Lustmord

I was speaking one day to a friend about the pros and cons of Lustmord, and he somewhat sardonically stated, "either you like 12-minute soundscapes or you don't," which quite accurately sums up the work of this darkwave/ambient practitioner. In Metavoid, we're treated to eight different movements, if you will, of sonic collages. The disc opens with a track entitled "The Ambivalent Abyss," which is aptly titled. In this piece the moments of silence prove equally as important as those filled with echoing, subtle percussion and sound, and you are given the feeling of being submerged in a cold, dark, oceanic void. Clocking in at well over the time of your average song, these pieces go for seven, ten, 12 minutes, at least. You get the feeling that this gentleman has a tale to tell and is giving us just enough details through his music and the rest we need to piece together for ourselves. There are definite instances of pure melody and orchestral sounding strings and arrangements juxtaposed perfectly with the breaks of choir samples and stark, cold, metallic noise. It's all about composition, you see, and Lustmord appears as a master of this domain. To virgin ears, songs such as "Oblivion" and "A Light that is Darkness" may seem more suited to be the score to a film or a pointless exercise in sound design, but upon those ears more enlightened falls some excellent work in a genre that isn't always too easily accessed. True, this stuff isn't for everyone, to quote the record sleeve, "...our role is insignificant, and is futile at best. The sum of knowledge is nothingness." Metavoid will surely appeal to the existentialist in all of us.