SUBINTERIOR "MESMERIZE"

Title: Mesmerize ( Afe Records afe108lcd )
Format: CD-R ltd. to 150 copies in pro-printed cardboard sleeve
Tracks: 5 - Playing time: 46:05 - Release date: October 2008
File under: Dark Ambient



"Mesmerize" is Andrea Freschi's fifth full-lenght work. Once again it was created with almost no samples and keyboards as most of the sounds included consists of field-recordings manipulated by computer technology and softwares.
The result falls into the dark ambient / experimental musical territory, althought the overall effect is aurally dynamic, as usually happens with Subinterior's releases.
"Mesmerize" basically follows on from the previous Subinterior release, "The Chrysalis Secret", showcasing his ability at creating deep and obscure atmospheres without falling into cheap clichés.
The album spreads over five tracks and has a dense start with "The White Space", which becomes more minimal and then is filled with mysterious noises resembling an haunted aviary.
"The Dominant Colour" is a short number built on layers of windy and metallic drones from which a disturbing voice suddendly emerges.
"Azuria"'s undercurrents follow on with their subliminal microevents and effected metallic chimes, before turning into a shifting simple melody which ends up in mild distortion.
"Instant Forever" continues the journey with a sort of percussive loop that fades into a sustained drone later filled with distorted sonic scoriae of undefined nature.
The title track, being the longest on the album, slowly evolves from an unsettling crowded inception into a basic drone number via backward effects. The last section of the track is enriched by an evocative reversed/bowed melody, which closes the disc as a real mesmerizing treatment.


Samples: HERE

1. The White Space 8:13
2. The Dominant Color 5:08
3. Azuria 7:30
4. Instant Forever 9:59
5. Mesmerize 15:05

Website

:: Reviews - "Mesmerize" ::

( Musiquemachine - Roger Batty )
Subinterior is the dark-ambient project of Italian percussionist and sound smith Andrea Freschi (Canaan, Konau, Weltschmerz). "Mesmerize" is the project's seventh full-length album and it offers up five tracks of deep and ominous blacked ambience to get lost in.
To make the album's dark, often vast and chilling sonic waters Andrea uses a mixture of processed guitar matter and field recordings to build the tracks often active but tar black shifts and strokes.
The tracks go from echoed and deep black textural reverb nd gloomy ebb, onto sinister and slowed beatless industrial scrape that drift into subterranean drone expanses. Onto oscillating and twisting black/discordant guitar shapes that grimly blossom into deep, black 'n' bassy fields of dread filled rumbles.
Yet for it the music's dark tone, Freschi ever so often circles out this rich glowing ebb of slight weary harmonic hope which gives a nice counterbalance to the tracks dark pitch and in some ways make the dread filled and darkness feel more potent and chilling.
In a field such as black ambient where it's difficult to often sound fresh and inventive, Freschi mangers both in spades. Subinterior mangers to be creative, often surprising in its dark ebbs and folds yet it still mangers to nicely capture that feeling of ageless dread and timeless blackness very well.


( :Ritual: Magazine - Lorenzo Becciani )
Sagome oscure attorno a noi
Andrea Freschi, batterista di Canaan e Neronoia, nonché protagonista di una collaborazione con Selaxon Lutberg, realizza un trip affascinante, tra field recordings e campionamenti di chitarra. ‘Mesmerize’ sviluppa le linee base del precedente ‘The Chrysalis Secret’ mostrando una sostanziale evoluzione delle coordinate tracciate, in “adolescenza creativa”, dai dischi di Lustmord e Amon. In cinque atti, dilatati ed austeri, l’album riesce nell’intento di fare riflettere l’ascoltatore sul ruolo dell’elettronica sperimentale e sugli incubi che, da qualche tempo, l’affliggono. Anche se ‘The White Space’ e ‘Instant Forever’ catturano l’attenzione più di altre tracce, non si evince mai un cifrario dogmatico da seguire in maniera maniacale. Al contrario, riverbero e delay, che accompagnano lo scorrere dei brani, danno un senso di profonda comunione e tingono di rosso fuoco le figure che si materializzano nella nostra mente, compiendo un miracolo di semplicità.


( Gothtronic.com - Fabian )
Though I now the name of this project for some years, I never had the pleasure of listening to his work. I did however bought Konau’s only release ‘Speech From The Shadows’ some years ago, which is a joint project of Subinterior and New Risen Throne. That release was really brilliant. It had a great pitch-black atmosphere to it and is an album which gets my highest recommendation!
To be on subject again, Subinterior hails from Italy and is the project of Andrea Freschi. The first releases were made around 2003, and according to Discogs, this is reads like his tenth release, though according to Freschi it’s his fifth full-length release. What’s amazing with this release, and also with the release by Konau, is gets better and better with each listen. This first time you listen to it, it sucks you in right away, but the more you listen to it, the more you notice how good and special it really is. I mean, there is a lot of dark-ambient projects out there, and a lot of good ones, but it sometimes takes its time to get to the really excellent and original ones. This project belongs to the latter category. On ‘Mesmerize’ there are five long tracks to be discovered. It all begins with ‘The White Space’, which is a combination of deep drones and dark factory-like noises, or “haunted aviary”, as is mentioned on his site. Also with the use of vocoded vocal effects, it makes for an interesting listen. ‘The Dominant Color’ continues with the dark industrial factory passages and noises. At the end the song is getting pretty scary, as there are some demonic voices to be heard. ‘Azuria’ is more of a quiet drone with a somewhat dark angelic touch. Then comes ‘Instant Forever’, which is terrific! Somewhat reminds me of Raison d’Etre’s darker material, like ‘The Empty Hollow Unfolds’. The song is basically one long and dark drone, which gets some static sounds halfway through. Really hypnotizing. Its listening pleasure is far greater than my description. The album closes with ‘Mesmerize’, which is with just above 15 minutes also the longest piece, starts of with some metallic-like sounds. It also feels as if you’re in some kind of disturbing hallway in an abandoned hospital or penitentiary. Then the song turns into a deep drone, which climaxes into a melodic structure.
This is a great drone/ambient album, which gets better every time. It had the same effect on me as the album by Konau; the first time you listen to it you think it’s very good, but maybe not overtly special, it then sticks into your brain and won’t let go. Then the only thing left to do is listen to it over and over again! This is what great music does to you, highly recommended! (9)


( Blowupmagazine.com - Paolo Bertoni )
"Secondo metodologie già applicate nei quattro album precedenti e in più miti formati Subinterior anche in "Mesmerize" edifica ottima dark ambient esclusivamente con field recordings e mimetizzate chitarre. Abile Andrea Freschi a rimanere sempre al confine con l'oscurità senza scampo, evocando vasti spazi abbandonati più che angusti e tetri cunicoli, pur se ogni brano, ad eccezione della conciliante "Azuria" e soprattutto "The Dominant Color" e "Instant Forever", serba bei momenti di più congestionante tensione." (7/8)


( Audiodrome.it - Fabrizio Garau )
Mesmerize, avvolto nello splendido artwork di Mauro Berchi, si compone di field recordings e campionamenti di chitarra (chiaramente percepibili nella title-track), opportunamente manipolati, dilatati, estesi all’infinito. L’impianto è minimale e austero, l’atmosfera è cupa ma non oppressiva, spesso si ha la sensazione di trovarsi in immensi spazi vuoti. Il disco, dunque, pur mantenendo una sua impronta, si muove in territori non molto lontani da quelli di Caul e di Andrea Marutti (del resto questa è un’edizione Afe Records). Le reminescenze lustmordiane esistono, ma sono molto limitate, perché sembra non esserci mai il desiderio di far vedere troppo sangue, ma più di “suggerire”. Intendiamoci, non ci sono rivoluzioni copernicane in Mesmerize, che è di sicuro un disco di genere, ma di quelli che vanno ascoltati più volte e lasciati crescere dentro, osservando come viene plasmata ogni singola sorgente sonora.


( Chaindlk.com - Andrea Ferraris )
Have you ever tasted this guy from Milan? No? If you're into dark ambient I highly recommend you to give him a try since as I've said a couple of weeks ago for Harvest Reed (aka Luasa Raelon), even if the world is so over-packed of dark ambient wishy-washy projects there's still a bunch of good artist able to put out interesting material. The comparison with Luasa Raelon is just functional for good taste sake, infact differently from Reed this guy (some of you may know for the fact he pays duty in Canaan and Konau) put together releases which are dark ambient to the bone but his atmospheres are less heavy and every here and there he's put some alienating melodies that made the whole sup easier to be digested. If compared to his previous work on Afe I find it more melodic and way more ethereal due to the fact you have less field recordings and more melodies coming in and out just to say bye. Ok, this' an interesting point of this album, infact Subinterior introduced more and more guitar samples (ambient style - drones) but first he didn't fall in the "droooooooooonnnees-caaaaan-bbeeee-sssooooo-looooong" category, second: he adopted fade in and out damn smartly he pulls the melodic carpet from under your feet so elegantly you hardly have the time to realize it. The five episodes in which this release can be divided can be easily listened as a continuum, infact this dropping in and out of sounds and short litanies during the whole length turns the work into a very discrete and catchy listening.


( Darkroom-Magazine.it - Michele Viali )
Torna a farsi sentire il giovane progetto di Andrea Freschi, ancora una volta prodotto dalla mano esperta di Andrea Marutti della Afe Records ed arricchito da un bell'artwork fuori formato curato da Mauro Berchi. Le affinità con le lande più oscure si sentono già dal titolo, che cita la curiosa pratica curativa di Mesmer, per esplodere poi nelle cinque lunghe tracce del disco. Partendo da field recordings e campioni di chitarra opportunamente lavorati tramite software, Andrea struttura un lavoro dark ambient legato da una parte ai classici del genere, dall'altra ad una ristretta cerchia italica nata in tempi recenti e capitanata da nomi come Selaxon Lutberg o lo stesso Marutti. Le atmosfere generate riescono a volte a colpire nel segno: un pezzo come "The Dominant Color" ti fa sentire intrappolato in un tubo da cui filtrano rumori e voci luciferine, il drone monocorde che taglia buona parte di "Instant Forever" trasmette il folle gelo dell'ossessione. Per contro altri passaggi risultano meno comunicativi, seppur eseguiti secondo i canoni stilistici più oscuri, divisi tra drones tenui e rumori di sottofondo che scadono nel riflessivo. Solo la chiusa finale di "Mesmerize" riesce ad imporsi come potenziale colonna sonora per un film horror, grazie ai tetri passaggi che ne segnano i minuti di avvio. Di base l'album non aggiunge nulla al gran filone dark ambient, ma ne va solo a ripercorrere alcune tematiche ed alcune modalità esecutive. Non mancano però quei momenti incisivi che, pur non innovando, rendono il lavoro valido almeno per chi segue il genere in questione. Solo 150 le copie prodotte.