Temples admits a vast array of stylistic arrangements, sometimes crossing the border of looped ambient minimalism with lightly processed micro-textures that progressively evolve into dense, opaque, distorted, and panoramic sound architectures. Fans of AllSeits, Troum, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Yen Pox, and Vestigial won’t be disappointed. Recommended to lovers of massive, energetic, blackened, and mysteriously enthralling ambient soundscapes.
Visions is the personal musical voyage of Frederic Arbour—owner of Cyclic Law, indie label and leading purveyors of dark ambient music. Active since 2005, this project provides its fourth full length album entitled Temples. I used to be quite familiar with the first album Lapse when it was issued but I haven’t listened to the albums which followed. Consequently I’m listening to Temples with new ears, so if Lapse was a reverberant, resonant, and deep audio droning adventure with clear and sinuous sounds, Temples seems to admit a rather similar direction with a slight inclination to more turbulent, fuzzing dronescapes, and grimy soaked textures.
Temples admits a vast array of stylistic arrangements, sometimes crossing the border of looped ambient minimalism with lightly processed micro-textures that progressively evolve into dense, opaque, distorted, and panoramic sound architectures as evidenced on “Murmur.” Some parts reveal astonishing and ferocious, bleak industrial walls of sound (ie. “Ultima.”) The title-track is a brutal heart-moving ambient piece, bringing to us much sorrowful feelings and a state of emotional despair. With its dense layers, majestic and envelopping waves, “Aura” introduces the listener to desolate, eerie and sleepy antique places. “Continnum” closes the album with an avalanche of harsh looped textures that lead us in a stupendous, monochromatic and timeless tripped-out sound excursion. Fans of AllSeits, Troum, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Yen Pox, and Vestigial won’t be disappointed. Recommended to lovers of massive, energetic, blackened, and mysteriously enthralling ambient soundscapes.
Temples is available on Cyclic Law.
