In these days of global warming it might not sound that strange any more but in the days of Willem Barentz it was a mission impossible: travelling across the Nordic waters from East Canada to West Canada or even worse in the direction of Russia. No, this must have been a horrible expedition. Compared with now, a partly ice free sea, the Nordic Passage must have been rough or even non-existent.
The album North Passage by Nautic Depths is an ode to this expedition. Inspired by the writings of earlier mentioned Willem Barentz the duo of Mathias Grassow and Tomas Weiss created an album of six pieces.
Mathias Grassow is known for his dark cold ambient and drone music and with his partner in crime Tomas Wiess (a new name for me) this is no different.
Ice cold drones are layered upon each other with soft atmospheric, though also cold, sounds in the background.
During the expedition things get worse and worse and so do the background noises. They become quite haunting.
The music fits well in the dark ambient world
with these motives, but without the focus on metal scrapping and industrial sounds. The focus here is more on souncscapping a natural process; the struggle between men and nature instead of men versus machine.
As an album North Passage is a well done album and fits with the horrible circumstances these people must have been in during their adventures. With a minimal approach a story of suffering is shown.
Though, the downside is that without this story of it doesn't really stand out in the genre. It's not bad, it's even really good. But haven't we heard enough of these albums?
Hopefully next time an album with a summer context. Now that would be nice. |
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