Dronny Darko & Ugasanie - Dark Source Of The North

Cryo Chamber: 2022

While I've kept tabs on Pavel Malyshkin's various going-ons, I can't say the same for Dronny Darko. Indeed, after my initial honeymoon with all things dark ambient waned (a dark honeymoon!), I let his catalogue slip from my interests. Part of that was the fact he basically fell back on collaborative works, sometimes with other Cryo Chamber regulars like ProtoU (of course) and Alphaxone, other times with new-comers to the Cryo family (Ajna, Radioactive Immersion, G M Slater). Felt a bit of a challenge keeping tabs if I wasn't already familiar with whoever he was working with, especially for an artist I came to realize I could only really take in smaller portions.

Yeah, that's the other reason: Oleh's brand of drone was a bit on the... crushing side of things. I gotta' be prepared to be put into a particular mood after coming away from one of his outings, one I'm not always so keen on being in. Ultimately, dark ambient's all about putting you into something of a negative space - sometimes I just want to feel the equivalent of being inside an isolation chamber, of which Ugasanie is extremely good at (a cold, frigid, remote isolation chamber, if you will). Dronny tends to paint specific pictures within such negative spaces, which can be fascinating to experience within your psyche, but rather disconcerting if you're not in the right frame of mind for it.

So you can see how the two would find sonic simpatico in their scenarios: one creates the space, the other provides the details. In this case, discovering something unreal in the frozen wastes of our Arctic. At least, I assume it's our Arctic. Maybe it's another planet's Arctic? They already did one album covering similar ground, Arctic Gates, but I assume this is simply another exploration of said territory. Still, would be neat if they ended up crafting some long-form narrative out of all their works. Maybe get a Cryo Chamber fanfic writer on it!

Actually, Dark Source Of The North reminds me mostly of an earlier Ugasanie album I've covered, Eye Of Tunguska. Not so clear-cut a storyline as that cinematic drone piece crafted, but more in how things play out. The early Search Of An Object, some sort of Anomaly in an inhospitable domain, coming within its terrifying awesome yet graceful Presence. Establishing some sort of Contact in doing so (ooh, here's were Dronny's effects really come into play), realizing in doing so has horrifying Consequences. You then Transition into... what, exactly? Another being? Into another realm of existence? A sort of permafrost state of mind? It's not clear – cinematic dark drone loves its ambiguity – but whatever it is, it can be found On The Other Side Of The Arctic Gates.

Ooh, seems crystalline, at first. Then... kinda' Altered Dimensions, come to think of it. Well, Dronny's next Cryo album was with Alphaxone, Beyond The Event Horizon. I'd like to believe there's some connective creative tissue there.

Cryogenic Weekend - Polar Sleep

Reverse Alignment: 2018

Some days, the world gets you down, and you want to escape it all, but where? Space flight to distant stars is still in the realm of sci-fi fantasy, and despite what Disney movies suggest, running under the sea solves nothing – just a vast, barren abyss, carrion eaters looking for any score. And everywhere else, there's people. In the forests, on the mountains, in the deserts... people everywhere! The polar regions though, ain't hardly anyone 'round those parts. You could reside there and not see a soul for ages.

Heck, if other sci-fi stories are believable, one could go to an Antarctic glacier, bury yourself in the ice, and remain in cryo sleep for centuries, presumably waking up in the future when things are different. Right, there's a chance things are worse in the future after such a sleep (re: Sabled Sun), but they could be better too! And if it doesn't work, well, at least one will have gotten a nice, lonely sleep, with none of the worries of the world bothering you. Unless... you're not so alone in all that ice as you thought. Who knows what could be frozen away for a millennia, sleeping, waiting for such a time that mankind's hubris melts its glacial prison, unleashing it upon an unsuspecting civilization. And hey, if I just happened to be snoozing beside it in that time, maybe we can be, like, bunk buddies, me serving as a right-hand man in its impending rampage. Or it's first sacrifice. I ain't picky.

Cryogenic Weekend is a collaborative effort between Dronny Darko and Oil Texture, the latter of which I know little of. Apparently the two had never met, but somehow found each other to create a couple mini-albums of frigid dronescapes as their inspiration. Sounds like someone's been feeling that Ugasanie vibe! As is Reverse Alignment's wont, the label compiled the two mini-albums for a CD release, with Cryogenic Weekend throwing in a third CD's worth of extra material for a triple-LP outing in Polar Sleep. Holy cow, this is gonna' be as though I am trapped within the frozen wastes, isn't it?

Well, this album sure is a lengthy drone fest, of that there's no doubt. There's fourteen tracks total, which may not seem like a lot, but considering it's three CDs worth, there's no small cuts here (save five-minute Darkest Glide). There also aren't any obscenely long tracks, most hovering around the ten-to-twelve minute mark, with a few reaching a few minutes longer. And yeah, it's all foreboding, desolate, claustrophobic, icy drone ambient, almost no hint of melody in earshot. There's some field recordings scattered about (burbling and churning in Flotation Tank, radio chatter in Who Couldn't Remember, barking dogs in Faraday Station ...oh God, why are the dogs barking!?), and Towa Tödo features lonesome bell tones. Beyond that though, you're in for one deep descent into the frozen fringes of icy ambient. Be sure to wear a parka and bring a flame-thrower for your headphones.

Alphaxone & Dronny Darko - Forsaken

Cryo Chamber: 2017

I thought this would be it. After many, many, many months, almost seven deep into our current calendar year, I'd finally (finally!) get out my first review of a 2018 release. I mean, there's precedent for it, my last couple years of critic-blogging establishing a pattern of sorts. Lollygagging on the current stuff, but not that Cryo Chamber hit, oh no. They're almost always first out the gate, since they're a label I keep most up-to-date on, with albums released at such a steady clip you're never left wanting for material. Odds have always been in their favour that they get the FIRST glory, and wouldn't you know it, this particular release features two artists that have even been part of those pole positions, Dronny Darko and Alphaxone. Can you blame me for having it stuck in my head that this collaboration album between them was a 2018 release then, and would be my first review of a release in this year? But nay, that is not the case at all, Forsaken rather coming out mid-2017, and it's only now that I've actually gotten around to it. Damn it, though, I could have sworn it was a Dronny Darko album that would do the deed, and something regarding 'cryo' at that. I'm forgetting something...

Anyhow, I got this album because how could I resist a pairing of these two? Alphaxone has built a career on crafting droning soundscapes leading you into alternate dimensions (or space), while Dronny Darko crafts droning soundscapes for when you're already in these alternate dimensions (or space). It's a match made in heaven-Hell (or whatever that labyrinth cenobite realm is), and I couldn't wait to hear what weird, strange, twisted, perverted, conceptual head-space these two would take me. Fiery towers in washed-out graylands? Deep explorations of quantum realms where only Event Horizon madness dwells? Ooh, such tantalizing, very fantasizing!

But nay, we instead get something... conventional? Like, Forsaken does have a definite narrative, but it isn't anything specific, at least to the degree 'Xone & Dron' have done before. The track titles are mostly broad, generalized moments of an inward journey - Immersion, Enter The Gates, Dissolution Of Thought, Approaching, etc. - but there's no indication of where are why this journey is taking place. The assorted imagery in the CD package also shows pictures of foggy city-lines and sail masts, which gets my 'dark ambient boats' triggers all a'twitter, but still doesn't clue me in any further exactly what's forsaken here. And speaking of the CD, why do the tracks have fades between them? It's clear this album is a continuous mix, but the fades makes it sound like we're taking a commercial break between tracks. I can only assume this was an oversight.

All that nitpicking aside though, the music (such as it is) perfectly captures Alphaxone and Darko's droning strengths, involving you in a weird journey of discordant tones and strange sounds. I just wish I knew exactly where I was going.

Ajna & Dronny Darko - Black Monolith

Reverse Alignment: 2017

I never intended to get into dark ambient. It was, at best, the type of genre that I happened across if an established act I enjoyed dabbled in it (Delerium, Juno Reactor, Bill Laswell). Still, I found it interesting, some cursory research into prominent albums intriguing me for sampling, but never would I have considered immersing myself into the scene. Then along came a happenstance crossing with Simon Heath, discovery of Cryo Chamber, and you all know the rest of the story. After two years of strictly following this one label though, I've grown itchy to hear if there's more out there I can vibe on. Is there ever a lot out there to sift through though, a scary intimidating domain one can easily get lost in, giving up in despair from the futility of it all. I need some guiding hands, artists within the Cryo Chamber fold who contribute elsewhere. Ah, Dronny Darko, he'll do.

I've gone over Mr. Darko's history well enough, so let's touch upon his partner for this particular project, Ajna. A bit of a busy-body the past half-decade, he's released nearly twenty digital EPs, a few albums, and has material on labels such a Petroglyph Music, Kalpamantra, and... Treetrunk Records? Heh, unusual name. Do they by chance specialize in 'roots' music? Haha, haha, ha- oh, it's experimental ambient (described as fractal/generative... g'uh?), phonography, and field recordings. Okay then. I can expect Mr. Ajna to be one of sorts of dark ambient composers then, with lots of spacious, empty drone, with subtleties drawing you deep within your sub-conscious. Sounds like a right proper pairing with Dronny Darko then.

Indeed so, the two collaborating a couple time prior to the release of Black Monolith. In fact, CD1 of this double-discer consolidates a couple of their singles released on Petroglyph Music, the three track EP Facing The Void, and the single track EP 1000 Years Of Cryosleep. At over forty-three minutes of empty desolation, broken up by intermittent discordant sounds and forlorn tones, the latter definitely feels like you're locked away in forced, perpetual slumber.

I'm not sure whether this was all intended as a prelude, but as those singles created a mini-narrative to hang off (essentially falling into a black hole, surviving the trip through cryosleep), it's nifty that Ajna and Darko followed it up, with Reverse Alignment presenting it as a two-CD feature. As expected, disc two of Black Monolith is what we find on the other side of this one-thousand year trip to the unknown. Seven tracks, each a perfect eight minutes in length (oh, Oleg), offer mysterious drone, claustrophobic sci-fi sound effects, and that general sense of unease one gets when exploring realms unfamiliar and unknowable.

Yeah, it's all rather 2001: Beyond The Infinite - what can you expect of an album titled Black Monolith? That sequence remains ripe ground for creative sorts, and while Ajna and Darko are treading concepts well explored, their complementary styles provide another worthwhile entry in this field.

Dronny Darko - Spira Igneus

Cryo Chamber: 2016

Sure enough, about the same time I get to one of Dronny Darko’s latest albums on Cryo Chamber, he goes and releases an even newer one. I’m constantly behind the eight-ball on Mr. Puzan’s output, forever chasing, never first out of the gate. Yeah, yeah, that’s all due to the stipulations I place upon myself going through new music, but it feels strangely coincidental this keeps happening. About the same time I was catching up with his prior LPs of Earth Songs and Neuroplasticity, he put out a collaborative work called Rites Lost on Sparkwood Records. I suppose if I hadn’t been so lax on reviews this year, I’d have gotten this particular review for Spira Igneus out about the time his other recent collaborative effort with Ajna came out, Black Monolith (ooh, a double-LP is it?). But as it stands, I’m reviewing Spira Igneus as Abduction has hit the streets. Thus concludes my convoluted method of bringing y’all up to speed on Dronny Darko’s musical endeavors since last we saw of him on this blog (almost a year ago!).

As with Outer Tehom, Spira Igneus is the sort of dark ambient most folks associate with the genre: moody, creepy, something something occult. Far as I can tell though, the idea of ‘spira igneus’ is a wholly unique concept, not drawing upon any specific piece of obscure folklore. My very, very rough Latin translates this as ‘the fiery tower’, or something to that effect, which shouldn’t be a surprise given there’s an actual tower on the cover of this album. The art kinda’ reminds me of the end of The Neverending Story, when The Nothing has consumed all of Fantasia, save the Ivory Tower, though in this case, it looks like even the lair of The Childlike Empress isn’t such the beacon of hope as in that movie portrayed.

And damn straight Spira Igneus is all sort of crushing, suffocating bleakness as only the most classic dark ambient goes. Mostly it’s of the minimalist droning sort (of course), with added sounds and effects complementing a particular track’s theme. Opener Scriptures has chants lurking in the shadows, as does Three Rulers, though even more indistinct here. Rotten Orchestra sadly doesn’t feature any cacophonic instrumentation, but does bring machinery hum and clankery to the mix. Endless Cave holds low throbs and plonks as though mimicking endless echoes in deep caverns. Grey Echoes has echoes of their own, though emerging like shrieks penetrating the relentless drone, such that even its omnipresent tone recedes in fear. The ‘big’ track on here, ten-minute long Forbidden Wisdom, comes off like a trip through your own psyche, slowly losing yourself as though you’re overwhelmed by whatever unholy secrets the spira igneus keeps closely guarded. Ol’ Dronny definitely knows his way around some warped soundscapes.

As an aside, I’m continually fascinated by his construction of ‘perfect minute’ tracks that never feel too short or long. That’s some serious dedication to self-imposed constricts within one’s craft. I should know.

Dronny Darko - Outer Tehom

Cryo Chamber: 2014

Have I mentioned Dronny Darko’s name yet? Tsk, three albums deep, and that’s just unacceptable. Right, Earth Songs was a collaborative project with protoU (real name Sasha Cats), and seeing as how I spent the bulk of that one getting all giddy over the CD’s concept, you’ll forgive my omission. Then I came to Neuroplasticity, and spent a good deal of time delving into Dronny’s details; and yet, no proper name drop. This self-imposed word count though, it forces content cuts, information incised from each review. And that’s good, long-winded, tedious, go nowhere tangents of useless use seldom clogging each post. Even if the sacrifice must be an artist’s real name, it must be so, lest I unwarily ramble into the never-ending chasm that is the Pointless Pitchforkian Anecdote.

Oleg Puzan debuted on Cryo Chamber with this album, and got his first hard copy CD out of the deal to boot. No more languishing in obscurity on saturated dark ambient netlabels, yo’! Heh, no, the Ukrainian resident was making a name for himself, one that stood out if for no other reason than he went by such an obvious pun in the drone scene. He's also rather obvious in tackling the concept of ‘old world horror’ here, where the occult and the profane meet up for a good ol’ outing in the murky pitch of abhorrent black realms. Not the most original topic where dark ambient is concerned, but these Cryo Chamber guys, I gotta’ hand it to them, always unearthing some of the most obscure references to suckle their creative juices from.

For those who are not practicing scholars of Judaism (or theology in general), Tehom is a deep, abyssal realm, kinda’ like Hell, but an empty void rather than a fire and brimstone domain. There’s also an ocean there apparently, for this is where it’s said the Great Flood that drowned the lands of Noah’s age originated from. God sent the waters of the Red Sea into Tehom as well, when Moses had to scurry all those Hebrew refugees out of Pharao’s clutches. And ultimately, you can either go there to drown in your sins, or be granted safe passage through during the End Of Days, depending on who you ask. It’s all quite vague, with barely a mention in any tome, but cool that ol’ Oleg used it as a source.

Also cool is how each track is thirteen minutes long, even if the significance is lost on me. Opener Black Arts and closer Arcane Shrine are rather similar in the desolate drone they offer, though Black Arts does start with some gnarly throat singing. Mortal Skin goes as you’d expect of occult dark ambient, including many creepy chants. Compared to the other three tracks though, Snake Hole is surprisingly soothing, if still eerie in a ‘staring into the abyss’ manner. I must wonder too, whether Outer Tehom is set in a contemporary age, as I hear distant transmissions emanating from distant radios throughout. Strange, that.

Dronny Darko - Neuroplasticity

Cryo Chamber: 2016

Dronny Darko’s the sort of alias I really want to make snickering remarks over, but damn if the man behind it doesn’t deny me that chance. His works are just so interesting, at least on a conceptual level. Obviously his pairing with protoU on Earth Songs was pure catnip to my cosmic triggers, and it seems his points of inspiration show no bounds. His first album on Cryo Chamber, Outer Tehom, dealt with the occult side of dark ambient’s oeuvre, and he’s explored various other themes on netlabel releases for Petroglyph Music and DNA Production. A misconceived origin here, a polar night on Titan there, to say nothing of spending one-thousand years in cryosleep. Dark ambient sorts sure love their cryosleep. Are many of them insomniacs, the scientifically induced slumber their only hope of a restful respite from the harrowing conscious state defined by neurosis? Or maybe it’s just a real cool sounding collection of syllables.

Still, a wandering muse doesn’t always lead to the most promising of pastures, especially for one seemingly intent on challenging himself as Dronny Darko does. His second LP for Cryo Chamber, Neuroplasticity, foregoes almost all of dark ambient’s conventional spaces in favor of something you might find on Mille Plateaux or Raster-Noton: experimental, minimalist abstraction, muted atmosphere, and empty drone. Right, some of this label’s producers indulges in that last one too, but Mr. Darko takes his material closer to the realms of musique concrete than anything remotely typical for Cryo Chamber. The opening track, Mirror Neurons, has echoing woodblocks plonking about as though we’re watching an avante-garde film detailing the finer processes of bio-chemical reactions, soon followed by flittering electrical pulses flashing across colorless spaces. In fact, that’s exactly what this is, if the little promo video for this track at the Bandcamp site is anything to go by. Oh yeah, have I mentioned each Cryo Chamber release has a nifty promo video? Worth checking out, if you need some context for this music.

No, wait, ‘music’ is not what this is in the slightest. While drone ambient is often atonal regardless, ol’ Dronny doesn’t give us any wisp of a note in these five tracks. Plazma Lake is fifteen minutes of being submerged in thick viscous substance, occasional crackles of brain pulses and a muted heartthrob your only markers of sound. Electrical Membrane spends six minutes shooting garbled frequencies at your senses before fading out in mechanical drone. Circuits sounds like you’re gestating in a test-tube, being nurtured and cared for by scientists twisting and abusing the laws of nature. Ion Voltage frees you from whatever cybernetic madness has thus far assaulted your senses, with a hard cut ending the album abrupt and complete.

Neuroplasticity isn’t just abstract experimentation for its own sake – the album does have a journey of sorts going for it. Damn though, it’s unlike anything I’ve heard on Cryo Chamber yet. Cheers for taking a chance in exploring the desolate mindscape of a Borg drone.

Dronny Darko & protoU - Earth Songs

Cryo Chamber: 2015

I find dark ambient’s at its best when it provides a narrative, a musical sequence of mood, atmosphere and tone akin to an audio novel or documentary. Okay, so I think all music is best served as such, but this genre seems tailor-made for it. Catchy earworms? Shuffle-tastic beats? Sing-along lyrics? Get out of here with such foolish diversions, we’ve a tale to tell, and have no need of dance numbers and staged musical distractions. Not when there’s outworld realms to explore, frigid tundra to trek, sojourns of the psyche to survey, occult rituals to observe, and ruined societies to unearth. Or, in the case of this collaboration between Dronny Darko and protoU, telling nothing less than the entire history of the universe! Talk of ambition.

I’m not even kidding. Earth Songs contains seven tracks, each demarcated by an approximate date of setting within this narrative. The opener is Explosion (13.8 billion years ago), because if your scope is all of Earth’s existence, you may as well start at the beginning of everything. No planet, no congealed mass of space rocks and dust orbiting a hot, young star, not even a molecular cloud or stellar nursery drifting in a galaxy. We’re at a time when the very elements of the cosmos were still being crafted, the building blocks of all that we see and interact with finding its form. The music, such as it is, sounds rather like the droning ambience of a science show describing such a scene, or the weird landforms that Dave Bowman flew over after the trippy light show was done.

Since nothing much else happens in the development of Earth for a very, very long time, track two time-jumps some ten-billion years to Life Beneath The Surface (3.8 billion years ago). Not only do we now have a planet, but stirrings of cognizant chemical reactions too! In something of a departure from Cryo Chamber’s typical bleak drone, this track is rather calm and soothing, ambient in its more traditional sense. It paints a promising, humble beginning for these songs of Earth, of unlimited potential. What’s with those sounds of footsteps though? Is some future explorer actually present? Aliens? Also, I’m not sure how scientifically accurate Darko and ‘U are being, considering next track, Riparian Forest (300 million years ago), has samples of song birds. I’m almost certain such animals didn’t exist that far back.

Desolate, ash-strewn Extinction (66 million years ago) is self-explanatory, almost a requisite track in this sort of album. Shortly after (astronomically speaking), we have Primate (50 million years ago), a bit more melodic and hopeful in tone, though definitely with an ominous edge to it. Something must have happened along the way, for we have Singularity (2045 AD) next, followed upon by Leaving Earth (2135 AD), as bleak of sci-fi drone as you’ll likely hear that’s not on a Sabled Sun album. Wait…, 2135… 2145… Oh my God, Earth Songs just might be a Sabled Sun prequel! (probably not)