Primary Emotions/Themes: Reality is not as it seems, the darkness in man's heart
Thoughts: I've been meaning to post about this album for quite some time. Lustmord is a legend in the dark ambient genre and Karin Park from what I can tell mostly does solo vocal work. The few snippets I've heard here and there seems to be a sort of dark folk pop, no where near what she puts out on this album.
Alter is a trip into the dark side of the mind, a place where reality contorts and obliterates expectations. A place where the our true feelings manifest, a place where we can't mask what we really are, a place where we have to face the truth.
The music on Alter is deceptively simple. It can be summed up as such: dark ambient soundscapes, field recordings, and haunting female vocals. That's it, that's all that is on this album. What makes it so effective then? It's how these three seemingly innocent ingredients are stitched together that elevates this album to something greater than it's individual parts.
The main focus here are Karin's incredible vocals. She immediately brings to mind Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance or Jarboe from Swans. Those deep, haunting and somewhat disturbing female voice that resonates throughout the recording and into the world beyond.
Her voice, while never uttering real words, speaks more powerfully than most lyric based approaches. These chants, moans, and wails sound like a woman fighting against an inner demon, struggling to face her own mortality. It sounds as if they are the final cry for help before the darkness comes in.
Lustmord creates an excellent accompaniment to Karin's vocals. The soundscapes grind, scrape, and pierce the silence around her voice. Not only does this add to the eeriness of the album as a whole, it elevates it beyond what it could be with only her voice (as powerful as that is).
The two artists compliment each other to near perfection. As one ebbs the other flows and vice versa. There is very little here in the way of a crescendo, almost everything is kept as minimal and as quiet as possible. I often have to turn my sound system up way higher than I would normally to catch all the small details that are buried deep within.
Alter is one of the best things Lustmord has done, not just recently but throughout his entire and storied career. Karin is the secret ingredient that he needed to create a masterpiece. This album is highly recommended to anyone and everyone who likes dark music, morbid contemplation, and subtlety in the black corners of the mind. Essential listening.
Written January 12 2024
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