Darker than this... you'd die!
And death is presented to you by this Bostonian group as liberating and consoling, with lyrics whose message invites you to dissolve into the only true form of relaxation from tensions. Among dark sounds, voices that are clear yet never prominent, the invitation in the intro "Commemoration" unfolds in tones of arcane mystery and absolute desolation. The following track,"Ophelia's Crown" tells of how she watches him die with a smile. The somber account is followed by a more rhythmic yet still anguished duet by Ted and Erika, whose sound may remind you of a thoroughly darkened Jefferson Airplane. And here comes the wonderful "Dawn" sung by the talented Erika Swinnich, able to modulate her voice with transitions from ethereal to rich. A sense of suspension pervades this track and the whole album, dotted with the sound of violins sometimes deliberately stentorian.
Superb "Remember" accompanied by flute and rhythmically supported by the tambourine and guitar chords. "If I should die before I wake / let my sleep be my grave..." is followed by "Flight": piano, flute, and violins take turns dominating the other instruments and accompany the melancholic melody with the rhythm of a funeral march and the atmosphere of a barren countryside field covered in fog. Anguish reaches its peak lyricism in "The Beauty in All Things", which believe me, if you are particularly sensitive, is barely bearable, it is truly Munch's "The Scream" in dark music, the scream of one who has lost hope, internal, long, slow, heartrending... and yet melodic! In this piece, Ted and Erika's "na-a-aa", with nasal voices, reminds me somewhat of Sardinian folk choirs. I understand that this particular feature may leave some puzzled, but believe me, if there is a group difficult to review, so distant from all others and therefore without points of reference or footholds for the reviewer, it is this one.
Who to compare them to? Not the Arcana, so severe. Not the Avrigus, who compared to them seem like the cathedral of Oxford's choir of white voices, pervaded by seraphic serenity. The Unto Ashes of "Don't Fear the Reaper?" No, Unto Ashes lacks in composition and vocal tone the central element of Autumn Tears, the lack of hope.
The most original piece and, along with "The Beauty of All Things", the most unsettling is the penultimate one, "At a Distance", which opens with a guitar chord accompanied by the delicate sound of small bells; over this, Erika's voice comes in with words on consoling death: "how gently/death kisses me" "and it's so quiet here" (how sweetly / death kisses me. How peaceful it is here). Then violins and another type of percussion, which I can't identify but reminds me of a bongo, enrich the structure. A crescendo of suspense leads to the incredibly powerful finale, at the edge of emotional endurance, with the repetition of the phrase "Even if my eyes can no longer see you, I see you in the distance", with Erika's voice, surreal, seeming to come from the threshold between life and death.
The album ends with the somber and dragging "Eclipse" and the catharsis is complete: there it is, they have expressed the anguish, you can also relax to the sweet finale of the piano that closes the circle of the homogeneous ensemble of the tracks. And you've listened to real music, not experiments.
A difficult, sophisticated band for connoisseurs. In one of the rare reviews I found on their work, someone wrote: ambient. Ambient? Are you kidding? The only suitable ambient for A.T. is the morgue! Let me tell you why I rated them 5 stars: the A.T., together with Sopor Aeternus, are my favorite group, and Eclipse, their latest work, represents in my opinion the artistic maturity of the group and is superior to the "Love Poems for Dying Children" trilogy.
I hope I've piqued your interest and that the number of A.T.'s fans grows. In the guestbook of their official site, many have expressed their gratitude to the group, still too little known in Italy.
Tracklist and Videos
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