Parca Pace

Item: Parca Pace
Author: Tony LaFianza

(1999)

Reviewed by Tony LaFianza

Discogs Bandcamp Spotify

Label Flaming Fish MusicThe Phantom Tollbooth1999

ambient dark ambient experimental industrial

My computer's disk player calls this CD "Rolling Thunder," and indeed the first sound on the record is rolling thunder, followed by an amazing hour long shower of soundscapes. This solo project from Jan Carleklev (of The November Commandment and Sanctum) took a year to record. Carleklev has meticulously built an etude of sound and emotion. The 50 minute composition rolls from movement to movement, from scene to scene.

Grounded in minor, industrial, ambient music and sound, Carleklev underpins the discord with melody and beautifully smooth, flowing, mellow music. Sometimes the tensions will rule, sometimes the melodic orchestration wins out. The give and take of the music with the seamless blending of beautiful and ugly is riveting. Mostly true industrial music with lots of metallic screams and groans, there still seems to be a calm, peaceful heartbeat, even in the most dramatic phrases. The rhythms are intriguing throughout. Industrial beats drive the CD, but Carleklev has taken some dance and jungle beats to the studio as well. The moods of his "rolling thunder" opus are masterful. The music takes the listener with it from the crunch and drone of factory machinery to a lush running pasture, peaks and valleys, sea and clouds, and then back again. Finally the record ends as it began, with a stormy blend of melody and distortion.

This extremely well written and produced record is the industrial/ambient music fans' fantasy. Whether you dream, or daydream, or hallucinate ... Carleklev has designed the sound track.

4 tocks