On
Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night
(Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L'Acier)
Considering who is and has been involved with the group On, one might consider it a small supergroup in the ambient electronic genre. The core group is comprised of Steven Hess (who has worked with Pan American, Greg Davis, and others) and Sylvain Chauveau (who has released several beautiful little albums of piano and string music). A live (and extended) version of the group featured Christian Fennesz, and Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night was produced by Mr. Helge Sten (aka Deathprod aka member of Supersilent) himself.
Originally, Hess and Chauveau sat down and recorded 3 hours of improvised pieces for prepared piano, percussion, electric guitar, and prepared guitar. Then, the recordings were given to Sten, who ran them through his audio virus box of fun and turned them into long, droning pieces that are heavy and foreboding. Actually, I'm not sure how much of the original recordings shine through on the release, but given the final result, they're actually easier to compare to the solo work of Sten under the Deathprod name. This is deep, dark music that you shouldn't even bother listening to unless you have some speakers and/or headphones that can handle a full frequency response, because you're just not going to get the full effect otherwise.
"Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night And Flies Around My Bed" opens the release and is actually one of the lighter tracks on the release (if it can be called that) as lighter tones flicker across the top of slow washes of feedback and low end drones. The album wastes no time swimming into darker waters, though, as "Erotique" pulses warbles of feedback alongside some unsettling brushing noises and cymbal hits that sound like they're going off in some sort of crypt. "Too Many Demons Still Haunt This Land" cranks up the eerie factor even more as lone rumbling stabs pierce through an unsteady tonal drift. Basically, the title fits it perfectly, and it's easy to hear that Sten has put his marks all over the track.
Despite some great moments, the release doesn't quite have the same engulfing qualities that say, Morals And Dogma does. Tracks like "In The Forest Of The Night" make for some seriously uneasy listening, but they don't progress in quite the same way that solo work by Sten does. Still, if you enjoy very somber ambient music, Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night will provide you with well over an hours worth of deep rumbling music that would most likely conjure up some haunting dreams if fallen asleep to.
Rating: 7.25
