Frozen Thoughts "Calm Before The Storm"
Reviews
This is a typical album of slow morphing, non-rhythmic textural ambient, featuring five drifting movements clocking between 9 and 13 minutes. Biosphere’s "Substrata" comes to mind, as Frozen Thought’s chill-out music also incorporates delicate environmental sounds of snow, fire, ice and wind. The deep ambient outcome, composed by Croatia-based composer/producer Petar Šakić, aka Frozen Thoughts, who made quite a lot of hardcore techno and gabber music around the year 2K. His musical interest made a firm switch after he ran into Biosphere’s chilling, highly atmospheric ambient outing "Substrata" in 2005.
"Calm Before The Storm" ventures in similar sonic territory, visualizing vast plains of snow, remote landscapes of permafrost, and lakes with ice sculptures. Its minimal structure has a most tranquil, if not hypnotizing effect, reaching a majestic, velvet quality with intrinsic beauty on the immersive "Godlight".The celestial sphere nicely continues to almost symphonic effect on the next track "We are not alone". The title track is a slightly dissonant, restless and harsher sounding breathing space, bringing a turbulent ending to this deep-listening ambient recording.
It all works best when listened to through headphones at low volume.SONIC IMMERSION
"Calm Before The Storm" ventures in similar sonic territory, visualizing vast plains of snow, remote landscapes of permafrost, and lakes with ice sculptures. Its minimal structure has a most tranquil, if not hypnotizing effect, reaching a majestic, velvet quality with intrinsic beauty on the immersive "Godlight".The celestial sphere nicely continues to almost symphonic effect on the next track "We are not alone". The title track is a slightly dissonant, restless and harsher sounding breathing space, bringing a turbulent ending to this deep-listening ambient recording.
It all works best when listened to through headphones at low volume.SONIC IMMERSION
Ormai da qualche anno (all’incirca dalla pubblicazione di “The Art Of Dying Alone” di Bvdub), l’etichetta romana Glacial Movements sta progressivamente espandendo il proprio universo di isolazionismo ambientale, pur mantenendo un’estrema coerenza dal punto di vista concettuale ed estetico.
Per quanto si tratti di una premessa ormai ripetitiva per molte delle recenti uscite della creatura di Alessandro Tedeschi, la medesima considerazione è senz’altro valida al cospetto della sua ultima pubblicazione, accreditata a Frozen Thoughts, progetto ambientale di Petar Šakić, produttore e artista di origine croata, impegnato già dagli inizi degli anni 2000 in territori hard-core e post-industriali.
Il retroterra di Šakić si intravede in filigrana ai cinque lunghi brani che formano “Calm Before The Storm”, in superficie ben distanti dalla sua fisionomia artistica precedente, ma recanti proprie tracce distintive, sotto forma di variazioni e piccoli detriti sonori innestati su un flusso atmosferico espanso e ipnotico, che dissolve inquietudini dark-ambient in suadenti correnti sintetiche.
A field recordings tratti da neve, ghiaccio e vento, Šakić associa così persistenze avvolgenti e in lento crescendo, enucleando un linguaggio sonoro percorso da vitali trasformazioni ed estremamente suggestivo nella sua resa complessiva. Alla meraviglia emozionale di purissima ambient music di “We Are Not Alone” e all’ipnosi spaziale dai distanti echi dub di “Reflections Of Dead Maidens” (espressione vichinga designante l’aurora boreale) e al naturalismo rarefatto di “Godlight” Šakić contrappone una tensione magmatica di fondo, talora affiorante in dense saturazioni oltre che nei brulicanti retaggi di rumore post-industriale nei quali sfocia la conclusiva title track.
Forse proprio perché frutto di un lungo percorso di avvicinamento, la prima prova ambientale di Šakić è una coesa ed avvincente immersione nella luce e negli spazi di infiniti paesaggi cristallizzati dal freddo, che conferma l’ampiezza di orizzonti di Glacial Movements, etichetta il cui percorso continua a fornire un’inusitata ampiezza di respiro al suo imprinting di isolazionismo ghiacciato.MUSIC WONT SAVE YOU
Per quanto si tratti di una premessa ormai ripetitiva per molte delle recenti uscite della creatura di Alessandro Tedeschi, la medesima considerazione è senz’altro valida al cospetto della sua ultima pubblicazione, accreditata a Frozen Thoughts, progetto ambientale di Petar Šakić, produttore e artista di origine croata, impegnato già dagli inizi degli anni 2000 in territori hard-core e post-industriali.
Il retroterra di Šakić si intravede in filigrana ai cinque lunghi brani che formano “Calm Before The Storm”, in superficie ben distanti dalla sua fisionomia artistica precedente, ma recanti proprie tracce distintive, sotto forma di variazioni e piccoli detriti sonori innestati su un flusso atmosferico espanso e ipnotico, che dissolve inquietudini dark-ambient in suadenti correnti sintetiche.
A field recordings tratti da neve, ghiaccio e vento, Šakić associa così persistenze avvolgenti e in lento crescendo, enucleando un linguaggio sonoro percorso da vitali trasformazioni ed estremamente suggestivo nella sua resa complessiva. Alla meraviglia emozionale di purissima ambient music di “We Are Not Alone” e all’ipnosi spaziale dai distanti echi dub di “Reflections Of Dead Maidens” (espressione vichinga designante l’aurora boreale) e al naturalismo rarefatto di “Godlight” Šakić contrappone una tensione magmatica di fondo, talora affiorante in dense saturazioni oltre che nei brulicanti retaggi di rumore post-industriale nei quali sfocia la conclusiva title track.
Forse proprio perché frutto di un lungo percorso di avvicinamento, la prima prova ambientale di Šakić è una coesa ed avvincente immersione nella luce e negli spazi di infiniti paesaggi cristallizzati dal freddo, che conferma l’ampiezza di orizzonti di Glacial Movements, etichetta il cui percorso continua a fornire un’inusitata ampiezza di respiro al suo imprinting di isolazionismo ghiacciato.MUSIC WONT SAVE YOU
This calm extends from before the storm, through its climax, and well into the cleanup. Like all of the ambient soundscapes that Glacial Movements produces, this is music that hews closely to the Brian Eno School of rhythm-free, melody-free ambient environmental audio experiences. There are some conventional instruments lurking here; I hear little tinkly-piano-rhythm, heartbeat-rate pulses off in the distance, but mainly it's an aura of ethereal noise, not annoying but not all that huggable.
Tracks are all late-night FM long, the shortest clocking at 9:26, but that isn't the important metric, it's that hypnotic state of mind you're aiming for here. The hypnosis begins with rainsticks and a swelling noise front, soon you're blanketed in that drone that occupies the coach cabin of any random transcontinental flight. Long dead spaces separate tracks, then humanity arrives: feet tread on gravel, crickets come out amid a mild suburban noise-scape, a synthetic bird tweets on a wind chime, and time passes as you stare at your watch hoping to see the second hand tick.
Excellent ambience, and if I were any more relaxed right now I'd... take... a... (yawn)... nap. G'night...INK 19
Tracks are all late-night FM long, the shortest clocking at 9:26, but that isn't the important metric, it's that hypnotic state of mind you're aiming for here. The hypnosis begins with rainsticks and a swelling noise front, soon you're blanketed in that drone that occupies the coach cabin of any random transcontinental flight. Long dead spaces separate tracks, then humanity arrives: feet tread on gravel, crickets come out amid a mild suburban noise-scape, a synthetic bird tweets on a wind chime, and time passes as you stare at your watch hoping to see the second hand tick.
Excellent ambience, and if I were any more relaxed right now I'd... take... a... (yawn)... nap. G'night...INK 19
More winter music in the heart of summer (at least in the northern hemisphere)! There has been a lot of movement at Glacial movements (sic) in the last few months. Not only has there been a digital album by Japanese artists Yuya Ota (more from him in our special Japanese ambient show coming up soon), but a new collaboration betweenBvdub and Locsil as well as CD albums by Aida Baker and label boss Alessandro Tedeschi aka Netherworld. Somewhere in between all this was also Frozen Thoughts aka Petar Šakić and another digital album “Calm before the storm”. Geographically at least, there seems a long way between the Croatian capital Zagreb from where Šakić originates and the frozen tundra he evokes, although there are plenty of mountains nearby and one assumes this at least provided some of the inspiration. Here the album is divided in five long tracks for immersive listening with intermissions between the tracks of someone walking through the snow and environmental noises like wind and birds. The album is thus a kind of fantasy travelogue, with each track feeling like a chapter in the story. It is quite a dark tale, however, with all tracks playing off a brooding, isolationist feel with the exception of “Godlight” which feels almost a bit too bright and up-beat at times. But there are plenty of good ideas on the rest of the album, from the bleepy chimes opening “We are not alone” as if an ancient alien beacon had been discovered beneath the ice, whereas “Reflections of dead maidens” and “Eternity without time” are both exceptional portals to beautifully resonant inner space. Finally, the title track which closes the album does not betray and concludes the tranquility in a blizzard of granular noise and distant shrieks.MIND BOMB BLOGSPOT
Je n’ai trouvé aucun détail sur Frozen Thoughts, mais ce disque est une nouveauté chez Glacial Movements, une étiquette spécialisée dans la musique ambiante isolationniste. Calm Before the Storm propose de longues pièces statiques en surface, lentement transformatives en profondeur, dans les tons de blancs et de bleus glacés. Élégant, relaxant, mais sans réel caractère. Ce genre musical, aussi agréable soit-il, tend à tout ramener à un dénominateur commun, sans laisser place à l’expression d’une individualité artistique…
I haven’t found information about Frozen Thoughts, but this CD is a recent release from Glacial Movements, a label specialized in isolationist ambient music. Calm Before the Storm features long pieces that are static on the surface and slowly morphing on a deeper level, all in shades of white and icy blue. Elegant, relaxing, and lacking in character. This music genre, as enjoyable as it is, tends to drag everything down to a common denominator, leaving no room for individual artistic expression…MONSIEUR DELIRE
I haven’t found information about Frozen Thoughts, but this CD is a recent release from Glacial Movements, a label specialized in isolationist ambient music. Calm Before the Storm features long pieces that are static on the surface and slowly morphing on a deeper level, all in shades of white and icy blue. Elegant, relaxing, and lacking in character. This music genre, as enjoyable as it is, tends to drag everything down to a common denominator, leaving no room for individual artistic expression…MONSIEUR DELIRE