Enfer Boreal - Devotion (Peasant Magik CS)

Here's another Foxy Digitalis review. Sorry it's been so slow, just graduated and moved back home so the reviews will come shortly.

Maxime Primault’s Enfer Boreal project has been busy of late, proving itself to be a far-reaching aesthetic guise equally comfortable in slow and graceful drone drift and noisier excursions into fuzzier waters. This release follows in the former’s realm, presenting two sides of arpeggiated cosmic binocular soundtracking whose brooding underbelly retains the mystery that goes hand-in-hand with discovery.

The first side opens with a lulling back drone, over which a series of guitar and synth lines are patiently overlaid like sheets of color. There’s something quite visual about all of this, especially considering the depth achieved by the spacious emptiness that exudes from the background of the tape. There are a number of pieces presented here, each with its own feel, and actually the results are quite far reaching. The second track’s static hum and fan belt pulse gently swell into a numb stagnation that briefly counteracts the delayed naturalistic vibe of the following track.

The flip side’s first track features a low bellow recurring beneath a tinkling seashell clatter. Very patient and immobile atmosphere conjured here, that walks a fine line between relaxed drone discourse and a kind of proto-industrial field recording. It’s this line that keeps Enfer Boreal’s stuff so compelling and, though this isn’t my favorite Enfer Boreal release—with little time afforded to each piece, the works never reach their maximum effectiveness, it seems—it’s as good an introduction to the projects various sonic guises as any.