Keosz – Be Left To Oneself (CD Album – Cryo Chamber)
Genre/Influences: Dark soundscape, cinematographic, dark-ambient.
Background/Info: Keosz is a new project set up by Slovakian artist Erik Osvald who seems to be more familiar producing d’n’b music. This album is an invitation to embark ‘on a trip through sleeping cities kept lucid by neon lights’.
Content: This is a rather classical, but fascinating soundscape travel guiding the listener throughout a universe of darkness and nihilism. You rapidly get an efficient and strong visualization of the mentioned ‘sleeping cities’. I don’t know if the neon lights are keeping it lucid, but I got the feeling there’s a mysterious and invisible evil force hanging over the city.
It creates an impression of ‘dark-cinema’ music revealing a meticulous writing that quite progressively brings the listener into reverie… or into nightmares.
+ + + : I like the slow progression of the compositions, which have this magic visual appeal. This element has been driven through a real climax on “Low Down” where beautiful and ethereal like vocals emerge at the surface like the shadow of Lisa Gerrard. The production also reveals overwhelming sound treatments giving you an impression of entering a 3D sonic dimension.
– – – : I regret Erik Osvald hasn’t experiment with more vocals and/or ethereal chants, which would for sure make the work more accessible.
Conclusion: “Be Left To Oneself” is a successful debut work revealing an exciting soundscape style and a high tech production work. This is a project I can only, but encourage to move on this way.
Best songs: “Low Down”, “Forfeited”, “Be Left To Oneself”.
Rate: (7½).
Band: www.facebook.com/KeOSzMusic
Label: www.cryochamberlabel.com / www.facebook.com/CryoChamber
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
