Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, soundscape.

Background/Info: Swedish label Cryo Chamber welcomes the young Slovakian artist Dominik Ragancík to release his debut full length. This musician composed music for games like “Space Engineers” and did sound work for” Mass Effect” and “Call of Duty” trailers, VR games like “Blue Effect” plus worked on Lamborghini and Mercedes commercials.

Content: “Visitors” is a sound universe inviting the visitor to explore dark sonic collages. The album features 6 tracks, which are pretty compact and giving you the impression to become a long-duration single piece featuring different chapters. Field recordings featuring the unavoidable aquatic atmospheres have been mixed with obscure sound treatments resulting into an imaginary voyage throughout hell.

+ + + : The dark approach and visual strength of the album are quite familiar elements for this kind of music, but you feel Dominik Ragancík perfectly exceeds in this genre. There’s a noticeable progression in the writing and evolution of the tracks. But the main characteristic of the work is probably the kind of inhibited terror emerging from the composition. You can feel the danger everywhere and your fantasy will go mad when visiting these imaginary, infernal corridors, but in the end, less is really happening. It’s all about perception and your fantasy…

– – – : You get the impression listening to a long during single cut, which makes the album a bit monotonous.

Conclusion: “Visitors” is an enjoyable piece of music although I got the impression to have heard this kind of production one hundred times before. It sounds cool, but too predictable.

Best songs: “Prepare”, “First Contact”.

Rate: (6½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/Eximia–Ambient-132043974159692

Label: www.cryochamberlabel.com /  www.facebook.com/CryoChamber