Natura Est – Natura Est (CD Album – Ant-zen)
Genre/Influences: Electro-ambient, industrial, cinematographic.
Background/Info: Natura Est resulted from the common efforts and the passion for dark-ambient music between Tony Young (Autoclav1.1) and Andreas Davids (Xotox). It’s an interesting meeting between one of the most talented IDM composers (Young) and a musician who’s more familiar with harder and industrial music (Davids). “Nature Est” is the self-titled debut album of the British-German duo.
Content: You rapidly will notice the ambient approach running through this work. It clearly walks towards darker paths accentuated by humming sound waves and background droning kicks. The work has a visual appeal giving me the impression to get lost in an imaginary sound labyrinth. Some passages are more into experimental music while there also is a strong cinematographic touch emerging from the tracklist.
+ + + : I consider Tony Young as one of the most talented musicians when it comes to IDM and related genres. His sonic trademark is maybe less noticeable at this work although there’s a real great songwriting characterized by a progressive evolution in the composition and structure of the songs. There also is a noticeable evolution towards darker sound territories revealing the great “Black Town”. I personally prefer this obscurer side, which also reveals a great visual strength.
– – – : If the main goal was to create a pure dark-ambient release comparable to bands such as Lustmord, Raison d’Être ao I should say Natura Est still has a way to go. “Natura Est” is a different kind of ambient music.
Conclusion: Ambient music is a style with multiple faces. Natura Est likes it dark, a bit astral-like and sophisticated plus diversified. It also is an interesting project between 2 artists who deal with different kinds of music, but who still are complementary.
Best songs: “Black Town”, “Causatum”, “The Soil”.
Rate: (7½).
Artist: http://autoclavonline.com / www.facebook.com/andreas.davids
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