01 Disease Vectors
02 Shiro/Kitano
03 Unit 100
04 UJI-50/UJI-100
05 Pingfang
06 Unit 516
07 Marutas
08 Heibo 8372
09 Unit 731
10 Unit 731 (Reprise)
Autarky's third release, simply titled III (or Autarky III), revolves around the Japanese research and development of weapons during World War II. The three tracktitles that start with Unit refer to three top secret facilities and factories. Pingfang was the district where Unit 731 was located, and Shiro/Kitano refers to two members of Unit 731; Shiro Ishii and Masaji Kitano.
The albums starts off with clearest named track; 'Disease Vectors'. It features a low grumbling drone layered with piano-like soundscapes and creaking noises, causing a haunting and intense atmosphere, which is only enhanced by the addition of another layer of high tones while the rest gets louder and louder. Following this track comes the track named after two members of Unit 731. The atmosphere in this track is completely different, as it starts with a very noisy martial industrial soundpattern, which is becoming more and more chaotic as the track progresses, to finally fade out into Unit 100. Unit 100 was a secret facility focused on developing biological weapons, mainly doing research on animal diseases. This track is once again much quieter, though as haunting as the first track.
Though all music is completely instrumental, by the music alone it gives a uniform view of the atmosphere how they might have been during World War II in those places, as well as shortly after when the places were abandoned. According to Autarky, "There is no fundamental difference in the creative process as it is evidenced in […] composing a symphony [or] devising new instruments of killing […]" Indeed, a creative process is just one thing, what one does with the result is a rather different thing.
Throughout the album, you're treated with more haunting soundscapes (Pingfang) and noisy martial industrial music (Unit 516). Sometimes it can be downright beautiful as well, such as the track Marutas. Marutas was a slang word used during the construction period of Unit 731, and it was used to refer to the prisoners. Literally, Marutas means 'wooden logs'. The track Marutas is a wonderful neoclassical composition, perhaps an ode to the prisoners. See the video on the bottom of this review.
There's no clearance on Autarky's visions, ideals or ideas on the subjects the tracktitles on this album refer to. Their website states that they do not create biographies, but rather dissect them. Sparse comments are given, such as in the beginning of the video below. For fans of intricate soundscapes and music with much more behind it that one can get from just the release itself, this is an excellent addition to your collection.
