A reissue of previously released material from Swedish artist Thomas Ekelund; as Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Ekelund creates dolorous, dystopian dream music from minimal synthesizer sounds and simple melodies. His haunting kosimiche driftscapes fit in nicely next to the likes of Locrian and Neil Jendon on the Land Of Decay imprint, which assembled this release out of material that had previously been issued on two extremely limited, out-of-print tapes, as well as a previously unreleased track, presented with new artwork from Terence Hannum of Locrian and gorgeous black-on-black printing. This is excellent black hole kosimiche music, beautifully dark space drift that's highly recommended to those into the likes of Svarte Grenier, Jasper TX, and Anduin...

The two-part "No Words" makes up the first side, two versions of the same piece presented back to back; the original begins as simple, minimal, cosmic synth drifting over clouds of grainy electronic filigree, eventually breaking to allow the arrival of a doom-laden bass line, becoming ever more Tangerine Dream-esque, sounding somewhat like an apocalyptic version of TD's theme for The Keep. Dark, ominous, the looped synth melody cycling high above sparse percussion and that hypnotic bass throb. Halfway in, it dissolves into sheets of arctic drone populated with mysterious scraping sounds, then later builds back into the ominous synth riff, a dramatic chord progression repeating over and over as the sound fades into blackness. The second track that follows is a much more minimal, reworked version, a faded shadow of the original, the chordal loop now appearing as washed out drones circling over a vast expanse of muted synth swells and dark drift, the descending bass line becoming a smear of soft low end synth buzz, but becoming a breathtaking new wave of cosmic drone in it's final minutes.

On the other side is a single long track, "Forget Forgive Regret". A bleak droneworld of muted metallic percussion ringing out over subterranean blackness, eventually filled with chittering, hissing electronics, the sound of hordes of black beetles swarming over the barren expanse of ambient drift. A distant percussive banging appears, gonglike reverberations hovering on the horizon, and faint whispers and smears of subliminal melody form in the foreground. Towards the end, bits of Morse code like glitch and backwards sound become apparent, rising up out of the incessant thrumming of the central black drone that runs throughout the track, a grim, desolate atmosphere clinging to the piece until the very end, when a haunting guitar melody takes form and a steady electronic throb appears, leading through the sparse dronescape until it finally blooms into a gorgeously bleak Hecker-like blizzard of distortion and melodic detritus that billows over a pulsating, Gas-like minimal techno bass throb that finishes the side.

Safe to say, fans of the other dark drone music that Land Of Decay specializes in will love this. It's pretty limited though, only 100 copies produced, so you'll want to move quickly.