RECONSTRUCTION OF INFINITY

'Воссоздание Бесконечности' - Senmuth (4/10)

Over the course of 2010, Senmuth released his greatest number yet of albums; which ultimately led to the man producing a record at the astounding rate of one every couple of weeks or so. On top of that, there was great variety over the course of the year. 'Воссоздание Бесконечности' (also known as 'Reconstruction Of Infinity') shows Senmuth focusing heavily on his electronic music. While an interesting change of pace from the largely ethnic works Senmuth usually offers, the music here drones on without much purpose or direction, and the result is a generally boring album that fails to grab the attention past a few minutes.

In relation to sound, the music here is almost strictly electronic, although a few hints of the ethnic music still poke through, such as the monastic meditative piece 'Сердцевина Всего Сущего'. For the most part however, this is electronic ambient music by textbook definition. There is very little structure to many of the songs, instead preferring to go about making large, washing layers of sound, at times putting some docile tribal drums in the background to give some form of direction. In terms of the more energetic, structured and melodic pieces, things are a bit less well-executed, but more enjoyable nontheless. There is a heavy electronic bass presence that generally leads alot of the lead melodies for the structured pieces, such as on the album's first full track 'Цикличность'. Beyond that and a handful of other songs though, things are very geared around an almost post-rock flavoured wall of sound.

The album's biggest flaw is that there is very little for the listener to grasp onto, therefore making the album a very ambient endeavour. Long, droning moments of quiet are interspersed with some heavier electronica, but beyond that, there is little more to 'Воссоздание Бесконечности'.

Sometimes I wonder how it's possible that a growlin metalist capable of very hard and evily songs like in his first solo works can evolve into something that I can define only as "progressive electronic" basing on how this subgenre is called here on PA.

Having gone through all the huge number of recordings released by Valery Av as Senmuth in a chronological sequence I think I can say that the seeds of this evolution were already present since Cognitive Discord, even though his most representative album in the first stream is Swadisthana.

Now let's speak of this "Reconstruction of Infinity".

The album's structure is not different from most of Senmuth's production: instrumental songs of various lengths often fading one into the next which alternate relaxing ambient soundscapes to dark atmospheres in which the darkness is brought more by the sounds used than by the melodies. The ethnic element is present, but as in most of his ambient albums is less relevant than usual.

"Сердцевина Всего Сущего" (The Core of all that) has something of the third section of Saucerful of Secrets, the same which has inspired the first works of Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream, but let's go in order.

The first seconds of the album have a title (Home) but they are just an intro to "Cyclic recurrence". (All the titles are translated by Google with some adjustments to give them a sense). This track is based on a passage from minor to major chords that's quite typical in Senmuth. Sometimes, on other albums, those passages appeared forced, but in this case it works fine. It's slow and repetitive for the first minutes, until a bass sequence comes in. Since now on it's like a "rave" version of Tangerine Dream. A very well constructed track which shows the evolution of this artist from the first heavy drones.

"Dissolution of the Images" starts absolutely electronic, then pauses to give room to the usual ethnic steel strings virtual instruments. It's another typical thing in Senmuth's music. This alternance of electronic and ethnic is often present, but this time the electronic part is very good and less dark than usual. When Senmuth leaves the Faraoh's tombs and moves to the outer space the result is always good to me.

"Go to Other" is really my pot. No rhythm, just keyboards making smooth passages between long chords with the reverb adding a touch of darkness. There's a bit of Pink Floyd in this track, or maybe TD of the pink period or even Vangelis. I love this track.

Still ambient, but more in the Senmuth's standards is "Внутри" that Google translates simply as "In". This is very close to Tangerine Dream also for the sounds used, specially the bass line.

"Knowledge of the Beyond" is a minor chord with subtle variations. Have you present TD's Atem or better Zeit? Take up your headphones for this track to be listened with the eyes closed.

"Recreating His Essence" is an intriguing title, but the track itself is just the usual Senmuth, only a bit more electronic than usual. Not bad in any case. The problem with this track may be its position in the album. After the quietness of the previous track this Jarre like drone sounds heavier than what really is.

"Supreme Reality" fades out from the previous song very quietly, then there's a crescendo. Less than three minutes of ambient space music. I like it.

Who knows Senmuth already knows what to expect from the next track "The Core of it All". A sudden gapless change from one track to another, but I have already mentioned this one, so let's skip to the last track.

"More [Recreate]" is an excellent closer and also the longest track of the album. Quite similar to "Knowledge of the Beyond" it's a little more complex also because it has at least two different moments: the first segment with a bit of percussions in a TD style and the second part with only keyboards on minor chords, very Floydian, fading out very slowly.

If you come to this album for its "experimental/Post Metal" classification it may be a disappointment but as ambient electronic or even space rock this is an excellent addition.