Hunter Complex - Call Of The Wild and Void

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Hunter Complex’s “Call Of The Wild and Void” is permeated with images of untamed landscapes in a complex sonic exploration of wilderness and what it means for human beings. A sophisticated mixture of live instruments and synthesizer creates music which is intriguing and deeply enjoyable. Each of the artists contribute to the richness and layered nature of the music and Hunter Complex has written melodies that engage with beauty and contemplation. In the end, the album is a way of looking at the natural world and our connections to it through a pleasing musical lens.

At the center of “Call Of The Wild and Void” are the musical guests with whom the artist works. Each of them brings their own touches and abilities to bear. Aquiles Navarro’s trumpet and Kat Epple’s flute breathe vitality into the music as Hunter Complex showcases their skillful performances with his own musical talent. The other guest artists, Daan de Bruyne, Lucy Valentine, Maarten Broekhuizen, Wolf Meijer, Sjef Huurdeman, Ruben Braeken and Coen Oscar Polack give further layers to the sound.

Hunter Complex composes pieces which are complex and nuanced, moving through different atmospheres and moods as they evolve. His compositional approach results in music that paints strong imagery, traveling across variable terrain and delving deeply into the intersection of emotion and the natural world. The music becomes an opportunity to contemplate where we all sit with nature and how we each cope with that experience, delivered through well-written melodic content.

Atmosphere drenches “Call Of The Wild and Void” with feelings of exploration, the music calling to mind fast flowing rivers and steep mountains. All of the luscious complexity and depth draws the listener further into the world which is being woven in the music. themes of wildness and the limits of human civilization permeate each track and result in an engaging album.

My Favourite Tracks Analyzed

“One More Drift” hovers tentatively as widely spaced chimes ring in transparent lightness before Kat Epple's flute begins to exhale in a steady pulse as panpipes create a caressing environment that circles around brushing percussion. As rhythm adds an undulating sensation, resonant bells are joined by the flute and panpipes climbing together in a gossamer line.

A piano adds energetic encouragement to the exhalations of Kat Epple's flute and pipes while their ringing melodic pattern creates a fantastical atmosphere, evocations of fairy-like beings spilling from the filigreed tones. As the piano chords generate dynamic uplift, tiny lights radiate from delicate synth and the flute dances in a woodsy cascade carrying me into a realm of ancient spirits and beauty.

Lucy Valentine’s guitar has a breezy flow that transmits pure calm as the flute and panpipes come together in a laid back sensation. Piano chords and guitar entangle to produce wonder and magical emotion while the metallic chimes punctuate everything with brightness. The flute is full of the breath of life while the percussion sighs softly and the track slowly slips to a conclusion.

Soft hissing joins resonating notes that extend on a distant bass sweep that continues out as a trumpet breathes with intense light and soothing emotion before“ Voice of the Coast” is filled with a piano intermingling in encouraging notes and percussion begins to tumble as Aquiles Navarro's trumpet calls out with gripping emotion supported by a synth that generates sunlight and the trumpet dances with a piano that lends positivity and forward motion to the percussive pulse.

As Aquiles Navarro's trumpet trails with complete peace and glinting radiance, a hint of darkness flows below and diaphanous sounds drift. Wistful piano glides with melancholy and warmth while the minor key trumpet generates additional sadness while the breath of the music drifts past. pattering rhythms intertwine while the trumpet carries contemplation and hints of hidden pain.

As the brass levitates, the piano provides solidity and richness, emphasizing the emotional complexity that touches me within the track. The trumpet captures discomfort and anxiety, as background sounds balance that uncertainty with serenity. Smooth water feelings flow from the piano as Aquiles Navarro's trumpet shifts with an incorporeal veil of ambience.

Haunting tones along with the loose-limbed piano create contemplation. Percussion is guided by spinning arpeggios while Aquiles Navarro's trumpet and the piano form a line that carries tension and strength while sounds trickle slowly underneath. The piece ends with slowly intermingling notes from the instruments that glide into quiet.

“Back To The World” resonates with a piano line creating thoughtful tenderness alongside an open-toned synth, breathing out with a softness that wraps around me as glimmering notes rise like a morning sun.

The piano entangles with echoing tones to generate a slow awakening and strings shine to complement the synth’s exhalations. The piano is played with a light touch as it evokes deep affection, the chords are strong with a balancing quality as pipe-like notes drift in meditative billows. As the song evolves, trickling sounds descend before bells ring and water splashes.

Steadily ringing sounds move with a bright organic flash to bring “The Lure Of The Animal” alive with a feeling of wondrous brilliance as breathy notes move upward with haunting sounds that spread like an echo through a valley. Majestic excitement flows from the synthesizer as it evokes something wild and free, shining with a fullness and strength that is shaped by notes cutting underneath with sharpness while the piano moves in a buoyant line.

The sounds in the distance create textures that support the piano chords which reach for power and nobility as they dance. Percussion with a metallic flicker intertwines with the darkly-shaded piano, encapsulating all of the beauty of nature and its enchantment. A synth cries out to capture me with its softer qualities while shaker percussion adds a trickling sound as the piano entangles.

With a growing feeling of progress, the piano melody cries out, creating a web of sound that calls to mind a sense of natural freedom. Spangled sounds evoke raindrops, sparkling as if caught by a sudden ray of sun, while the underlayer moves with confidence and the piano continues its strong but affectionate drive. The muted trumpet slowly wanders as crystalline sounds spill and the track exhales into silence.

“Losing The River” flashes like water running as liquid notes wash and the tentative synthesizer creates a gentle pulse as the sweeping chimes sparkle with sunlight. A note of caution is reflected by the single dark sound while above it iridescent light refracts as if shining through trees onto a rushing stream. The piano lends its graceful tones to a melody which is emotively gripping and full of encouragement while the background enchants with fragility and elegance.

The darker sound below has a soft shadow while breezes blow through the other tones as the piano reverberates with freedom and a sense of progress, capturing something fundamentally positive. Sonic layers in the background add rich support to the intertwining piano as it sings with a tinge of melancholy along with its energy and lissome feeling, touching my heart.

There is a bright line of natural power as the large drums collide with noble force and the piano ripples like a river rushing in its bed, spilling over rocks and cascading downward. Colliding beats roll outward like clouds spilling over a mountainside as the piano circles with deep feeling, capturing the overwhelming experience of wandering in wilderness. Resonant tones move with compelling smoothness, trembling like a still pool in the midst of rapids, the piano weaving a picture of exploration and excitement.

As the beats guide, hissing breath sweeps as the reverberant piano calls out in a flow of sonic peace. Each layer of sound wraps around the other, like paint layered on a canvas, evoking the pure beauty of the world around us. Expression touches the piano part while the round toned synth adds a layer of lusciousness while the chimes vibrate with shimmering brilliance and the track comes to a close.

Metallic sounds move unevenly, as if a wire bangs against something before the piano carries “Inbetween Hurricanes” into charmingly delicate life with grace and smooth encouragement. The piano evokes a day of calm and sunny peace, and escape from the dark heaviness that can permeate the world.

Each note seems carefully chosen and touches me, full of caring sensation, deepening the emotional tenor as rain-like sounds splash. The piano is deeply moving and full of intense emotion, shifting between tenderness and meditative weight, trickling sounds descending while the percussion rattles. Exhaling breezes shiver through the background and the track ends with gentleness and a feeling of soothing ease.

Conclusion

“Call Of The Wild and Void” doesn't fit neatly into one genre box, but delivers when it comes to mood, melody and musical complexity. This is an album that delves deeply into our relationship with the natural world as human beings and keeps me interested and listening as it does so.

Venturer - Nocturnal

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Venturer’s “Nocturnal” explores a chilling world full of timeless terror and never-ending shadows that reach out to draw you into their deadly embrace. Venturer paints imagery with synths and orchestral samples that is gothic in the best sense of the word, evoking roiling evil and all of the terrifying entities waiting for us in the night. The music’s cinematic qualities create a terrifically creepy atmosphere which I find enjoyable and entertaining, like watching a horror movie with all the lights out. This album is a journey into the very heart of a sinister cathedral and the horrors skulking within. 

All of the heaviness and growing fear within “Nocturnal’s” atmosphere helps give it a presence and weight that is undeniably engaging. Venturer skillfully uses interwoven synth sounds and classical music samples to call up a world of ancient menace and paranormality, drawing me into the haunting landscapes and forbidden corridors that  conceal unnamable monstrosities. I find myself wanting to journey ever deeper into the album's world as the music unfolds.

Phantasmic melodies move through “Nocturnal,”, each one freezing moments of danger and shadowy presences, carried on pipe organ and a plethora of synth textures and tones. I am enamoured of the way in which the different melodies create impressions ranging from painful tragedy to ravening madness, pulling me into the core of the music. Wrenching fear and unrelenting power spill out from some of the melodies and others are like a lost lullaby drifting down empty halls like a roving spirit.

Another important contributor to the horror-filled mood of “Nocturnal” is the low end’s components. Drums batter, bass roars and fragmented sounds rip at the fabric of the tracks as the album evolves. All of that crushing strength and rushing power delivers an additional shot of doom-laden menace that deepens the overall feelings exuded by the music. Along with all of the classically influenced melodies, I find the balance satisfying and engaging. 

My Favourite Tracks Analyzed

“Cathedralis Nocturna” emerges with a clap of thunder before a spectral choir chants with foreboding flowing from their unhallowed voices, hovering formlessly above seething shadows that reach out. Thunder cracks as the dramatic chords rise around it, orchestral and full of intense drama, evoking a crumbling castle perched on a crag. 

The orchestral arpeggios add an element of classical theatricality while tiny chimes in the distance feel threatened and unsettled, as a piercing synth repeats angular patterns. Tension permeates the atmosphere, surging through me as I picture a horrifying threat waiting just out of sight, darker than the night around it. 

Crushing force snarls below as smashing drums tremble heavily, a churning arpeggio adding to the discomfort before the ripping underpinnings move with a harpsichord-like synth before silence falls.

Otherworldly chimes paint images of eldritch forces creeping slowly into the world as “Bloodthirst” fills with lurking threat before the fierce underlayer accelerates with irresistible power and speed. All of the trembling tones vibrate together in an unsettling pulse that shivers before ghostly voices echo above shattered rhythms and the piano circles with nervous fragility. 

Subdivided rhythms move now as the piano drifts with trailing tendrils, full of something broken and hurting, touching me as it also fills me with portentous emotion. Sawtoothed sounds slash while the piano shifts like a restless spirit before the foundation shudders again. The beat’s machine gun rapidity joins spinning arpeggios, ramping up the sense of approaching peril, as bright notes flicker and the track ends on uncoiling tones.

“Fragmented Memories” captures pain and memory with a piano carrying a melody full of otherworldly impressions while soft exhalations create airy delicacy in a filigreed web. The piano surges with passionate expression and strings drift with tendrils of refracted light, touching my heart before the silence falls. This short piece provides a momentary respite from the ever-growing umbra permeating the album.

A pipe organ churns with horrifying power and creeping menace as “The Forsaken One”  comes to being with towering darkness roiling and pouring like an oil slick, imbued with gothic beauty and classical elegance. Drums join with smashing weight as the organ cries out with aching hunger and the bass rips away peace. 

A harp breaks in with a delicate melody, full of haunting sadness, drifting into the open space once occupied by the claw-like shredding of the bass. Now the doom-laden organ howls as razor sharp foundational pulses tear with unstoppable rage, evoking in me fear and the anticipation of worse to come. An arpeggio which drifts like a lost spirit moves on the harp above the colossal weight that rolls below, calling to mind a storm building on the horizon. 

A synth which glows with a phosphorescent sheen, moves above the unbelievable force below while the pipe organ shivers with growing stress. A collision of anger and tenderness flows out while emptiness permeates the music. Static crackles and the organ sobs with burning pain before the track comes to a close.

Stentorian tones, like voices of the grave, echo in a chiaroscuro swirl as “Midnight Visitor” flows outward with a sudden burst of heavy weight that rushes in a pulse joined by a kick drum racing like a heart fluttering in fear. The hammering weight is joined by grinding notes that drive like a stake into the chest, breaking into an unsteady line. A pipe organ skirls with vile hunger, while the serrated tones around it rip open the music. 

An arpeggio speeds uncomfortably, making me want to look behind me, while the forceful low end breaks against it. All of the spiky sounds are balanced by the pipe organ which carries a ghastly melody while the beat punches with rib-breaking force. Tumbling tones create a creeping horror which pours in the distance while sonic razor blades lacerate. A slower segment, full of a kind of drained tranquility, moves above the grating below it before the track ends on a mournful piano line. 

“Crimson Moon” reveals itself with a Baroque-influenced melody, filling me with apprehension and nervous anticipation as luminosity spills out in melodic tones that carry  an approaching threat.

Sharp edges contrast with the crystal luminescence pouring out above the reverberant percussion, which confers forward motion on the intertwining melody. Ever-present danger swells as a gruff guitar carries a nervously churning pattern, capturing the deadly force waiting in the blood-red light of the moon.

Percussive elements add clean motion before a reverent choir chants with uncomfortable darkness and the resonant tones echo with immemorial fear as the drums return. Static crackles like claws raking through the wall of shimmering notes as the melody seizes me with shadowy portent, speaking of indescribable danger waiting in the crimson glow. As the worshipful choir cries out, waves of synth ripple before the track stops.

Like a floating orb “Black Magic” slips into existence before the loping beat moves with deliberate power, cadaverous tones drifting past like spirits while the cymbals flash, moving the melancholy track forward. Splintered sounds intertwine like fog while the steady underlayer pushes all of the musical elements forward. 

The shattered notes are both hypnotic and tinged with tragedy before wind sweeps with a pipe organ calling in the voice of the shades while rippling arpeggios growl at the rhythm swings in a smooth undulation. Tones like broken glass snarl in a gliding pattern and the percussion adds shape. Orchestral notes sob with feeling as the smooth drums float in an even layer as a synth spins and ominous heaviness fills the background.

“Daybreak” starts with piano chords moving between pain, terror and resolution as they flow out into open space. The piano has a minor key delicacy, ringing to create discomfort before the smooth left hand adds guidance while a ragged tendril of synthesizer joins barely corporeal notes that hover from beyond the grave, as a foundational pulse creates subtle heaviness.  

A fragile fog of notes is joined by reverberating drums. The piano moves with grace and pain, weaving a tapestry of emotion as the drum beats vibrate below and bass surges. A choir adds an unholy feeling while the thundering underlayer is joined by wriggling, minor key tones that move like strange, snake-like creatures while the orchestral strings create wistful emotion while the pipe organ howls with unsettling feelings.  

Drums shatter against the other elements in uncertain motion as the wildly leaping tones climb upward. A dangerously weighty low end punches forward while the higher notes create a flowing contrast, engaging me with a balancing effect. Guttural sounds tear at the music before the pipe organ carries a complex melody, full of nobility and primeval power while refulgent synth glimmers. 

Drums and shredding bass ram forward as high notes carry mournfully, mixed with continual nervousness. All of the rushing weight below is joined by an electric guitar that screams with hurt and worry, flying out in a mad churn. The underpinnings slash with gruff muscle before the track ends.

Conclusion

“Nocturnal” is an adventure through a realm inhabited by primordial entities waiting to devour humanity in a rush of bloodthirsty ferocity. The way in which Venturer creates a gripping atmosphere allows me to sink into the musical exploration and be carried along. 

Synth Single Review: “Lounge Chair Weekend” by Vector Hold

by Karl Magi

Vector Hold’s “Lounge Chair Weekend” has a laidback beginning as a background synth forms a cool, blue surround to hushed percussion which ticks steadily as the entire track exhales with profound calm. Full-sounding notes bubble as expansive tonal patterns reach out and the skipping foundation supports the bouncy melodic line, feeling simultaneously playful and chilled out. 

A xylophone moves in a lithe flow, generating imagery of lolling by an aquamarine pool, tropical drink nearby as liquid sounds spill through my ears. Sonic layers paint images of summer and warmth, a synth dancing like light on water. Vector Hold’s guitar transmits a melody which touches with  the warmth of the summer sun, reflecting peaceful relaxation and stress-free living. 

The rhythm sails as the xylophone flickers with gentle morning radiance and reverberant notes tremble like wind through palm trees. The main melody carries out on the guitar, supported by the drums, generating feelings of complete satisfaction and escape from stress before the track ends. 

Synth Single Review: “Stay Connected” by Aeronexus & ZITH

by Karl Magi

by Karl Magi

Aeronexus & ZITH’s “Stay Connected” slowly ripples outward before dramatic chords radiate piercing light to increase the feelings of strength and positive progress that emanate from the music. After a brief break, the stuttering power of the underpinnings presses forward as a melody flies out on wings of illuminating synthesizer to dance with encouragement. 

Digital complexity entangles in the expanding sounds, weaving imagery of a world trapped between reality and virtual space. Shadowy, technological dynamism trips from the broken beats as the broken glass notes slice with computerized tones to generate leaping speed. 

The melodic twisting has me enthralled as the track slowly drifts again, now the explosive foundation flies with the higher notes, conveying soaring uplift and a sense of unrelenting motion, before the track shatters into fascinating sonic shards. The skipping, broken energy is irrepressible before the music fades.