The Cosmogonic Suite

Russia’s Moscow-based project Senmuth is possibly the most prolific entity on the face of the planet. Valery Androsov, better known by his stage name of Senmuth, formed this quirky project in 2004 and made his mark on the music world by releasing five full length albums in his first year of existence. He followed suit with each year after, with January of 2014 seeing his one hundred and fiftieth release , in the form of a full length album entitled Энграмма (yes, you read that correctly, one hundred and fifty albums in ten years). Being no slouch, in February of 2014, for his one hundred and fifty-first release, Senmuth brings us The Cosmogonic Suite, which is an EP featuring one sixteen and a half minute track.

If you’ve followed Senmuth’s career at all, you’ll no doubt understand how eclectic and varied his discography is. From the industrialized, electronic metal styling of his debut, Cognitive Discord, to the meditative calm of Sacral Land to ethnic ambiance of Path of Satiam, Senmuth’s catalog has been full of surprising twists and turns. The music of The Cosmogonic Suite mixes ethnic instrumentation and spacey atmospheric passages with industrial styled guitar riffs and a slow, driving drum pattern that holds tinges of electronica. Sounds like a mouthful, right? Well in the sixteen and a half minutes presented, Senmuth gives you enough twists and turns to keep things interesting, even though there is a disparaging lack of vocals. If you’re familiar with Senmuth past accomplishments, notably 2013’s με oν, which was a forty-two minute long instrumental track (and a damn fine one at that), then you know that he can pull it off.

The only way to keep a sixteen minute instrumental opus listenable is offer enough to keep the listener’s attention. Beginning with a rather calm introduction of Asian instrumentation with a spacey atmospheric keyboard background, Senmuth eases you in a trancelike state. Perhaps, with the title of EP taken into consideration (the origin of the cosmos), this could be construed as the calm blackness before the big bang. As quickly as any uncontrolled combination of combustible gases explodes, The Cosmogonic Suite blasts forth with an unexpected surge of heaviness, hosting double bass runs, fast paced chugging palm muting and backing keyboard layers with an epic flair. After the dust settles, Senmuth moves into a spacey, electronica tinged segment with what sounds like rave inspired sounds to help you regain your nerves. Diving in for the final climax, the epic orchestration takes the lead while a fast drum beat and industrialized guitar riff bring things to a final plateau with the electronic segments creeping in to merge with the heavier instrumentation, before tailing off for the last several moments in spacey atmospherics.

Even though The Cosmogonic Suite is only sixteen minutes long, it manages to bring everything that I love about Senmuth’s music to the table: ethnic instrumentation; spacey atmospherics; and industrialized metal. If you’re a fan of anything from Senmuth’s past, then you can’t go wrong with this EP. Senmuth will, without a doubt, continue moving on with his ever prolific, ever ambitious project, so I will stay plugged in for the ride. If you’ve never listened to Senmuth, then The Cosmogonic Suite seems as good of a place to start as any.