Over on our Discord, contributor and server member Sertulariae gave his thoughts on each Hurrian Hymns track in this fascinating & singular breakdown. We loved it so much, we gave it a little touch up and dropped the whole thing here!
Be sure to check out his track on Hurrian Hymns & to check out more of his music on his bandcamp: https://sertulariae.bandcamp.com/
David Aimone – Saturnalia
Listening to this is ‘taking me back in time’ in a more authentic way than the track I submitted. This is actually making me see sheep or goats, ancient livestock. It has an austere wisdom suffused through it, reminiscent of Aerith from final fantasy. Also, I hear a great deal of sky and wind in your music. so this is delightfully evocative of the natural world.
Antevie – Buried Somewhere in The Unknown
This is mystical. It’s beyond elemental magic, it’s more like the element ‘Holy’ in Persona. Your pitch bends are doing it for me, there’s such doubt and transformation. This is like… anti-New Age but it only demotes it to like neutral-energised New Age. I dig it. Grey Mysticism.
Mathew Gracie – On the Shores of Ugarit
The vocal grunt chants in this make me wish I knew what they were saying. It seems like an ancient aura farm generated by macho monks – very temple-istic. it’s vaguely military in its percussion. Now I zoom out to this fascinating cluster of heavily-reverbed strings, and perhaps a santoor? that luscious cloud layer – I think it has a flute type instrument in it too, that’s the MVP layer of the track. This has been the exception to the fake rule that ambient cannot have drums.
Legacy Systems – Ghosts In The Clay Tablet
Listening to your Barber Poled drone pad and suspicious harp plucks reminds me of a dream and a spider web, giving Resident Evil 1 vibes – kind of Twilight Zone. The paranoid keys and very stringy inquisitive string plucks came in. I’m trying to process this, it’s like ‘nauseous wonder’. It’s like I’ve been poisoned but it’s slightly fun! Tolerably aggressive exotic music.
Asha Patera – Morning, Long Ago
This is hitting parts of my sci-fi brain that haven’t been activated since Deus Ex Machina, not because of anything robotic, but because of how cold it sounds. The intro sounded like social strife, these scorching pads go hard. Overall it’s wintery, but it burns as well. This is like cyber-mechanio-Ice-energy! It was a trance for sure.
imagens – human nature never changes
This is giving Akashic Records-type, mystic library vibes. It’s not a library in this world, it is outside of the time we know. Kind of like that in-between place in the film ‘Interstellar’. This sounds like a room outside time with a lot of knowledge stored there. The second half reminds me of a silver serpent whipping through the mystic library, maybe a keeper of the books, and it adds water to the astral plane through the snake. Naga probably.
Ghola V – Elegia
This track sounds liminal like baby consciousness, pre-awareness groping, reaching hold of something in the empirical world to become concrete. This may be the most orthodox ambient track yet I’ve heard on the compilation. It’s hard to describe it without shifting into some philosophical notions. I would categorize it as minimalist.
EPIMYTH – Urkesh
The record crackle is tickling my ears. It kind of sounds like dripping flame grease, maybe candle wax is falling. The ambient pads direct a kind of energy feeling light blue in color and presents as a type of swift, holy air-spirit that would swirl around and dwell inside of a temple. So, this is like the priestly class from the Hurrian Hymn’s time. The record crackle could be a library starting to catch on fire too.
passengers – Whispered Secrets
The intro reminds me of a Stephen King movie from the 80’s. There’s a vaguely ominous mystery about it, it leads down empty hallways. The strings you brought in which float around disjointed are reinforcing the horror movie vibe. It’s almost giving ‘haunted attic’ energy but is a bit too otherworldly for that. This has been the darkest entry so far in the compilation. I’d call this Dark Ambient music and it sounds like it’s from an authentic 80’s film score.
housefire – Monuments, Valleys
As much a recording as a puzzle. Pads come from all around like a drug kicking in. Rattlesnake-cicada buzzing, panned to one side, forms a constant base. It’s like a field recording: just life, walking outside… Ambient pads droning on, mirroring the hum of our thoughts.
At some point in the field recording, I’m sucked through a vacuum… I’m not certain what I’m hearing anymore, just that I’m on the other side of some change. It grows a lot gentler and understated, then ends.
I felt it in my sleep – Asherah
One of the most literal settings of the track so far – I’m hearing the Hurrian Hymn!
Some synth pads seep in (i felt it in my sleep would never just be that!). Dark greys and violets – a lavender storm!
It isn’t peace or strife, but a piece that dwells somewhere between those two warring parties… a lovely sentiment.
It reminds me of if ‘Dune’ had some sort of new age parody!
Aaron J. Noth – Voyagers
…I just dig it, my favourite track so far! I knew there’d be outliers like this in such a diverse compilation and we’ve got IDM here!
It’s a long track – never an easy feat to write such morphing, expansive structures. There’s something ‘cyber’ about the vibe – which takes me on a journey from a dystopian to a tranquil setting.
Trying to think of visual metaphor as I’m halfway through the piece, I found myself thinking of spherical graphics, representing an unspecific planet, that were a part of a GUI.
The last act is more dominant than the first two – an unexpected departure, which leaves me longing for the relaxation of the preceding sections… But it’s highly polished – noble or palatial in feel, though an overriding sense of some oppressive/dominant forces.
Alabaster and immaculate in its entirety.
Exit Chamber – How Easily We Lost A World That Seemed So Safe And Certain
There’s a sense of Tangerine Dream and an authentic 80’s aesthetic. The slow pacing of the drums implies a regal quality.
As I listen, I start to feel the ancient theme. I’m once again thinking of spheres… in particular the lead synth forming a green sphere around a core.
Ritualistic music that puts you in a trance – I’m left uncertain of if it’s composed of positive or negative emotion. I can only assume it’s a bit of both.
It was fun how the lead synth wiggled around!
Laura Burton – Nikkal
Maybe the most ‘New Age’ track so far. It’s a combination of elements that I find hard to process. The drums have an intensity that I don’t expect of new age, but the soaring leads are right at home – carrying the track with an air of sentimentality.
To me, it represents the twilight hours of the day – embodying moths & soft grey, violet or pink hues. Certainly a colourful piece!
There’s an exotic tail on the flute & then, unexpectedly, the entrance of an electric guitar. There’s emotional ambiguity… and maybe some gothic qualities that weren’t immediately apparent.
Droids On Acid – 3:10 To Hurrian
Ambient, downtempo, techno… This reminds me of a wet, underground cavern with lichens and vines growing on the walls.
Water drips from the ceiling, but amidst this natural, underground biome some kind of droid emits a robotic sound as it performs an analytical scan.
Groovy and dark. ‘Spy music’ – for sneaking!
G!GA LURGH – Jardin Lunaire
Nostalgic from the get-go: old journals; captain’s logs, diaries and documentation from bygone times…
This reminds me of Trent Reznor’s ambient works – it would score a documentary finely.
There’s a tangible historic weight to it all, which ties into the nostalgia – a sense of it expressing memories.
An open tome lies on an antique desk – dimly lit by a nearby lamp. It isn’t just a scene, but a portal – which transports me through darkness into the past.
Pollyanna – The Sun Upon Ashlar Stones
Subtle music that buries itself underneath my conscious thoughts. It’s difficult to place. Music that is somehow both lofty and abstract, but pastoral – reminiscent of a JRPG town.
Surreal – it evokes shades of grey, raising more questions in place of making concrete statements.
It’s a dusty attic full of antique toys (with half-broken winding mechanisms); an early engineer’s diagram of a piping system; and papyrus.
This track maybe evokes the ancient nature of the Hurrian Hymn more than any other so far.
The degradation of the recording as the piece progresses brings to mind the radioactive decay of atoms and carbon dating age-old ruins.
Cavern Cult – Ancient Potentials
There’s a distinctly middle-eastern vibe emanating from the melody – maybe stemming from using different scales. It maybe feels Egyptian.
I’m reminded of the guitar tracks in older Diablo games. There’s certainly a sense of darkness, but it’s more curious than overtly menacing or foreboding.
In the second half I imagine scarabs as I hear a swirl of effects and a ‘buggy’ pulse.
I wasn’t expecting to hear a track like this in the compilation – but it’s fascinating!
Ærebus – In the Garden of the Lady
The celestial intro evokes the idea of angels, and when the guitar came in it made me categorize this as a ‘new age’ track. The overall feeling is warm and disarming like a blanket. There are impressions of ‘spanish’ guitar in the guitarwork. I enjoy the bird and other wildlife creature sound effects (kind of hard to tell exactly what they are). Initially I thought this was going to be a drone track, the guitar added a lot to it and pushed it into other genres, probably ‘film music’. What’s great is that the backing drone/nature ambience would sound good in its own right and the guitar only brings it that much further. This made me think of forests.
Sylvia Virgo – Eyes Forward
Tonally it is very rich with metallic waves going in and out of different alloys. This is the type of ambient I call ‘space music’. It’s making me wonder if there are planets where there are raging storms of metallic wind clashing over a vast desert. That type of activity signifies great violence in the natural world but because on this barren planet there is no life to observe the storms the emotion of the planet remains stable and serene. Nothing gained, nothing lost. An inhospitable, tranquil equilibrium, struck between ever warring weather-event maelstroms. Yet there is also an element of humanity which can be detected. This is something like the cosmic, astral wisdom of transformative power available during mental growth spurts in which the mind temporarily experiences contact with the larger pool of the boundaryless Divine.
Jollroy – A Dream of Ugarit
Settling in nicely with this intro. While bizarre, it is progressing at a measured pace. There is a suggestion of stringed, folkloric instruments rendered disjointed and fragmented. The chords have created an atmosphere of stasis. It could be that the music expresses a place of safety to regroup while there is a threat outside the perimeter. There is a tenseness here even despite the contemplative vibe. Act 2 has commenced (I really like music which proceeds in well defined chapters such as this) it’s pulled down underwater to a very dark and ambiguous place. It sounds like under the sea at night or deep within an underground catacomb with mummies in the walls. Act 3 is solidifying this mummy feeling. There is a sense of undead that is also exotic. In the end it seems that the piece dissolved into a well of liquid mystery. The feeling of the mystery contains some sort of longing, but it does not long to be found or understood. Rather, that which it longs for contributes to its obscure and apocryphal nature.
On Idyl – The Temple on Silver Mountain
Cold and pristine intro. If the Dune story took place on a tundra planet this could be the soundtrack. As it develops the string swells evoke an exploration theme. I’m imagining this is at the frontier on a tundra planet. The explorers don’t know what to expect when they cross over into the newfound, mountainous continent. There is a flavor of freedom and possibility in this story of adventure. For these explorers do not inhabit a predetermined universe. Their expedition could lead to progress or to their unexpected demise. The only thing certain is the enormity and majesty of the path that lays before them.
Will Dee – Endless Growing
This sounds like a light-grey dimension where preconscious phenomena take place in the mind. Phenomena that cannot ordinarily be perceived. These little happenings organically bubbling up and interacting with one another create the basis for thoughts to emerge. This could also be Sleep music, expressing what happens in our brains when we are asleep. It makes me imagine the first lifeforms evolving in a process that is neither good nor evil, a process which has no set direction – but inevitably unfolds and is full of potential. I can see the little bacteria and protists with their wiggly tails moving on a microscope slide, living unseen lives that we will never know. It could be that our thoughts are not so different from single celled organisms and that there is a survival of the fittest perceptions and ideas that evolves over time, proliferating in the petri dish of our minds.
The Music Liberation Front Sweden – Here Comes A Beautiful Summer (1400BC)
Is that you chanting in the beginning of this track? It sounds like a church ceremony (Gregorian monk) which makes it really interesting that a glitchy 60’s era, early synthesizer anti-melody comes after. Now I’m trying to tie that into the Church vibe. How are these related? This arcade video game music has some sprinkley, crinkley shaker or chime action in the background. The addition of female chanting vox created a confusing combination with what else was going on… glad it got simpler sounding. There was a strange type of tension in that section before, I blame the synth. At this point in the track, the word ‘dynamic’ comes to mind because it covers so much ground. Now I understand the brief ear rape part, a longer section of harsh noise came after. It’s really good that you foreshadowed that violent cacophony with a brief dash of ‘noise’ before dropping it all. The ‘Void element’ outro where the track marches off into obscurity and darkness is pretty familiar to me, this I understand. It’s pretty badass.
oetahn bahn – the orchards of your love have withered forgotten, but the fields they once stood on are ripe for sowing
This is the hardest part of explaining it – the nature of the Green Sea. You would think that this sea is located on a planet somewhere but it is not that kind of sea. It is not possible to understand ‘where’ it is, because nothing inside of that sea knows there is anything outside of it, and to understand that place you would have to see it from the perspective of the inhabitants. As we have free will, we can’t understand the leviathan or the green sea. We have the ability to branch into different paths in reality dependent on our will. Where the green sea exists it is too far removed from that. They have never known differing branches of reality there. I’m sorry if I didn’t say a lot about the literal qualities of your track, the drone textures were lush and wonderful. The thoughts it inspired in me were science-fictiony and philosophical. This is ambient drone orthodoxy done well. It took me on a trip where I looked within and scrambled to visualize it. This was a great way to conclude the compilation. I still want to know what the words of the title mean.
What a breakdown! And we just knew it wouldn’t be fair not to drop in our own thoughts on Bingus’s Rag – Sertulariae’s own contribution to the compilation….
Sertulariae – Bingus’s Rag
Bingus Rag’s title may evoke images of the other side of the world, but Sertulariae’s music is often utterly otherworldly – making this a somewhat grounded addition to the eclecticist’s catalog.
While the instrumental tones and drones feel familiar, there are some more esoteric elements creeping in: reverberated sci-fi arpeggios; or a peppering of sinusoidal melody hovering into view like a theremin from the blue; and a slathering of reverb resigned to all but the most expansive, inconceivable caves on the planet.
While it belies the precision of its arrangement, playing historic city building simulator while early synthesiser music bleeds in from another room gives an idea of the sonic world this piece occupies.
So what do you think?
Does Sertulariae capture the essence of this compilation – or do you experience it as something entirely different?
We always love hearing people’s thoughts on our compilations – and this has to be the most thorough breakdown yet!
Thanks again to Sertulariae for this breakdown!
Hurrian Hymns is now available on Bandcamp and Ampwall – with 50% of sales supporting MSF (Medicins Sans Frontiers / Doctors Without Borders).
Pick the album up here:
https://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/hurrian-hymns
Hurrian Hymns on Ampwall:
https://ampwall.com/a/passedrecordings/album/hurrian-hymns
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