Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, doom, metal, cinematographic.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: This is a split release between two Russian projects. Each artist composed two cuts.

Content: Heather Grave takes off with a mix of doom, dark-ambient and metal music. It creates a hostile atmosphere, which is reinforced by growls. The songs also feature piano arrangements.

Frozen Ocean moves on featuring 2 cuts, which are more into dark-ambient music. There’s a twist between dreamy passages and anguishing parts. The second cut also has something psychedelic and rock-like.

+ + + : Both projects took care to elaborate their work. All songs are progressively evolving, moving over the 7 minutes. From Heather Grave I especially like “The Hunger Constellation” for the wider sonic canvas. I also enjoyed both cuts by Frozen Ocean, which are more diversified, but a bit contradictory. It’s fascinating to see the fusion between evasive- and cold parts. Last, but not least I also like the artwork and especially the front cover, which has something menacing.

– – – : Split albums aren’t maybe the most interesting productions when it comes to sales while it also concerns two rather unknown projects.

Conclusion: This album has the merit to let us discover two projects from the Russian experimental/ambient scene.

Best songs: “The Hunger Constellation” (Heather Grave), “Cities Dying In Me” (Frozen Ocean).

Rate: (6½).

Artists: http://frozen–ocean.net / www.facebook.com/frozenoceanrus

Label: www.spectralhalls.net

About Frozen Ocean & Heather Grave

Frozen Ocean is the ambient solo project of Moscow-based artist Vaarwel (Dutch for “goodbye”), whose catalogue spans metal-ambient and dark-ambient releases; Side-Line previously reviewed the project’s “Prills Of Remembrance” album on HAARBN Productions. Heather Grave is a Russian project whose catalogue, per Discogs, begins with this split release on Spectral Halls Productions.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Ambient.

Content: Frozen Ocean is a solo-project set up by Vaarwel (which is a Dutch word and means ‘goodbye’) and based in Moscow. I never heard of this band before, but I discovered a few albums from the Frozen Ocean discography.

Vaarwel appears to be a real prolific artist who has already released several albums. The main style and source of inspiration appears to be ambient music, but I noticed there’s a real difference from one album to another. The previous work (cf. “The Deison Swarm”) revealed a kind of metal-ambient format while earlier work leads us towards enigmatic and chilling dark-ambient work (cf. “Oneiric In Geocentricism”). The new work again appears to be something totally different and definitely in a more ‘classical’ ambient format.

This album sounds like a total dreamy, electronic experience, which might remind you of the early synthesizer pioneers.

You get an instant wafting sensation, which with some imagination will lead guide you to an astral fantasy universe. The songs have been accomplished by delicate arrangements while some atmospheric passages are sometimes reaching a mysterious level.

This is the kind of work revealing beautiful songs and elevating passages. “As White Supergiant Illumines Petrified Streets” is a fully achieved piece, which is carried by a slow rhythm.

The low cadence running through most of the songs injects an extra fascinating touch, which makes it more accessible for a wider audience. But the album also reveals diversity. A few songs, which are a little less into darker moods are reminding of the complexity of Benestrophe. “Of Blurred Signs Once Carved On Full Moon” and “Chains Hang Down The Abyss” both are noticeable cuts in the genre. The work is subtle and elaborate. It sometimes sounds a bit like a soundtrack composition.

The ultimate cinematographic experience for sure is the final song “White Birds Thaw On Toy Soldier’s Burial”, which clearly appears to be a little jewel in the genre. I like the melodic loop running through this song while the crystalline sound treatments simply confirm the great artistic skills of this project.

Notice by the way that this CD has been released in a DVD-box, which also reveals a global artistic approach of the band.

Conclusion: I never heard of Frozen Ocean before, but I now had the opportunity to discover different albums dealing with different genres although always sounding like pure ambient music. This artist is worthy of examination.

Best songs: “As White Supergiant Illumines Petrified Streets”, “Of Blurred Signs Once Carved On Full Moon”, “Chains Hang Down The Abyss”, “White Birds Thaw On Toy Soldier’s Burial”.

Rate: (DP:7½)DP.

Band: http://frozen-ocean.net / www.facebook.com/frozenoceanrus

Label: http://haarbn.com / www.facebook.com/Haarbn

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com