O SAALA SAKRAAL - Oastar (2025)

If you check the RYM page of the Dutch project O SAALA SAKRAAL, you will find that it consists of four drummers. The drums in this tribal ambient pagan outfit are in the spotlight, indeed, but they are not everything that is going on in this chaotic and eclectic music. It's time to dive into this spiritual experiment for the third time.

The album is said to be an artistic response to an event nobody from outside of the Netherlands heard about: the "destruction of an ancient solar temple by local authorities in the eastern region of Hamaland, a land still shadowed by the enduring influence of the Church". This alone shows the vibes that dominate in O SAALA SAKRAAL's music: the spiritualism is here, but it's spiritualism that is much, much older than what people may think and it involves tons of drumming, humming and whispering. The dark ambient meeting tribal sounds is such a unique experience! I sure would love to see the project performing live one day!

The album is meant to be a response to "a yearning for restoration, for a return to the primordial harmony that once bound all things". The mesmerizing compositions transport the audience in time and not so much in space, but basically to whatever was there, at the location of your home, when it was still the wilderness. Listening to the dark but profound music of the talented artists, you can be sure that they "come cloaked in the guises of the woods".

Oastar costs 8 EUR.

Check: (We Come) Cloaked in the Guises of the Woods

Country: The Netherlands

Genre: dark tribal ambient

Label: Cyclic Law

O SAALA SAKRAAL - Heven (2021)

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Orbel - Lur Hezea (2022)

The artists singing in Basque are getting present on this blog. After Arima from the Basque Country, it is time for the band from the northern side of the Pyrenees, Orbel. Coming from Bayonne, the musicians create something from the borders of darkwave and nightmarish dream pop and hey showed it on their second album called Lur Hezea.

The album's title translates to "wet soil" and it only strengthens the overall impression that there's tons from folk culture in the band's music. The ancient, ritualistic nature of their art took form that is close to the dark folk/darkwave blend that is fairly popular i various places in Europe. But the vibes here are certainly more artsy: the music is dark but also far from being simple, the compositions create tones of atmosphere but not in the easiest ways possible. The minimalist background electronica works in a fantastic way in this surroundings too. It's artsy darkness. 

The band decided to switch their sound from post-rock/metal into what they call "oscillating between tribal rhythms and funeral introspections, like an ancient pagan ritual" and I ave to say that it seems to have been a really good decision. Especially when they incorporate some other genres into their tasty blend: like tribal folk in Irentsi or noisy backgrounds in Okerra. 

Lur Hezea costs 10 EUR.

Check: Heriozko Giltza

Country: France

Genre: artsy darkwave

Label: Usopop Diskak

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Hiemis - Zothique (2021)

Juan Carlos Toledo is known as a member of Silent Love of Death and under the moniker of Hiemis. As the latter, the Spaniard releases albums filled with dark and tribal-characterized ambient music, probably best sounding on his newest work called Zothique.

His music makes subtle soundscapes collide with clear folk-like drums and unnerving chanting, a perfect recipe for dark and unsettling ambient music. The gloomy parts generate such a massively spooky atmosphere, but in my opinion, the tribal folk intrusions are what really fuel the darkness here: it certainly has the vibes of folk-inspired horror movies and I'm here for it. The pretty complex album goes on and on without losing anything from this dark grip and this is something that should be appreciated.

Zothique costs 7 USD.

Check: Xylac

Country: Spain

Genre: tribal dark ambient

Label: Noctivagant

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Kælan Mikla - Undir köldum norðurljósum (2021)

I remember getting to know Kælan Mikla when they came to Poland to support King Dude three years ago. Since then, they managed to release an almost perfect album Nótt eftir nótt, threw more exciting live gigs, create solo albums and now, they're back with a new album, Undir köldum norðurljósum, that is easily as good as the last one.

There's a lot of those darkwave's dark discotheque vibes all over the release (just have a go at Ósýnileg!): the synth backgrounds burst with lively sounds while still generating the gloomy and mesmerizing atmosphere. This is only empowered by the whispering vocals singing in Icelandic, the mystic and mysterious readings quickly get out of the scale. Especially in my favourite Sólstöður with its witch-like tribal screamings adding to the exciting horror vibes (it comes with absolutely zero surprise that the track's title translates to "Solstice"). The album's title, on the other hand, means "Under the Cold Northern Lights" but, truth be told, it doesn't feel that cold; maybe there's a hint that it is freezing outside, but here, in the vicinity of hot, dancing bodies and in the warm darkness they bring, it is hot and steamy.

Although their sounds differ much, Kælan Mikla seem to be close with the French icons of Alcest: they toured together and now they collaborated in the studio as well with Hvítir Sandar being more guitar-oriented and Alcest-like atmospheric. The three witches from Iceland will be back on tour when the day get longer again, and, fortunately, are coming to Kraków once again, this time as the main course - can't wait!

Undir köldum norðurljósum costs 10 USD.

Sólveig Matthildur - Constantly in Love (2019)

Kælan Mikla - Nótt eftir nótt (2018) EN

Check: Ósýnileg

Country: Iceland

Genre: synthpop darkwave

Label: Artoffact Records

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O SAALA SAKRAAL - Heven (2021)

Three years after the album Etmaal, the Dutch collective O SAALA SAKRAAL is back with a much shorter release. The mysterious band creates a unique, innovative take on dark ambient/electronica and showed it on Heven, released by the great people of Cyclic Law label in July.

The album is meant to be an act of rebellion against religions as complex organizations of mind-altering ideology, a way of "cleansing and expulsion of the dogmatic metaphysical corruption that is dominated in today's mass religions". There's so much to the messages of each of the tracks and I'm not going to lie I understand all of this, you are welcome to read about those on the Bandcamp page provided. However, to achieve all that, the musicians serve a complicated and multi-layered mix of tribal-paced industrial electronica and dark ambient with a big chunk of sacral music (the project's name is not a mistake) within. The latter is achieved by including a four-piece choir that adds to the uniqueness of this project that consists of an ever-changing (sometimes this means "textural changes, sometimes organic and evolving, sometimes abrupt and overwhelming"), meaningful music.

Heven costs 6 EUR.

Check: Apokatastasis

Country: The Netherlands

Genre: sacral dark electronica

Label: Cyclic Law

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Grande Loge - Mantras (2020)

Hailing from France, Grande Loge is a collective made of former members of the metal bands Malepeste and Tower of Silence, who turned towards highly spiritual and dark ambient music. Back in Decemeber they released one, long mesmerizing trip in the form of the album called Mantras.

Their music consists of folk-inspired chanting, dark airy ambient and mesmerizing tribal parts. This thick and extremely attractive atmosphere is also the result of the use of more or less exotic instruments like buzuki, nafar, shaman drums and tanpura, as well as mantras and a very unorthodox languages, namely Ancient Greek in Hekaten. When you listen to this album, there's always something that makes you say "no way they can get more mysterious" and then it does. The atmosphere also reaches further than just the music and strongly influences their appearance which means that their live gigs must be absolute madness. In a dark and spiritual way of course.

Warning! Mind this hilarious note from their FB: "We are a group of artists, not fucking freemasons!". And remember that!

Mantras costs 7 EUR.

Check: Hekaten

Country: France

Genre: tribal dark ambient

Label: Cyclic Law

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Mirny Mine - Live at Visby Cathedral (2020 EN

I'm not that much into live music albums (mostly because of the sound quality tbh) and so there has never been any on my blog/ But it's different with those gothic-sensitive artists having gig in churches. It's different with those who are compared to Anna von Hausswolff. It's different with Mirny Mine who released recently an album Live at Visby Cathedral.

Indeed, a cathedral-based concert (not to mention the accompaniment by the Visby choir) fits this kind of music best. Mirny Mine, or in real life Anna Sundström, just like her more famous compatriot, makes an inspired gothic and dark pop, a real "cinematic journey into the darker parts of dream pop". Everything here is very dark, soaking with Scandinavian aesthetics, the artist's vocals sometimes sound like unnerving whispers (so beautiful in Wolf), sometimes it's spoken word, sometimes very on-point and majestic.

On the musical layer, it's dominated by monumental drums sounding like timpani that strike the stable, never hurrying pace. To top that, there are also guitars, occasionally more wheezing than not But everything is slightly different in the album's finish in Dream, tribal, mesmerizing and speedy ethereal dance.

Live at Visby Cathedral costs 5 EUR (56 SEK).

Check: Dream

Kraj: Szwecja

Szufladka: gothic dream pop

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Mirny Mine - Live at Visby Cathedral (2020 PL

Niezbyt lubię płyty z zapisem koncertów live (ze względu na jakość dźwięku, co tu kryć) i nigdy dotąd żadna nie pojawiła się na tym blogu. Jednak inaczej jest z tak gotycko-wrażliwymi artystami robiącymi koncerty w kościołach. Inaczej jest z artystami, którzy sami porównują się do Anny von Hausswolff. A więc i z Mirny Mine, która wydała niedawno album Live at Visby Cathedral.

Właśnie koncert w katedrze, w dodatku w towarzystwie chóru z Visby najlepiej pasuje do takiej muzyki. Mirny Mine, a właściwie Anna Sundström, podobnie jak swoja bardziej znana koleżanka ze Szwecji, tworzy natchniony, gotycki i mroczny pop, prawdziwą "kinematograficzną podróż w mroczniejsze regiony dream popu". Wszystko jest tutaj bardzo mroczne, przesiąknięte skandynawską estetyką, wokal artystki czasem brzmi jak niepokojący szept (piękny w Wolf), czasem melorecytujący, czasem dobitnie i majestatycznie.

Na płaszczyźnie muzycznej dominują monumentalne uderzenia perkusji brzmiące bardziej jak kotły wybijające stabilne, niespieszne tempo. Poza tym mamy gitary okazjonalnie bardziej rzężące. Wszystko jest trochę inne w zamykającym album Dream, tribalowym, wciągajacym i szybkim eterycznym tańcu.. 

Live at Visby Cathedral kosztuje 24 złote (56 SEK).

Sprawdź: Dream

Kraj: Szwecja

Szufladka: gothic dream pop

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Isoberlinia - Isoberlinia (2019) EN

The debut EP by the Swedish Isoberlinia, entitled just like the project itself, caught my attention o the spot and it absolutely deserves some hype as the level of the eclectic and difficult to label dream pop there is quite high.

I can't say much about the Swedes. But their music is already way easier to talk about: soaked with electronics and shoegaze atmosphere, gloomy dream pop. Dispersed and delicate male vocals meet here very lively backgrounds, especially when it comes to the bass line and percussion fragments that can be almost tribal-trance-like (in Wash). This track is extremely interesting as it mesmerizes also with the psychedelic guitar and, obviously, shoegaze vocal.

The longer the short EP goes, the more diverse and eclectic it seems. In Finest Hour the show is stolen by acoustic guitar sounding as if it was taken from a "Spanish Masters of Guitar" album. In Darkest Hour on the other hand, the music is ruled by new age synths. And it all comes together, a really good debut. 

Isoberlinia costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Wash

Country: Sweden

Genre: eclectic dream pop

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Isoberlinia - Isoberlinia (2019) PL

Debiutancka EP-ka szwedzkiego zespołu Isoberlinia zatytułowana tak samo jak projekt wpadła mi w ucho od razu i zasługuje na spory rozgłos biorąc pod uwagę jakość eklektycznego i ciężkiego do zaszufladkowania dream popu na niej zawartego.

O Szwedach za wiele nie potrafię powiedzieć. Natomiast ich muzyka jest już bardziej wyrazista: przesiąknięty elektroniką i shoegaze'ową atmosferą ponury dream pop. Rozproszony i delikatny męski wokal spotyka w niej całkiem żywe tła, zwłaszcza jeśli chodzi o linię basu i elementy perkusyjne, które potrafią być wręcz tribalowo-transowe (w Wash). Ten kawałek zresztą jest mega ciekawy bo hipnotyzuje również psychodeliczną gitarą i, oczywiście, shoegaze'owym wokalem.

Im dłużej trwa ta krótka EP-ka tym bardziej zróżnicowana i eklektyczna się wydaje. W Finest Hour na pierwszy plan wysuwa się gitara akustyczna brzmiąca niemal tak jakby wzięto ją ze składanki "Hiszpańscy Mistrzowie Gitary". W Darkest Hour za to królują newage'owe synthy. I wszystko jakoś ze sobą współpracuje, bardzo dobry debiut.

Isoberlinia kosztuje tyle, ile chcesz zapłacić.

Sprawdź: Wash

Kraj: Szwecja

Szufladka: eclectic dream pop

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Ivatu - Enormous and Mild (2019) EN

Created by the three artists: multi-instrumentalist Anton, poet Eava and producer Pavel, the Moscow-based trio Ivatu makes music from the border of trip-hop and sung poetry using mostly old-school ways (according to the wabi-sabi aesthetics). This is how the EP called Enormous and Wild was created.

Especially this poetic side of the project sounds the most spectacular. Eava sings her lyrics with her fantastically mesmerizing voice balancing between unsettling whispers and expressive confession (as in the brilliant Haunt). Another plus is that their trip-hop music is significantly different from other similar projects - dark and nervous pulsating in the background, sad sounds of strings and other instruments adding to the overall atmosphere of the songs.

The already mentioned approach to avoid using typical modern ways of delivering electronic music fits here perfectly. When recording, Ivatu used "vintage drummachines, samplers, synths and guitars" making the atmosphere unique and at the same time dark and tribal/folk (Heat & Hatchet, ladies and gentlemen).

Enormous and Mild costs 6 EUR.

Check: Heat & Hatchet

Country: Russia
Genre: dark trip-hop

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Ivatu - Enormous and Mild (2019) PL

Założone przez trójkę artystów: multi-instrumentalistę Antona, poetkę Eavę i producenta Pavla moskiewskie trio Ivatu tworzy muzykę z pogranicza trip-hopu i poezji śpiewanej, a przy tym stara się używać do tego oldschoolowych metod (estetyki wabi-sabi). Tak powstała EP-ka Enormous and Wild.

Właśnie poetycka warstwa projektu brzmi najbardziej spektakularnie. Eava swoje teksty śpiewa fantastycznie hipnotyzującym głosem balansującym między niepokojącym szeptem a ekspresyjnym wyznaniem (chociażby we wspaniałym Haunt). Do tego trip-hopowa muzyka jest całkiem inna niż w większości projektów tego gatunku - mroczne i nerwowe pulsowanie w tle, smutne dźwięki strun i innego instrumentarium dodającego mnóstwa punktów do klimatyczności kawałków. 

Znakomicie znajduje się w tym wspomniane podejście do nieużywania współczesnych atrybutów wykonawców muzyki elektronicznej. Ivatu użyli w nagraniu "vintage'owe automaty perkusyjne, samplery, synthy i gitary" co daje niepowtarzalny, jednocześnie mroczny i tribalowo-folkowy klimat (Heat & Hatchet proszę państwa). 

Enormous and Mild kosztuje 26 złotych (6 EUR).

Sprawdź: Heat & Hatchet

Kraj: Rosja

Szufladka: dark trip-hop

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RAKTA - FALHA COMUM (2019) PL

Kolejny w tym tygodniu zespół, którego Polacy poznali dzięki festiwalowi Soundrive, a który wydał ostatnio nową płytkę. Tym razem szalenie efektowni i szalenie szaleni Brazylijczycy z Rakty serwujący na FALHA COMUM eklektyczną mieszanką wszystkiego co interesujące.

Folkowo egzotyczna atmosfera muzyki zespołu połączona jest udanie z noise'ową estetyką, rytmicznymi, tribalowymi bębnami i rozproszonymi wokalami. Czasem wychodzi to mrocznie, czasem strasznie (wiedźmowata i płaczliwa końcówka 笑笑, co jak na ironię znaczy "uśmiech") , a czasem po prostu energetycznie (Fil do Mundo). Energii właśnie Brazylijczykom z pewnością nie brakuje, podobnie jak niebanalnych pomysłów na swoją muzykę, które trudno nawet opisać. Zwłaszcza, gdy do głosu dochodzą bębny, znak rozpoznawczy zespołu, tak jak w kończącej album Ruinie.

FALHA COMUM kosztuje 31 złotych (8 USD).

Sprawdź: 笑笑

Kraj: Brazylia

Szufladka: tribal noise rock

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RAKTA - FALHA COMUM (2019) EN

Another band Poland got to know through Soundrive Festival that appears on the blog this week because of a new album. This time it's the madly impressive and madly mad Brasilians of Rakta showing the album called FALHA COMUM with its eclectic mixture of everything that's interesting.

Exotic folk atmosphere of the band's music is perfectly combined with the noise aesthetic, tribal drums and diffused vocals. Sometimes it turns out to be scary (the witch-like, crying ending of 笑笑,  ironically translating to "smile") and sometimes just energetic (Fil do Mundo). Energy is what the Brazilians definitely do not lack, same as those unique ideas for their music that can't even be described. Especially when it gets all about drums, the characteristic trait of the band, as in the album's final track Ruina.

FALHA COMUM costs 8 USD.

Check: 笑笑

Country: Brasil

Genre: tribal noise rock

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The Haunting Green - Natural Extinctions (2019) EN

One of the most interesting albums with heavy music has emerged from the hand of the Italian duet Cristiano Perin - Chantal Fresco. The Haunting Green skillfully combine ambient atmosphere with metal power and everyone can witness it on the project's LP debut - Natural Extinctions.

As suggested by both the band's name and the album's title, it is devoted to the relationship between human and nature or more precisely, as written by the label house, "the inability of human beings to preserve their innocence and the bond with nature during their existence". It seems that there's no better way to express it than with climatic post-metal infused with tribal elements.

Those long ambient fragments bringing some of the phenomenal atmosphere and drums with their tribal rhythm are what the audience is likely to notice first. They are so welcome diversification for the especially heavy stoner guitars and husky growl. As it is in Litha where the mesmerizing drums solo makes the most impressive fragment of the album.

Natural Extinctions costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Litha

Country: Italy

Genre: tribal post-metal

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The Haunting Green - Natural Extinctions (2019) PL

Jeden z najciekawszych albumów wiosny z ciężkim graniem wyszedł właśnie spod rąk włoskiego duetu Cristiano Perin - Chantal Fresco. The Haunting Green udanie łączą ambientowe klimaty z metalową siłą i można się o tym przekonać na długogrającym debiucie projektu - Natural Extinctions.

Tak jak sugeruje zarówno nazwa zespołu jak i płyty, ta zajmuje się w swojej filozofii związkami człowieka i natury, a dokładniej, jak pisze wytwórnia, "ludzką niemożność ocalenia niewinności i powiązania z naturą w czasie egzystencji". Wydaje się, że nic nie pasowałoby lepiej do tego tematu niż przesycony tribalowymi elementami klimatyczny post-metal.

To właśnie długie ambientowe fragmenty dodające fenomenalnego klimatu, a także bębny z ich tribalowym rytmem rzucają się pierwsze w uszy. Stanowią pożądane urozmaicenia dla wyjątkowo ciężkich, stonerowych gitar i zdartego growlu. Tak jak w kawałku Litha, gdzie solo na hipnotyzujących kotłach stanowi najbardziej imponujący fragment. 

Natural Extinctions kosztuje ile tylko chcesz zapłacić.

Sprawdź: Litha

Kraj: Włochy

Szufladka: tribal post-metal

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