Lustmord is the pseudonym of Brian Williams, now more than four decades into his music career and with myriad releases under his belt, including many soundtracks and collaborations, as well as a plethora of “ordinary” albums.

Having set the blueprint for the dark ambient style with 1990’s Heresy, Williams now returns to this territory with Much Unseen Is Also Here (Pelagic Records).

Much Unseen Is Also Here contains eight instrumental synth-based pieces that take their time to unfold and develop. The total running time for the album is eighty-one minutes, and the shortest track is still well over the seven-minute-mark (with the longest being over fourteen minutes). And although the musical content has little to do with rock music, it is heavy, in the sense of being emotionally grueling. 

Right from album opener “Behold A Voice As Thunder”, the modus operandi is set. Bass-heavy crashes fade into washes of noise out of which harmonic content gradually emerges before being lost again. Arcane and outlandish sounds predominate. Little snippets of melody come and go. It is often difficult to discern whether the sounds might emanate from “real” sources — human voices, stringed or wind instruments — or entirely from synthesizers. It’s strange, disconcerting, and utterly captivating. 

Moving through the record’s journey, it might be easy for the casual listener to suggest that a “more of the same” approach applies, but in fact there are are rich emotional and dynamic shifts there to be grasped by those prepared to delve a little deeper into the nuances of Much Unseen Is Also Here as its peculiar and disturbing energy ebbs and flows.

At times the sense of despair and dread are palpable, for example during the forlorn and desolate “Invocation Of The Nameless One”.  At others the music is genuinely frightening, such as on the ominous and foreboding “Their Souls Asunder”. There are even occasional moments when hope and salvation appear to be within grasping distance, like the strangely beautiful “Hence They Shall Be Devoured All Of Them”.

Above all, right through to the Doom-laden and melancholic final track, “Other Woes Are Yet To Come”, the curious and alien textures are deeply evocative; an entire bizarre and macabre world seems to exist within the surreal sonics. The record, taken as a whole, depicts a horrifyingly absurd dreamscape whose twists and turns darkly mirror the human experience.

Much Unseen Is Also Here is an album that asks a lot of the listener and could even be described as punishing. Eighty-one minutes of ambience and noise won’t be for everyone. Those, however, who are ready and prepared to submit to the full misery and mystery of this remarkable, if difficult, album will perhaps find that transcendence can be found on the other side of the darkness.

Buy the album here:
https://orcd.co/lustmord

8 / 10
DUNCAN EVANS