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Das Haus zur letzten Latern - A Tribute To Gustav Meyrink
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HORUS CyclicDaemon is back with another special release. This former publisher of occult books and prints, specializes itself in obscure ambient and industrial projects. Most striking is the always beautiful and special packaging of the albums they release.
This new work by Silence & Strength is also a tribute to author Gustav Meyrink, most well-known for his novel Der Golem. In 1920, Carl Boese and Paul Wegener adapted the book for their successful film, which is one of the German Expressionist classics, next to Nosferatu and Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. Even the artwork of this release has a lot of resemblance to the classic of Robert Weine.
And now for the music! Silence & Strength create a very weird and claustrophobic industrial landscape with this release. It all starts with what sounds like an eerie industrial hell, ‘Das ganze Sein ist flammend Leid’. We continue over this Dante’s Inferno like path to ‘Der Kardinal Napellus’, which surrounds the listener with demonic sounds amidst dripping water sounds. ‘Die vier Mondbrüder’ sounds as if we are surrounded by small Golem’s and dark whispers. With ‘Der Opal’ we get the first sign of a rhythm. Tribal sounds enter and have some resemblance to This Morn’ Omina. ‘Bal Macabre’ is more creepy and psychedelic ambient with some female choir here and there. ‘J. H. Obereits Besuch bei den Zeitegeln’ has a more experimental sound and go together with some uneasy deep drones. ‘G.M.’ is a kind of short experimental intermezzo with al kinds of male voices bending your ears. We get again a more experimental soundscape with ‘Meister Leonhard’. Tribal sounds turn up again in ‘Walpurgisnacht’, here the track sounds more ritualistic. Der Golem was Meyrink’s most important work and gets a track of epic length of almost 19 minutes with a track title of the same name, ‘Der Golem’. This track is very cinematic and the movie Der Golem seems to be unfolding in front of your ears. At around the four minute mark the scene changes, as we hear the sound of an old door opening and we seem to be in the middle of a tavern. This sudden change in ambience made me think of Fabrice du Welz’ film Calvaire, were people in a bar suddenly are doing a very weird dance for no reason. After a while we go back to the dark industrial sounds, but there’s also room for some female choir sounds. As the song goes on there are some other weird segments which is best to listen to it yourself. An interesting piece of music it certainly is, as it goes all over the place. We continue with ‘Das grüne Gesicht’, which starts as a dark piece of music, but transforms into a very bombastic and cinematic track. Very unexpected, but that’s all the better for it! ‘Der weiße Dominikaner’ is more psychedelic track with some singing and full of bells. The album ends in style with ‘Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster’, a dark soundscape which ends in a kind of old funerary song.
HORUS CyclicDaemon releases always have a strong conceptual character, musically and visually. Again with this album of Silence & Strength, in which he create a very cinematic album as a tribute to Gustav Meyrink. As far as the sound quality goes, it’s as good as it gets, every sound is crystal clear. Stephan V. Friedman also gets help from a lot of other musicians on this album, which helps into creating a strong album. The cinematic strength of the album has a great impact on the total ambience of this work. Though, most of the tracks have their feet very much in the industrial ambient realm, there is also room for more psychedelic and tribal touches. Definitely a great album for more obscure industrial connoisseurs, but it’s also accessible for a somewhat larger crowd, like fans of Lustmord for example. Together with the packaging, which has an oversized (A5) four page booklet packed in an A5 envelop, this release if an instant collectors item!
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