Aäkon Këëtrëh
Dans La Forêt

I ask a friend of mine, a maniac of dark and dehumanizing sounds, for a musical recommendation: "Do you have any names to recommend to further depress me through notes and noises?". He replies saying: "Are you talking about black metal, doom, neofolk or gothic rock stuff?". I retort sarcastically: "Enough with the usual stuff! I'm talking about unusual and surprising sounds!". The guy looks at me with a puzzled look and, after a moment of hesitation, comes up with an unpronounceable name: "Aäkon Këëtrëh!!".

I return home, search for information about the subject in question but, to my surprise, I find that not even the web can tell me much about it. It's rumored that this Aäkon was actually the leader of a French black metal band, a delusional guy and advocate of the extinction of the human race. The usual stuff, right? Yes, it's the usual boring stuff! But how does this Aäkon Këëtrëh sound and how many records could he have released? The web, despite being short on information, informs me that Aäkon only released three demo tapes, all three dating back to the early '90s! How to find this material, then? Impossible in my opinion! Luckily, but don't tell anyone, the Mule is always ready to lend a hand!

And here I am, then, to review "Dans La Foret", a tape released in the distant and now prehistoric 1996.

What did you say? The cover is pretty cliché? Yes, but also extremely poor! And the music? Even poorer!

In fact, we are faced with a proposal that has NOTHING to do with metal, but rather positions itself in the realms of the dark-ambient more somber and minimal.

The instruments used? A guitar and, in only one track, a synth! Very few voices, no bass, and no drums! Only, or almost, faded guitar riffs, riffs that are melancholic and icy like a dagger of ice. Evocative music, desperate that, in some passages, reminds of the more ambient and less metal Burzum.

A demo, then, to be listened to only if psychologically predisposed and only if capable of razing any residue of human warmth to the ground.

Absolute innovation? Genius? No. It's simply the honest lament of a true specter.