Born when Karsten Hamre decided to pause his main project, Penitent, Dense Vision Shrine explore even more the visions of the man bringing us six dense dark ambient suites and two videos of "Snowsand" and "The Stronghold". If with Penitent, Karsten, paid his tribute to classical music and to poetry, with MAGIC AND MISTERY he seems to stop time giving to all the sounds more space and calm. The dilated pads of the tracks are like floating water that little by little runs though lands, covering everything. Listening to this album I feel a general sensation of apparent calm which passing from track to track mutates into a nightmare. You know, it's like into the Lovecraft novels, where everything seems going fine since suddenly you discover that pain took an hold of your heart. Also the two videos present images of nature, you know: woods, caves, mountains. But those images change their meanings if associated to this music. Creepy...