Frozen in Amber

Frozen in Amber Artist: Amber Asylum
Label: Neurot Recordings
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 658457101629
EAN: 0658457101629
ASIN: B000089CSD


Release Date: 2003-02-25

Frozen in Amber


Related Categories:

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Categories | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
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Tracks:

  1. Volcano Suite
  2. Riviera
  3. Black Waltz
  4. Heckle and Jeckle
  5. Journey to the Sleepy Water
  6. Je Suis Le Chat Le Lune
  7. Aurora
  8. Ave Maria
  9. Romantic Theme (bonus track)
  10. Diablo de la Maquina (bonus track)
  11. Western Trance (bonus track)

Similar Items:

  1. The Supernatural Parlour Collection
  2. Ionia
  3. Helium Vola
  4. Legend Land

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Classical music for a fever dream.......2003-03-26

This reissue of Amber Asylum's 1996 debut is pure mood music, and one mood at that. The musicianship is good and the atmosphere is chilling, but the near-total lack of singing is a weakness until track 7, "Aurora." (Kris Force has a BEAUTIFUL voice, made evident on the albums after this one.)

Distorted guitar and random clarinet trills lash out from a menacing wall of strings and synth. The vibe is delerium, the music you'd hear while asleep with a fever of 104. Melodies are indistinct and haunting, kind of Miranda Sex Garden deconstructed or Rasputina with no sense of humor at all. Assemble a string quartet, lock them in a dim room with the knowledge that they'll die in there unremembered, and this stuff is what they might play.

"Romantic" has some nice Spanish guitar interplay with the violin. The opening "Volcano Suite" settles into haunted-house chords with little melody, like some of Kronos Quartet's more abstract work. Amber Asylum also manages to strip "Ave Maria" down to a disturbing, decayed essence. "Radio Grave" has a Lustmord style, like purgatory Muzak.

"Diablo de la Maquina" features some fuzzed-out vocal samples that actually offer some relief. It's one of the only times on the CD that the band acknowledges the existence of a WORLD or human existence beyond the ambient dread of the soundscapes. Not mystery, but misery. "Western Trance" has a hypno-sonic, novocaine quality much like Steve Roach & vidnaObmana's "Innerzone."

Music Album:

  1. Taxi ~ Bryan Ferry
  2. The Nail, Vol. 2 ~ Various Artists
  3. Regeneration ~ Ascension Theory
  4. Black Skies in Broad Daylight ~ The Living Things
  5. Bailamos
  6. Feel the Peel ~ Deep Banana Blackout
  7. Life Class ~ Robin Scott
  8. Live in Osaka ~ John Wetton
  9. Come Clean ~ Puddle of Mudd
  10. Blondes, Brunettes & Redheads ~ The Flirts

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Smooth Grooves, Vol. 2 ~ Various Artists

Live in Tallinn

Momentum ~ Ralph Lalama Quartet

First Bass ~ Oscar Pettiford

Millennium Collection ~ Duke Ellington

Jade Visions ~ Dave Catney

Jazzpana 2 ~ Gerardo Nunez, Chano Domingue

Nice & Easy Collection ~ Jim Macleod

Bakitani ~ Bana O.K.

Loop the Groove ~ BMO