MORTIIS "The Shadow Of The Tower (Silver Shell)" [CASSETTE, Slipcase]
2022 - Ambient/Darkwave (early), Industrial Rock (later), Dungeon Synth from Norway
Detailed Description
Deep voices echoing from the distant past... A ritualistic soundscape for journeys to deserts and dungeons. This is a recording from 1997. Originally used as background atmospheres for the rare; fairly far in-between live shows Mortiis was doing back then. Mortiis discovered this recording on a tape in the attic, some 23+ years later. I thought it would be an interesting piece of sonic history to get out there. Around 1997, Mortiis was getting increasingly interested in industrial/ritualistic and experimental music (he also recorded VOND´s 3rd and last album "Green Eyed Demon" around this time, which has a lot of similar vibes, and dark, repeating, loop-based experimentation all over it), and this recording clearly reflects that. This is drony, ritualistic and repetetive by nature (and, because of its original purpose, which was to fill silent space and time with atmospherical sound). This was originally recorded, with lo fi, noisy gear, and very limited recording and mixing skills, so the recording (thankfully to analog tape, so it´s still acceptable to the human ear) was at times coming in too hot, meaning there´s some moderate overdrive/distortion at times. The recording is cleaned up, turned from mono to a sort of stereo, and fattened up. It still sounds like it was recorded in a cave, which was probably the vision for this piece at the time anyway. 1997 is now!
