Artist: Lichenthrope
Title: Call Of The Moss Moon
Type: Album
Label: Digital
Lichenthrope is kinda cool for a dungeon synth name, you got to admit that eh? Anyway this is a new project by the master behind Elyvilon and Mythstone so we’re in good hands from the outset.
I think one of the things that drew me in was, quite simply, the wonderful opening moments of ‘Gnosis’. A simple harp-like melody just beautifully recorded. Sweet, lonely even but as the synths rose in the background and spread a feeling of cold and mist concern, of a still forest, rolled over me. It was so well judged I was already within the world in about 80 seconds…
‘Gibbous Moon Conduit’ has slow waves of old school keyboard sounds. The melody against this is stark and archaic. A compliment of course. The melody drips down in heavy droplets like the aftermath of a rainstorm as the moon rises, the mist gathers and naked tree limbs coated with moss are the only companions you have. But it has that quiet sense of awe too; a small creature gazing out onto it’s world knowing it is little to some but huge to them.
‘Mildew Scraper’ has a melody that begins like careful steps but occasionally becomes quick fluttering motion. A hard edge but still quiet percussion accompanies it. I have no idea what my brain does with music but I am somehow watching fireflies in the damp woods as something flits from tree to tree in an industrious fashion. As a deeper tone presses in, it somehow pulls my minds eye out wider to see more the trees than this little being, seeing the grim, dismal woods as they are; stoic, implacable, concerned only with its own borders. Isn’t mind and music a wonderful thing?
‘All Honors Of A Vine-Choked Grave’ is rich with a deeply old school tone, a medieval touch which with the sedate tempo weaves around the title to paint the grave. I think immediately of a cross amidst nettles and vines I know myself, worn away by time. Forgotten by all who knew them but remembered by those who pass now.
‘Miasmatic Chamber’ once more drips the melody upon us but a deep, resonant pulse of keyboards paints the shadows, the damp darkness, but something else lurks here as though the cloying atmosphere might, with tingling notes, lead elsewhere. A place of mystery, of exploration for the brave and apprehension to others. Yet there is nothing sinister here, simply the presence of quiet power that must be approached with great care. It is a beautiful meditative piece where I can stay and wonder that eternal should I dare this path…?
‘A Glimmering’ leads back to their surface. The sound of a cutting wind, night insects, birds, toads… and yes that melody, simply and pure, does indeed glimmer. Something soft, some yellowing light in the damp air just… almost withing reach. Always just beyond it.
‘Shambling Mycomaton’ is… the first time the rumble of danger appears. Dark synth waves in bow drawn across cello sounds. It moves slowly, that darkness ebbing then surging, more than a hint of menace. Yet the lighter emlody evokes sadness as the music shambles on. A monstrosity hungy to spread the spore, or a sad soul slowly fading away into the green?
‘Call Of The Moss Moon’ ends the album in a sound of … power? Strength? There is a vigor to it certainly. You can feel a pull, a relentless drawing in the eerie synths and percussion. It feels old and ancient and inhuman, unknown and yet impossible to wrest yourself away from it with its hypnotic, weaving sounds swaying around that percussion. And once you are irretrievably drawn in what awaits? Quiet. Delicate lights and crackling sounds and a certainty that you were meant to be there. To stay.
It’s a strange work. The genuine feeling of damp and decay pervades it but in decay there is also life and wonder and magic. Maybe the album for me is about overcoming the fear of the unknown, to simply watch a different world unfurl and offer to share its wonders. A little nocturnal nature walk that rewards far more than yyou could possibly imagine.
Gorgeous.
And very cool cover by Grave Stench Art, too.
Gizmo
