SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY

"Deep_Frieze"

Cold Spring - 2007

CD

Sleep Research Facility, known for the debut "Nostromo" released on Cold Spring back in 2001, is now back with its third installation. "Deep_Frieze", like the title suggests, is a collection of new glacial ambient soundscapes, meant to evoke the frozen and desolate sceneries of Antarctica. On the sleeve we find a map of the Southern Polar continent, and the coordinates indicated correspond to the tracks of the CD.

The music doesn't fail the interesting presentation, as all five parts shift undistinguished one into another, creating a single, monolithic recording of Arctic snowstorms, nearly silent moments, cold winds blowing, unidentified distant noises. The kind of dark ambient played by Sleep Research Facility is closer to field recordings, especially on this new release, where the monotonous, low-frequency sounds manage to make the listener feel the chill, loneliness and desolation of the polar regions.

You will need to turn up the volume a lot in order to be able to listen in details to the CD, or better put on your headphones, otherwise you risk to reach the end of the running time without remembering much about it. "Deep_Frieze" is a rather hermetic and uneasy listening, to be truly appreciated only by the most radical cultists of ambient and field recordings, while the average follower of the Cold Meat or Loki sound should give it a taste before opening the moneybag.

- Simon V.

Website: http://www.resonance-net.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sleepresearchfacility