Alphaxone + ProtoU + Onasander – Shadows Of Forgotten Legends (Album – Cryo Chamber)
Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, dark-cinematographic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: We’re used to hearing collaborative efforts from Cryo Chamber artists. This new opus, which is a conceptual release inspired by the legendary Kraken has been accomplished between Alphaxone (Mehdi Saleh) and ProtoU (Sasha Puzan), who both are familiar artists from the Swedish label plus Onasander (Maurizio Landini). The Italian project Onasander is less renowned while the Iranian Alphaxone and Ukrainian ProtoU projects both gained some recognition.
Content: The Kraken was a creature living in the water, which might explain the numerous ‘aquatic’ field recordings running through this work. It has been supported with an intimate, cinematographic atmosphere, which I recognize in the work of Alphaxone and ProtoU. Both projects share a very personal approach in sound, but they also have this subtle touch you don’t find in other projects. It’s hard to say what has been the input of the different artists, but their common efforts resulted in a compact, ghost-like sonic voyage.
+ + + : I like the intimacy of this production, but also the coherence of the work. You can’t feel at any single moment that this is a collaboration between different artists. The album reflects maturity and stands for a great work. There’s a strong visual appeal emerging, diving the listener into a tormenting and haunting atmosphere. “Thoughts Of Ancient Gods” is a brilliant exposure, but I also have to mention the somewhat more into ritual sounding “Northern Waves”.
– – – : This album is probably my favorite collaboration among the numerous Cryo Chamber collaborations. I didn’t hear real minus points and I can only encourage this trio to renew the experience.
Conclusion: “Shadows Of Forgotten Legends” is a great work and totally stands for the style and influences of Cryo Chamber!
Best songs: “Thoughts Of Ancient Gods”, “Northern Waves”, “Dusk Wings”, “Scourge Of The Seas”.
Rate: (8½).
Artists: www.facebook.com/alphaxone / www.facebook.com/protoudrone / www.facebook.com/onasander
Label: www.cryochamberlabel.com / www.facebook.com/CryoChamber
About Alphaxone, ProtoU & Onasander
Alphaxone is the one-man dark-ambient project of Iranian musician Mehdi Saleh. ProtoU is the dark-ambient/drone project of Ukrainian musician Sasha Puzan, based in Kyiv. Onasander is the dark space-ambient project of Italian musician Maurizio Landini. All three release primarily through Cryo Chamber, both as soloists and in shared collaborations, including “Back To Beyond” (2021) between Alphaxone and ProtoU. Alphaxone and ProtoU each also released their own solo albums, “Dystopian Gate” and “Anomalies”, around the same time as this collaboration.
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