SleepResearch_Facility / Llyn Y Cwn – Sargo / Posidonia (Album – Cold Spring)
Genre/Influences: Cinematic, Dark-Ambient, Experimental.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: This work is a split release between Scottish artist Kevin Doherty (SleepResearch_Facility) and Welshman Benjamin Ian Powell (Llyn Y Cwn). They both are familiar with the Cold Spring roster but it’s quite a while ago we heard new stuff from SleepResearch_Facility.
Content: Both artists and their work have been inspired by great elements from nature. SleepResearch_Facility composed one single, extended, cut which sounds like the offspring between a dark Soundscape and Dark-Ambient. Llyn Y Cwn moves on with 3 cuts with a similar sound and approach. There’s a strong visual appeal created by obscure sound treatments.
+ + + : I’m not that fond listening to split-albums but you don’t really get this sensation with this opus. Both artists sound pretty complementary like working around the same concept and with a similar approach. The sound creates an imaginary vision of nihilism and despair. There however is a kind of prosperity hanging over the tracks. I like the extended opener by SleepResearch_Facility but also recommend listening to “Dale Dawn” and “Doppler Current Profiler” by Llyn Y Cwn.
– – – : Even if this split album is pretty cool I would have preferred to hear two different albums -and especially more stuff from Kevin Doherty.
Conclusion: A good-old split album inspired by a conceptual theme dealing with the power and magic of nature.
Best songs: “Sargo” +“Dale Dawn”, “Doppler Current Profiler”.
Rate: 7½.
Artists: www.resonance-net.com / www.facebook.com/llynycwn
Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq
About SleepResearch_Facility and Llyn Y Cwn
SleepResearch_Facility is the solo project of Kevin Doherty, a dark ambient artist from Glasgow, Scotland, active since around 2000. His compositions favor beatless, extended, richly textured pieces built for sleep-conducive listening, with little to no rhythmic content. All of his albums have been produced or engineered at Somnambu-Lab in Glasgow.
Doherty debuted with “Nostromo” on Cold Spring in 2001, inspired by the spaceship in the film “Alien.” He followed it with “Dead Weather Machine” and “Dead Weather Machine Re:Heat” in 2004 on Manifold Records, both built from a single manipulated recording of a malfunctioning electric fan heater, then “Deep_Frieze” in 2007 and “Stealth” in 2012, both on Cold Spring.
Llyn Y Cwn is the dark ambient project of Benjamin Ian Powell, who has made electronic music for more than 25 years. Powell works as an electronics technician for the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University and draws on field recordings from Arctic research cruises and the landscape of his native North Wales. The project takes its name from a small lake at 715 metres in the Glyder mountain range of Snowdonia.
Llyn Y Cwn releases on Cold Spring include “Twll Du” in 2019, “Dinorwic” in 2020, “Du Y Moroedd” in 2022, “Megaliths” in 2024, and “Megaliths In Dub” in 2025.
Doherty and Powell first appeared together on the Cold Spring compilation “Arise – A Cold Spring Sampler” in 2023, following the joint album reviewed here, “Sargo / Posidonia,” released on Cold Spring on April 21, 2022.
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