Cult of the Black Moon // Retro Tape Mixed Archives by Atrium Carceri & Cities Last Broadcast

A quick post for a Saturday that will be spent working on Halloween projects in my garage...

Here is a new Cryo Chamber dark ambient mix put together by two of the absolute best in the genre: Atrium Carceri and Cities Last Broadcast. The mix features tracks from their collaboration on the Black Series (Black Corner Den and Black Stage of Night), and is full of wonderfully rich, smoky, atmospheric melancholy. And check out the image that was used!

A perfect soundtrack for a cold day here in the Cemetery. Enjoy.

  

Cities Last Broadcast - "Antumbra"

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Pär Boström, and his incredible dark ambient audio projects. The haunting tracks that he creates are a personal favorite, and serve as a constant soundtrack throughout the Halloween season.

After releasing Thronal under his Kammarheit project at the start of the year, Boström then dropped The Umbra Report under his Cities Last Broadcast project a mere 6 months later.

And what a release it was. Haunting, desolate ambience proving that he hasn't lost a step. As the Halloween season returns again, the track "Antumbra" has been my standout favorite and has been on constant repeat.

Enjoy!

 

Cities Last Broadcast - Stay At Home Concert

A couple of people have asked me to do a "stay at home concert". I am not much for live streaming
so I decided to do it like this instead. What you are about to see is a man trying to enjoy his morning coffee
while the world falls apart.



From Pär Boström, the composer behind such famous dark ambient acts as Kammarheit and Hymnambulae, comes a quarantine performance from another of his acts, Cities Last Broadcast.

A perfect, 30-minute live set, direct from Boström's living room table. The dark ambient audio is a bleak yet beautiful, melancholic atmosphere that encompasses the ongoing tension of our global quarantine.

Stay safe. Stay inside. And enjoy.

Pär Boström - Midnattsmässa

More incredible audio from Pär Boström, creative mastermind of dark ambient projects Kammarheit and Cities Last Broadcast, among others. I could lie on the ground and listen to this for hours...

Pär Boström - "Infinite"

A brand new track from Kammarheit and Cities Last Broadcast mastermind, Pär Boström.

A film score without a film. Improvised one evening in September 2018, using the Hogshead cigar box guitar and effect pedals, and then edited into whatever this is.

30 minutes of wonderful, relaxing melancholy. A perfect track for a cold, grey winter weekend. Enjoy...

Miles To Midnight

The invitation came in a cinnamon scented envelope. It had been years since your last visit to the hotel, before the headlines of murder had shut it down. Was it re-opened after all these years?

A bottle of pills later, your car pulled up outside the old building. The lights were on, struggling to cut through the heavy fog. Distant voices and music lingered like smoke as you entered the lobby.

Miles to Midnight is a Dark Jazz Ambient album with a Lynchian Noir feel: A hotel trapped between two worlds and a detective with a traumatized past.

God Body Disconnect's live jazz drums and cinematic wall-of-sound builds the foundation of the mysterious hotel. Cities Last Broadcast brings ghostly tape loops and melodies stuck in time. Atrium Carceri dusts off his old pianos and shatters reality with low bass rumbles and brings you into the other side of the hotel. For lovers of smokey soundtracks to unwritten movies.


With a description like this, how could you NOT press play? Miles To Midnight is a new collaboration between dark ambient heavyweights Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast and God Body Disconnect, and is described as a "foggy noir album." And reading the above description really piqued my interest.

Upon hearing the first track, I was hooked. It definitely had a cool jazz vibe that was a bit different than the usual dark ambient sound. This had a feeling of a lost old black-and-white film soundtrack, complete with a scotch on the rocks in a dark, smokey room...

And being a fan of all things vinyl, I was especially excited to see this get a proper release on wax. The order is already in, and I can't wait to get it. I'll turn the lights down, light a few candles, kick back with a stiff drink and soak it all in.

Pär Boström - The Shipwreck Device

I'm not sure exactly sure what Pär Boström of dark ambient projects Kammarheit and Cities Last Broadcast has created here, but I definitely know that I want one, too!

Such wonderfully eerie sounds emanating from this device! Could you imagine composing your own haunt soundtrack with this!?!?

Atrium Carceri & Cities Last Broadcast - "Prepare The Stage Of Night"

So I finally received my vinyl copy of Atrium Carceri & Cities Last Broadcast's Black Corner Den, and all I can say is, "Damn!"

Photo by Cryo Chamber

I have been listening to the digital download copy I got along with the vinyl purchase and I've been really impressed with every track. Not so much dark and foreboding, but more melancholic ambient with this release. I'm not very meditative, but I have been able to relax deeply and fall asleep to these tracks nightly.

And now when I spin the vinyl, it's actually a bit different. I was hoping for a bit more richness in the vinyl and it does not disappoint. You can hear so many more layers with the vinyl and it has a much fuller, deeper low end. This vinyl version will be my go-to whenever I'm working away in my office, and I REALLY recommend a vinyl copy if you happen to have even a decent turntable.

This is the first dark ambient release on vinyl that I have added to my collection (and the first release on vinyl from Cryo Chamber). If other vinyl releases offer more complexity and richness over their digital counterparts like this one does, it surely won't be the last!

Atrium Carceri & Cities Last Broadcast - "Black Corner Den"

I am SUPER excited about this new dark ambient collaboration between two giants of the genre!!

From the Cryo Chamber Bandcamp page:

The two bearded Swedes join forces on this collaborative album. Black Corner Den is the result of long winter studio sessions separated by the Atlantic Ocean but made possible by the internet. Lonely moments in the company of the night lamp, overlooking the messy pile of tape loops while the machines hummed and the piano played until the morning.

Exploring the opium dens at the end of the 19th century this album takes you deep into the soothing dreams of dead poets.

"The streets lay silent as the floor creeks under your bare feet. The old loft lit by a wax candle, it's light dancing over your oak desk. You grab the vial of black ink and the leather bound book as you scurry out the door into the humid night. You pass trails of fire as the lamplighter tends to the myriad lanterns adorning the bridge. A left turn leads you down a set of stone stairs where the satin clad lounge welcomes you in.

Sweet smoke lingers in here where gentlemen gather to dream about the black sea. Your booth at the far end stands prepared. A pipe, tinderbox and purple pillow for a tired head. You have a friend tonight and it calls itself the Black Corner Den."

Pär Boström’s dreamlike soundscapes combines with the careful melodies and elegant structures of Simon Heath. The perfect soundtrack for decadent nights or introverted reading sessions, preferably combined.

As an added bonus, they are doing a limited, absolutely gorgeous release on vinyl!

I don't have any dark ambient releases on vinyl, but I'm all in on this one. I can't wait to hear this release through the warm tones of my turntable.

Black Corner Den releases September 5 on Cryo Chamber.

Cities Last Broadcast - Live at Phobos Festival VIII

This is a really cool video of Pär Boström's Cities Last Broadcast doing a 30 minute live set at Phobos Festival VIII in Wuppertal, Germany. I'm quite familiar with the audio, but it's nice to have the added video elements to accompany the dark ambient audio tracks.

Oddly relaxing, and I would love to one day take in a live set of this or his main project, Kammarheit...

Pär Boström - "Eerie Dark Ambient Improvisation"

Wonderfully dark audio. An improvisation using the monotribe and some effect pedals, by artist Pär Boström (of Kammarheit, Cities Last Broadcast and Hymnabulae fame).

A spooky, atmospheric soundtrack that's perfect for the Halloween season.

Cities Last Broadcast - "The Humming Tapes"

Available now! Great new dark ambient audio from Pär Böstrom's (Kammarheit) side project, Cities Last Broadcast. Just in time to fuel this year's summer haunt build!!

From the Cryo Chamber bandcamp page:

Pär Boström of cult project Kammarheit presents us with his side project Cities Last Broadcasts second album, The Humming Tapes. 

On this album Pär Boström explores his fascination with old seances and the early 20th century. Reel-to-reel tape recorders and de-tuned instrumentation combined with modern mixing techniques creates an album that sounds haunted, but also careful and nurturing. 

Pär has with this work taken yet another step forward in his production skill set squashing any doubt that he is one of the most unique artists in the genre with his unorthodox approach to recording his sounds.

Cities Last Broadcast - Teaser 2

Kammarheit's Pär Boström has just released a new teaser for his side project, Cities Last Broadcast. More dark ambient, but I'm REALLY liking the menacing sounds emanating from this clip. I can't wait for this release to come out, and according to Pär, we won't have long to wait...