Review: Remete – 'Egy'

REMETE 

'Egy' 

SELF-RELEASED 

Remete (Hermit) is a one-person dark-ambient project from Hungarian Madura Janos (ex-Our God Weeps, ex-Zebaoth). Mixing ambient soundscapes with neo-classical and martial industrial elements, Janos paints a cinematic visions of arcane Cyclopean monoliths beneath crushing waves and cosmic terrors residing in deep within the dark chasms of ancient rock.

Over the course of the 45-minute long début EP, the dark atmospherics that roll forth from the speakers are coupled with monstrous drones and weird synth embellishments to evoke Lovecraftian terrors in the mind. This is the kind of music to set to strange rituals designed for summoning even stranger beasts.

The tracks are long, with only one, 'Mende' below the six minute mark. But it is compelling listening. There are no formal beat structures to provide any solid framework. So the songs are free to evolve, devolve, and reform in anyway they need to. This being said there is an underlying repetitiveness that newcomers to dark ambient may find off-putting. But it is typical of the trance-like feeling that these artist often seek to create.

This is a dark, and somewhat terrifying release that shows a lot of promise. There is nice sense of development to each song as though they contain an unspoken narrative, which makes them all the more compelling to listen to. There could be a minute or two shaved from a few of the songs. But at 45 minutes over five songs, Remete is certainly giving you your money's worth.

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