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BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE (B.S.E.) - Modern Day Diabolist

Format: CD / DVD
Label & Cat.Number: Cyclic Law 46th Cycle
Release Year: 2012
Note: seventh full length album by this Scandinavian duo who developed a quite unique dark cinematic ambient style through the years, filled with an almost unbearable atmosphere of dejection, using many processed samples & vocal material; feat. two video clips by Swedish visual artists THE RETARDTANK and FETISH 23 on the DVD; lim. 800
Price (incl. 19% VAT): €15.00


More Info

"Beyond Sensory Experience are back with their seventh full length study - Modern Day Diabolists. BSE have reopened the dossiers and turned page to focus on life in the modern urban world. True to their ten-year pattern of evolution the dark ambience is more captivating than ever; complex soundscapes and consoling melodies combine with provocative rhythm structures and unsettling samples to generate a new profile of BSE. When business has stopped and lights are out what is left is Modern Day Diabolists.
Modern Day Diabolists will be available as a CD/DVD double Digipak in May. The DVD features compelling visual interpretations of two tracks from the album by Swedish video artists The Retardtank and Fetish 23.

Edition of 800 copies in 6 panel double Digipack. 9 tracks. Running Time 57:00" [label info]

www.cycliclaw.com



" “Modern Day Diabolists”. Such title would suggest that we have to deal with the darkest installment of BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE activities. Personally, when I first heard this title, also remembering previous material, “Zielona Góra” recorded together with Moljebka Pvlse, subconsciously I expected release which will be hell darker than “No Lights In Our Eyes.” I was disabused of this mistake very quickly.

This is first full length BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE album since four years (not counting here mentioned above Moljebka Pvlse collaboration). After a handful of releases for Old Europa Cafe and Cold Meat Industry, this time the Swedes came under Canadian wings of – very buoyant recently- Cyclic Law. At the beginning Frederic Arbour’s label focused mostly on releasing high quality Scandinavian dark ambient, occasionally penetrating other corners of sonic darkness. However recent years brought us opening for other parts of the world and other approaches to dark ambient matter. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is definitely to Cyclic Law advantage. Of course “Modern Day Diabolists” is the work by Scandinavian duo, but closing this album in strictly Nordic compartment would be a huge faux pas.

As I have mentioned earlier, the album opener “Through the Underworld” is somewhat surprising. It starts with a low-pitched voice (Swedish I guess) and serene sound texture, but after a while this calm sound surface is disturbed by a beat. Beat which is kinda rough, but all in all quite peaceful. “Hailstone Reactor” has a similar structure: it begins with sound of rain, voice shouting the same phrase over and over again and single electronic howls hanging on the canvas painted with silence. And then, after two minutes or so, I hear post-rock guitar and simply stop thinking about “Modern Day Diabolists” as another dark ambient album. Instead I start to wonder if it wouldn’t be a perfect illustration for another Jim Jarmusch movie. Then a minute of cacophony tempered by drowned in reverberation, reflective melody. All this within a single track. Not bad. Every another fragment of the album is as rich in sounds as these first ones. In “Modern Day Diabolists” restless industrial surf appears, while “Between Sleeping and Walking” returns to post-rock soundscapes, sonic illustrations of night panorama of Tokyo. Reflective atmosphere is maintained by absolutely beautiful “Rapt Earthly Things” and quite minimalistic “Lost in Habblahester”. “The Testimony of Memory” almost literally suspends the passage of time, especially when this slow, looped melody is joined by the rhythm which reminds of slowing down hands of clock which someone forgot to wind up. Then short “Geometric Fashion” which is preludium to the grand finale of “Modern Day Diabolists”. The album ends with “Locating Imaginary Events in Real Places”, over thirteen minute piece which brings together all the essential features of this album.

Lot of things happen on “Modern Day Diabolists”. Lot of things happen, but to be honest, BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE even for the moment doesn’t go beyond atmospheric frames established by the Swedes not only on this record. This music is not dark per se. Instead it’s quite foggy and oniric, where reverb and silence play huge role. And at the same time the sounds generated by BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE arouse kind of yearning of something long gone. So long ago that we’re not even sure whether it really happened or was it just a dream. It’s the most mature work of Swedes. By all means worth of recommendation." [Santa Sangre / santasangremagazine.wordpress.com]