Gdanian – Submersion (Album – Cryo Chamber)

Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient, Cinematographic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Sergey Gdanian is a Russian artist based in Berlin (Germany). After a few releases Gdanian signed a deal with Cryo Chamber and unleashed the “Submersion” –album.
Content: The Ambient and Cinematographic atmospheres clearly fit the approach of Cryo Chamber. The particularity of this artist is that he’s using more explicit Electro sequences, which have something pretty minimal. These sequences have been merged together with noticeable aquatic field recordings and underwater atmospheres.
+ + + : Gdanian brings some diversity to the Cryo Chamber’s roster. I fully enjoyed the repetitive, explicit and icy sequences. Together with the dark sound atmospheres and field recordings it creates a harmonious, obscure work. This music has a strong visual appeal and you often get the sensation to be part of an imaginary play. The opening title track leads you directly into the essence of the Gdanian sound. I also recommend listening to “Hidden Sector”, “Inside The Station” and “Paradox”. Some of the very last cuts become extremely obscure and disturbing, which is created by impressive sound blasts.
– – – : The only cut that couldn’t fully convince me is the last one. So no climax at the end, but all tracks before are worthy of examination.
Conclusion: Gdanian invites the listener to visit an imaginary, anguishing universe created by the simple power of sounds and noises.
Best songs: “Submersion”, “Hidden Sector”, “Paradox”, “Signals From The Abyss”, “Inside The Station”.
Rate: 8½.
Artist: www.gdanian.com / www.facebook.com/gdanianmusic
Label: www.cryochamberlabel.com / www.facebook.com/CryoChamber
About Gdanian
Gdanian is the dark ambient project of Sergey Gdanian. Discogs describes it as a project from Moscow, Russia, now based in Berlin, Germany.
Discogs lists “XI” in 2015 as the earliest documented release. “Submersion” is the first Gdanian album for Cryo Chamber and was released on 10 August 2021 in digital and CD formats. Sergey Gdanian wrote, performed and produced the record, and Simon Heath handled artwork and mastering.
The nine tracks are “Submersion”, “The Lowest Point”, “Strange Forms”, “Hidden Sector”, “Inside the Station”, “Paradox”, “The Core”, “Signals from the Abyss” and “Into the Void”.
Cryo Chamber issued “Induction” in 2022 and “Mechanical Gods” in 2024, and Gdanian appeared on “False Dawn: Falsified” by RNGMNN & Collaborators on Winter Light in 2023.
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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.
