Reviews:
noisereceptor.wordpress.com
Personally, I have always viewed Lẽtum as one of the three pinnacle dark ambient projects emerging from the classic era of Cold Meat Industry, with the other two being raison d’etre and Desiderii Marginis. However, Lẽtum has ended up being lesser recognised and somewhat overshadowed given Lẽtum’s debut came out in 2001, which at that point in time the other mentioned projects were already well established. Yet now in 2021, it would be a significant mistake to continue overlooking Lẽtum given the project’s albums represent quintessential examples of sacral toned dark ambient music.
With reference to prior albums, I intently followed the project through to 2014’s The Fifth State of Grief, and while far from being a bad album I found it a slight letdown in comparison to prior releases due to some of the orchestral synth pads sounding overly synthetic, while a few melodious passages felt more suited to a dungeon synth style and therefore not typically what I would expect from a Lẽtum album. Consequently, 2019’s Shades Of A Lost World passed me by, where I only picked up the Lẽtum thread again with this new fifth album, which incidentally marks 20 years of activity of the project. I must then admit that The Face Of Life And Death has absolutely blown me away, and been the most listened to dark ambient album of recent times. As an initial observation, the emotively titled tracks are ample mood descriptors, such as: Shadows In The Abyss; Echoes From A Time Without End; The Hidden Vastness; A Seared Conscience; The Beauty Of Miserable Souls; Afraid Of The Void etc, and when coupled with the album title, it seems to allude to a broader concept of spiritual existentialism.
Musically speaking all of the hallmarks of sacral toned dark ambient music is here: the choral vocal textures; the ever-shifting inky black drones; the sparse doom addled rhythmics; the controlling creaking metallics; the deeply emotive orchestral melodies; the lamenting piano/church organ etc. Likewise, as far as dark ambience goes, it is an ‘all in’ scenario, where full immersion is required to appreciate the album in its totality, which spans eight tracks over 47 minutes. Without being a mere re-tread of what has come before, the lamenting minimalist soundscapes are expertly controlled and display clear compositional refinement and emotive depth in the delivery of such high calibre consecrated soundscapes. The end result is Lẽtum’s most sophisticated album to date, and now that I have since become acquainted with 2019’s Shades Of A Lost World, I would also categorise it as the strongest given it has that ‘special’ aura of an exceptional album.
Although The Face Of Life And Death does not flip the script on sacral toned dark ambience, this new recording from Lẽtum is delivered with such flair and emotive impact that it absolutely demands attention. Suitable imagery pressed as a four-panel digipack function to round out the physical presentation, for what is a highly recommended album from these quarters.
noisereceptor.wordpress.com/2021/09/08/letum-the-face-of-life-and-death/
www.raben-report.de
Mit seinem einstigen Debüt hat der Schwede Mathias Henriksson ein starkes Werk kredenzt, wobei mir das spätere Schaffen jedoch nicht mehr so zusagte. Mit "The Face Of Life And Death" tritt das Projekt nun wieder aus dem Schatten und geht damit auch tatsächlich einen Schritt zurück in jene Anfangstage, wo der sakrale Dark Ambient noch eine stärkere Rolle spielte. Und das dies der Musiker noch immer gut draufhat, beweist uns jener auf vorliegender Publikation recht schnell, welche in gewissen Passagen an das Vorzeige Projekt Raison D'Etre gemahnt. Aber Letum geht nicht genau den gleichen Weg, was ja auch Blödsinn wäre, sondern geht direkter an die jeweiligen Stücke. Will verlauten, dass Mathias Henriksson keiner langen Aufbauten bedarf, weshalb die Kompositionen auch recht angenehm sind, was die jeweilige Spieldauer anbelangt. Hervorzuheben ist dabei unbedingt die teils wunderbar warme Atmosphäre, wie sie zum Beispiel bei "The Hidden Vastness" eingeochten wurde. Jene bringt ungemein Würze in "The Face Of Life And Death", wo natürlich auch entsprechend düstere Aspekt zum Vorschein kommen. Ein vorbildliches Stück für eine solche Fusion ist in "The Beauty Of Miserable Souls" zu nden, den für mich atmosphärischsten Track hier. Die anderen Vertonungen stehen da aber nicht weit entfernt von, denn in seiner Gesamtheit ist "The Face Of Life And Death" eine wirklich gute Angelegenheit geworden, deren Reiz fraglos darin liegt, in schöner Regelmäßigkeit von emotionalen Momenten heimgesucht zu werden.
Mit "The Face Of Life And Death" geht der Musiker wieder in die richtige Richtung und schafft es damit auch in gewisser Art und Weise an das alte Schaffen anzuknüpfen. Wer Dark Ambient mit sakralem Bezug mag, der
sollte sich jedenfalls einmal die Zeit dafür nehmen.
GESAMTWERTUNG
8/10 Very good
released August 6, 2021