of talents and another entry in Cryo Chamber's H.P. Lovecraft tributes titled Nyarlathotep.

If I were to make a list of which project we received the largest number of promos from, since the beginning of the magazine, I think SiJ would occupy the second place, right behind Rapoon. Seriously, this guy seems like another no-life for whom making music is everything in the world. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but it makes me wonder if labels check a musician’s “creative” background, and if the number of releases per year in other labels is actually one of the conditions before the proverbial signing a deal. Personaly I don’t suppose I’d release an album by an artist with such an extensive collection of CDs, tapes or digital recordings already in his discography. Unless his sounds truly amazed me, then it would be a different story.

A 190 minute dark soundscape album recorded by 25 ambient artists to pay tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. Field recordings from the deepest dark corners of 4 continents. Dusty tapes out of forgotten archives. Strings through crackling amplifiers and distorted drone combine into a sea of pitch black. Nyarlathotep is a manipulative being in the Lovecraftian Mythos. Unlike Cthulhu, or Azathoth, he delights in cruelty and deception. Causing madness is more important than destruction to him. Smell the burning embers as you kneel outside the sunken temple before Nyarlathotep. Feel the raspy touch of the faceless pharaoh as he leads you to the ancient Pyramid. Hear his inhuman summoning call to gods beyond reality.

As a bit of a Lovecraft scholar, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Cryo Chamber had elected to dedicate the third (and presumably last) entry in their series of Lovecraftian collaborative releases of dark ambient music to Nyarlathotep. After a slightly aimless and underwhelming tribute to Cthulhu, things seemed more focused on the second release, a suitably cosmic and impassive homage to the blind idiot god Azathoth. Nyarlathotep, the closest thing Lovecraft’s mythos has to a trickster god, seemed to me both a richer source of inspiration and a trickier entity to sonically conjure. The only of Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones to take an active interest in humanity, Nyarlathotep is both beyond human ken and an active meddler in our affairs. That’s a delicate balance to strike, but the Cryo Chamber roster manages to offer up a three-hour opus both worthy of the Black Pharaoh’s mercurial nature and the brand of dark ambient the label’s come to represent.

Cryo Chamber definitely appears to be under the influence of H.P. Lovecraft. The label already released the “Cthulhu”-collaboration featuring several label artists working together and achieving a great opus. “Nyarlathotep” is a new collaboration between an impressive number of label formations. The story is about ‘A season of political and social upheaval. Mankind felt as if the world was at a breaking point, but no one wanted to speak of this. Seasons grew hotter. Our faith in the known gods faltered. The timing was ripe for the arrival of Nyarlathotep.’

Few things leave me speechless, very few things. Dark ambient has a certain ability to do that to me more than any other genre of music. By now, listening to dark ambient releases for well over two years, I thought I had heard the best I was going to hear. That’s not a knock on things to come but rather a presumption I made based on the extremely high quality of the albums which I had heard. Then came Nyarlathotep. That opinion melted away when I heard Cryo Chamber’s latest collaborative album. Third in a series (following Cthulhu and Azathoth), Nyarlathotep clocks in at a behemoth 190 minutes. That’s not a typo. Nyarlathotep is a massive three songs, three-hour opus and believe me every single minute is worth it.

Cryo Chamber has released a giant with this one. In order to fully appreciate what it is, and how it came about, a bit of history is in order. If this isn't your thing, or you already know, just skip down to the third paragraph. One of the early crowning achievements on Cryo Chamber was the collaboration album Cthulhu. Cryo Chamber delved into a concept which had its fair share of musical interpretations. They came at this concept from a different angle than many had attempted in the past. Simon Heath of Atrium Carceri, Sabled Sun, and owner of Cryo Chamber, surrounded himself with a dozen dark ambient artists, most from Cryo Chamber. Through the power of the internet, they all contributed to a vast library of sounds. Each artist had the reign to pull sounds from one another as they pleased. This allowed them to create their own piece of the story, without becoming disjointed.

"Perseides" is the second ethnographical aural journey by Vladislav Sikach (aka SiJ) and Sergey Gabbasov on the Swedish Gterma label. This time around, the continuous, almost 80-minute outcome is a blend 12 tracks, all travelling on the mystery road to places far away in the Mongol region.

Let me say that I do enjoy SiJ’s Way to Dream. Or, I try to enjoy it when it’s not busy drenching me in theme.  There’s a lot of water sounds, nature sounds, various clatters and thumps and maybe some rain on the roof type things, and in among a fairly relentless assault of them, Vladislav Sikach tucks in some piano work and soft ambient passages. He imports an impressive number of sound sources (which he refers to as “provided materials”) that range from duduk and singing bows to dumbek and singing glass. For me, if some of the atmospherics had been judiciously left off, Way to Dream would be a much more immersive album.

Many of these Cryo Chamber CDs I’m reviewing were procured thanks to the label’s spiffy bulk deals, but not this one. With Reflections Under The Sky, I snatched that up the moment it was announced, getting my hardcopy right off the factory line. Was it because I was a die-hard fan of one SiJ or Textere Oris? Had I been so completely won over by Cryo Chamber’s dark oeuvre that I simply had to shell out for every new release? Ah, not quite the case.