Netherworld & Fiorenza Gherardi de Candei - Lost

For those of you who haven't heard of Netherworld, you suck. Netherworld is the project of Alessandro Tedeschi (Liquid Ghosts) - a solo epiphany of ultra cold, glacial ambient that for quite some time I have been following. Having released probably nearly a dozen CDRs, all of which are as elusive as anything you care to name.

"Lost" is a one track, twenty-two minute collaboration with Fiorenza Gherardi de Candei. Like many classic ambient releases before, this one sees itself featuring sounds from beyond the usual reach of the artists, and most of the listeners, "Lost" in fact features field samples from the Scottish Highlands - my favourite place on Earth, and somewhere I would love to get "Lost".

One more note is that the artwork is done by the very proactive project "Oophoi". In fact, many of Netherworld's releases were put out on Oophoi's own label, Umbra.

This is what I call a seasonal record. A release that sounds ten million times better when listened to in the bleak, icy, acrid cold of Winter. For those of you not unlike myself who suffer from Winter Depression, listening to this will fill you with a blissfully depressive comfort, unreached by anything except a warm Hot Toddy in the Snow.

Like all Arctic and Icy ambient releases should, this one is unstably cold to listen to, the imagery and feeling it conjures up is just deep. Imagine standing in an underground bunker, trapped in metres of thick snow, and hearing doors swing in abandoned corridors, wind blowing, solitary echoes, and on rare occasions, beautiful sounds coming from far far below. 'Lost' has a feeling of dignity and ethereal awareness that one cannot hear by walking into any conventional store and buying a CD. This does best what Ambience should do. It builds up, driving home a colder and colder stake into the heart, but at the most necessary times, absolutely beautiful female harmonising plays over the torrents of despair.

I honestly don't know how to put this into words. Listening to it with eyes open is pleasant, but listening to it at 8pm, in a cold room, with eyes closed is just something that I don't believe anyone can ever appreciate without hearing this.

It almost reminds me of Buddhism in its discipline and stern façade. You could meditate to this, and very easily slip into a spectral abyss, lost in time, trapped in Ice, and frozen in a Cryogenic world.

Netherworld is an unsung hero in the Dark Ambient collective. One of Italy's finest ever exports. I strongly urge everyone to give this consideration. With Winter coming around, this is sheer bliss to the nth degree.

I must hear more. Oct 30 2006