Bitter River

Fantastic, engaging, ethereal neo-classical & somber chamber music from this long-running group. Amber Asylum at this stage is led by founder Kris T. Force. This time out the band is rounded out with the current line up that has members of Saros, Noothgrush, Grayceon and Hammers of Misfortune. There’s also guest appearances by Jarboe (Swans and a zillion other things) plus Eric Wood of M.I.T.B./Bastard Noise. In all a very mellow but very beautiful sounding album made by the sort of group that can express a lot of feeling with a mere stroke of the viola.

((((1))))) Slow with ethereal vocals, slowly played but very nice guitar, viola/violin and cello.
(((((2))))) Pleasant ballad with semi-operatic vocals that builds into a nice dramatic structure and vibrative strings near the end.
((((3)))) Solo piece by Kris Force with ghostly floating strings and trippy, sparse and sometimes operatic voice elements.
(((((4))))) Wonderful straight folk tune with simple but very resonating chords. This is a cover of a Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention and also known for dueting with Robert Plant on Led Zep’s “Battle of Evermore”) tune. Haven’t heard the original but this is great regardless.
((((5)))) Bass, slowly plucked guitar chords, cello, ethereal operatic vocals that accentuate nearly each syllable (though you have to listen closely). Gets pretty noisey near the end.
(((((6))))) Slow, dramatic, minimal with a lot of slow motion, space and resonation. Very nice.
(((((7))))) Medieval folk sound with flute, acoustic guitar and a nice duet between Leila Abdul-Rauf & Kris Force. lyrics inspired by Huxley’s “Devils of Loundun”.
(((((8))))) Big. slow piano chords with clear vocals, some interesting flute work by Sigrid Sheie.
(((((9))))) Dark ambient, then dramatic strings, acoustic guitar, trippy effects (might be that oscillator box) and poetic narration by Jarboe at the 10:55 mark.
(((((10))))) Droning strings, dark, slow piano chords & flute. (Not too different from the moods invoked on UIver’s acoustic album “Nattens Madrigal”).