This British duo has few official releases around, but they should be quite known for their drone noise/doom band Marzuraan (recommended to fans of Earth, Skullflower, Ramleh and the likes) and the harsh noise/power electronics project Romance. The press sheet states that, unlike their usual modus operandi, no guitars were used this time, only field recordings. This is odd because both pieces have this powerful wall-of-sound field which I would have ascribed to some heavily effected string instrument. The title track has a nice bass-heavy ambience, but the flipside wins with a buzzing drone which reminded me of a less refined Organum or some Earth (circa "Earth 2"). Drone Stefan writes "pure metallic flood-noises" and once again he puts it best. Purple vinyl, art inserts and silkscreened covers.

First and allegedly last ever vinyl for Mirko Uhlig's surreal drone project after the nice cdr on Mystery Sea, to which this sounds like a sort of follow up and darker counterpart at the same time. Still very "massive" and blurred like the MS disc (and quite unlike Uhlig's first solo cdr which I'll review straight after), I venture this is based on guitar-generated drones too, though a glockenspiel can be spotted on the flipside. "Part A" is quite ominous and oppressive, and reminded me of Troum's darker incursions into the subconscious side of human mind. "Part O" is more expanded and serene, with warmer tones in the standard Aalfang psychedelic way. Green/yellow marbleized vinyl and hand-painted watercolour covers.

Off the recent Drone output, this is surely my favourite ep, and a very nice surprise from this Siberian project, which had previously released some cdrs I haven't listened to. The press release defines this as "Aurora Borealis-Drones" which is surely an effective way to put it, also considering that the two pieces allegedly contain "northern lights soundings". I still wonder what they are: magnetic disturbances, maybe? Anyway, both tracks are very powerful, hypnotic and well constructed though using minimal means, i.e. synth tones and the above mentioned noises. Dark hlue vinyl and CRAZY packaging with a laser-cut metal logo (!).

In Meditarium belongs to the Ukrainian Dark Syndicate, along with other dark ambient projects like First Human Ferro, Filivs Macrocosmi, etc., and has a few cdr releases under its belt. This Drone 7" ep honestly hasn't impressed me at all: the two tracks, "Regina Solitaria" and "Regina Silentia", are standard dark/cosmic ambient pieces without much edge, and flow away without leaving any lasting impression. Not bad, but nothing to write home about either.

Drone Records boss Stefan Knappe surely has a penchant for underground Russian outfits, which have dominated his catalogue in recent times. Kudos to him for this work of talent scouting (so to speak). Lunar Abyss, if I'm not wrong, is a project slightly changing its name with each release. "Veet Vecher" is an upsetting mix of concrete sounds (a crackling fire?) and deep drones, while the flipside, "Zagnuli Zeveri Vse", is slightly more light-hearted,with ethnic chants and electronic throbs giving way to a final part with just synth sounds. Hand-painted covers and coloured vinyl.