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            "STILL AIR - ARIA IMMOBILE" - CD Album by KIRLIAN CAMERA
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       2ooo / CD / Radio Luxor/SPV (ref. RL181ooo/SPV o85-37662) / 58.36

KIRLIAN CAMERA, a name that should be known in the music scene, esp. in the dark
related one, since this band is working since over 2o years now. Furthermore the
band always matched it to  stand in the spotlights  since again and again it was
said that they're  praising fascistic thoughts. This was caused by the relations
of the  band to other  bands like  Death In June, Current 93,  Der Blutharsch or
Sixth Comm, who all  were put into  that corner, sometimes with right (!) by the
medias and big parts of the scene as well.

The problem is that the band always matched it to avoid a clear statement in the
question  about their  political  state, furthermore  their presentation  on the
stages where they're playing, always brings us to this  point since they like it
to play  movies of the 193o years, showing soldiers and war... the cold and dark
sound, the masked singer Angelo Bergamini as well as the bands that support them
are doing the rest... But finally  the mastermind  Angelo Bergamini gave a clear
statement in a german magazine about this topic that seems to show that he isn't
really related to neofascitic tendencies...

After all KIRLIAN CAMERA brings  us another cold  electronic album and if you do
not show too much about the  rumours about a  band, but more  onto her music and
you like cold electronic noises coming along with waves of soft synthesizers and
female voices, you should really check out this album...

Here comes the tracklist at first...

 o1 The Unreachable One (8.oo)
 o2 Black Harbour / Helma Nah' Shmarr (5.54)
 o3 Absentee (Alamo Mix) (4.34) [also released as single]
 o4 Uninhabited (2.49)
 o5 Unaufmerksame Leute (8.15)
 o6 The Hidden Voices (7.27)
 o7 At Any Moment Now (5.59)
 o8 Heaven's Darkest Shore 1 (4.46) [with Sixth Comm]
 o9 Anti-Light (9.o2)
 1o Irgendwo (1.5o)

And now for some words about every single song...

o1 - The Unreachable One

A very calm  song, starting with some  piano-a-like intro, very sparse but again
really cruel synth noises, and mix voiced lyrics, brought in speech singing...

o2 - Black Harbour / Helma Nah' Shmarr

This song  starts right  at the  beginning with the use of  drums, going over to
hard minimal electronic beats, accompanied with dark voices, but as you think it
will be a  dancing  oriented  one, chainsaw-a-like  noises  are  destroying  the
first atmospheres, but that  are rebuild again, as Angelo Bergamini  raises  his
voice together to the female singers and you even can get some sparkling feeling
in the neck...

o3 - Absentee

This is the only real  danceable song  of the whole album, bringing the usual KC
typical use  of the female voices, dark  beats and  even sparse  use of acoustic
guitars in the  background... and  while  all other  songs  leaving  a very dark
feeling inside, this one offers some positive passages, esp. when the voices are
rised in its strange italian slanged english...

o4 - Uninhabitated

This short track starts with strange synth noises, looped and distorted, as well
as some bass  drums... the  synths are getting  higher and higher, and finally a
few female voices appearing, followed by some very bright soundscapes and waves.

o5 - Unaufmerksame Leute

Another very  hard to digestible song... the usual dark and cold sound collages,
only very small melody, strange...

o6 - The Hidden Voices

A real cruel song, starting slowly with some electronic beats and normal singing
and going over  in delayed and stretched  shouting that  reminds me hard to some
crying of a tormented  human or something, as  well as some people who's beating
another one... real hard tobacco!

o7 - At Any Moment Now

Again some sparse  synth intro, but  this time it's  a very melodic track, maybe
not enough  beats for use  on the dancefloor, but  at last, as the female voices
are starting  to form refrain and strophes, the song is starting to glue in your
ears. One of the  softest tracks on  the whole album, maybe not the best at all,
but even comfortable for people who don't like  that strange soundscapes. In the
last part this song even would make a good job in a synth oriented party...

o8 - Heavens Darkest Shore 1

A strange  thing, a slow  song again, with  female singer in the  foreground and
backwards played  male voice  samples in  the background... a real strange sound
collage! The whole  thing gots its last  kick after a silent break in the 2/3 of
the song, that is followed by some fast played, nearly danceable part.

o9 - Anti-Light

This fairly  long track  starts again  with very  cruel synth  noises, beeps and
stretched samples. It  needs damn long  untill some  melodic elements appearing,
and so drums  and female voices are starting after long 2 minutes to support the
strange background, and  with the time  the whole  thing is starting to get some
structures, but  in the end it  pauses at  that point, bringing  always the same
dark sound collages and repeating samples...

1o - Irgendwo

The outro is another small thing, intonised by  Angelo Bergamini, who sings some
strange german lyrics, accompanied by real mad synth sounds and samples...

Final words?!

After all KIRLIAN CAMERA presented  another slightly improved album, not as good
to digestible as some other releases  that reached even  some trance and ambient
technoing areas. The thing that is  standing in the foreground is a situation of
calm (still) air, but it's  damn cold air, cooling  out heart and brain. Fans of
this kind of electronic music, should check it out, others surely have to buy at
first their  collection called "The Ice Curtain" to get an  impression what kind
of music are KIRLIAN CAMERA doing...

At last the discography...

198o Dawn
1981 Kirlian Camera
1982 Passing Masks [with Simona Buja]
1983 It Doesn't Matter, Now
1983 Communicate
1984 Edges
1985 Blue Room
1986 Ocean
1986 Human/Ocean [with Human League]
1987 Heldenplatz
1987 Ocean (Re-Mix)
1988 Austria
1988 Eclipse - Das Schwarze Denkmal
1991 Todesengel - The Fall Of Life
1992 Schmerz
1993 Split [with Andromeda Complex]
1994 Eklipse Zwei
1994 Erinnerung
1995 1985-1986 [credited to Ordo Ecclesiae Mortis/Zentral Friedhof]
1995 Solaris - The Last Corridor
1995 Elysian Fields
1995 Obsession [with Dive]
1995 Le Printemps Des Larmes
1996 Your Face In The Sun
1996 Pictures From Eternity
1997 The Desert Inside
1998 Drifting
1998 The Ice Curtain
1999 Ascension
1999 The Burning Sea
1999 Unidentified Light
2ooo Still Air - Aria Immobile
2oo1 Absentee
2oo1 Kälte Container [credited to VVAA vs Kirlian Camera]
2oo1 Der Blaue Container [credited to VVAA vs Kirlian Camera]
2oo2 Uno
2oo2 Neither Honour Nor Glory [credited to Stalingrad]
2oo2 Court-Martial

.tSCc.                                                          moondog . o2/2k2
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