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BOSSE  Visions Of The End  CD   (Ars Magna)   9.98


Visions Of The End is about as far as you can possibly get from the cult death metal, black metal and gothic doom that Ars Magna usually supplies me with, but it's not totally without precedent - if you enjoyed that Trancelike Void Ep Where The Trees Can Make It Rain that came out on the label a year or so back, Bosse's elegant and autumnal funereal-folk offers some of that same euphoria. This is the first release from New York City based artist Richard Bosse that I've listened to, though it follows a handful of previous titles that included releases on similarly black metal-aligned imprints like Those Opposed and Choir Of Delusion n' included a split record with the aforementioned T-Void. Though this is essentially one man and his acoustic guitar, it's not hard to see why Bosse's music has always been connected to certain sectors of the black metal underground; Richard Bosse crafts these gorgeous shadowy folk songs that are almost entirely instrumental, layering haunting twilight melodies that repeat over and over, laid over simple, somber acoustic strum that he accompanies with soft droning sounds, ethereal keys, piano and mandolin-like buzz that slowly emerge across the six songs on Visions. Those electronic backing sounds are understated and melt right into soft washes of electric guitar hum, all a minimal backdrop for the rich buzzing and droning texture of the guitar, the scrape of fingers across the strings a constant human presence. There are moments on this disc where the music becomes a little reminiscent of later-era Swans when that band was at their most ethereal and delicate, and I can also hear some echoes of the gloomier corners of the Glass Throat catalog and Drudkh's Songs of Grief and Solitude trailing off through this collection of somber, shadow-cast melancholia. Bosses's music would probably appeal to the neo-folk crowd, but there's also elements of widescreen grandeur that materialize with the washes of droning melodic beauty and cascading strings that even touch on the sort of "post-rock" majesty that you'd hear from bands like Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai, albeit in a much more hushed and ethereal manner. It's a really moving collection of songs that has turned in to one of my favorite recent dark-acoustic albums. Recommended.

Comes in a gatefold jacket.


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