DAO – Desolate Landscapes (Album – Gravaçöes Tunguska)

Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: DAO is a project hailing from Catalunya (a region in Spain striving for independence). The project already released a very few productions, but remains rather unknown. This work was released earlier this year and features six tracks.
Content: The tracks are simply entitled “Desolate Landscapes” and numbered from 1 to 6. Sound-wise you feel like embarked on a dark sonic trip driven by droning rhythms and recovered with an inhibited sphere. A few ghost-like vocals are emerging. The work remains dark, but still has a rather intimate feeling.
+ + + : If you like dark music this album is for sure a work to discover. It’s not the ‘classical’ Dark-Ambient production although they’re explicit elements emerging at the surface. I like the most obscure and haunting passages, but especially when joined by resonating drones like on the third cut. There also is a subtle approach in the sound treatments, which mainly comes through at the last track.
– – – : This is a pleasant trip, which I recommend, but there’s nothing like a true highlight.
Conclusion: This work makes me think of an intimate obscure voyage. I’m sure there’s more potential hiding inside this project than what came out at this album.
Best songs: “Desolate Landscapes 3”, “Desolate Landscapes 6”.
Rate: (6½).
Artist: https://daowelle.bandcamp.com/music
Label: https://tunguskarec.blogspot.com
About DAO
DAO is a dark ambient project from Catalunya, Spain, with a small discography that includes “Die Fabrik, Das Haus Und Der Sinuswelle & Pluja Al Maig” (2018) and a live recording released the same year.
“Desolate Landscapes”, reviewed here, is DAO’s 2020 album on Gravações Tunguska, featuring six tracks numbered in sequence.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
