Artist: Isbre
Title: Through Silent Woods
Type: Album
Label: Digital
It’s been blasphemously hot in the UK of late, bad enough for me to feel unwell and for the world to grind to a halt in a humid stifling mess. So how do I cure this?
Isbre. A Gravfrost project of dark winter ambient. Perfect to cool the mind?
‘Beneath The Darkened Skies’ dims the lights and ushers in a bitter wind. The synths describe a dark and bleak sky to me; a sense of emptiness and stasis despite the prowling of the night wind. I have no idea if anyone else ever feels this but, for me, there are moments in the dark of winter when the world is cold and the constant cutting of the wind chills you that still somehow bring an overwhelming sense of stasis, and this is what this opening does. Held in this icy embrace, the winds are an illusion as the world simply cannot move on, not until the winter allows it. Delicate but rich notes remind me of a certain Norwegian and their early treading of winter ambient but there is also a deep sense of connection with the nature and the seasonal face of the cold.
‘As Fog Dances Between The Trees’ takes us deeper into this nature. The wind fades just a little as we hide between the skeletal trees and frosted needles. The sombre synths move with slow grace occasionally stepping from shelter to be caught by the wind but sight still reaches no further than an outstretched hand. ‘Runes Carved Into Bark’ feels like the hand outstretched and brushing the marks; cold fingertips pushing through frayed wool finding them by chance and suddenly the age of the place sweeps in. There is a quality of curiosity here for me; even in that moment and that cold place realising that you are not the first there, though perhaps the first for a long time and that there was another, older story to be told here. It’s a moment of respite found within as your mind goes wandering along forgotten possible pathways and other times. And maybe ‘Moss Shrouded Bones’ is the end to that story carved in bark. A discovery where the sombre becomes strangely restful. Whatever brought the bones has long since ceased to trouble them.
‘Though Silent Woods’ we continue. The winds still seeks us out but the music seems to bear the thoughts of the tale we have chanced upon in our passage. The world remains motionless but our mind has opened it a little further. A place of cold and of darkness but also of hidden tales that we may never know the truth of but can carry with us still. Our journey seems to swell in our soul, a moment of rare insight and…
..And finally we see the ‘Frostmoon’ glittering amidst the night. Perhaps this is what the world has stopped for; pale light twinkling with bitter ice needle brightness. Enchanted, mesmeric, the place we have been brought to where even the winds no longer touch us. Perhaps a place to sit for a while, to let the cold seep in and the moss to grow. Or perhaps a place to mark and, with respect, return to our world thankful for this strange and beautiful gift.
Isbre have described a cold and bitter world, a night that offers no ease for the traveller who takes it as a challenge, as an obstacle. But for those who choose to meet it in its own realm, perhaps the gift it offers is as gentle as any.
Hypnotic and cold but it leaves me enraptured.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 