Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom

French duo Natural Snow Buildings, Mehdi Ameziane / TwinSisterMoon and Solange Gularte / Isengrind, are a band I have spoken highly of previously, be it in Under the Radar 2009 and 15 Brilliant Out-of-Print Albums, and also in a guest-post artist feature on SleepWalking Mag about. They've just put out Shadow Kingdom a triple-LP/double CD on Blackest Rainbow. Following that SleepWalking Mag piece I'd done, the band were kind enough to mail along a copy of Shadow Kingdom to me, along with accompanying comic book (see beautiful scans at By Chance Upon Waking)! Knowledge of this band thus far appears to spread by word-of-mouth, on-line and off, keeping things very cool and old-school with limited edition album releases and elaborate art work. This year alone has seen a cavalcade of releases from them, more than any other contemporary artist in one year that I can think of!: Daughters of Darkness (5-cassettes), Daughters of Darkness V, TwinSisterMoon's The Hollow Mountain album and Bride of the Spirits EP, Isengrind's Journey of the 7 Stars, and most recently Shadow Kingdom.

Shadow Kingdom starts with "The Fall of the Shadow Kingdom", a grandiose, 24 minute track evoking the a similar sparkle to that of the title track from Daughters of Darkness, such a deep, entracing drone that the time seems to zip by. It is also evident that something new has happened with their recording technique, as it all sounds clearer than ever and subtle sounds seem to be more evident. "Gorgon" is a soft, lovely track, leaning into the more folk-oriented material found in TwinSisterMoon's solo work - I still hesitate to use the genre label of 'folk', because despite the acoustic guitar and certain folky motifs, this is still very ethereal work we're dealing with. The three song suite, and one of my favorite sections of the whole album "The Fear They May Come Back / Childrens of the Seventh Circle / The Dark Road" makes the transition from a delicate, melodic piano with drone-hum to a spaced-out interlude to a quiet, guitar-oriented outro, a peaceful, yet icy feeling throughout. "Cauled Ones and Birth Rugs" brings the mood up to a somewhat sunnier place, even becoming festive towards the end; upon listening to this point, I'd hope you'd be getting to know what I mean by what I've said before about the group's music seeming to have a "near-spiritual" effect! "Salty Tongue" carries on the lighter mood, ending with acoustics and vocals. "Go Away, Disappear" turns the tide towards more melancholy shores, and is another stand-out here amongst an overall fantastic album, and proves yet again how powerfully emotive Natural Snow Buildings can be. "Os Deus Cannibais" ranks on the same level of intensity of the first track here, delving into spookier territory - it's another long one (around 13 minutes), yet every second is used wisely! "The Faceless" is another dreamy acoustic track, also serving to break up the sheer force of the more strongly drone-based songs, leading into the spacey, haunting "The Crystal Bird", which concludes the first disc.

Disc two begins with "Sunbone", a gentle, breezy opener that serves as a buffer for a colossal three song suite, "Ghthonian Odyssey/Hell's Foundations/A Birth Mark Like A Scar"; this track more than any other blurs the line in one's mind as to whether this could be music from a strange, exotic land or another planet altogether! "From Their Body at Will" continues off into the astral plane, rolling along in its mellow way. "The Desolated/Vampires Introduced To Fear/Slayer March" finds the listener trekking on further still into the unknown, the unexpected twists of instrumentation and the layering (always a strong point for Natural Snow Buildings) still catching me off guard even as I'm listening again. "The Vein of Invisibility" is another rejuvenating breather placed between the all-consuming drone, as the next track, "Porridge Stick Into The Fire And Dust In The Direction Of The Sun" is quite seriously chilling, reminiscent of The Slayer of the King of Hell, but taken up an extra notch. "A Burial at Sea" ties-up Shadow Kingdom in a glorious, befittingly atmospheric way.

Listening to Natural Snow Buildings' discography, one album after another, has been a curious experience. With as prolific as they have been, it is quite evident how much the quality and depth of the material is enhanced with each release - something magical clearly occurred at the point of their most-heralded work thus far, The Dance of the Moon and the Sun and further still in The Snowbringer Cult, though I personally am still rather partial to Daughters of Darkness because it was the first of theirs that I had heard, based on a recommendation, and was utterly blown away by. Shadow Kingdom is absolutely a topmost favorite, of theirs and for this year overall! This will be considered a very important work in the Natual Snow Buildings canon, not only for the fantastic music contained within but also for being a very fine example of where you can hear just how much these two put their souls into the music. One of the most singularly excellent bands of the 2000s and responsible for some of my favorite music in general, what I have said before holds truer than ever: "here is a band that brings awareness to the process and delight of music creation itself, through their intricate, yet earthy, soundscapes, in hours upon hours of truly enjoyable music listening".