Burzum - Sol Austan, Mani Vestan

Band: Burzum

Album: Sol Austan, Mani Vestan

Genre: Ambient

Country: Norway

Year: 2013

Link 

What can I say about this? I've listened to it twice now without thinking much, without relating what I was hearing to any mundane image, to anything about "Burzum" as we know it, not "expecting to listen to the latest Burzum album". I waited a while to listen to it, especially since I didn't want to create any expectations related to the first albums (in the true Black Metal vein) while listening to it. Sufficing to say, it is based on Vikernes' most current beliefs, having long surpassed the heavy and belligerent sound of adolescence visible in his early works. To quote an old and misused phrase, "it's not better or worse, it's really just different".

On this one in particular Vikernes' techno influence is visible, especially in the spacy synthesized melodic sound drifting above the bass and strings, and the whistle of the wind. It is icy, cold, smooth, melancholic, retrospective to the individual. It is looking down from a high summit. Or perhaps from the internment of a dead underworld, the memories of the mundane past or the world just distant and maybe faded.

My first mundane thought during the session was that it would make nice lounge music, or that it would be good for a calming day when the skies are much like the tones in the background of the album's coverart. The ditching of any previous "Burzumic" logo is a statement of the simplicity of the album, in which one should focus more on the inner, the tranquil, and not the angst-driven feelings of Aske, Filosofem, etc. Some tracks might remind one of "space music" - I have seen Tangerine Dream mentioned in the YT's comment section for the album. I would agree. The melodies fit very well in their simplistic suit.

Compared to Daudi Baldrs and Hlidskjalf, well, it should not be compared to them in the first place. It certainly has not the Zelda-esque rhymes of these two previous releases, nor the quite "romantic", idealized fairy-tale notion of chivalric Medieval gist. This album stretches far beyond that, and therefore resonates, in my opinion, more deeply because it transcends all time, therefore being closer to the modern listener. Like Beethoven's melodies, these tracks are not really confined to a time or style, but are simply "there". They exist. They are the expressions of a soul unburdened with anything in the modern world, and which outlive all trivialities. 

All of the titles are composed in old Norse, of course in the context of the ancient Nordic and proto-Nordic religion. The tracks offer enough variation to be distinct in sound and mood, but are uniform enough to flow from one song to the next without much interruption (but for a few transitions). Together they definitely convey a "unified field" which encompasses all of the emotions it weaves forth. 

One should be warned that this is not a metal album, nor is it Daudi Baldrs or Hlidskjalf. There are no metal riffs, or heaviness in the "metal" sense. There has been much conflict in the throngs of enthusiasts for Burzum, mostly torn over the "new" direction that Vikernes is taking. I personally do not see it as a "new" direction, only that he continues to make music that corresponds with his different sources of inspiration, and not to continually clone or magically "produce" the Burzum of 1994. The "black metal" of Vikernes, what has been known to the world under its debut title of BURZUM, has actually made all of the albums that encompass it. If you like the "old" Burzum, this is why the songs Dunkelheit and Lost Wisdom exist, they are the expressions of this music. That being said, the 2013 release cannot be said to be "Burzum" as those enthusiasts of Filosofem or Aske believe in. I sympathize with Vikernes for wanting to be "free" of the past Burzum image, even going so far as to wanting to change the musical project's name, because these periods in the music are vastly different entities. One would almost want to keep "Burzum" a purely black metal and early ambient band for posterity, while giving these recent releases under a different production name.

One thing that I realize while listening to this, especially in the latter part of the album, is especially how beautiful it is. It is serene. One can fall asleep listening to this, as was originally intended at the start of "Burzum", but this time in a totally pacific and exploratory path distinct from the brooding confrontation with the modern world, or with dangers and trials or the danger of life on earth. It is quite aethereal. The instruments almost evoke a Renaissance holisticity, if not elevated by the electronic spells. Nothing is overdone. Simplicity is key.

I feel that the music is almost a statement of how the subject matter of the cover art should be viewed, when one looks at it. Not with the thunderous or boisterous nature of Det Som En Gang Var, but with a calm retrospectiveness from a summit. From Hlidskjalf, truly.

8.0 for Ambient very simple, acoustic, lightly electronic