Album: Rejsekammerat
By: Trouble Salad
1. Cryoseism: ****ing superb introduction, I absolutely love the crackly ambiance mixed with the very light, subtle percussion hits that I'm making out. Not sure what that is but it's very nice. Some spookier sounding synths enter shortly and they wander around adding nice atmosphere and texture. Things get a little more abrasive in the third minute with some discordant notes being met among the mix. I love how the loops change ever so slightly for the second half and more windy sounds are thrown in. Killer opener.
2. Der Kristall Ist Eis (Paysage d'hiver): A lot more in-your-face than the previous track. What I loved about Cryoseism is how the song gently wandered around and filled in the space with its own ambient beauty, whereas this track almost feels too full to feel "cold" which I think is what Mondo is trying to do here. I do enjoy the slowly waning intensity, you do have a nice touch when it comes to varying that throughout a long track. I definitely didn't love this one a whole lot though.
3. Mountain Village: Really cool stuff going on in the beginning of this track. I feel like your mixing could be improved, like use an equalizer or something unless the grainy-ness is intentional which I suppose could be the case. The whole vibe of this overall is really nice, and I love how it's short and to the point instead of dragging out the same loop for forty minutes.
4. Should You Need A Traveling Companion: Gorgeous opening, that's a very nice wind sound you have working against the beautiful melody that's playing. So far this is definitely in the running for a blue. Again I feel like the mixing and volumes could use some work. We're nearing the end and it didn't continue to blow me away throughout so we're sticking with green. Very nice track though.
5. Snowhead Temple: Starts off very dark. I'm digging the feel of this so far, I can envision walking into a dark temple at the top of a snowy mountain and feeling quite afraid of what could be inside. Doesn't progress too much beyond this but within the context of the album I still loved it so we've got another green.
6. Watcher of the Summit: Very interesting to compare the dark, abrasive feeling of this to the rest of this album and to imagine what you were envisioning as part of this record's "story" here. Have we encountered some sort of unidentified being of a higher power? Very interesting sounds here throughout, although again I'm not liking how it's hard to tell if much has really changed after 12 minutes of the song being on. I'm going to keep it green just because it got me to imagine some weird things, but **** it really should have been a lot shorter.
7. Shed A Tear For Winter's End: I only like winter in short bursts so there's not going to be any tears shed here. Wonderful usage of what sounds like some choir noises off a keyboard to add a really eerie feel to this. I love the extremely quiet vocals, they definitely propel this track from typical spooky-ambient fare into something really interesting. Too long again imo but I doubt you're surprised that this is coming out of me at this point.
Verdict: You were right that I liked this a hell of a lot more than the album I listened to earlier in this thread. There are some glimpses of stuff I seriously adored but many of the same problems I've had with Mondo's stuff in the past still persist here. I'd absolutely recommend this to someone who likes dark, wintery ambient stuff though.