Empusae & Shinkiro - Organic.Aural.Ornaments

I'd like to see what tree could have these ornaments hung on it and live. Radiating from the core of this work are what only can be called tendrils seeking victims, proles, surrogates... whatever, it all comes down to the same end: possession. This album will work through your skull like a deft typist organizing their rolodex (yes, I'm sure no one uses them anymore, don't bother pointing it out). "Organic.Aural.Ornaments" is the meeting of two strangely congruent projects: Empusae, who is well known as a potent composer of interstellar audio and Shinkiro, an outfit who move through the shadowy realm of darkly ambient channels. This pairing is much like finding the perfect wine to compliment your meal. Peer into the side of the bottle and nothing is standing still, even though the cork is undisturbed... activity is transpiring before your eyes through subtle, ever sharpening chemistry.

Unlike the majority of what is being foisted out there as the terms at the title of this review, this outing is precisely what is stated. The reverberations flit about my head, filling it with an irrepressible urge to look within until all I can perceive are the very waves of sound which are emanating from the speakers across the room. Curiously organic sequences move through the decaying musical architecture in beguilingly tempting ways. It is as though a softly plaintive voice is calling, wondering what's keeping me tethered to the ground when I ought to be spread across the stars taking in all that I can. Surely, there are those who would have a precise term for this kind of excursion but I'll keep it recognizable... astral navigation. You won't be able to maintain your grip on reality playing this album, no one has that kind of constitution. Gently, almost reassuringly, one is seduced from the waking world into what Shinkiro and Empusae execute flawlessly.

A lot of people would balk at soundtrack work of this degree, and yet, many out there remember certain scenes from their favorite flicks more for the music underpinning them than anything else. In this twilight arena of arcane delights, you will find incredible scenery to bask in. From the malevolent atmospherics to the ceaseless changes in tone and strangely placed instruments, this is a continually evolving work of remarkable beauty. I'm hard pressed to think of something so intrinsically delightful being more out of left field. Each of these artists on their own could not have done this, one might have composed the alpha but only the other could bring it to the omega realization. Much as those around you love to state that a circle has no beginning and no end, so "Organic.Aural.Ornaments" is effortlessly the same. Playing it through again and again, there is no vanishing point. Classical influences present themselves in the midst of feverish syncopations chained to brilliantly precise rhythmic detailing.

This release is certainly self-aware, thoroughly conscious and somehow alive, issuing forth through the air like a viscous, oily harbinger from another dimension. The event horizon has not been succinctly detailed like this before, the individuals who made this record have broken through into a terrifying new universe of wondrous alienation, be a brave listener and explore it with them. Jun 02 2011