Genre: Experimental / Dark Ambient / Drone

01 Gathering the storm
02 More joy than you could possibly know
03 It will be as if you had never existed
04 Rotten skull
05 Back outside
06 All hell & despair
07 Underearth
08 Te unsound light
09 Ostara summit
10 The mountains are machines
11 Stay inside and sleep
12 The end of things

There is an almost famous story, one of these tales that are on the verge of becoming an urban legend, with its origins lost somewhere in translation, about a troop of soldiers marching in perfect military unison, marching steadly in constant pace, a constant beat, until they reach a long bridge. They keep marching in the same beat on that bridge until suddenly, for no apparent reason, it collapses with them on it. Contrary to our quick thoughts about bombing that bridge or maybe the harsh apocalyptic weather, but no, the reason the bridge collapsed was simple. The constant beat of the marching was the exact frequency of the bridge's material, making it shatter with that steady wave of sound. This is something to think about when listening to Kingsley Ravenscroft and Alec Bowman's "Ghosts", with the powerful sounds that are produced throughout the 12 tracks. A notice on the papers I got with the album reassures of this feeling, saying that the harsh bass and treble are intentional, and not a problem of my speakers, who are about to explode through the vibrations. Throughout the first track, "Gathering the storm", who indeed sounds like a brilliant and tribal work of witchcraft that might call a storm, hopefully to the dry winter around where I live, The harsh drumming that are pounding my head like an old wooden bridge, I am reminded of the two wonderful characters in the book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" , who are arguing wether a certain vinyl can be played by a grammophone and produce a certain vibration that will destroy that grammophone. Even after conjuring this harsh storm, the people of formication are not trying to destroy your speakers or anything, but they certainly manage to produce a monumental presence outside of these speakers and around the listener with the twelve powerful ghosts.

"Ghosts". Take track number four, "Rotten skull", for example. A droning wailing that sounds like an almost autistic mumbling that circles my room, while random screams of horror that end almost before they appear. On top of that, broken samples of what seems to be incomprehensible talkings. A good picture of a ghost by all means. This track points out another quality of this dark duo. While the description sounds like yet another digital cut&paste work, Formication stays warm and organic throughout the entire album, and versatile as well. While "Gathering the storm" is rythmic to the extreme, "Rotten skull" is much more atmospheric and the next track, "Back outside", is layered with harsh drones. This reminding me of playing, more than several times, the album "dead cities" of future sound of london, with "white 2" of Sunn 0))) (Do it!). The constant shifting between rythm, ambient and tidal soundwaves is a focal point in this album as well, and it is done really really well. "All hell & despair" is a good example of putting highly distorted sounds with a warm and touching ambient layers of music, before this track goes into an experimental extravaganza and becomes what its title suggests.

The brilliantly named track "The mountains are machines" is a good example for powerful rythmic industrial track, not unlike what Imminent (Starvation) would make, for instance, only the sounds are again, much warmer and organic, a fact that works perfectly for Formication (and the opposite works real well for imminent, of course). This powerful tribal attack leads to an almost zen-like answer from the short "Stay inside and sleep", who's second part is the last track, "The end of things", that serves as a hybrid between all of the elements that were encountered earlier. A highly contrasted piece that provides a battle field between peaceful and slow music, and harsh breaks and sampled loops. A proper farewell from the ghosts that Ravenscroft and Bowman have summoned. Like one last taste of the old experiences that are locked within this album. Because soon, different experiences will come, if you judge from the number of albums these guys have released in the last few years. And trust me, we can't complain about that.