Description

2012 re-issue with new liner notes from Fenriz

Fenriz (Darkthrone, Isengard/Storm) ambient project. Fenriz released two albums with Neptune Towers. A third album Space Lab was recorded in 1994 but never released. 4 excerpts from that unreleased album can be found on the 2012 re-issue of Transmissions From Empire Algot. Most people have bought this one because of Fenriz but this album in no way resembles black metal. What it does resemble is older Tangerine Dream, even to the point of being like a tribute. These are longer songs without percussion, composed of noises and notes from multiple instruments with an emphasis on drone. They develop like an opera or poem, slowly unwrapping a theme concealed beneath multiple motives. They require an attention span but have some of the most intense and beautiful moments in music Fenriz has ever composed. Comparable attempts to make complex ambient music without pop song structures come to us from Fripp and Eno, the aforementioned Tangerine Dream, K.K. Null, Maeror Tri/Troum and Biosphere. If you like any of these, you may enjoy this album. Additionally, I find similarities to the music of Claude Debussy and Ottorino Respighi, but I’m hard pressed to put details into words. This first Neptune Towers album, Caravans To Empire Algol is probably the better of the two. It is a transcendental journey in sound. Whether you like black metal or not, if you have an open mind toward what qualifies as music, this is an intense aural journey with few peers.

Track listing:
1. Caravans To Empire Algol
2. The Arrival At Empire Algol