Ruptured World – Shore Rituals (Album – Cryo Chamber)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient, Cinematographic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Right after the “Planetary”-series of three albums, Scottish artist Alistair Rennie strikes back with his fifth official album. This album reveals a different concept, and that ‘contemplates the enigmas of the sea and brings a world of oceanic mysteries to the threshold of our understanding.’
Content: This album holds on the music influences of previous productions, but also reveals new, interesting ideas. Taking off with a kind of piano play lost in an endless dark space, the work is progressively moving into mysterious atmospheres created by obscure sound treatments and a few spoken passages feeling like the voice from beyond the grave. Field recordings featuring animals and voices, but also elements of nature are emerging at the end of the work.
+ + + : This work has something minimal and even a bit intimate. The visual strength of the songs is an easy, noticeable element. I like the way the dark sound composition has been mixed with spoken passages and different field recordings getting a kind of animation into the work. You can easily notice this album has something conceptual or at least built up around a theme.
– – – : There’s no track to throw away, but I’m maybe missing that track, which should make the album unavoidable.
Conclusion: This album is a poignant production, which has something relaxing and yet disturbing.
Best songs: “The Whale’s Mouth”, “The Merman”, “Radio Signature Interludium”, “The Silencing Tide”.
Rate: 8.
Artist: www.facebook.com/RupturedWorld
Label: www.cryochamberlabel.com / www.facebook.com/CryoChamber
About Ruptured World
Ruptured World is the dark ambient project of Scottish writer and musician Alistair Rennie. The debut album “Frontiers Of Disorder” was self-released in 2018, after which the project moved to Cryo Chamber for the “Exoplanetary” trilogy: “Exoplanetary” in 2018, “Archeoplanetary” in 2019 and “Interplanetary” in 2020.
“Shore Rituals” was released on 23 March 2021 as catalogue CRYO 169, on CD and digital, in an edition of 400 six-panel digipaks with an eight-page booklet. Alistair Rennie wrote, performed and produced the album and supplied the booklet text; Simon Heath handled mastering and art. The ten tracks are “The Merman”, “Black Tides Harken To The Summons Of Eons”, “The Silencing Tide”, “The Whale’s Mouth”, “Radio Signature Interludium”, “Catharsis II”, “The Human Vessel”, “Bow Fiddle Rock”, “The Unexplained Fury” and “The Three Kings”.
Rennie has also contributed to the Cryo Chamber collaborative albums “Hastur” in 2019, “Yig” in 2020, “Induction” in 2022 and “Mechanical Gods” in 2023. He returned with “Xenoplanetary” in 2023 and “Void Rituals” in 2024.
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