Dodenskald & Wilted Perch :: Bound To Substance (Noctivagant Collective)

Bound To Substance explores the negative psychological effects of self-isolation, mental deprivation, and existential loneliness, as well as feelings of estrangement and parapsychic projections.

Densely reverberated metallic structures and exquisite droning atmospheres

 

Bound To Substance is a collaborative work between two promising figures in subterranean dark ambient music. Most of their respective output has been released by U.S.-based dark and experimental music labels BeFalling Silence and Noctivagant. These labels bring together a huge community of young sound artists rooted in brooding (cinematic) atmospheres and the evocative, soundtrack-like post-industrial field.

The music of Wilted Perch is characterized by dense walls of sound and harsh noises complemented by evocative ambient textures, while Dodenskald provides mesmerizing, haunting ambient pieces and endless drones with a penchant for ritualistic elements inspired by the East’s cultural cradle.

Bound To Substance explores the negative psychological effects of self-isolation, mental deprivation, and existential loneliness, as well as feelings of estrangement and parapsychic projections. The cover artwork—also created by Arvantah Dodenskald Sli and Wilted Perch—beautifully illustrates this direction. Musically, the album embraces densely reverberated metallic structures and exquisite droning atmospheres built around slowly moving microtonal shifts.

After an enthralling dark opening, the music moves into drearier and more melancholic territories, as heard in the almost funereal and eroded ambient litany “Sign in the Static.” Tiny, ghostly piano touches occasionally emerge in an empty space covered with wounded memories and occupied by vanished souls. With their impressive, emotionally vibrant, and shadowy tones, these soundscapes invite the listener to cross the immense vastness of the subconscious, reaching its darkest corners. The suffocating, mechanical, and almost disembodied “Guided Without Knowing” is followed by the gloom-laden “Daimonic Architecture.” “Moving Instead of Choosing” closes this musical adventure with a lamenting, ethereal, and forlorn ambient track built around long synth chords and spiraling, windy-noisy effects.

All in all, Bound To Substance is a deep, emotive, and frightening journey into the mind of a lonely, vulnerable, and hypersensitive wanderer. Recommended if you are into the classic, shimmering isolationist post-industrialism of Atrium Carceri, Haxan Cloak, Endvra, Apocryphos, Innana, Suten Hexen et al.

Bound To Substance is available on Noctivagant Collective. [Bandcamp]