CD Cardboard Sleeve Adipocere Records!!! Comes in cardboard gatefold package, limited to 500 copies.
Dark ambient using various sounds and distortions, very ominous, sinister and harsh. Previously called Henoth, involved with several French black metal/dark ambient bands.
> Voxum: Guitars, Bass, Programming & Artworks
> B. Philippe - Voices
> B. Alexandre - Piano
First and only previous contact was the "Integrisme" disc, which was easier to get into and had nothing on it in excess of ten minutes. Said record brought together a diverse group of noisy textural drones and ritualistic dark ambient floats, which would have simply been fairly captivating, if only they did not make you feel so uncomfortable. One way or another, I had a good representative of "garage ambient" on my hands. Why garage? Well, it just sounds cooler than "bedroom ambient", although, strictly speaking, Sombre Presage does not sound shitty enough to qualify. Perhaps his earlier recordings... LLN's black ambient oeuvre would fit the bill better anyway. Now, "Seul..." is a harder meal to digest and finds Voxum putting his Euros on the minimalist variable, so the impatient ones need not apply. Then again, the ones more accomplished in the ancient art of forbearance might not necessarily have an easy time either, what with only two tracks at hand, clocking in at half hour running time.
Each track employs exactly one stubbornly fixed, distorted tone (or in this case - drone) cluster as a foundation, which is then sparingly endowed with extra shades, be it a repetitious piano theme or a protracted, increasingly agitated spoken diatribe (in French). Slightly fluctuating and scratchy drone of the first, ten minute long part moves like a storm, slowly coming from a distance, or faraway engine roar of approaching bombers. It has nothing but some faint sighs and cries to play off of at first. But soon a melodramatic, gothic chamber piano on the track's second half helps create a fully contrasting atmosphere of impending menace and prospective loss of innocence. The musical idea in itself is a bit too contrived for my tastes, but, nevertheless, it usually makes me think of WWII and its immediate destruction, although Voxum's favorite visual subjects appear to be castles and cathedrals. Drone of the second, twenty minute long part is almost entirely static, save for very marginal ebbs and flows and a handful of intermittent, deeply muted and shadowed, reverberating effects, almost like atmospheric sensory aural flashes, that are much better heard with a set of headphones. At first whispered, but eventually screamed spoken word segment does not kick in until thirteen minutes after start, and even at its most belligerent remains considerably drowned and muted.
I might have possibly missed something, for I did not use headphones while listening, but the abstract and subjective nature of something so minimal is pretty obvious. Yes, the main drone layers are not without some level of depth and claustrophobia, and at certain points Vaxum actually allows you to peak through the veils to try to differentiate individual components somewhat. That goes particularly for the drone section during the spoken word segment on part two. Generally, though, textures employed are a bit more distorted than classic dark ambient albums from the likes of Yen Pox, Inade, Schloss Tegal, Herbst9 and, of course, Lustmord, but also struck me as more earthly and much less inventive, if still dark, carrying considerably less otherworldly magnitude that the above mentioned projects possess in droves. Methinks (and feels) that the type of rigidly oppressive miasma Voxum is going for here points towards him still looking over his shoulder (consciously or otherwise) to his not so distant black metal past. The way he continues to decorate his releases also kind of begs for the same conclusion. As such, Sombre Presage still remains stuck in the post (or near) black metal suburbs. Between "Integrisme" and "Seul...", I can acknowledge the author's ability to rise above the usual black-ambient-noise fodder, but he is certainly unwilling to throw an axe into his chosen, traditional, blackened disposition. Going by "Seul..." alone, I do not quite see Sombre Presage as an entirely self-sustaining operation. Still, tuning in and attempting to drop out might get a handful of hardcore genre fans somewhere. Not that far, I reckon, but that's why we have Lustmord & Co. to turn to in the time of need.
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