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Aversionline
Sweet hell, this is an amazing slab
of dark ambient mastery from this Australian outfit. And his
debut full-length, no less? I'm impressed. Four lengthy tracks
of perfectly flowing desolation that creates a truly encompassing
atmosphere that never feels dull in the least. "Cold Light
Infusion" sets the tone immediately with just under nine minutes
of completely bleak and foreboding drones that really create
a lot of visual references with the way they sort of linger
in place and subtly devour their surroundings. "Black Sun"
continues in a similar vein with more than 10 minutes of murky
low-end and midrange that rises and falls with ease. "Blood
Red Sea" is a bit softer and more spacious, certainly a subtler
piece (though all of this work is subtle on some
level), using more resonance and a twisted sort of high-end
in the distance that adds a bit of a different air to this
one. The massive 20+ minute "Drowned (Desert Earth II)" ends
the disc and takes the soft sparseness of "Blood Red Sea"
and adds in some occasional resonant thuds and a little more
dynamic activity in certain areas (including a few faint hints
at melody leading up the final stretch). It's interesting
because a lot of these sounds are really hard to describe.
I mean, technically there aren't any real drones or hums per
se, perhaps here and there, but somehow it all just strikes
me as more of a literal sound - like field recordings
or something, though not, of course. But that gives an improper
representation of the work as well, because 'field recordings'
have a stigma that is not at all related to these compositions.
I guess if you could imagine the entire world being scorched
to the point of absolute devastation, this might be what a
field recording of the moments precisely afterwards
would sound like. There's just this hopeless presence
there, it exists but it really is complicated to define. The
sound quality is exceptional as well, so I would indeed be
curious to know the means used for the entirety of this CD
(generating the sounds, documenting them, and so on). Everything
comes across well rounded and fills the space surprisingly
well, so I have not one complaint there. The layout keeps
it minimal with some excellent barren landscapes that look
like post-apocalyptic wastelands, and very little text is
used - allowing the imagery to do most of the talking. Very
nice, and it's worth mentioning that the visuals are an excellently
appropriate accompaniment for this music. Dark ambient scarcely
gets better than this, I have to say. The four compositions
herein work perfectly together and definitely act as a complete
and unified whole, and while there's not a great deal of individual
movement, the overall tone and feeling generated by the compositions
is pretty damn impressive - a feat rarely achieved within
these circles. Absolutely recommended. I certainly hope that
this release ends up being revered as a benchmark release
for the dark ambient genre at this time period, because I
don't think I've been this impressed by such an artist in
years.
9/10
[Notable tracks: all four are consistent
with one another and therefore incredibly well done]
Andrew, April 2005.
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Broken
Dolls
Terra Sancta is an Australian dark ambient
artist, which is rare enough to be noted. And Greg Good doesn't
do conventional music: "Aeon" is an underground
album (which means really under the earth), composed to describe
the sounds produced by the guts of the earth, from the friction
of the tectonic plates, to the volcanic deflagrations.
Like the movements of the crust of the earth,
"Aeon" is a slow and progressive album, but extremely
powerful. The sound is an incredibly heavy organic mass, which
makes the drone fans jealous. But Terra Sancta isn't just
that: it's also natural sounds well incorporated (wind, water,
crumbling...), more melodic and stunning far soundscapes (some
parts of "Black Sun" sounds like Northaunt, the
wind being probably more desertic than arctic this time),
and a gift to mix organic and sacred sounds.
His influences are mostly the origins of
dark ambient with obviously Lustmord, but Terra Sancta digested
perfectly these influences, to create his own identity. I've
never heard such a powerful and tectonic album, the deflagrations
nailing you on the floor.
First album and first masterpiece, Malignant
had a good hunch on this one. "Aeon" is an impressive
album, by the quality of its compositions, or the recording,
and every Lustmord fan or abyssal dark ambient fan should
listen to this at least once. I can't wait for the next album
to come out.
17/20
Nicolas, May 2007.
(translated from French)
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Heathen
Harvest
With the majority of dark ambient releases
nowadays taking on a more malevolent, shadowy, haunting nature,
it’s invigorating to hear something that moves away
from the pitch-blackness of this genre and opts for something
more organic and natural as a grounding. Based, seemingly,
on the elemental qualities of nature and their attributes,
‘Aeon’, the debut Terra Sancta, does just this
throughout the four tracks that occupy the 50 minutes of soundcapes
that fill this disc. With imagery of barren waste-lands, open
and unprotected, ravished extremities of weather, lifeless
and decollate, ‘Aeon’ has an immensely deep and
compelling edge to the atmosphere and intensities that are
produced by the juxtapositions of light and darkness that
are evidently influences and reference points in the recording
and presentation of the album as a whole. The very organic
nature of the album and the reliance on more natural source
material ‘Aeon’ has a more accessible and attainable
feel to the majority of releases that have flooded this genre
of music of the recent years. With similarities to the likes
of Inade’s legendary ‘Aldebaren’ in sound
and textures produced, its easy to see how and why ‘Aeon’
has such attainable qualities in every aspect of the soundscapes
it contains. Whilst not being as dark or ‘spooky’
as its contemporaries, ‘Aeon’ certainly manages
to produce its own seductive power and intensity that it releases
slowly as its soundscapes expose themselves to the listener,
with impressive effect. ‘Aeon’ offers up a wonderful
edition to the dark ambient genre and will no doubt force
many of these who occupy this genre to re-evaluate their contributions.
Lee Powell, August 2006.
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Fiend
Magazine
After a self-released MCD from a few years
back, "Aeon" arrives as the debut full-length for
Australian outfit Terra Sancta. Whilst the "Anno Domini"
MCD took its cues from acts such as Raison d'etre and Desiderii
Marginis, "Aeon" is far more accomplished in forging
its own individualised sound. As is visually illustrated on
the stunning cover artwork, the album encapsulates a barren,
desolate and windswept sonic environment. With its skilful
use of ebb and flow technique, coupled with cascading waves
of sound, a multi-layered dark ambient framework is effortlessly
constructed. The resultant music is engagingly sparse, expansive
and sonically dense in equal measures. Likewise, when appreciating
"Aeon" through headphones the album really takes
on epic, widescreen proportions. Certainly a more atmospheric
beast than its predecessor, this is an album that can easily
stand on its own, but likewise aligns comfortably with the
works of label mate Yen Pox. In a word - recommended.
4.5/5
Richard Stevenson, 2005.
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Auralpressure
This is the first official recording by the
group (discounting the limited edition and quite frankly super-duper
re-mastered "Anno Domini" release from 2001).
"Aeon" is 4 tracks and 50 minutes of cold
as ice on a can of Fosters lager and blacker than a Goth's
eye shadow, ambient music par excellence. Working on the premise
that for these types of soundscapes to fully integrate with
the listener, to draw him / her / girlieboy whatever into
the other worldly realms, then the music must be all encompassing
and powerful. The sounds generated should have just the right
degree of prevailing evil malevolent intent whilst expanding
and floating outwardly to the nether regions. It should be
subliminal, with hidden sounds almost unperceivable to the
ear, and yet have the clarity to shine through the dense smog
to register intimately. The music should bounce erratically
off hidden cavernous walls and be claustrophobic at the same
time. "Aeon" achieves all this and then some more. Sonically
as bleak as a Dickens novel set in winter, Terra Sancta sets
into music what Charles managed to convey with words. Using
a palette of dark spatial electronics the music is as vast
and uncompromising as the wildest Australian outback.
"Aeon" is a small masterpiece within the
ambient genre that, although only 40+ minutes long, uses each
and every one of those precious minutes to build up a crescendo
of atmospheric set pieces. Terra Sancta are the best thing
musically to come out of Australia for a long time.
ANM, 2005.
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From
the Cave Zine
Terrifying. It is very difficult to describe
with words what you feel listening the debut album of the
project Terra Sancta, based in Australia. And is wrong to
remain closed in the definition "dark ambient" to
describe the sonic maelstrom contained in the 4 tracks that,
for about 50 minutes, will lead your poor souls in a dark
and unknown world, where the eyes only see the images codified
by your poor ears, run down by a wall made of natural samples,
minimalistic synths and, above all, a human mind that must
be found the access of zones forbidden to the normal people,
with a majestic and terrifying on this cd. Post-atomic desolation
landscapes, images of worlds on the edge of end incredibly
mixed with totally different photograms like great vast forests,
moved by cold wind that hide dangers, shade zones in bedrooms
with evil presences. All that and more is "Aeon",
a work that upset me from the first listening: a terrible
sense of anxiety and unsufferable anguish will invade your
body and your mind, you will need to phone to someone or turn
on the tv for not remain alone. There were years that I did
not hear an album able to put fear, to let you feel the particular
sensation that grow up your heartbeat without a specified
reason, with the fear of an impending danger, but without
nothing concrete in front of your eyes. The most terrifying
part of CMI and the most gloomy soundtrack are the parents
of this album, at the same time a masterpiece and a weapon:
an album like this in the hand of someone that suffers some
kind of mental trouble could be lethal. I must bow to the
guy that closed in his room has been able to create those
sonic landscapes, so incredible and deep. This album is pure
contemplation, it moves your brain and let you think in a
different way. "Aeon" unites concept like love and
hate, peace and war, life and death. Go to the Malignant site
and order your pass to the unseen world.
Pesten, 2004.
(Translated from Italian)
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Manifold
Records
Plumbing the deep emptiness within, Terra
Sancta return with only their second release in the past few
years. 'Anno Domini', the first, a too-short e.p. that promised
huge things to come from this project, is revealed as only
the teaser after this masterful full-length release of Aeon,
a work of indescribable black beauty. This disc sounds as
epic and vast and endless as it's name. Four tracks resound
gracefully into leviathan, whirling galaxies of dark-ambient
sound, approaching the horizon of darkness from different
edges, displaying a light beneath the oppression. Capped off
with the oh-so breathtaking 20 minute 'Drowned Desert Earth
2', this record delivers all the Lull-ish satisfaction the
dark-drone listener seeks. And it has fantastic artwork. Stunning
all around. This is not to be missed.
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