http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Senmuth/90703

Senmuth is a one man experimental project from Moscow, Russia. The man has released literally, about 100 full length albums just by glancing at his MA page, and quite honestly, the consistency of his output in regards to his number of releases is astounding. This is some of the most progressive, vivid and inspiring music I have ever heard, and I'm currently listening to the album, Deathknowledge and Lifeperception. I was impressed by the likes of Zarach Baal Tharagh, another prolific contributor to the modern day Black Metal community, though honestly this is another level in musicianship.

If you have not heard Senmuth before, please check his music out. I'm not at all affiliated with the man, but I'd at least like to promote his music in some discussion, because these musical pieces are too good to go unheard of. I'll include some links to some songs for people to listen to -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIB93oAx7JY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxUpJXxR5jo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dllwY5BOr0E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf67B9bNRwQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJxfydosAOk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRBlbLtGwJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBAKXG-quRM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE74QXkQ5es
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ9hiu5b-1Y

What is your impression of this music?

A friend of mine made me listen to a few of these albums. There was little consistency and the style is a bit over the place but as a one-man project, I recognize whoever is behind this has a lot of creativity. I just think something is missing and I would really like to see this guy work with a real band, see if something better comes out of this.

I think it's so interesting that you say that. Being a musician and having several one man projects myself, I've found that a lot of people sometimes react to these types of projects in one of two ways; they either love it and find all that they need (musically speaking) within the project, or they find the project to be lacking in one or several qualities, and therefore do not/cannot enjoy the music.

I respect your opinion Riffs, and I honestly find the points that you made interesting. Though I will ask you, if the man does have a large well of creativity within himself as you stated, would it even be musically necessary for him to work with other people to create music? are his efforts not sufficient on his own? I'm not debating with you, but trying to generate some thoughtful discussion.

Checked out a few of his albums (don't remember which ones in the sea of releases), but although he captures some interesting and original sounds a lot of the time it sounds incredibly rushed and slapped together. Dude needs to slow down and put a little more time, thought and fine-tuning into the albums he does release. I guess that would kind of kill the appeal of the band, but at least the music would be better.

My thoughts on the aspect of would it be musically necessary to work with another person... might not be necessary but you can always guarantee that there will be some unexpected and pleasant results to take place with just the simple addition of another voice in the song writing process. I have several single man projects but I'm always open to work with other people because it's that influx of new ideas or tackling ones you have covered in an entirely different way. Plus it's always nice to have someone who gets as excited as you about something you are creating.

I'll check this guy out just for shits and giggles. I can respect many one man projects but I normally fall in the category of not liking them. I think that's more due to the fact that many of them have to use programmed drums and I'm not a fan of drum machines all that often. Even though I am one as well, I do my best to make it sound like it's a full band that created and performed it. Helps that I can play and record my own drums.

Great SLK, give the music and go and if you like it then that's all the better for everyone. I can understand what you are saying about the additional voices in a musical project can lead to more ideas and sometimes even great ideas, just because of that addition in the creative process, and therefore different thinking patterns are applied. What I mean by that is, I believe we all interpret music differently, hence taste, styles, opinions and viewpoints, and I wouldn't see an album such as Death's debut as you would, so when you mention the point of additional members being a bonus, I can certainly agree in regards to the creative aspect.

I cannot say much about programmed drums because I use them, though ultimately I would love to have an electric kit to use at home.. I can play basic death/thrash/rock drums, you know, blast beats, tuppa tuppa beats and some fills/rock beats, but it really ends there for me. I suppose programmed drums are the best option we have when we do not have the appropriate setup for an actual kit, acoustic or electronic. Some bands make great use of programmed drums though, such as Annaal Nathrakh, Senmuth, so many Djent and Black metal bands.

Hopefully you enjoy Senmuth though

I didn't say I hated all programmed drums, but it's rarer when I like them. I rather listen to a mediocre drummer play with passion for the music but not have some awesome impressive skills behind the kit than some precision perfect insano drum machine.

Just clicked through 4 Senmuth songs. Can't say I enjoyed it. I didn't really hear it as black metal either. more of what I heard stuck in almost industrial and progressive masturbation. either way I tried, I won't say what he does isn't good because it's obviously some time spent in it and it's quite a bit of work on creating, programming and structuring all of it. I just don't care for it.

It's not necessary, no. Anyone can create music. And even if he was working with others, it wouldn't automatically improve the quality (and might actually worsen it). But with the right combination, the right attitude and partnership, it could lead to something immensely more interesting, I suspect. Creating music in a vacuum is more difficult and you're likely to be prone to indulgence and one dimensionality. Those things can hinder your craft. Sometimes, you don't even need to work with someone immensely talented. You just need the right person, with their talent but also their limitations and their will. I'll repeat what I always say here but band chemistry can be vital and the slightest change can shift a band's focus completely, even if the main players remain involved.

I think that whoever is behind Senmuth doesn't care about any of these things. This is a total guess, a shot in the dark but I suspect this person may suffer from mental illness. Bipolarity? Asperger? Something else? This is obviously someone who has LOADS of time on his hands and dedicates ALL of it to music. Likely someone who is socially awkward, reclusive, has a specific thought process and a strong focus on this thing and this thing alone. That's why there's this bigass discography of varying quality and all of it is downloadable for free on his site, with very little promotion in the process.

Because in this case, it's not about the end result (actual albums) or recognition of any kind. It's about the process of creating. It's likely therapeutic for this person.

Even though nothing I've heard (I'm listening to albums right now) from Senmuth knocked me on my ass, I find it very interesting. If nothing else, this person is helping himself and releasing music that is already better than a lot of crap out there. So worse case scenario I hope he continues this way. But I'd like to see collaborations and a real band.

Yeah, he is definitely prolific to a fault. It's impossible to maintain quality while releasing about 100 albums in under a decade. That said, he is definitely an imaginative and capable musician and I do like some of his works, while others are (understandably) plagued with filler. The best I've heard so far is his Sebek album. Cool industrial extreme metal mixed with this weird (middle) eastern exotic traditional influence.

Umm... Senmuth is far from reclusive, awkward, or anything of the sort. He has a wife and daughter, and frequently organizes trips to various places (and actually has a group at the moment that seem to be into pyramid exploring).

Anyway, as someone very familiar with a great many Senmuth releases, people should really look into albums like Akhet Mery Ra (which was actually written over many months -- many of his albums are), Bark of Ra, Sebek, Nagaratyanta (weird industrial doom metal with long atmospheric sections and indian folk music), Pat Hof Neu Rog Ene Sis (very well composed acoustic stuff), Sekenenra, Exouniverse (really sweet experimental mix of orchestral synths, spacey themes, middle eastern folk and other stuff), RXG-242-11 (sorta noisy Samael-worship stuff, except way more busy), Книги Вознесения I (Really experimental, actually rather Godflesh-y industrial metal song and some other massive atmoshpere), Hexeractime (extremely tightly composed math metal with Senmuth's usual wall of glittery sound production; really awesome), M.OMEN.T (Really massive experimental ambient/metal/whatever thing, its a bit hard to describe but thoroughly enjoyable and, honestly, one of his better releases overall).

Some selected tracks:

Waiting the Sun (This is an all time favorite of mine, the really bright dissonant sections give me chills)
Galaxies Merge (From Exuoniverse)
Hor Aha (Amazing, airy atmoshperic track from Akhet Mery Ra)
Unas, Obretayuschiy Silu Bogov (Epic death metal track from Akhet Mery Ra)
Rozhdenie Vremeni (From RXG-242-11)
Perperikon (Really cool, big building track from Tenha Vuva)
Davison's Chamber (Sweet massive pyramid ambient style thing from Chambers, people like to compare the album to Dead Can Dance)
Zabytaya Istoriya Zemli (Dance music, basically, from the album he did that was heavily EBM)
Awakening Magnetar (Opener from Hexeractime, crazy awesome guitar work)
Okteraktic Lake (Same album, more maddening guitar tracks and folk bits)
Shakjamuni (Super uplifting closing track from Kami no Miti, love the choirs and steely percussion, as well as the sweet melodies)
Argyre (Lurching industrial metal track off Great Oppositions of Mars)
Divine Natural Awareness [DNA] (Closing track from The Final Eschatology, I really love the minimal electronics combined with the breakbeats, and when the song eventually gives way to the middle eastern guitar melodies... Man, its a really good "end of the day" song)
Proshloe: Vremya Uskol'zaet V Prostory Vechnosti (Opening track from Pat Hof Neu Rog Ene Sis, already a really good example of what you can expect on the album in terms of acoustic guitar work)

I will agree that some Senmuth songs are very filler-y, or rushed. But I think he has the ability to write extremely concise, powerful music as well, and the speed at which he puts out albums is irrelevant to that. Some things are best made in the moment, when the spark hits. Refining them further is possibly even unnecessary, and done only in the pursuit of making it seem like you're more professional to some invisible audience. Which isnt to say he doesnt refine things, there are some albums that very clearly took a great deal of time to make. But hey, if it works, it works.

Nice to see somebody who is more into his stuff. I've listened to about 5 full lengths of him, and a lot of random songs on youtube, but with that huge discography it's still hard to discover where he used most of his potential, which you can hear in most of his works.

I've been thinking of getting into his albums, as I already listen to two of his side projects, Tenochtitlan and Harmahis. It's going to take a huuuuuuuge amount of time to download his stuff, if I decide to. I just need to make the decision.

I honestly would not recommend much of anything since 2012, other than the ones I've already mentioned. The start of the project to Hexeractime was where all the best stuff was, essentially. He's been much more hit and miss since.

I've tried about four albums by him now, the guy just puts out music faster than I can digest it. I think he seems mostly consistent from various samplings, but not hugely impressive most of the time. I really like the catchy ethnic twanging intersperced with dramatic guitar shredding on Bark of Ra, which seems to be a clear best at this stage,but I'm not too keen on his metal material, industrial riffs always leave me underwhelmed. At any rate the project is far more interesting and worthwhile than the ridiculous release rate would suggest.

You have done a great job posting this list of songs, I really appreciate it, I just need a little bit of free time and I will listen to all of them.

It is incredible the amount of work that this guy has released, I have no words to explain how amazing I consider it. I have only listened to one or two albums but I find his music interesting and original, I must check more.

Senmuth is great but I'm just far too overwhelmed. Most albums he makes are actually quite good, too.

This guy has been interesting me for awhile now, that discography is really intimidating however. I had no idea he was offering all those albums free from his website, definitely gonna give Sebek a listen today.

I heard of this guy a couple years back. Some of his music is good for easy listening but you can tell you just spits out songs as quick as he can. I wish the guy would slow down and write a more thought out piece of music. It is pretty neat that he is able to produce material as quick as he can but it is hard to take it seriously when he writes like 20 albums a year. None of his stuff i have heard is bad though, mostly it is just mediocre at best.

Loads of people on this forum had a huge hard-on for this guy a couple of years back. Some people, like Crick, have found a secret musical viagra that allows their hard-ons to span across years.

None of his stuff sounds interesting enough for me to brave his gigantic discography, and as I've said before I just have a natural aversion to projects that are this prolific.

Again... Akhet Mery Ra. Took like 3 months to compose and record.

Interesting to see that a devoted fan feels this way, since I (as a moderate fan) feel the same. The last ambient album that stood out for me all the way through was Chambers, with Sekenenra as the last noteworthy metal album. Scientific Obscurantism, Hagwallah, Bar-Do-Thas-Grol and Sen en Mut all had some good moments, but nothing I found good all the way through. So many of the songs these days just seem to ramble without ever turning into something.

But when he's on, he's on...Weird is still one of my favorite albums regardless of genre.

He's experimenting with new sounds a lot recently, but there's usually something missing. Some albums are just total fluff with no concrete ideas or atmosphere, others sort of frequently skirt cool ideas but never full grab and run with them. He also needs to write more actual riffs. Hexeractime is awesome because it has actual riffs, and a lot of them. Though its cool when he uses the guitar as more of another layer of sound than as a rhythmic or melodic instrument, even that isnt always used as effectively as it could be these days.

Also, he seems to keep flirting with dubstep. I wanna see him make something dubstep-y, or IDM-esque (a lot more electronic genres than I'm used to hearing in his sound popped up on one of his most recent albums, and it was actually pretty interesting at times, but he needs to refine it into something more concise).

I listened to Hagwalah and that's actually quite good. Very different for hi, at least for me.

It's great to see this much positive feedback and discussion about this music, after all variety is the spice of life. That said, I'm having trouble contacting the man himself, as I want to buy a few of the albums but have found no store that sells his music. There was one copy of a CD on eBay a few days ago, though I haven't gotten around to listening to that one yet.

Has anyone else had success contacting him through his email?

I think he tends to make up albums when he's asked, just as a home production. I think I remember this being the set up a little while back, he was considering a professional press of 100 odd of some albums if he thought there was a market.

i had a listen to senmuth a few years back when (i think) a thread about him popped up here and the fact that he had so many albums piqued my interest. i listened to one or two at random and was surprised at how high the quality was given the extreme possibility of filler and rushed nonsense. had a good ambient feel to it from memory, bit of a filosofem vibe. can't remember much more, but good enough as one of those things i'd listen to while i'm writing an essay, and just tune out.

I'd still actually say that is really pretty fast to be honest....

That composition/recording time is on par with the first four Burzum albums. It's impossible to evaluate work based on the time it took to create - those albums Varg released so quickly are rightly revered, and Morbid Angel's terrible most recent album was years in the making.