AQUARIUS new arrivals #276
Yet another installment in the Mystery Sea label's ongoing series of "night-ocean drones", and none maybe more appropriate then this disc from Russian drone outfit Five Elements Music. Based on the Vedic concept of five elements air, fire, water earth and of course ether. Yup. However, here we're mostly concerned with water, as it seems that most, if not all the sounds on VarunaGhat are sourced from recordings of water.
It's hard to tell at first, as the sounds is just a whispered glimmer, a shimmering high end glint way off in the distance, hovering like fireflies over a vast expanse of hushed ambience, long drawn out barely audible tones, ultra minimal but quite lovely. Eventually, the tones grow louder and more pronounced, melodies surface, and the sound of water solidifies, and suddenly the drones are drifting along side a burbling stream, or the lapping of water on the shore of a lake, slightly percussive, hissing and gently frothing, adding a whole other layer of sound to the already carefully arranged soundscape. Each track here follows a similar pattern, from barely there, to a tangible exploration of some water based soundworld. The second track begins with a microscopic rumble, but soon, we're wandering through a rain forest, the sound of rustling branches, rain on leaves, streams and gently running water, all suspended in a strange glacial swirl of near static shimmer and soft blurred drones.
The final track is much more active, much more percussive, with the sounds processed into almost rhythms, dark and ominous, eventually building to what sounds like it could be the sound from some movie, leaves crunching underfoot, rain falling, foot steps, leaves and branches in the wind, all manner of water, splashing and dripping, again, all wrapped within a haunting smear of muted harmonics and deep rumbling whirs...
Definitely one of the nicest in the series, and certainly the most evocative, perfect late night drifting off music, the sound of rain combined with deep dark shimmering drones, pretty impossible to resist.
Like all Mystery Sea releases, strictly LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each disc numbered on the tray card, and gorgeously packaged with striking full color artwork.
aquarius

TOKAFI |Tobias Fischer  
To the food industry, water is increasingly turning into a lifestyle product. For Russian artist Sergey, it is source of great purity which should be treated thoughtfully and with respect. On “Nameless Droplet”, his recently released and already all but sold-out Mystery Sea debut with his main project Exit in Grey, the metaphors were still covered by dark clouds and hidden in musical metaphors. The album represented a shoreless sea slowly being sucked down a vast and increasingly vociferous vortex. Under his “Five Elements Music” disguise, however, the metaphors are facing themselves in a Kirlian mirror, their souls exposed and their true nature revealed.
Samples of various water recordings, therefore, are at the heart of “VarunaGhat”. For an artist who holds the traditional drone ethos even higher in his solo work than in his collaborative activities (which, on “Nameless Droplet” allowed for diversifications such as sombre guitar figures), this can hardly come as a surprise.
With its complexly vivid inner pulsation and a constant outward frequency, after all, the sound of water is essentially a drone itself and compliments the suspended harmonies of the genre perfectly. On the other hand, Sergey is not content traveling to the same places others have already visited. Just like Exit in Grey caused minor eruptions by fluently shaping their intangible compositions into very concrete textures, Five Elements Music finds a niche between a traditional and a progressive use of its field recordings.
Rhythm especially plays a vital role in this concept. There is a very simple logic behind this thought, as water in itself is silent and only becomes audible through movement. Whether it is sparkles from a fountain, rushes through a ravine, gallops like fugitive horses or murmurs peacefully, Sergey concentrates on its pulse as well as its irregular gravitational center. He doesn’t need all too many exterior extrapolations to achieve this effect and instead choses to leave most of the natural emissions intact. His work lies rather in developing the samples through timbre and by allowing different sources to overlap and form new patterns.
Simultaneously, he contrasts these waterscapes with the expansions of his drones. The vast, twenty two minute long opening track takes this to extremes, as a single recording is awarded emotions ranging from aggression to tranquil zeal, while the sky is increasingly covered by black cumuli and distant lightning flashes.
On the second untitled track, a sinus tone is softly stretched, forming a tender, woolly surface. Here, the basic technique is most apparent, as organic and surgically dissected material are brought together, while immobile frequencies clash with the underlying stillness.
One has to see this as a decided step against the arbitrary use of water in electronic music. Many recent releases have both shown the great effect it can still have, as well as the danger of ending up a cliche. On “VarunaGhat”, no drop of water is carelessly spoiled. It relies on the beauty of its path through nature, yet changes its course whenever this offers a chance for creating new sensations. You need to listen closely to this album to actually become aware of this seemingly insignificant but really quite important shift. If you do, however, there are great rewards lurking underneath its surface.
tokafi

THE WIRE #286 - Outer Limits|Jim Haynes  
Five Elements Music is the work of a Russian ambient technician who simply goes by the name of Sergey, and who also shares time in the equally obscure Exit In Grey project. Drawing from the Vedic definitions of the basic elements - earth, air, water, fire and ether - Five Elements Music seeks a holistic approach to sound in which sympathetic vibrations can inspire transcendence. Perhaps in deference to Mystery Sea's series of 'night-ocean drones' releases, Sergey derived some of the sounds for VarunaGhat on heavily processed recordings of water : gurgling water in vibrating pools and distant oceanic swells feature throughout his longform compositions. These are almost always a secondary texture to a dark tonal drift which subverts any potential for New Age readings to this album.
The Wire

e/i installment #15 - December 07 | Alan Lockett  
Which leads seamlessly to Five Elements Music, whose name alludes to a vedic concept whereby a galvanic fifth element (ether) is added to the standard four. The science of five elements purports to offer a platform for nature and its organizing principles to be understood, offering access to all levels of material nature, and Five Elements Music presumes to embody this somehow in an approach to sound, through the manipulating of incarnations of such material elements. After which strained effort to grasp the project’s opaque metaphysics, one might justly ask "yes, but can you get horizontal to it?” It’s Russian Sergey—the [S] half of Exit in Grey’s (S) & [S], who have previous on Mystery Sea—who’s behind all this, but he seems to find it inspirational, so let’s cut him some slack. In a further conceptual slant, he’s taken the label name as a springboard for the set, in effect supplying theme music for “Night Ocean Drones” Productions. Be warned, though, that a bathroom trip is advisable for the listener prior to embarking on this voyage, as a pronounced aqueous quality flows throughout VarunaGhat, varying from a trickle to a cascade. Source sounds in the form of recordings of water come into contact with interacting elements, with [S] folding in various sound combinations to achieve a strange amalgam, one foot in a surrounding environment that’s real and another in an arcane parallel universe. On “Untitled 1” the waters are heavily disguised by processing initially, but a ghostly rivulet gradually reveals itself as a more present stream, becoming more audible above its surrounding buzz and rumble. Two other pieces follow which explore variations on the same, the waters leeched into by more viscous whorls of post-industrial scum. Nothing in Five Elements Music has not swept past before in the thirty-odd previous Mystery movements of this strangely engulfing Sea, but VarunaGhat’s blend of environmental ambient and field recordings proves to be a worthy addition to an experimental tradition represented by a catalogue that begins to look more distinguished with each passing year.
e/i

MUSIQUE MACHINE | Roger Batty   --- NEW !
Rated : 4 stars out of 5
Though the projects name is Five Elements Music, VarunaGhat deep often dark and quite tense/active ambient expanses mainly focus on one of the five elements : water. The 46 minute long release is split into 3 untitled and aquatic based tracks.
The first track bobs slowly into view with its grey murky drones dwells giving a feel akin to slowly coming round, finding yourself on the floor of a vast underground cavern & you can hear in the distance the sound of running/ pouring water. As the track progresses the running, pouring and ultimate flooding water tones become more and more intense as there mixed with the murky drone and creepy echoed pitches, as if the subterranean cavern is filled up slowly, then over time filling fast and faster.  A really very effective track that gives a great feeling of panic and tension building that gets to almost fever pitch towards the end of the 23 minute track.
Next up track two which opens with a tolling and haunted type tone & then the water tones enter, being a lot more active, moving and dense than in the first track, rather taking centre stage over the tolling pitch. They layer up rushing, pouring and submerging aquatic tones in quite an intense and airless manner all to make a quite panicked if still haunted piece of active deep ambience. Lastly track three opens up with a deep bubbling drone/ aquatic tone giving the feeling akin to what it might feel like to drown falling over and over down and down in aquatic darkness. As the track develops a bobbing sonic pulse raises sounding almost flute like and the sound of running/ pouring water returns. Giving the feeling like if you’ve found an aired space underneath the water ala the abyss.
I’ve always been a sucker for wet, damp and subterranean sounds and textures with-in ambience and VarunaGhat manages to mix all of those textures to a highly haunting, effective and at times panicked whole. Without doubt one of my favorite Mystery Sea release thus far.
musique machine

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