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Thanatos on Hearts of Space this week & review at Hypnagogue
Thanatos is featured this week on Hearts of Space radio show program 891 GHOSTS. It is the Halloween show. This holiday incidentally was also the HOS program Funeral Songs that featured LaLurie from my album Talking To The Dead several years back. GHOSTS features the song 'Tortured Landscapes' and is running this week online and on local stations that carry Hearts of Space. I've always been a fan of HOS so I'm trilled to be back on again. I had the privilege of meeting host Stephen Hill once at a Steve Roach performance.
Thanatos reviewed on Hypnagogue ambient blog. The music is also featured on Hypnagogue podcast 12.
Joe Renzetti, Thanatos
First things first: Don’t listen to this disc in a good mood. It’s too dark, too ruminative, to do anything but color your soul in black and ashen hues. In the right circumstances, this is not a bad thing. And for those times when you are ready to be more melancholy than usual, Thanatos is the disc you'll want to reach for. It’s dark and it’s grim, yes, but considered within that framework it’s also quite lovely, strongly constructed and thematically deep. Renzetti sets out to present his vision of a dark, empty future, and does so admirably. Air-raid sirens wail in the distance behind arguing voices as the end descends upon mankind. The sound pares back to a dead-wind drone as a voice asks, “Is anybody there?” The answer is no. Renzetti then proceeds to escort us through his melancholic, devastated world via elegiac piano melodies, industrially twisted metal sounds like the battered remnants of destroyed cities, the otherworldly thrum of a drum pounded in some unspeakable ritual accompanied by a guttural chant, a guitar that’s playing too gently amid the ruins to not be perfectly out of place, intermittent vocal samples—the distant sound of survivors, or just a sonic memory?—jarring our senses as planned and pure-black minor chords that wrap the listener like a shroud. Thanatos is not an easy thing to listen to. It never lets up. At the same time, it’s not forcefully dark. Renzetti never puts it right up in the listener’s face. It’s a tour of the devastation from just out of reach, a slow pan across ruins that are still falling, a vision-as-harbinger sensibility pervading the proceedings. If ever there was a reason to use the phrase “dark beauty,” it’s Thanatos. Prepare yourself, then give it a listen.
Thanatos reviewed on Hypnagogue ambient blog. The music is also featured on Hypnagogue podcast 12.
Joe Renzetti, Thanatos
First things first: Don’t listen to this disc in a good mood. It’s too dark, too ruminative, to do anything but color your soul in black and ashen hues. In the right circumstances, this is not a bad thing. And for those times when you are ready to be more melancholy than usual, Thanatos is the disc you'll want to reach for. It’s dark and it’s grim, yes, but considered within that framework it’s also quite lovely, strongly constructed and thematically deep. Renzetti sets out to present his vision of a dark, empty future, and does so admirably. Air-raid sirens wail in the distance behind arguing voices as the end descends upon mankind. The sound pares back to a dead-wind drone as a voice asks, “Is anybody there?” The answer is no. Renzetti then proceeds to escort us through his melancholic, devastated world via elegiac piano melodies, industrially twisted metal sounds like the battered remnants of destroyed cities, the otherworldly thrum of a drum pounded in some unspeakable ritual accompanied by a guttural chant, a guitar that’s playing too gently amid the ruins to not be perfectly out of place, intermittent vocal samples—the distant sound of survivors, or just a sonic memory?—jarring our senses as planned and pure-black minor chords that wrap the listener like a shroud. Thanatos is not an easy thing to listen to. It never lets up. At the same time, it’s not forcefully dark. Renzetti never puts it right up in the listener’s face. It’s a tour of the devastation from just out of reach, a slow pan across ruins that are still falling, a vision-as-harbinger sensibility pervading the proceedings. If ever there was a reason to use the phrase “dark beauty,” it’s Thanatos. Prepare yourself, then give it a listen.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steve Brand on -
Congratulations Joe! I'm an HoS alumnus also. Matter of fact, one of the two shows I was on was also on a Halloween show. I love Halloween and this time of year in North America, so for me, it was a fun distinction. Anyway, I think that's really something to be proud of, as HoS is a legacy show and some of the ambient legends have starred there! It's an incredible compliment to be featured right along side them.
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