Sisyphean Introspections Converge in the New Apocryphos Album

Two years have passed since Apocryphos last visited the Cryo Chamber stable; two years since last we heard the spellbinding, ritual drones from ambient tonesmith, Robert Kozletsky. The time has arrived for Apocryphos to once again regale us with textured tales of ephemera and ritual drones of introspection, and thus we are granted the newest release, Phantoms Received.

Phantoms Received is a multi-hued crawl of ambient textures, with constant beds of drones, meanwhile resonant pads of guitar pedal slowly ebb and meander in and among the cascading waves of the soundscapes. Rhythmic drums pulse at times, adding a nice balance to the doldrum of the “scene” (mind you, doldrum is not used as a negative connotation, merely to help describe the momentum of the tracks). There is a story to the music, a narrative to the aural blankets that envelop the listener - an oblique story of introspection that coalesces around the central theme of personal actualization, and this theme lends itself well to the presentation of the album’s included booklet, a six-page tome wrapped with the thought-provoking artwork (by artist, Erik “Keosz” Osvald, also an artist on Cryo Chamber). Included booklets and narratives are important to artistic presentations, especially in the dark ambient scene, and I am always happy when artists include additional materials with their releases, all to aid in the absorption and escapism into the atmosphere of the album. 

This may well be the strongest material from Apocryphos to-date; a culmination of the subtle, laconic style that Robert Kozletsky employs with his drones, yet accentuates with field recordings and percussions. Phantoms Received is available in CD digipak and digital formats on the Cryo Chamber bandcamp page.