Listen to the Spirits Conjured Forth in Phantasmora

The essence of cinematic dark ambient is to create an atmosphere, to create a mood and present vistas of escape for the mind and spirit; thereby comes an aesthetic, a quality, by which artists become known and recognized. Tonesmith genius Pär Boström has accomplished all of this with his musical project, Cities Last Broadcast, and accompanying him this time is Dimitris Valasopoulos under the moniker Fractalyst - their latest release, Phantasmora, a collaborative effort of superlative supernatural evocation styled in a century spiritualism veneer. Moods of somber, dull grey days come to mind, gaslight streets under a pall of coal-dusted skies spied through hazy glass panes in reserved tenements, while figures huddle in groups around small card tables in carpeted and velvet-strewn parlors chanting in unison with hands clasped around focal items and crystal balls; imagine this scene being recorded on rudimentary, experimental recording devices in the hopes of capturing these ectoplasmic manifestations - and imagine if something went wrong. Through this haze of historically-inspired paranormal inspiration, we can hear the haunting tones and sonic palettes of two talented artists as they weave their haunting, sonic tale.

Beginning with languid chantings and laced with eerie, undulating pads, Phantasmora immediately conjures the imagery of a desultory Charles Dickens or Charlotte Brontë setting, filtered in a perpetual grey lens, all while our mind wanders into a home, tinged in bister and beige, tudor-crown finished, yet with intricate coils of wiring and machineries of esoteric purpose lining the walls. Occasionally we may hear the singing of some disembodied phantom, the rattling and scratching of some ethereal creation, or the captured essence of a voice committed to phonograph - this is the music of forbidden paranormal practice, of scientific delvings into macabre arts beyond the understanding of humans, and all the while, through every track, we are led by our hearing according to the muse of composers Boström and Valasopoulos.

As iterated in the beginning of this review, this particular style of dark ambient, especially represented by the inimitable Cryo Chamber, is all about atmosphere and evocation of the mind into story and mood, led along gently by the composers, and Phantasmora is exemplary in proffering a wholly unique aesthetic replicated by none. An astounding release, and I can assure you, will be repeated several times as the years wanes into October and we approach the hallowed season. You can purchase Phantasmora in CD digipak and digital formats on the Cryo Chamber bandcamp page.