Lustre - Reverence

#FOR FANS OF: Ambient Black

The Swedish one-man project Lustre has become, since its inception, a primordial reference when we speak about atmospheric black metal. Henrik Sunding, better known as Nachtzeit, is undoubtedly a fanatic of black metal, particularly of the most atmospheric oriented one. He has been involved in several projects, each one having its own character, although the devotion to this genre is out of any discussion. I strongly recommend you to check out Ered Wethrin and Nachtzeit, which are my favourite ones. 

 

Going back to Lustre, the particular vision of Henrik for this project was quite clear since the debut album 'Night Spirit' that was released in 2009. Lustre’s music is trance inducing ambient black metal, strongly influenced by classic projects like Burzum, which obviously is a pivotal influence in the genre when we speak about introducing ambience into the black metal scene. What Lustre does is to create quite simple and repetitive structures. Don’t loose your time trying to find complex riffs or tempo changes, this is all about hypnotic sonic creations which transport you out of this reality. And this is what makes Lustre so special. Repetitiveness and simplicity can always be problem, and many would consider that this music lacks of interest after listening to a couple of songs. But somehow, Nachtzeit achieves the unquestionable merit of keeping releasing songs that captivate you, and this is something admirable.

So, after these years and a good amount of albums and EPs, Lustre continues to be quite active and its last offering is the EP entitled 'Reverence', which consists of one song with the same name. Those who don´t like this project won’t find any reason to like it now, but many others, and I include myself in this latest group, can enjoy this new release a lot. Although Lustre’s music hasn’t changed a lot since its creation, it is also unquestionable that Nachtzeit has perfected the formula during the project’s existence. 'Reverence', being a long song, gives a greater room to introduce little tweaks and more arrangements which make the track a great musical experience. Vocally, this song shows a more varied approach. The voices are classic black metal shrieks, but their tone and strength vary through the song, with moments where they sound louder and more intense, as it happens in the mid-second half of the song, in contrast to the initial part. About the arrangements, the simple yet beautiful keys play their usual major role leading the song, but we can also find some tiny touches here and there, especially in the background which enrich the composition. The electronic interlude in the middle of the composition is a nice one, and I find it quite interesting. As you can imagine, they are tiny adds or changes as the music needs to be trance inducing and nothing can distract you from this purpose. But this effort is very welcome for me, as a composition always needs to sound a bit fresh, regardless off its innovative nature of lack of it.

All in all, the new 'Reverence' is a quite inspired one. Lustre has managed to compose a long track which has everything we know and like from this project. The hypnotic atmosphere and marvellous melodies are there, recognizable but still being capable of absorbing our attention and getting our love, and because of this, Lustre is a so unique project. (Alain González Artola)

(Nordvis Produktion - 2023)

Score: 82

https://lustre.bandcamp.com/album/reverence

Lustre - Another Time, Another Place (Chapter Two)

#FOR FANS OF: Ambient Black, Burzum, Mesarthim

Allowing electric sustain to decay into itself, like an ouroboros circling a distant star, “The Light of Eternity” gleams, suspended in space and only slightly changing during its vast lifetime as twinkling sunspots appear and dissipate along the surface of this bubbling sphere of sound. Below is chaos, the grumble of high-efficiency fusion churning vibrations down to string level and hoisting the weight of this newly formed sound by the fabric of space-time. Lustre attempts to burn eternal.

Unlike the previous compilation, the desperation in the howls from the torture of experiencing “The Light of Eternity” takes Lustre into a more dichotomous and significant territory where the drama and majesty of its celestial twinkling transfixes the mind while the achingly static inanity of lesser beings intrigue an artist obsessed with the broad brushstrokes of his universe.

Unfortunately, there is an insufferable inanity to “Waves of the Worm” where no nobility is experienced in its endless undulation. Through seven and a half minutes of a static Pink Floyd synth intro that would not be out of place throughout the opening moments of 'Wish You Were Here' and no songwriting to speak of backing its incessant idleness, this track has less appeal to it than the average Lustre experience and becomes a frustratingly placid piece of pretense even for this artist. For a band as low key and pedestrian as Lustre's music can get, this is a painfully slow disappointment with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Where Lustre's previous theme of gradually moving between the seasons and enduring the privations of the most desperate times of year made its early work enchant and lure a listener into its voluminous verses, this second segment of Nachtzeit's compilation series shows the inconsistency that even such a glacial ambient sound can have when a musician has yet to truly nurture his theme and hone his craft. This second chapter in Lustre's 'Another Time, Another Place' series consists of the Swedish bedroom band's earliest demo, 'Serenity' from November 2008, and rounds itself out with the September 2013 EP 'A Spark of Times of Old'. Clocking in only twenty-seven seconds longer than the previous seasonal styled release, this wider scope and breadth of scale from the concerns of the celestial to the minutiae of the minute have some difficulty in capturing the imagination despite displaying the musician's apparent desperation.

Despite “Waves of the Worm” coalescing into a lackluster track, synthetic xylophone returns, clinking along its counterpointing scale in a dull sighing lull, like slowly accepting the gravity of a singularity and observing the abyss overcome all vision in “A Spark of Times of Old” to redeem the release. Surrounded by truly sinister hissing, the dreary atmospheric organ synthetically shapes itself through the tinkle of an incontinent artist curling his spine and shrinking back into the cave from which he has so briefly emerged. After observing the majesty that awaits him, the daunting energies of the ever-burning celestial colossus, and the wretched struggle of the worm wriggling in the filth from which all life emerges, Nachzeit finally crawls back to do what he does best. Crying in his cave, feebly attempting to scare off the creepy crawlies that intrude into his small circle of light, this experiment with the outside world has confirmed his suspicions, there is nothing but dread outside his comfort zone. Instead, Lustre continues to linger, longing for its uninterrupted innocence and seeking simply a safe stagnation. (Five_Nails)

(Morrowless Music - 2019)
Score: 66

https://lustre.bandcamp.com/album/another-time-another-place-chapter-two

Lustre - Another Time, Another Place (Chapter One)

#FOR FANS OF: Ambient Black, Burzum, Mesarthim

Delving into Lustre's back catalog, 'Another Time, Another Place (Chapter One)' unearths an unreleased EP in the form of 'The Ardour of Autumn' (2013) and blends it into a reissue of the 2009 EP, 'Welcome Winter', to round out a forty minute foray into Lustre's ever-inviting comfort zone.

In a world of shrieking solos and furious drum fills, Lustre's delicate and intimate ambiances can leave a listener feeling as though he is the brutish beast accidentally intruding into a fragile shop brimming with decorative curios. The relaxing sigh of this music fogs the mind with easing endorphins as sprays of guitar foam hush the tinny keyboard resonance at the top, surrounding the space behind this crisp tinkering foreground with fuzzy gravitational waves. Like crossing that small shop's threshold and stepping into world stagnating in its antiquity, Lustre leaves the chaos of a city or the battles across a countryside swarmed by foes behind in order to bounce around Balamb or cast a line from Fisherman's Horizon in a mini-game of metal where its majesty is in its sickly sweet musical menagerie melting across an icy landscape and an even more frigid furrowed brow.

Dim flickering melodies happily bounce shadows away, like tongues of flame inviting company into the comfort of newly-created nostalgia. Holding back the chill of autumn breezes, the newly debuted 'Ardour of Autumn' is choreographed like the coordinated drips of condensation accumulating from stalactites as fingers of time run round the rims of glassy puddles of eternity to hum life into such stoic silence. With a background of weighty guitar grain chased down by hushed snarls, even the most sinister muffled shriek becomes a whisper of distant malevolence as fleeting furies etch their echoes into memory.

The bestial backdrop of “The Ardour of Autumn (Part 1)” swells and shrinks the chest like a cigarette sigh by the fire pit while the rest of the plastered party shakes the property's foundation at the basement battle station. A melancholic turn, as though the happy plodding of those sweatshirt-clad evenings has finally ushered in the first snows of November, heralds the drag of evenings into the wee hours of the morning as alcohol affects emotions and the second wind of the night brings a brain bursting with forlorn thoughts, the blur of guitar rising to more prominence in the mix and the peaceful synth shedding small tears tasting of bygone torments so far away yet lingering as woeful reminiscences of one's past innocence.

There is little jauntiness to these highly-structured tunes, merely a relaxing and mystical, brooding and funerary feel that implores a listener to contemplate not only its own relentless embrace but also the wandering thoughts that such strict structures incubate in a brain craving the chaos of creativity. Still, after the ears are deadened by another session of the metalhead's traditional form of therapy, the intrigue and ambiance of Lustre becomes an almost magical nightcap to an evening of howls and growls. (Five_Nails)

(Morrowless Music - 2019)
Score: 73

https://lustre.bandcamp.com/album/another-time-another-place-chapter-one

Lustre - Still Innocence

#FOR FANS OF: Black Ambient

Sometimes it's a nice change of pace to listen to something airy, inoffensive, and so unusually out of place that it inhabits a world of its own. Nachzeit's one-man offering of a pretty atmosphere through 'Still Innocence' is just that sort of float of a feather down a chasm of sunlight that embraces the serenity of its delicate descent into the shadows.

Through lovely and ethereal waves of ambient noise with drums hidden behind quiet keyboard synth in “Dreaded Still”, a calming meditative track paints happy clouds of humming atmospheric fuzz across a full and entrancing soundscape, open to a calm and sweet whistling tune as it softly steps its way through the winds. Sometimes a sound can easily become the theme to a season and I can already sense this song becoming a major contender for what my mental jukebox will spin in this autumn's retrospect.

There is truly somber and melancholic beauty in each song. Guitars are held so far back in the mix that they sound like distant pulsing waves of rainfall, ushered by heaves of wind to hammer a puddle before allowing the noise to give way to steady and sometimes interminable drips. Even more distant, whispers and drowning screams can barely be heard as they gently breathe between squalls of grain-falls. This album is sappy and weepy, nostalgic and mesmerizing, lonely and longing, and all encapsulated in simply beautiful sound that, sadly, overstays its welcome.

While “Dreaded Still” can catch the ear, the compositional style shows its standardization quickly enough by the second track, “Nestled Within”. Lustre shows its quality production and maintains a momentum that can go easily ignored as background music in “Let Go Like Leaves of Fall”. Still, this music is entrancing while simultaneously unimposing and a calming accouterment to a solitary walk or to rainy day spent immersed in a book. While the opening of the album with “Dreaded Still” is energetic enough to be reimagined as a techno song, by the time you get to “Reverence Road”, the soundscape has turned into elevator music playing in a 1980s shopping mall at the height of Madonna's fame. I like the moments that remind me of immersive role-playing video games, like the Final Fantasy style opening to “Without End”, but at the end of the day this album of sappy sounds runs its course long before the music ends. Lustre holds its atmospheres hostage when they could have been allowed to run free through the listener's memory before becoming an annoyance. Instead these lingering songs refuse to leave, losing their luster to the apathy of a listener that is left begging for the album to end rather than begging for more.

As the music seems to offer more than it needed in respect to song length, the droning melodies and repetitious drum beats become a halfhearted white noise. I was hoping that maybe there would be some explanation of the songs, some literature to expound upon what may be in Nachzeit's head while composing this music, but there are only snippets of scant stanzas to bring reason to this repetition. The stanzas for “Dreaded Still” and “Nestled Within” aren't very alluring. The wordplay to the stanza for “Reverence Road” is nice enough, but again this is such maddeningly unintrusive substance that it has me asking why the rest of this album even exists after the opening track.

I'm left scratching my head as to just what any of this album was supposed to accomplish and how this lines up with any characteristics of black metal other than a nearly inaudible hiss of what may be guitars in the background. I don't hate this music but I've quickly become bored of it. I'm left a little confused as to where to place this album, but the worst that I could ever react to this is with ambivalence. Lustre's 'Still Innocence' is a meditation tape or white noise sleep album, it's the speck of dust illuminated by a ray of sunshine that passes unnoticed until that certain hour of the afternoon, and that's just fine enough when you're not hoping for much more. (Five_Nails)

(Nordvis Produktion - 2017)

Score: 65

https://lustre.bandcamp.com/album/still-innocence

Lustre - Wonder

#FOR FANS OF: Black/Ambient

Lustre’s particular brand of atmospheric black metal has always struck me on a deep and personal level. Whether that’s through the fuzzed out reverberating guitars or the emotional and shimmering keyboards, Lustre is able to craft some of the most vivid atmospheres that have graced my ears. 'Wonder' carries on with their signature style, yet despite no alterations to their overall sound Lustre still prove to be masters of their craft when it comes to this particular form of keyboard laden black metal. The most notable aspect of Lustre is the heavy keyboard presence. They dominate the entire mix, pushing the guitars and vocals to the background. It’s a strange mixture, what with black metal being a predominantly guitar based genre of music, yet Lustre work wonders with this mixing. The guitars are suitably fuzzed out, and despite being quiet can be quite easily heard and provide a good background for the shimmering keyboards. The guitars function on a minimalistic, perhaps one could say droning wavelength, indeed there’s no solos, no real riffs, just one note chords stretched out for extended periods of time. The keyboards have always been the main instrument in Lustre’s arsenal, everything else comes second. "A Summer Night" makes great use of the keyboards; a Burzum meets Port-Royal kind of thing with hissed vocals, ambient keyboards and quiet guitars. The overall song structures of the songs are very simple, usually following the same formula of open with a keyboard melody, add some guitars, end with an atmospheric outro. With each songs being of an average of nine minutes with very little to differentiate between themselves, one could be led to believe that this is a boring album. With this kind of music though, one needs to approach it with the right mindset, if you go in thinking this is going to be too repetitive and way too boring then incidentally you’ll be bored out of your mind. This kind of music works best when the listener approaches it in a different way as to the way they’d approach an artist such as Iron Maiden. This isn't music for those looking for lots of riffs and solos; this is repetitive and trance inducing that above all aims to create an ethereal, even mystical atmosphere. Black metal has always been a genre than focuses on atmosphere much more than other metal genres yet Lustre takes this to the next possible extreme. The songs are incredibly minimalistic, containing only a small handful of melodies. The vocals show very little variation between pitch, dynamics and even rhythm, they’re a constant whispering shriek that could easily be missed if enough attention isn't placed upon them. Whilst the music of 'Wonder' is quite easy to listen to and admittedly quite accessible, this is not an album for everyone. The moods this album creates are unique, perhaps even abstract, there’s a strong sense of sorrow within this but the music also seems to deal with themes of hope and perhaps even wonder. Nachtzeit is the kind of abstract, surrealist artist who leaves his work open to interpretation, there’s no right or wrong way to feel about the music of Lustre and this is why this kind of music is so special. It has this undeniably ability to connect with people on a mass scale; due to the ambiguous nature of these songs they have a universal factor to them, as though Nachtzeit was able to channel the collective consciousness of the entire human race when forging this album. Pretentiousness aside, this truly is a great album, the keyboard melodies are stunning to say the least and the repetitive, droning guitars create a nice backdrop to the prominent keyboards. If you weren't swayed by Lustre’s brand of black metal in the past then this will not change your mind, Lustre keeps his style of music constant with the only differentiation present in the mood of the songs. Go into this album with the proper mindset and be sucked into Nachtzeit’s surrealist view of the world. (Sean Render)

(Nordvis Produktion - 2013)
Score: 95

https://www.facebook.com/lustre

Lustre - They Awoke to the Scent of Spring

#PER CHI AMA: Black Ambient

Dammi tre riff che ti faccio un album, e potrei tranquillamente chiudere la mia recensione qui. E vorrei anche farlo sinceramente perché nulla ha da dire quest’ultimo disco dei Lustre, one man band di Nachtzeit. Bello da ascoltare, melodie eccezionali ma quanto mai banali come poche cose a questo mondo. L'unica apparenza di black di quest'opera è la voce che è pure mixata troppo alta e "cantata" come un sussurro in formato scream, ovvero un fruscio fastidioso. L'idiofono non fa altra che ammorbidire l'atmosfera e rallegrare il tutto che, combinato con dei riff di chitarra estremamente melensi, mi induce a riflettere un attimo sul perché stia ascoltando questa cosa. Ma, come ho già detto, il disco è veramente bello, tiene compagnia come la musica di sottofondo nelle pubblicità delle automobili mentre percorrono i tornanti, e lo si ascolta pure volentieri, ma l'amara verità è che risulta intriso di una tristezza completamente priva di fondamento, riscontrabile quasi perfettamente con l'opinabile scena black/shoegaze francofona. È inutile scriverci romanzi attorno secondo i quali quest'opera evocherebbe "immensa melancolia dispersa nel vuoto", ti immergerebbe in "boschi innevati dove il sole penetra solo attraverso le goccioline di rugiada negli aghi dei pini" ed altre frasi d'effetto simili. In quest'album ci sono quattro tracce, tre riff e poco più, stop. (Kent)

(De Tenebrarum Principio)
Voto: 65

https://www.facebook.com/lustresweden?sk=wall

Lustre - Serenity

#PER CHI AMA: Black Ambient, primi Burzum

“Serenity” rappresenta l’EP di debutto datata ormai 2008, degli svedesi Lustre, one man band capitanata da Nachtzeit (Mortem Parto Humano, ex-Durthang, ex-Life Neglected, ex-Hypothermia). Due song per poco più di 21 minuti che ci mostrano luci e ombre di questo enigmatico personaggio, che comunque si è poi fatto conoscere con altri lavori assai interessanti, come “Night Spirit” e “A Glimpse of Glory”. L’avvio è affidato a “The Light of Eternity”, song che senza ombra di dubbio alcuna (e sfido chiunque ad affermare il contrario), si ispira a “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss”, del buon vecchio Burzum, nella sua versione più ipnotica: incedere lento, riffing ossessivo e ripetuto all’infinito, suggellato dalle strazianti vocals corrosive del factotum Nachtzeit. I 13 minuti della opening track poggiano interamente sul lavoro pesante dei synth accompagnati da liriche portatrici di naturistica oscura spiritualità, che alla fine si insinuano nel nostro cervello e ci spingono verso una sorta di abbandono onirico, che si concretizzerà nella successiva “Waves of the Worn”, traccia costituita da un mistico sintetizzatore che mi lascia presagire fin da subito, che per tutta la sua durata si muoverà su queste coordinate. E difatti non mi sbaglio: un’onda sinuosa attraverso le mie orecchie, mi spinge definitivamente verso il sonno più profondo. Difficile poter giudicare un cd con pochi minuti a disposizione, tuttavia mi sento di promuovere appieno la proposta musicale dei Lustre, in attesa di avere fra le mani i full lenght della band. Onirici! (Francesco Scarci)

 

(Self)

Voto: 65