MYSTERY SEA 30| hum | [inner navigation]
ARTWORK 
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INTRODUCTORY
WORDS
-" inner navigation in back flow through the open mouth of darkness to Great Point where primary light becomes seen and where the eternity is found. "
- Chistov Dmitry, December 2005
PRESS RELEASE
Russian
sound alchemist Chistov Dmitry of the Moscow region,
feeds his aural obsessions with his immediate environment as well as
the deep psyche...Letting a certain sense of urban deliquescence &
the beauty of ambient decay corrode his compositions, but also probably
inspired by the founder & essential fluxes animating Nature, he
succeeds in sculpting mantric tones with a very own character and dynamics...
These pieces are casted in permeating movements acting like close metaphors
of primary pulsions & feelings...
To cover their large palette, Dmitry has so far operated
under many names denoting different approaches (SPHOGHA, NIGREDO, MIKOSTERION,
SMALL TOWN ZOMBIE, & above all HUM...)...
Passionate & extremely meticulous, he released most of his works
in private editions under his own imprints (SPHOGHA, A DATURA LANDSCAPES...)
For Mystery Sea, Dmitry uses his main HUM identity...
Hum is a vehicle for making low continuous vibrating sounds often based
on a specific sensation explored in its multiple variations...
-
So, "inner navigation" is about what blooms
under your skin, that unnameable flow which underlies every breath,
a search for isolating impulses & conductions...
"inner navigation" is a meandering journey
through the layers of Unconsciousness, gradual erosion, stasis, and
ultimately loss...
going there beyond, at the heart of a reflection itself where a sheer
emotion surges, like a sudden enlightening open sky...
-
"inner navigation" is following the unknown
river of our masked soul, reaching for supreme acuity...
TRACKS
01. depth
> listen
!
02. desolation seed
03. crystal embrace
04. thousand eyes of night/above the abyss
05. at the waters edge/aurora
06. backwave >
listen !
07. chance to disappear
08. rainbow spires
LENGTH
55'58
REVIEWS
VITAL WEEKLY 521|Frans
De Waard
Perhaps I came across Chistov
Dmitry before, as he worked under a lot of different names,
such as Sphogha, Nigredo, Mikosterion, Small Town Zombie and of course
Hum, subject here today, but perhaps I just don't remember
- can you forgive me? Many of his works are released by the man himself.
For 'Inner Navigation' he points his microphone under
water and releases it on Mystery Sea. But sadly it's not the best
microphone in town. The ambient music that Hum produces
is a bit rawly shaped, it's the ambience of rusty elements collapsing
below sea level and the recordings thereof aren't always the best
in town. Sometimes things are just a bit too rough made and the delicacy
that is found on so many of the Mystery Sea releases is not always
found here. It sometimes distorts a little bit, which is a pity, since
the deep atmospheric music of Hum deserves a better
recording and mastering. When that is done, things will be be more
pleasant to hear. That is also the case with some of the pieces here, but as said not always.
The ideas of Hum are quite nice, but the execution
lacks a little bit. It's throughout alright, but not brilliant.
vital weekly
MOUVEMENT
NOUVEAU|Tobias
Fischer
One of the duties of the artist has
always been to express what is hard to express. Since, even though we
know that the truth can only be found within ourselves, we are inexplicably
afraid to go there. “Inner Navigation”
must therefore be regarded as guided meditation. For it boldly leads
us to our centre, to a place where even angels can’t tread.
On the other hand, you will need to do some active listening to enjoy
this album and its well-kept secrets won’t reveal themselves exclusively
by their own accord. If you like metaphors to express the basic mood
and intention of a piece of music, then this record would be a mirror.
It merely reflects those parts exposed to it – the more you are
willing to bare, the more you are likely to learn. “Inner
Navigation” starts off almost like a whisper or a faint
breath, like a cloud on a grey 100htz horizon. It then sets out to explore
the higher and the lower ends of the sonic spectrum, from the ethereal
sphere of lucid dreams to the deep rumblings of the inner heart’s
core, only to culminate in the masterful thirteen minutes of “At
the Waters Edge/Aurora”: something pulls and twitches under the
surface, bubbles of water rise to the surface, a stream builds and grows
in intensity and cleaves into a horridly howling torrent. After the
storm has passed, the frightened spectator leaves his place of shelter
and his eyes wander over the most intense beauty ever seen, a landscape
of bright shades covered in mysterious mist. By then, the album has
reached a point of no return and an irrestible momentum and follows
its course to the apocalypse of the aptly titled “Chance to Diappear”.
Certainly, this music resides at the banks of both sinister Drones and
Dark Ambient, but its intention is not to scare the listener, but confront
him with something unspeakable. One can not help but feel that to the
artist, this has been a journey as well, one from which he awoke in
amazement. For Chistov Dmitry, who previously released
under a plethora of monikers, the album certainly marks a moment of
rest and signals a new plateau, from whence to explore new directions.If
the aim of the mystery sea label was to release works inviting one to
let go and take a dive, then this must be one of their most exemplary
efforts. Just don’t expect any miracles – you’ll have
to take the final leap yourself.
mouvement
nouveau
CHAIN
D.L.K.|Eugenio Maggi
Rated : 3.5 stars out
of 5
Russian dronemaker Chistov Dmitry is the author
of a few self-released cdrs (which I guess you can easily find via Drone
Records) and a nice 7", obviously on Drone, which I reviewed some
months ago. I recall a vibrant, powerful piece of minimalism on one
of its sides; in this Mystery Sea release, however, things are considerably
quieter, faithful to the night-ocean theme. There are 8 tracks clocking
in at 56 minutes, but while each one has its own peculiar structure
and development, it's easy to see them as movements of one longer track.
Hum play straight isolationist ambient, the one that
slowly lulls you to sleep only to guarantee some genuine bad dream afterwards.
Trance-inducing, solipsistic and grey-tinged, Hum's pieces will surely
please die-hard fans of Lull or Thomas Koener, and, though they're obviously
not breaking any new ground, they have an emotional value that makes
them heartily recommended by yours truly.
chaindlk
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