Ashes to Ashes

From Ukraine comes this beautiful one-man band called Luna. This is a bit of a stunner of a release. Here you have one song that lasts almost an hour. While it does raise eyebrows and suspicions upon its efficacy and purpose, I’m glad and somewhat relieved to add that the effect would’ve been lessened had it not been this way. Sure, it’s easy to skip to your favourite songs otherwise but there’s a certain purpose of one-song albums such as the groundbreaking ‘Crimson’ by Edge of Sanity. It’s not too easy where it comes to the CD or vinyl or tape, but in these times of the digital age, one can simply move the cursor halfway through the album. But perhaps the band doesn’t want it to be that way. There’s a certain beauty in experiencing the album the way it is meant to be experienced. From start to finish, where you give some of your time and attention to the music and the music rewards you many times over. This is that kind of an album. It starts in a certain way and ends in a fitting manner, while retaining that principal motif throughout the album. Ashes to ashes indeed.

The music is kind of symphonic funeral doom, not too dissimilar from the likes of Shape of Despair and other Finnish or Russian bands, but here the atmosphere doesn’t drown the music – it is fleshed out enough for the emotion to throb and the talent to shine. As mentioned, there’s a distinct recurring riff which is albeit presented with all different hues and tones, amplifying it, which makes the one-song concept so important. Around the 40-minute mark, it bends that theme almost, adding surreal beauty to the proceedings. It’s moments like these that make life worth living. And it is perhaps worth waiting so long, because you need to understand where it emanated from originally.

The album is almost devoid of vocals, which is refreshing because there are no hoarse monotonous growls dulling the proceedings. It’s just music, atmosphere if you will, and on a grandiose scale. The album couldn’t have been made by a man without ambition. And that’s what makes something great, something a notch above. You have to push the limits to be noticed, nowadays anyway, especially in this style of music. There are enough death metal influences akin to Necropoli, but saturated in enough doom and gloom to change its interpretation. The symphonic aspect only serves to intensify the shades of emotions on this album, which are almost all-revealing because there’s nothing obscured here – it’s all laid out for everyone to see, and absorb. If only one were to invest enough time and attention in this beauty.

While many bands have tried to make a one-song album, few have truly succeeded such as the aforementioned band, Edge of Sanity. The problem was that they couldn’t control the flow or make the music suspenseful enough – that’s exactly why a band like Luna wins. You know what to expect perhaps, but you’re not quite sure as to what to expect next. That’s what makes this album a winner, and compels you to undergo the experience over and over again.


Originally online at Transcending Obscurity - www.transcendingobscurity.com

One track ... nearly an hour long ... one band member ... and nearly no vocals. Bore me to death? Certainly. But why is this the case? The information provided by a label can be of assistance here and in terms of Luna's Ashes to Ashes it goes as follows:

[...]This album/composition could become a soundtrack to an epic movie with horror and fantasy elements;[...]

Well, there are several confusing aspects in this statement. First of all, to point to sounds as belonging to the horror and fantasy genre seems to be an overstatement. While some sounds can be perceived in such a way that the listener might get the idea of one of these genres, matters are not as easy as they may look like. While certain noises may indeed be unsettling and disturbing, the association with each of the genres only happened once visual aspects come into play. Due to the way movies combined music and sound a certain categorization of noises has evolved over time. The audience has been conditioned so to speak and it is therefore not a problem of hen and egg. This then brings us to the next part of the statement:

[...]however, being missing a visual component it can recall visions leading to distant dark worlds of dreams and anxiety in a listener’s head.

This is blatant nonsense. The label expects something that is bound to happen in a lot of cases. How something is associated and perceived is highly subjective and varies therefore from person to person. While those with an extensive background of movies and soundtracks would be enabled to put certain atmospheres and sounds into a proper perspective, those who happen to lack this expertise will fall back on a comparably shallow and less mystical level.

Now it is seems appropriate to deal with the music. As mentioned earlier the release consists of merely one long composition and all too often this goes hand in hand certain short-comings. As the band has to keep up the tension, the atmosphere, the dynamics while maintaining as certain amount of variation, this aspect becomes even more of importance and weighs certain heavier the longer the track in question actually takes. It is not a pleonasm per se, but it is of little surprise. Therefore, the lack of versatility and wit fulfils the expectations somehow. Ashes to Ashes is not playful, it does not even attempt to grip the attention of the listener. It merely meanders on, while each of the segments of the track is too close to the others to overtly satisfy or to spark an interest. It is too predictable and less facetious as it would deem necessary. Ashes to Ashes has furthermore an additional problem not uncommon in other (nearly) instrumental metal tracks: how to avoid sounding like an interlude or even outro. As the melodies move on it is necessary to build up atmosphere, release tensions and play with expectations. This is partly done by the band Luna, but in a way that is actually unconvincing. While there are drops in the dynamics and in the atmosphere, the "substituting melodies" do not spin ideas further and there is no spillover between the segments. It is merely as if all had been put next to another, while intertwining those ideas in a neat and witty kind of way, seems to be an alien concept to the band. Therefore, this album can be reduced to something as pleasant as background ambience and nothing more. Some ideas may be appropriate for some RPGs games, while the idea to actually use it as a soundtrack may be too daring. Like in a lot of other cases of excessive compositions, it would not hurt to boil matters down a bit and start an evolution from some core aspects, but always with the a grander scheme in the back of the head.