Orphx – Fragmentation (1996)

Country: Canada

 

Tracklist

 1. Word And Symbol 03:22
2. Layers Of Dura 04:19
3. Ekstasis 06:10
4. Auto-Erotic 04:11
5. Sepsis 06:14
6. Tanha 08:14
7. Pathogenesis 06:40
8. Words Once Spoken 09:22
9. Electroencephalographic Measurements 04:04
10. Samsara 04:29
11. Cellular Resonance 08:48
12. Within 07:05

 

 Orphx is an industrial/techno project from Canada.

Formed in 1993 in Hamilton, Ontario by Rich Oddie, Christina Sealey and Aron West

 and inspired by early industrial music and the extreme fringes of metal.
In late 1995 West departed to focus on his noise project Tropism,

while Oddie and Sealey began to push Orphx in a more rhythmic direction.
Orphx have been developing their hypnotic rhythms and experimental noise using modular and analog synthesizers,

software, location recordings and feedback circuits, utilizing darker pieces of techno and electro

and combine these elements with the experimental aesthetics and themes of early industrial music.
Oddie and Sealey have performed throughout Europe and North America at celebrated venues like Berghain and Tresor 

as well as notable electronic music festivals such as Movement and Mutek.
Their live appearances are renowned for delivering improvised performances

that combine software with modular synthesizer and other hardware.
"Fragmentation" was originally released on Malignant Records label

and was made using the same basic tools as in their early cassettes: contact microphones, scrap metal, 

effects pedals, feedback circuits, a drum machine, a couple of synths,

and location recordings and found sounds manipulated by Sealey on reel to reel machines and an 8-bit sampler.
While early Orphx recordings were primarily improvised direct to tape, this album places much greater emphasis

on carefully constructed layers of sound, shaping their improvisational energy into powerful compositions

that combines death industrial atmospheres and brutal power electronics with relentless, hypnotic percussion.
"Fragmentation" was reissued by Hospital Productions in 2020 including the original album

and over an hour of additional rarities and previously unreleased recordings.

 The Memory links also contains these as bonus.

 
Memory

Sort Vokter – Folkloric Necro Metal (1996)

 

Country: Norway

 

Tracklist

 1. Kveldstimer 05:08
2. Langs Stier Uten Ende 02:19
3. Grålysning 04:04      
4. Fra Kilden Til Tjernet 03:43
5. Tårers Sang 01:59
6. Hatefulle Tanker Ut I Natten 03:24
7. Ni Gygrer / Nattjakt 02:46
8. Bak To Lysende Øyne 02:58
9. Sønn Av Skyggers Skygge 03:08
10. Fjellstev 08:04

Ildjarn project that featured a full line up and consisted of Ildjarn (Bass, Guitars, Vocals),

 Nidhogg (Vocals),  Heiinghund (Bass, Guitars) and Tvigygre (Bass, Guitars, Vocals).
Sort Vokter (Black Guardian in Norwegian) only released one album through Ildjarn's personal label  

Norse League Productions, had programmed drums and everyone involved played on different instruments on every track.
The lineup for the keyboard/ambient tracks is not credited.
"Folkloric Necro Metal" was distributed by Napalm Records and later by Transcendental Creations.

 
Memory

Girnų Giesmės – Aštuoni Nerimo Veidrodžiai (1997)

Country: Lithuania

 

Tracklist

1. Veidrodis I 14:42
2. Veidrodis II 06:00
3. Veidrodis III 03:38
4. Veidrodis IV 04:50
5. Veidrodis V 13:37
6. Veidrodis VI 05:25
7. Veidrodis VII 04:36
8. Veidrodis VIII. Žiemos Rūpesčiai (Mix) 06:24

 

Girnu Giesmes was born in 1996 by Laurynas Jukonis,

who had experimented with several underground bands in Vilnius before starting his own project.
Album "Kerai" (Spell), recorded the same year and issued by the label Dangus in cassette format.
In 1997 the cassette "Aštuoni Nerimo Veidrodžiai" (8 Mirrors Of Anxiety) was self-released

and was distributed only in a close circle of friends.
The next year the cassette "Juodi Vasaros Trimitai" (Black Trumpets Of Summer) was released, 

followed by the split release "Brėkšta" (Breaking Dawn) together with the band Šalikapalikau in 2000.
The first Girnu Giesmes work in CD format was published in 2001 under the title "S:S:S:S".
From 2003 to 2022 six more albums were recorded while the project also played live on several notable festivals.
"Aštuoni Nerimo Veidrodžiai" was re-released in CDr in 2001 under the title "8 Nerimo Veidrodžiai" with a different cover.

 
Memory

Inanna – Day Ov Torment (1993)

Country: Sweden

 

Tracklist

1. Zounds 06:13    
2. Body Ov Light 08:49
3. Her Essence 04:41
4. Thorn 05:20
5. Zonei 03:51
6. Ancient Flesh 04:46
7. Submission To Solitude I - III 17:37
8. Besides Eternity 05:45
9. Exhalted Inanna / Hurt 08:16

 

Solo dark ambient / death-industrial project of Swedish artist Mikael Stavöstrand. 
Stavöstrand had previously been involved in the death industrial duo Archon Satani together with Tomas Pettersson. 
The project appears to have been active since the early 1990s (around 1992)

when Stavöstrand released material under Inanna (and even earlier under the moniker 7/Inanna/7).
"Day Ov Torment" was originally released on Staalplaat and later in 2007 was reissued with a different cover by Cold Spring.

 Recorded at the A.C.R. Chamber in Autumn 1992 and mixed by Jouni Havukainen of In Slaughter Natives.

 
Memory

Heid – Submitting To The Uprush Of The Unconscious (1997)

Country: Sweden

 

Tracklist

1. The Breath Which Leads Living Creatures 04:15
2. Fire And Ice 05:00
3. Gandreið 06:16
4. Submitting To The Uprush Of The Unconscious 05:49
5. Calling The Hidden Ones 3:17
6. Pilgrim Of The Sublunary World 05:36
7. Beneath The Wing Of Shadow 13:46

 

Heid was an industrial/dark ambient project hailing from the forested outbacks of northern Sweden,

started by Kristian Olsson and Tolufim (Daniel T. Eideholm) in 1997 (originally under the name Gimla).
Their first release was the cassette "Beneath The Wing Of Shadows" that was printed in a very limited amount of copies.
In the process of making their first album, Peter "Parasoleil" Lindahl and Stefan Östlund joined.
"Submitting To The Uprush Of The Unconscious" only taken three weeks to complete

and released as a limited edition CDr in 1997 on Bastet Recordings,

creating a dark, dystopian sound, that rendered them a formidable reputation among fans and scene.
After the release of their debut album, Heid signed to Malignant Records, but Stefan Östlund left the project.
Their second album, titled "Arktogäa", took over a year in making and contains a more structured, 

mathematical approach, and incorporated novelty elements like musique concrete and ethno-tinged passages.
After the release of "Arktogäa", Tolufim left the project.
Kristian Olsson and Peter Lindahl had plans to continue, but Heid dissolved definitely in July 2001.
Cold Meat Industry released a retrospective compilation CD entitled "Pilgrim Of The Sublunary World" in 2002.
Heid's legacy was carried later on projects like Survival Unit (Kristian Olsson) and L.E.A.K. (Peter Lindahl and Tolufim),

that opted to focus on different facets of what Heid comprised.

 
Memory

Thymikon – Nipsis (1996)

Country: United States

 

Tracklist

1. Nipsis 04:56
2. Remorse (The Watchers) 04:46
3. Without 613 04:10
4. Demise 05:04
5. Aeternus 04:18
6. Wi6th1ou3t 05:46
7. Shimshon 03:48
8. Demise 2 04:31
9. SOS #5 03:34
10. Night 03:46
11. Midnight Improvisation 03:28
12. Steel 03:43
13. The Mystic Mother (Bonus Track) 04:29

 

Beau Branson released his first and only album "Nipsis" as Thymikon, in late 1996.
Branson is a Professor of Philosophy at Brescia University in Kentucky,

specialized in Philosophical Theology, Metaphysics, and Ancient and Hellenistic Philosophy.
The album featured a blend of industrial/ambient, dark wave with electronica sounds

and was released by Logistikon Records (Edmond, OK).
Thymikon also had tracks released on various compilations on labels like Flaming Fish Music and Blacklight Records.
Branson's only subsequent recording as Thymikon was the song "The Mystic Mother",

that featured on the 1997 compilation "Awaiting The Dawn".

 
Memory

EnGrave – Polaris (1997)

Country: United States

 

Tracklist

1. Recoil 04:31
2. Into Your Iris (A Longing For Home) 03:30
3. Northeast (Loneliness) 06:56
4. Electron Plasma 04:55
5. Forged In Fire 05:32
6. Eiserner Vorhang 06:11
7. Lebensgefahr 03:17
8. Euro-Span 05:40
9. Soul Probe 05:52
10. Intercession 04:07

 

Solo project of Nathan Morris (also in Novä Sphere), co-founder of Velvet Empire label that operated from mid to late 90s.
Nathan spent most of his life in Cyprus, and in 1989 he moved to Germany before living in USA

where he began Velvet Empire and wrote in 1996 the first demo cassette of EnGrave entitled "Benediction".
His music is heavily influenced by Europe and his love for synthesized sounds.

"Polaris" is a collection of songs written between 1996-1997

(4 new ones, 2 taken from compilations and the 4 songs from the "Benediction" demo)

and capture the best of a hybrid mix between ambient and electro darkwave.
A second album was planed for release in the spring of 1999 but this never happened.

 
Memory