1 Oficio de Tinieblas (6:48)
2 A Seeding of Ghosts (12:42)
3 Ad Infecta Loca (10:17)
4 Cancroregina (10:00)
5 Sìndrome del Norte (17:09)
Taking their name from Carlos Saura's classic thriller, Cría Cuervos are the latest new face to arrive on Immanence Records; active since 1999, the act is the sole work of Eugenio Maggi. Following some early analogue experimentations with dark emotions and a split tape release with Eniac, Maggi took a three-year sabbatical to gather new, digital equipment and further hone his ability to create chilling, tenebrous atmospheres. The seed of the project has now come to fruition with "Cancroregina" ("The Cancer Queen", after the infamous novel by Tommaso Landolfi) a five-track album filled with bizarre and terrifying sounds. The opening track quickly establishes Cría Cuervos' distinctive sound that, although certainly in the territory of dark ambient, somehow sounds completely unique. As dark, thick basses and resonance swirl in the background, strange noises play over the top - the sound of electrified metal rattling in the void. From this first hint of obscurity, the album truly gains momentum on following track "A Seeding of Ghosts". The main bulk of the ambience is created by occluded, otherworldly voices which ebb and flow in the heady vortex of sound that emanates from unknown sources. Slowly, the track disintegrates to a mere crackling of rubble beneath the ubiquitous bass surges before re-emerging as a shimmering haze of resonating glass. From this overt style of experimentation, we are suddenly taken down to very minimalist phrasing on "Ad Infecta Loca". This track sees a low drone take prominence in the track, while we strain to perceive the subtle nuances of sound beneath it. Again, the strange glass and metal are present alongside some visceral bodily noises that suck and squelch in agony as the alien cancer grows. These sounds continue to grow on the title track where, slowly, guttural rumbles grow beneath the throbbing bass and ever more gradually, processed sounds of blood and saliva seep through into the composition. Everything is then brought to a head on the epic closing track "Síndrome del Norte", where the bass vanishes altogether to be replaced by the sound of a beating heart and the gasping breaths of our internal asphixiatee. After a fashion, the heart develops an arrhythmia and collapses, while this may be the end for one, the cancerous drone lives on, rising again; deeper and more oppressive than before, it builds slowly upwards through the frequency spectrum until eventually, with a final blast of aggressive noise, it has consumed all. This is certainly not what you would expect from a dark ambient album, as it adheres to none of the genre's conventions while taking in the most obscure moments of Wilt and Nurse With Wound to create a wholly disorientating and disturbing passage through the outreaches of sound.
Immanence Records
sold out visit Cría Cuervos (here or here)
try by courtesy of Eugenio Maggi (Cría Cuervos)
