Ruins of Morning

‘Ruins of Mourning’ is a 2010 EP release from Nadja. Split into two songs simply known as ‘Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’, ‘Ruins of Mourning’ is one of the few pieces of material issued from Nadja this year that they themselves constructed instead of collaborating with some other artist, which they’ve done consistently throughout the year. I’ve often been left disappointed by the collaborations, particularly from Nadja’s side as this Canadian duo have the ability to be the ambient drone masters if they just pulled their finger out and cut out all the collaboration works which really harm their career. ‘Ruins of Mourning’ isn’t what I had expected from Nadja, ‘Part 1’ begins with a clean guitar and sticks with that approach for a few minutes before a low-lying ambiance draws into the atmosphere alongside mournful clean vocals from Aidan. The vocals are despairing, not matter how much they seep into the background. The title of the EP becomes very important the more the song begins to unfold as this is obviously a very emotive release from the Canadian duo, something which has been missing from their discography for quite some time, especially with those god-awful collaborative works with bands like Ovo with their strange female vocalist literally sounding like a dying wasp - yes, that’s right, a dying wasp.

This EP is a little like the old Nadja, a little like the newer Nadja we encountered on albums like ‘Desire in Uneasiness’ and a few of the calmer EP’s. The atmosphere of this EP is just that - calming. A soothing guitar plays cleanly throughout the first few minutes of ‘Part 1’. A slow, agonising drum plays alongside it after a few minutes once the vocals hav disappeared, but they’re not like they used to be. They don’t constantly pound and pummel their way through the dense atmospherics, as they simply don’t exist. The atmosphere is so relaxing, I could even end up using it to go to sleep to. That isn’t a negative comment, it’s meant to be relaxing and mournful. It feels like a long, languid night of sleeplessness before a busy day. There’s a funerary aspect to the sound which is really affective and though there isn’t much variation to the song for its twenty minute duration, there is enough on offer to make the song interesting in an abstract sense. The material is like an intoxicant. It takes over the imagination and begins to draw out images and pictures within the grand skies of the soundscapes. The song may not be as dynamic, but it certainly is as dreamy without ever being all that imaginative.

‘Part 1’, towards the end at least, signals that this song is merely a build-up to the second half of the EP. ‘Part 2’ is exactly what we’ve come to expect of the newer side to Nadja. Lots of dense distortion, an incredibly dreamy atmosphere with the distant and dissonant vocals of Aidan and drums which hit home the bass underlay. The vocals, on this twisted occasion, don’t just come in the form they normally have done -- which was in a clean form -- there are some vaguely distorted vocals, though they play second fiddle to the cleanly sung vocals of Aidan. The atmosphere on this song is a little more concrete than on ‘Part 1’ because there is a lot more creativity going on, though the stylistic approach is still very similar to songs like ‘I Have Tasted The Fire Inside Your Mouth’ and the songs which feature vocals on ‘Christ Send Light’. Aidan doesn’t tend to incorporate vocals into the full-lengths, but these EP’s use them willingly and with adventurous roles. The vocals tend to melt into the scorching background, but they still have a purpose. This song is a lot like older Nadja, with songs like ‘Numb’ coming to mind, or ‘Base Fluid’ because of the blissful droning ambiance. This is a really tidy EP that could have done with a shorter opening song. A better addition to 2010 at least.