Genre/Influences: Ritual, dark-ambient, cinematographic.

Format: Digital, DCD.

Background/Info: Some of you for sure know Mark Crumby. This British artist has been involved with multiple projects, but Konstruktivists has been for sure one of the most famous. Another important project was Cathedra. The production was released during the 90s, mainly on cassette and released on different labels such as Ant-zen, Jara Discs ao. This album features a selection of twenty nine songs from that period and taken from these different releases.

Content: The first disc entitled “Burning Is Irreversible” features 14 songs that are mainly driven by ritual influences. It’s a minimalistic composition reminding me of some 80s pioneers and especially Zero Kama. Electronics have been merged with the mystic sound of flutes, wind-bells, slow tribal percussion and a few lethargic chants.  I also noticed a few tracks, which are more into dark-ambient.

The second disc entitled “The Memory Cage” has nothing in common with the first disc. The songs have been meticulously chosen and are into a pure cinematic approach composed with electronics. The songs are carried by endless dark strings while you’ll notice a few passages with chants.

+ + + : The ritual side of Cathedra is absolutely magic! I think there are not many projects dealing with this kind of music. The atmosphere recovering the songs has something mysterious, but the ritual elements are there to lead the listener into an imaginary dark rite. The first CD is an essential work featuring multiple outstanding songs.

– – – : I’m disappointed by the second disc, which is pure monotony. I don’t have anything against cinematic experiences, but the tracks are too similar and based upon a repeating sound formula.

Conclusion: This is an interesting retrospective and especially as it must be the first time to have Cathedra on CD format. The ritual side of the project is brilliant while the other tracks are suffering from a lack of elaboration and efficiency!

Best songs: “Servulus”, “Black Rain”, “Ritual I”, “Lex Non Scripta”.

Rate: (7).

Artist:

Label: www.zoharum.com / www.facebook.com/zoharum

About Cathedra

Cathedra was a project of British musician Mark Crumby, also known for Konstruktivists. Active mainly in the 1990s, Cathedra released material on cassette through labels including Ant-zen and Jara Discs, among them “Neolith” (1994), “Excerpta” (1994), “Valediction” (1995), “In Perpetuum” (1995), “Until The End Of The World” (1996) and “Orpheus” (1997). “Time Was Away 1992-1997” gathers a selection of that material as Cathedra’s first release on CD, issued on Zoharum in 2019.

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.

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In October 2015 Codex Empire released the 4-track vinyl EP “Kingsevil”. The Vienna (Austria) based project now returns with a second EP, “Cutpurse’, out on a limited edition vinyl as well this time (available here). You may expect hard hitting, 1990s EBM leaning, classy techno bangers.

Codex Empire is the project run by Mark Crumby, an English experimental/industrial musician known for his own musical projects as well as his work with Konstruktivist. In the past he ran the Jara Discs label and published the Impulse magazine.

Check out already “Cutpurse” below.

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Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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