Inner Demons Records is not only a label with a strong anti-fascist policy; a few other things bring at least some artists together. It is the fight against inner demons. Some of us struggle with everyday life, so we are ‘different’. We listen to weird music, have (sometimes extreme) thoughts, and fight our personal battles. And those battles are a breeding ground for emotions and experiments. I have worked on this theme often to work things out for myself.
The Deep Bleed – previously reviewed in Vital Weekly 1431 with a previous release on IDR – is Mark Hjorthoy from Vancouver. In “Escaping The Seventh Circle”, he draws inspiration from his journey through mental illness. The single track covering 20 minutes 3″ can handle various states of darkness, incorporating external influences and layering them into a beautiful piece, which can only be described as a mixture of drone, ambience and minimalist experiments.
While re-reading the things I wrote earlier this year about that previous release, my eye sticks to the words ‘Cinematic isolationism’. I usually try to be original each time I write about an artist I’ve written about before, but those simple words must be mentioned here again. Cinematic isolationism. This is the kind of music you play in your head when you’re not watching a movie, but hearing the sounds is so descriptive in an atmosphere that you almost wish there would be imagery to support the sound. Or not, because that’s what the strength of sound is. Watching a movie will dictate your mind what images to combine with the sounds; While the art or proper Cinematic isolationism is that you don’t need those images to play the movie in your head. It’s your head, after all.
In this case, I see the movie as quite dark, with a constant drone/pad/ambience creating a threatening atmosphere: Lost causes, deterioration, despair, nihilism. But in those last two minutes of the track, there is hope … A branch above the water you can grab at just the right moment before you’re drowning … And you grab the branch, and the subsequent struggle begins to get out of the water. But at least you’ve escaped that seventh circle. Really very nice!
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