Review Sonomu

There is something inherently creepy in the kitsch statuary despicting Jesus, the saints and, most particularly, the Virgin Mary. Don´t ask me why, there just is. Especially when the one featured on the cover of this CDR, hands clasped in devotion, appears to have the Mark of Cain on her forehead.

Die My Illusion is over seventy minutes of quality dark, dense ambient isolationism with a slight industrial touch, the sound of finally becoming aware that any hope the Virgin´s presence might offer has dissipated forever. Dense Vision Shrine is (lapsed Catholic?) Karsten Hamre. Not just another dronework, but a sweeping narrative which skims over empty landscapes and submerges itself deep into the brine in a manner not unreminiscent of Gavin Bryars´ "The Sinking of the Titanic".

Compares very favourably with another favourite, a classic of the dark ambient genre, "Stalker", by Robert Rich and B. Lustmord. Grandious in a very subtle manner.

By Stephen Fruitman