Silbernacht - "Liebe Und Verfall" (2008)

Artist: Silbernacht
Album: Liebe Und Verfall
Label: Ajna Offensive
Year: 2008
Genre: Ambient

01 - Das Erwachen (The Awaking)
02 - Liebe und Verfall (Love and Decay)
03 - Unter den Sternen (Under the Stars)
04 - Wenn der Tod nur Sehnsucht weckt (When Death only creates Longing)

"This haunting testament of filmic soundtrack inspires authentic antiquity, its etherious organs float a never-ending tribute to bygone days, and while the intimacy of the night abounds it is not the caul of darkness. A half hour cascade is Frank Esser’s opus here in ‘Liebe and Verfall’ and for the purveyors of the avant-ambient, who have an ear for Les Joyaux de la Princesse, you are encouraged to seek out this dappled outpouring.

Muted organs unfurl like nocturnal flowers, uncoiling spirals seeking out the silvered light of a moon before an empty chateau, layering a sweet and lingering scent of eerie yet uplifting scenery. Esser assiduously sticks to the use of the organs which he casts into an open air cathedral of infinite but subtle reverberation and while drones echo into escalades breaching the crumbled walls, sprinkled rills of melody dew the parapets of this vaulted structure, the welkin above as mysterious as the tenant below noting out the dulcet and elusive melodies. The polyphony is superb and while there is little room to breathe, the music does so itself, it inhales and exhales with each hand, each foot (as one does with an organ) independent but cognizant of the other. The constant conveyance is otherworldly and cinematic, less a journey than a state of entrancement as the drones slide a warm blanket about the shoulders.

The production could be considered low-fi, yet here Esser has done a delightful mix by ceding modern production with a skilfully twined ball of sound to compliment his elegiac composition that accentuates more than it detracts from its cinematic dream.

‘Liebe und Verfall’ legates us a recycled and pulped cardboard digipak, of gatefold design, sturdy and silk-screened tastefully and simply. The black and white photography is stark, silhouettes of man and nature, forest and structure." -- Heathen Harvest

This was one of my favorite releases of last year. If you're a fan of the Eraserhead soundtrack or creepy, atmospheric organ tones in general, you'll love this.