Soul shattering, Poe-ish, and depressingly beautiful
yorgos dalman | Holland, Europe | 05/05/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When an artist can sing about the darkest tremors of his (or her) soul, when somebody can make music that gets underneath your skin, and yet still, he can make you listen and, at the end, make you beg for more, then one can speak of something quite unique.
(Dark) ambient artists like Lustmord, Raison d'Etre or Biosphere can evoke and provoke quite positive emotions even though on the surface their music is ice cold, chilly, dark and, sometimes, goes to deep inside your body. But they get away with it, because their music offers so much more then just that surface-based dark mood.
Sopor Aeternus is among those artists who produces art that is of the most astonishing beauty one can ever imagine, while, at the same time, the listener is covered in lyrics like: "I dreamt that I was lying on the bottom / of the dark and never-ending sea, / on a bed that my dead lover was preparing / with his own skeleton for me... (the song `Hades Pluton').
One of the first persons of the past that come to mind while listening to Sopor, and going through the booklet with grim photographs of the singer in forced, alost cramped positions, is Edgar Allan Poe. And not so coincidentally, one of the songs on the album is called "The Sleeper", which is inspired by a Poe text.
(Another Edgar Poe poem, by the way, "Eldorado", can be heard on the album "Songs of the inverted womb", getting a typical Soporlike treatment.)
The subtitle of this album is "(face one)"; and yes, there is a sequel, "Dead lover's sarabande (face two)", released in 1999, with, as opener of this ongoing hellish opera, a cover from the late female vocalist Nico, called "Abschied". All that follows is in the same vein and bloodflow as part 1. More of the same, yes, but not repetitive in a negative way.
Just again hyper-stylish, off-beat, and uncompromisingly dark again.
Some reviewer called Sopor's musical efforts insane, or at least music to create insanity - I have to disagree, for I would call it, in all it's brooding and gloomy atmosphere, cleansing and purifying.
It's music for depressed, lonely and confused people, people with anxiety for everything mortal, for whom there is no earthly cure other than this methaphorical, mystifying audio-medicine.
"
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1
