Lustmord is the godfather of dark ambient, and is renowned for recording in caves and submarines to explore the acoustic possibilities of large spaces. Here he experiments with a different medium: the human voice. Sure it’s smaller on a physical scale, but this dude’s sonic manipulations feel as though he were plunging deep into the larynx of the universe. His ambition here is to explore “sound as ritual, without dogma” and I’d say he hit his mark dead-on, deconstructing the elements of Sufi prayers, Gregorian chants, and more. Featuring vocals from Jarboe, some guy from Tool, and others. Amazing stuff!

1. (9:46) Gentle, eerie Middle Eastern female vocal chanting with some harrowing undercurrents of signature Lustmord rumbling
2. (5:07) Windy, quiet, whispering soundscapes until some chanting gradually emerges from the abyss in the final minute
3. (17:16) dense, subtle layers of field recording and subaudible bass, traditional Islamic chanting drones in and out, crescendos toward the end with layered harmonies
4. (14:03) HOLY SHIT, this is incredible. What starts as wordless, drifting Gregorian-style chanting (male) develops into stark, grandiose throat-singing epic. Guaranteed to exacerbate your insomnia.
5. (7:22) dark rumbling, male and female chanting, melancholy and utterly bleak
6. (12:15) sounds like a choir of monks chanting in the bowels of hell; hard to describe beyond that
7. (8:32) eerie lustmordian darkness, buzzing field recordings; halfway through we get some dissonant chants which crescendo, drift off…