Written: 12th May 2024
Ambient music has a number of wide-ranging sub-genres from simple glacially paced relaxing music to artists such as Stellardrone who seek to portray the endless wonder of space or the lengthy immersive auditory scenery of Steve Roach. Some more darkly ambient compositions merely skin the surface of the listener’s consciousness and then there are those that plunge into the deepest recesses of the mind, stirring the primal fears that lurk within. Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus by Kathodos is unequivocally a member of the latter category. This album is not just a collection of tracks; it is a meticulously crafted but terrifying journey through the shadowy corridors of the psyche, a ritualistic soundscape that resonates with the sinister and the foreboding.
Made up of six tracks, Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturus begins with the longest track on the album, the fourteen and half minute ...Window. From the first second, Kathodos creates a disconcerting atmosphere that barely shows any sign of diminishing throughout the entirety of the album. The opening three note synth motif repeats endlessly in mournful solemnity and is joined by a variety of different sounds as the track progresses. Deep, rumbling chords and high, ghostly, ethereal piano add to the unsettling atmosphere until they are joined by distant chimes. Competing vocalisations battle for domination during the central section. Low, resonant monk-like chants and – further forward in the mix – a pained voice cycles in tormented anguish. This builds, layer upon layer, becoming increasingly unnerving until soon, just before the seven-minute mark, the first true spoken words of the album are heard. Instead of breaking the perturbing feeling, the words add yet more tension. The windowpane is clear / Your pale face is still there / Your hollow eyes, they stare / I turn away in despair / Your twisted mouth opens wide / Haunting me through this night / Will you ever let me be? / I’m sorry for listening. The lyrics describe some who is troubled by a memory, a presence or perhaps guilt that is symbolised by the face in the window. The window serves as a barrier, yet the haunting cannot be shut out. …Window ends reversing the opening as sounds eventually withdraw, leaving the three-note motif in its lonely refrain. Kathodos makes absolutely no attempt to ease the listener into the album and some might not make it as far as the end of the first track.
With the second track, A Memory Dwindles, the discomfiting mood continues during a track which places more importance on drone and a deeper sense of immersion. A floating voice eerily intones the word memory and this is joined by intense, resonating vocalisations and an unsettling rhythmic structure. Is there a child on the rooftop? / I see a child on the rooftop. Such is the structure of the music Kathodos creates, it plays to the listener in the same way a disturbing dreamlike movie such as Eraserhead might: there is much to explain but so much left unexplained. Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus is truly an album during which the listener’s experience relies on what they bring themselves. Phantom of the Throne Room is the most typically ambient track during much of its thirteen and a half minutes. The changes that occur do so subtly and while it still rankles with a certain amount of mystifying surrealism -particularly during the central section of vocalisations – there are moments which allow the listener time for reflection on what has so far come to pass.
As if to eradicate any feelings of normality, The Dark Priests is the most ritualistic and lyrically disturbing track on the album. It is a stark invocation to various figures from Christianity and occult mythology. It appears to be a series of appeals to different demonic figures such as Abaddon, Behemoth, Asmodeus, Beelzebub and Leviathan. Oh, Lucifero / Father, our father / Guide through the dark / Opposer of God / We bestow our kisses upon thy feet for ever and ever. At times, The Dark Priests features very little music other than some simple long held synth notes and the warped chants play as a deliberate attempt to shock and challenge religious norms by appropriating and inverting Christian prayer language and theology. Nine minutes into its ten minutes running time, there are short cheers and whistles of celebration as presumably, there has been success in summoning the desired spirit.
Penultimate track Hanging Tree explores themes of disillusionment, the search for meaning and the tension between appearance and reality in a world that is both beautiful and tragic. Structured as a conversation between the protagonist and God, the imagery of the tree hanging over the ocean suggests a precarious balance between life and the vast unknown. The tree is hanging / Over the ocean / And I am standing / In deep devotion / And I am pretending / To have emotion. Once again, repetitive rhythms and vocals bring a cloying sense of unease. However, here the accompaniment of far-eastern influenced strings adds a different layer of atmosphere. It is the nearest the album comes to having a traditionally structured song while still asking the listener to wade through murky waters as it unfolds.
Final offering Message Sent To Earth immediately evokes a completely different mood to anything else we have experienced so far. The opening transports us immediately to the vastness of space. Jangling notes hover above us and a repeated call of bird-like synths offer something in the way of an attempt to communicate. Lyrically, Message Sent To Earth paints a picture of a sophisticated and ancient influence on humanity, with themes of lost potential and shared responsibility. Nine hundred centuries ago / A pact in blood and engineered success / A gift of profound knowledge / But you drank from the poisoned chalice / The same venom in our veins / No antidote leads to a new purpose. It reads like a cautionary tale and halfway through, discordant piano changes the nuance of the track to one of confusion and unresolved misunderstandings. Message Sent To Earth acts as it began and one can imagine a huge spacecraft passing overhead as the last notes fade away.
The album title speaks volumes of Kathodos’s intention here: Parasomnia is a sleep disorder that involves unusual and undesirable physical events or experiences that disrupt your sleep, while Pavor Nocturnus is Latin for Night Terrors. The band has ensured that the experience is as uncomfortable as possible and within the album notes, thanks the record company for “publishing this abomination.” This is no relaxing ambient background music and across Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus, there is much emphasis on creating the feeling of ritualistic and at times, tribal undertones. The music and words writhe and twist and listeners will find the jarring atmosphere unbearable or hideously irresistible. Night terrors lurk this way….proceed with caution.
Parasomnia: Pavor Nocturnus is out now.
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