Sunday, August 17, 2014

Senmuth - "ΑiΣΘΗΣΙΣ INTEGRA" [2014]

Artist: Senmuth
Title: ΑΙΣΘΗΣΙΣ INTEGRA
Genre: Ambient, Industrial, Ethnic
Country: Russia
Year: 2014

Track List:
  1. ΑiΣΘΗΣΙΣ
  2. Roman Road
  3. In Garganta Del Diablo
  4. The Rustle Of The Petrified Forest
  5. Mahabalipuram
  6. Lament Integra
  7. Iguazu Falls Dreams
  8. Merops Orientalis Cleopatra
  9. The Two Ladies, Divine Of Body
Speaking of industrial metal with folk/ethnic elements, there's another project of this kind which was already mentioned on my blog a few times before. Senmuth is an one-man project started in 2004 by Valery Av., an extremely prolific composer and multi-instrumentalist from Moscow, whose main source of inspiration was (and still is) everything that has to do with the Ancient Egypt. He's sometimes seen as a Russian counterpart to Muslimgauze, since both projects have VERY vast discographies, and extensively use oriental motives in their music. However, unlike Muslimgauze, Senmuth doesn't have any apparent political agenda. According to his own words, his music is indended for "educated, socially active and intellectual development of young and mature individuals who know how to conduct self-identity and criticism surrounding reality, capable of resisting the imposed priorities and the impact of the media".

"Aisthesis Integra" was released in February 2014, shortly before Senmuth decided to put his project on hold due to serious health issues (right now he's back on track, but I haven't listened to any of his newest releases yet). It's pretty representative of his music in general, except maybe for his earliy industrial/doom metal works. This album is entirely instrumental (just like the majority of his releases) and consists mostly of ethno/ambient with some "heavier" parts. The last track - "The Two Ladies, Divine Of Body" - is the longest on the whole album, and represents the whole diversity of styles on there.

The problem with Senmuth's music is that he releases quite a lot of it (about a dozen of albums per year), which makes a lot of his works too lengthy and forgettable - maybe good as a soundtrack to some movie about ancient mysteries or exotic lands, but a bit dull for a stand-alone work. Anyway, if you're interested, you should feel free to check out Senmuth's full discography on his official site. If you want to start from something that sounds similar to "Aisthesis Integra" and has an "oriental" feel to it - I'd recommend "Madinat al-Mayyit". Want some cosmic ambient? "RXG-242-11", "Exouniverse" and "Expanding Architecture" are quite fine. A mix of industrial metal and folk? Check out "Neocortex". You might also like "Bark of Ra" or "Hexeractime" (which are among the most popular works of Senmuth), or "Kemet High Tech" (the album which I started listening to Senmuth from). Either way, it's worth to give "Aisthesis Integra" (or at least its closing track) a listen, and after that it's up for you to decide if you want to further explore Senmuth's huge discography. Senmuth also has a "Mesoamerican folk metal" side project called Tenochtitlan, which is very interesting too.


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