Translated to English from Czech by Martin Mrskos.
Following the lucky double-compilation dedicated to 100th anniversary of famous The Book of the Law written by Aleisteir Crowley here comes Czech label Horus CyclicDaemon with another collector‘s must.
Debut album of the project called Musterion is thus along again brilliantly designed cover also exclusive by its conceptual dark-ambient, which thick atmosphere and horror sound are perfumed with sneaking, ambitiously concipated surreal author’s theme.
Hidden under artistic name of Musterion is Simon AA Kölle who is one half of the Za Frûmi duet or Abnocto (also presented through above mentioned compilation). This, more than one hour lasting work of as it were cinematic volume, was done from a point of view of sound designer who has processed his surreal vision of the last days of agent Dale Cooper in a very individual way. He is trapped in some Black Lodge – a world behind a curtain, where he is caught, too. Here is performed his dream vision during which he is granted a corp of Jerzy Grotowski – important and underestimated Polish playhouse reformer. Along with it he embarked on a last journey together with other dead ones and through his eyes he recollects memories of all his previous life.
We will try to depict them in the following paragraphs. The album is introduced by initial Passing, that is a part of core The Black Lodge opus. We are slowly sinked into incipient foggy narrating of the whole story by means of fairly rugged textures of dark-ambient soundscapes, very often pervaded by string samples of Orient themes.
Straight off follows Yang Tul full of dark and enervating drones, various field-recordings and horror voices what is a musical vision of Tulpa transformation („usually generated and finished by mage or yogi“) in his sekond emanation known under Yang-Tul. Through the replication of this process is sometimes reached also a third kind of emanation – Nying-Tul.
These magical phenomens are the central theme of author’s third track entitled The Third man, that except dominant subliminal droning is slowly accompanied by entering male recitative and melancholy piano tones.
Visit in Tibet followed by continuation of core theme with a subtitle Trapped are some dreamy trip into Tibet full of ritual percussions, bells, flutes and aliquot voices.
In Unknown Kadath like in mythical Necronomicon we find ourselves in the center of cold wasteland, here in accompaniment of string samples, piano and monumental atmosphere, a bit similar to recordings of early Raison d'Être.
Constantly thickened air overcrowded by awesome voices, howling and strange sounds in the background with glimps of themes of Wagner‘s Tannhauser, this is Tannhauser Gate, and after it agent Cooper – but in reality it is Kölle – pays hommage to his artistic figures.
First of them is H. P. Lovecraft in an atmospherically dreamy The Tower of Koth reaching to the myths of Necronomicon, thereabouts where a dreamy tower of Koth is watching tunnels of Set.
In almost a clockmaker-like detailed track Lost (otherwise another part of core theme), together with main character we are witnesses of his isolation („I am alone here, abandoned by all, trapped in a black hole, in a room. I hear old piano and rattling of a radio….“). Kölle reach this excellent aura through mutual antagonism of strings and warm tones of vibraphone with a mechanical sounds of machines.
Crashing of fire, a messy whistling, baby talk – shortly echoes of a near forgotten and hereat ordinary parts of life, all of this is retrofitting in Cooper’s head by means of collected real sounds in the track Fire is the Devil. In this part of the album coming on a distinct musical and scenic gradation. Grotowski's Last Journey is that is to say very realistic, almost epic drama in the frame of chosen sound media. Oncoming Death is depicted by gradual layering of surround sounds, but most of all human cries – a cry full of despair, but also sacral chants, obviously as a mission of hope and reconciliation.
Final four tracks are melting into one sound mass.
The Arm – in this one as if Cooper‘s alias Grotowski‘s soul departs for the other world by dint of wings – it is tinged with pseudobaroque theme, that is melted in ever thudding and hardly penetrated drones. In the following Dreams we meet vocal samples of Meredith Monk and solo ingoing of acoustic guitar of Daniel Engberg. Its dark-folk blotch is alternated by sound memories to the Fifties and at that time offensive jazz and mainly unforgetable beatniks – Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg (jazzy sax and fragments of their voices in the track Beatnik).
There is only final Released, full of foggy sound vapour with hints of distorted rhythmical sequencies. Thus, the listening of The Black Lodge album is not, indeed, an ordinary audience matter. You find yourself during this session behind the horizon of everyday’s tumult – on the border-line of ordinarily perceived real dispositions, on the periphery of dreamy and magickal visions close to movies of David Lynch. Its very musical loading is moreover brilliantly graphically realized via beautiful designed booklet (A5 size on top notch paper) by author‘s colleague of Za Frûmi, Simon Heath (otherwise member of one-man project Atrium Carceri).
Igor Novacek