Among the best and most challenging post-ambient electronic albums of the year.
Next to the melodious dark ambient project Lambwool, Sigma Octantis is an other French project who first signed materials on the legendary Divine Comedy Records before to find a new home at the indispensable OPN Records. Throughout their career Sigma Octantis had constantly challenged the boundaries of electronic music, providing an exclusive and genuinely inventive medley of lysergic ambient music, noisy post-rock elements and avant-garde dynamics. The French trio combines instrumental textures with electronically processed motifs and micro sounds. Their previous album Disséminations was an undisputed masterpiece and a little revolution in the world of modern experimental ambient music. This new effort which appears to be co-produced between Malignant Antibody and OPN is an other virtuosic, original and highly inspiring attempt that brings the whole contemporary post-ambient musical register at its finest.
The opening track starts this musical sci-fi procession with a ritualistic and dream-like theme where frantic repetitive martial drums meet fuzzed out electronics, e-guitar emotive screams, ominous minimal melodies and field recordings. “Fantômes infinitésimaux” depicts a cinematic sound excursion through cool electronic noises and garage guitar chords. “Errance definitive” is an hypnagogic timbral minimalist soundscape, deeply moving and entrancing. “Parle Moi, Il Fait Noir” follows this restful and enigmatic musical path, bringing to the fore an almost mystically religious aura. “Farewell” close the album with a blasting rockin’ electronic piece.
Once again the band successes to develop their very own musical identity and hybrid-like universe, inaugurating an impossible cross of non-conscious influences, between Fausto Balbo’s cybernetic electronics, Brighter Death now’s punchy post-industrialism, Earth’s doom desert songs and classical dark ambient releases (from Yen Pox, Caul, coph Nia), with the add of subtle touches of sonorous trashy post-rock grooves. Among the best and most challenging post-ambient electronic albums of the year. Highly recommended.
Dissipations is available on OPN / Malignant Antibody.
