‘Aeon’ by Vestigial [#01]

RELEASED on New Year’s Day, this is a new Italian project with its own fledgling label and comes with just four tracks and twenty-three minutes of sound. This release has been mastered by Andreas Wahnmann, who has worked previously for the Loki Foundation, Power & Steel and the Tesco Organisation. The word ‘vestigial’ is an evolutionary or biological term implying that something has lost its original purpose or function. The envelope containing the little 3” disc, which is completely unmarked - black on one side and white on the other - contains an inexplicable piece of brown card, tucked in just behind it. Unless this is a one-of-a-kind phenomenon, there’s something wildly esoteric going on here. Either that or this is just a cheap and affordable scapular for the most frugal and immaterial of Carmelites. Talking of which, ‘Last Extinction Prayer’, is a darkly mysterious ooze of garbled voice samples, constant humming and rhythmic impact. Here we have a really majestic and soothing atmosphere that does, indeed, as the title suggests, seem to herald the long-awaited end of an era and only death, of course, can usher in such a period of ultimate calm and peace. At first ‘The Grey Constellation’ also has a very mellow effect, although a mumbled chanting and occasional rasping soon penetrate the unpredictable aura and lead us towards a more hellish and cataclysmic vision of a nightmarish future for humanity. It is as though the sun has finally gone out in our world. Grab your favourite enemy, tie him to a chair, put on the blindfold and let him listen to this at full blast as you train a blow-torch on his right testicle. He won’t thank you for it, I can assure you. ‘Dagda Rising’ is possibly a reference to the Irish god of the same name, who some believe is depicted by the figure of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset. This is a classic slice of dark ambience, full of rumbling waves of sound and electronic frequencies that streak through your consciousness like a submarine in a wind-tunnel. Finally, ‘Celebrating the New Sun’, which gives a more optimistic tone to Vestigial’s overall concept, flows along in a similar vein and is a good example of the aural continuity that runs right through this CD. It stutters and threatens, it postures and enthrals; offering strange and mystical incantations over a series of light drones. It all ends with the question: ‘Do you pray? Do you pray? Do you pray to God?’ An impressive first release and I can’t wait to hear more from New Sun Recordings. For more information, please visit: www.vestigialaeon.org