perjantai 29. marraskuuta 2019

Reviews and interviews

TEMPLE OF TIERMES - APARA (CD by Aussaat)


Although I didn't investigate this, Germany's Aussaat label seems to have a special relationship with Finnish musicians. Temple Of Tiermes also hails from the land with the many lakes, and as with many others on this label, I had not heard of Temple Of Tiermes before. It

is the musical project of Jarkko Toivonen, who was before a member of the "cult black doom" (isn't all doom black?) band Unholy. Toivonen uses "bowed 7-string guitars, analogue synths, metal percussion, gongs" and other unnamed instruments. While Aussaat is primarily known as a noise label, and some of the music on this CD is easily defined, I must say that the music is much more varied. We are not dealing with an album of pure noise. The music is more akin to old-school industrial music, with its fine wall of sound approach, tribalist drumming in the opening track 'Black Axis', or the somewhat mellow synth drones of 'Passe Vuoksi'. The music is dark throughout, with some heavy bass rumbling ('Muspel') and without all too many high frequencies. There is not much feedback and distortion to report, except for 'Bohu', towards the album's end, ending the album with a fierce bang, before slipping into the short 'Ulos', which sounds like a spaceship lift-off. Each track has minimal

development; once Toivonen has the ball rolling, it rolls steadily. The whole album is a highly pleasurable dark trip. Not much the soundtrack of a beautiful sunny day in August, but rather something for dark and grey nights in December. That said, even today, sunny August, I am up for some dystopian nightmarish sounding album, but that's because I love this noisy dark ambient.


Vital Weekly 



Temple Of Tiermes Self Overcoming 


Rite of passage

“There is different phases on the way, realms and aethyrs! Album epresents an unfolding growth sequence from a single subatomic particle's growth to struggle for being the next sun! Brilliant Work”.

Temple Of Tiermes/ 5217 - Esoteric Ambience 

Rauta review on YouTube :

Temple Of Tiermes band and Tiermes track review on YLE’s frekvenssi radio/podcast channel -
Frekvenssi  (valid till June 6th 2021)


Temple Of Tiermes/ 5217 - Esoteric Ambience 


Huminaa, rutinaa, pörinää ja sirinää. Kahdesta eri instrumentaaliprojektista koostuva Esoteric Ambience -yhteistyöjulkaisu sisältää ambienssia, melumusiikkia ja voimaelektroniikkaa kahden suomalaisen toimijan voimin.

Kummaltakin projektilta on kolmivarttiselle levylle otettu kolme raitaa. Levyn aloittava Lamat on kiekon minimalistisin ja eniten ambientiin kallistuva kappale ja siten myös oma suosikkini kaikessa huminaisuudesaankin. Tästä edetään pörinän ja voimaelektroniikan puolelle, jotka kattavat enemmän tai vähemmän loput levystä.

Pelkästään jo Temple of Tiermes monipäisyydessään tarjoaa yllättävän monenlaisia kulmia täysin instrumentaaliseen tehostemusiikkiin. Sointuja, säveliä, melodioita tai edes selkeitä rytmityksiä ei löydy.

Etenkin levyn rutiseva, pörisevä, sirisevä ja nariseva loppupuoli on kauempana levyn aloituksesta, mikä miellyttänee PE-skenen faneja. Lajityyppiä lähemmin tuntematta on mahdoton pudotella nimiä, joihin tietyt valinnat tai tyylisuuntaukset voivat osoittaa. Lienee kuitenkin turvallista todeta, että jos edellä mainitut äänikuvailut tai lajityyppinimeminen iskevät, on Esoteric Ambience aika lailla turvallinen valinta fanittajalle.

Itselleni Esoteric Ambience loistaa lähinnä pitkän avausraidan voimin, vaikka se eroaakin kiekon muusta osuudesta merkittävästi. Hauskaa on myös huomata, miten vanhasta kamasta on kyse: vuosina 1994 ja 2000 taltioidusta ja valmistuneesta musiikista, kun taas 5217:n puolikas on vuodelta 2020. Tämä, jos jokin, on hyvä osoitus musiikin ajattomuudesta.  

Imperiumi 

Temple Of Tiermes - Psychotropic Substances

Temple of Tiermes is a duo from Finland, presenting here their first (I think) full length album on a thick vinyl 12" released by Kaos Kontrol and coming with a booklet containing several black and white photos made to illustrate these three tracks. Temple of Tiermes' music is an arhythmic, dark and noisy version of industrial. This is very soundscape-based, but is too heavy to be ambient. Distorted "wind" blows over several waves of drones and soft noise, as very distant beats can be heard. The result is an interesting atmosphere of death industrial, more or less typical from such a music coming from Scandinavia (everybody will think of some of the early Cold Meat Industry releases here). The three tracks are rather similar ("Cauac", the only track on the first side, is a bit more rhythmic, though) but I've been well impressed by the whole thing, that sounds coherent and well done. Not totally electronic minded, "Psychotropic Substances" seem to have been played with other, accoustic, sources, and has some nice sonorities. The main problem of this LP might be the lack of change in the tracks themselves, but the range of sonorities used is interesting, and you don't get bored by Temple of Tiermes. Overall, and even though the production and recording might not be perfect, here is an good surprise that should please fans of dark industrial soundscape, Scandinavian style."

Recycle Your Ears


Temple Of Tiermes - Delirium Sadomaso 

Tämä on, kuten julkaisijankin sivulla sanotaan "Finnish esoteric ritual industrial noise". Ja hyvää sellaista. Temple of Tiermesin häly on varsin hillittyä ja usein venytetyn, manipuloidun kitarasoundin hallitsemaa. Kyse ei ole kuitenkaan aivan puhtaaseen maisemointiin asti viedystä maalailusta, vaikka tyyli onkin paljon lähempänä noiseambientia kuin mitään "harsh" -tavaraa.

Monesti tunnistettava kitarakin on poissa, mutta perustyyli säilyy yhä hillittynä, silloinkin kun taustalta nousee korkeampia hälyääniä. Lukuun ottamatta viimeistä raitaansa, sinällään hyvää mutta aivan liian pitkää IMIX:iä, Delirium Sadomaso on erinomainen teos omassa tyylilajissaan. Se muistuttaa kiehtovalla tavalla milloin mitäkin yhtyettä (Opiat-Istar:illa Moljebka Pvlsea, mahtavalla Delirium:illa Sleeping With the Earthia, jne.), mutta on aina tunnistettavasti Temple of Tiermes eikä mikään muu. Yhtyeellä on kiehtova kyky luoda äänilähteistä riippumatta itsensä oloisia melodioita ja "melodioita". Raidalla 06.24 työpari Toivonen - Saarnos myös osoittaa miten pienellä tehdään suurta: Kuusi ja puoli minuuttia pitkä kappale on minimalistista synkkää ambienssia, jonka loppua kohden nousee esiin yksi ainoa jatkuva ulvova, aavistuksen säröinen ääni. Tulos on äärimmäisen tehokas, ja iskee lujempaa kuin monen noisebändin täydet hälyvallit. Sama lausunto kuvaa itse asiassa varsin hyvin koko albumia. Osan kuulijoista käsissä voi tulla ongelmia siitä että tämä putoaa ambientin ja noisen välimaastoon olematta selvästi kumpaakaan, mutta saadessaan vähänkin huomiota se kyllä voittaa puolelleen varsin pian.
Hieno levy, sekä kappaleittain että kokonaisuutenakin. 
KMY



Temple Of Tiermes- Psychotropic Substances

Pitkästä aikaa tuotos, joka on julkaistu vain ja ainoastaan vinyyli-LP:nä. Kotimainen Temple of Tiermes on erikoistunut enemmän tai vähemmän pääkopan sisäisien maailmojen tutkiskeluun ja tämä heijastuu laajalti myös heidän musiikistaan. Tyyliksi on valittu, tai ehkäpä oikeammin olisi sanoa muotoutunut, ambientin ja voimaelektroniikan välimaastoon sijoittuva maalailu.

Levyltä löytyy vain 3 kappaletta, mutta kokonaispituus on silti kolmen vartin luokkaa. A-puolen täyttää yksinään biisi Cauac, joka tarjoilee varsin kylmiä ja kolkkoja äänimaisemia eikä juurikaan väläyttele auringonvaloa kuulijalleen. Levyn mukana tuleva infovihko sisältää tunnelmaan sopivia mustavalkoisia (taide)valokuvia. Kääntöpuolen aloittava 12-minuuttinen Lamat jatkaa siitä mihin lyhyt hengähdystauko puolenvaihdon aikana loppui eli lisää ahdistuneita tunnelmia painostavasti etenevällä tahdilla. Kiireet on unohdettava tätä levyä kuunnellessa tai kyllästyminen iskee jo alkuvaiheissa. Ei joka mielentilan levy vaan "musiikkia" pimenevien iltojen seuraksi. Levyn päättävä Ahau Kines (mistä nuo nimet on oikein revitty…?) on omaa eniten psykedeelisiä vaikutteita ja on samalla pirtein kappale, mikäli moinen ilmaus on edes tässä tapauksessa mahdollinen.

Psychotropic substances ei siis pyri piristämään kuuntelijaa iloisten sävelkulkujen kera, vaan päinvastoin vaikutus saattaakin olla aivan toisenlainen. Levyä on sitten painettu rajoitettu määrä (210 kpl) ja on nykyisin jo loppuunmyyty.

KMY


Tiermes - 777 Ra.Ar.A.

Words on release :
It's been several years since we last heard from Finland's mysterious
drone ensemble Tiermes, and even then it was an ultra limited (100 copies) cd-r packaged with a sheet of rusted metal. So odds are a lot of folks have yet to discover the mystical black drone beauty of Tiermes. So at last here we have their only actual in-print cd release and it's nothing short of astounding.
Again lovingly hand packaged, this time the cd is housed in a thick cardstock sleeve, wrapped in an unbelievably gorgeous two sided poster (so ultra detailed and intense, very reminiscent of Nick Blinko's artwork for Rudimentary Peni),
the whole thing wrapped in thick black paper and tied up with twine. A dark and mysterious package that perfectly reflects the music within.
Three lengthy tracks, the first, a glistening shimmer of minimal drone, like delicate layers made up of the overtones of struck bells or Tibetan bowls, a slowly radiating reverberation, that drifts and fades, like ripples in a black pond. The second track hints at Tiermes mainman Jussi Saivo's Finnish rock pedigree (early soundman for Circle, member of Circle side-project Ovalki as well as one half of Temple Of Tiermes with a member of Finnish doom band Unholy!) with ten minutes of ultra distorted electric bass, and a strange minimal squelchy rhythm, very Circular and hypnotic, the same figure repeated over and over. a gorgeous ultra simple meditation in dirge drone. Might hit the spot for adventurous SUNNO))) / Earth / Boris / Corrupted fans. The final track is a massive 40 minute track, or shimmering crystalline drone, very similar in makeup to the first track, but stretched even further out, with even more overtones and distant drones added to the mix as well as some strange minimal percussion.
A truly otherworldly ambience, darkly dreamy and absolutely lovely. As beautiful and breathtaking as anything by Chalk, Coleclough, Basinski, Mirror, Monos, Ora or any of our other favorite dronologist .

Aquarius 


Tiermes - Malahvia 

Finnish trio has packaged its releases in rusted sheet metal, cloaked them in tar paper and tied them with rough twine. The music hidden beneath the materials is handled with an equally fetishistic devotion: either evenly spread or kept closely in tight confines. Titles are another thing altogether, name checking ruin and religion, people, place and custom, time and dust. Malahvia, a product of six years of fieldwork likely coupled with massive organic psychotropic intake, pulls all of these disparate qualities together, uniting them in sounds solid, liquid, haunting and fleeting.
Drones neither large nor small open the disc. A searing, breathing hum begins slow and rises imperceptibly, yawing wide, shaking sound from its well. Instrumentation is anyone’s guess. Sounds akin to one’s own physi- ological vibrations in the midst of a solitary stroll through the woods: senses bowed as cymbals; heart and lungs as hand drums thumped, slapped and tapped into shape. The effect is predictably entrancing as the sounds neither demand full attention nor function strictly on their own as peripheral noise. Seconds become minutes; minutes become a half-hour. Increased attention demands increased volume, which is a perfect time for the trio’s fragile quiet to disgorge ritualistic riff and grind, tones torn from trees, rhythm rocked from tortoise shells, fallen limbs, dried deer shit. Closing the offering is a meditation on the first piece, enhanced to unrecognizable point. Percussive accents are flung out into the void; like wolf skulls crashed against rust-eaten scythes, the sounds collapse and clang and resist becoming a part of the drone’s indifferent fabric.
Mystery makes Malahvia. Tiermes gives nothing but sound; it’s up to he listener to construct the framework from which it flows. The process can be difficult, disturbing and rewarding, which is all anyone could really ask for.
By Stewart Voegtlin - Dusted Magazine 

Tiermes - 777 RA AR A

This was purchased during a long and thoroughly enjoyable excursion to the San Francisco/Napa Valley area. While browsing through the singularly amazing Aquarius Records, I threw up my hands and asked the clerk for a request. He handed me this. If I may, here's their description: 

"It's been several years since we last heard from Finland's mysterious drone ensemble Tiermes, and even then it was an ultra limited (100 copies) cd-r packaged with a sheet of rusted metal. So odds are a lot of folks have yet to discover the mystickal black drone beauty of Tiermes. So at last here we have their only actual in-print cd release and it's nothing short of astounding. Again lovingly hand packaged, this time the cd is housed in a thick cardstock sleeve, wrapped in an unbelievably gorgeous two sided poster (so ultra detailed and intense, very reminiscent of Nick Blinko's artwork for Rudimentary Peni), the whole thing wrapped in thick black paper and tied up with twine. A dark and mysterious package that perfectly reflects the music within. Three lengthy tracks, the first, a glistening shimmer of minimal drone, like delicate layers made up of the overtones of struck bells or Tibetan bowls, a slowly radiating reverberation, that drifts and fades, like ripples in a black pond. The second track hints at Tiermes mainman Jussi Saivo's Finnish rock pedigree (early soundman for Circle, member of Circle side-project Ovalki as well as one half of Temple Of Tiermes with a member of Finnish doom band Unholy!) with ten minutes of ultra distorted electric bass, and a strange minimal squelchy rhythm, very Circular and hypnotic, the same figure repeated over and over. a gorgeous ultra simple meditation in dirge drone. Might hit the spot for adventurous SUNNO))) / Earth / Boris / Corrupted fans. The final track is a massive 40 minute track, or shimmering crystalline drone, very similar in makeup to the first track, but stretched even further out, with even more overtones and distant drones added to the mix as well as some strange minimal percussion. A truly otherworldly ambience, darkly dreamy and absolutely lovely. As beautiful and breathtaking as anything by Chalk, Coleclough, Basinski, Mirror, Monos, Ora or any of our other favorite dronologists. " 

This is the type of thing that, in it's own way, personifies that establishment...and, this particular purchase, remains an indelible memory conjured when listening to any droney, ambient musical piece. 

Interviews :

CHTHONIK / Terroraiser magazine - TOT / Tiermes 2020 interviews 


Descent magazine - Volume Five The Death Issue 

Contact Demiurge777@protonmail.com