Illuminator's In Ictu Oculi Draws Timely Parallels From The Medieval Age
Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
-1 Corinthians 15:51-52
With quarantine in effect and the outside world a fearful prospect, many of us have been practicing a solitary, hermetic lifestyle as of late. Luckily, our brethren at Wrought Records have just the soundtrack you need to don a robe, cast your worldly ways aside, and settle into a life of introspective isolation. On May 30th they will bestow upon us the debut release of Texas-based Dungeon Synth neophyte Illuminator. TItled In Ictu Oculi, and inspired by the artist’s fascination with medieval Christianity, this album is an exercise in capturing the stillness, repetition, and perhaps epiphany of the monastic lifestyle.
At 20 minutes and three tracks, this is not a long album, but I think you will find, as I have, that it is a special one. Track one, “We Shall Not All Sleep”, is immediately striking with its methodical pacing, shrill leads, and resounding bass. It’s bombast is hidden carefully in a calculated, droning atmosphere with a sharp texture and wonder-struck sensibility. There’s a warmth in the deep reverberations of this track. A comfort almost like rays of sunlight.
Track two, “We Shall All Be Changed”, keeps the pacing of the first track, but varies the theme. This one feels meandering, searching, and serpentine in shape, slithering along it’s shifting soundscape. This track certainly seems to be about contrasts with it’s bright, open leads, and deep, droning undertones. The percussion across this entire album is really impressive; understated yet ever-present and crucial. The album closes with the title track “In Ictu Oculi”, which translates to “In The Blink Of An Eye”. Our pacing slows a bit here, and the droning resonance that has been building on the previous tracks seems to take center stage.
I was lucky to have a sound system with a sub-woofer to experience this album through. This track can be a physical experience at the right volume. It demands your attention. There’s an energy that comes to fruition here in the album’s final moments that leaves me unsure of how to feel. Not bliss, not sadness. Awe seems to be the right word. The invocation of some divine thing that I can’t quite put my finger on. I’m not a religious individual, but this is a fine exercise in bringing the fervor of religious emotion to the listener. Good entertainment can allow us to explore feelings and experiences we can’t get elsewhere and this is a prime example.
In parting, I find this album highly effective and accomplished for such a brief debut. Dungeon Synth, many would argue, is best left in the world of the ancient and the fantastic. That is, it should be purely escapist and have no ties to our modern plights. However, I can’t help but take the feelings and song titles here to heart when I look around me. As I previously alluded, the themes here draw from the ideas of the monastic, hermetic monks of the medieval age and I find myself comparing those concepts to our current climate. A crisis has locked many of us away as I write this, but we have found new ways to live and work and communicate because “We Shall Not All Sleep”. And what comes at the end of this? What is the shape of that world on the other side of a global pandemic? I think “We Shall All Be Changed”. Perhaps not the artist’s intent in writing this album, but that’s the beauty of art; it can remain timeless and timely all at once. Anyway, I implore you to pick up this beautiful endeavor on May 30th. May it soothe and inspire you.
This gets an 8/10 on the madness meter.
Wrought Records: https://wroughtrecords.bandcamp.com/
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