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RAIG is proud to announce a series of quality manufactured (or pro-duplicated) CDR-releases produced for Russian independent community DIRGENERA.RU. The main goal is to challenge music lovers to try and hopefully support heavy, deviant and experimental music with a focus on Doom, Black, Sludge, Stoner, Heavy Psyche, Noise, Drone and Ambient hybrid projects as well as to function as a promo-platform for new and exciting acts.
Please be sure to visit, join and comment on DIRGENERA at Official site and Myspace Music page.
QUADRIVIUM is a Latin word meaning "the four ways" or "the four roads". It’s also a combination of the four liberal subjects or arts – traditionally, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy – taught in medieval universities. These followed the preparatory work of the trivium made up of grammar, logic and rhetoric. In turn, QUADRIVIUM was considered preparatory work for the serious study of Philosophy and Theology.
DIRGENERA QUADRIVIUM consists of four one-track EP-albums by VIR’, VALI, HERMAN SYNDROME and AETHYR – respectively entitled "Clay", "Yggdrasil", "Birth" and "Mass" – which were initially published as mp3-only demos or not published at all in a year of MMIX. Here are four shades of Darkness and Doom; file these under Doom-Drone, Black-Noise, Death-Ambient or anything else. The disc (4 tracks - 65 min.) comes inside a hand-numbered silkscreen (a white over black cardboard) folder. There were 102 copies manufactured.
PRESS CLIPS
"It starts with Vir’, who offer a twelve minute long track titled 'clay', that spans from pure guitar distortion waves in the beginning to screamed banshee vocals and ends in a mass of noise to fade out with a long, heavy electronics bass line. The mix includes an acoustic guitar, of which – and this is basically the only thing bad you can say about 'clay' – only the noise of the strings being strummed can be heard, because it is so submerged in the mix by the other noise that is just drowned. But, in judging these recordings, we have to keep in mind, that they are culled from demos (or not even demo recordings) from the darkest cellars of Russia, so they are meant for saying hello to the world. And in this it is an impressive track over all. (Moreover, I have heard much worse on full releases by so called major stars within the fringe part of the metal scene…) So, pretty good, amazing stuff. | Next on, Vali, go right to the middle of Scandinavian mythology by announcing 'Yggdrasil', the tree on which almost all of the Scandinavian god tales are located. My favorite part is the little squirrel that exchanges rumours, spite and bad news between the female demons of fate that sit at the roots of the tree and the ravens that are perched in the crown, because I imagine this squirrel to be a funny, ecstatic and witty little fellow. Nothing of that is to be found in the almost a quarter of an hour long track by Vali. It starts with a slow and low bass noise rumbling, that is joined by a high-pitched, heavily distorted guitar after four or five minutes in the same tectonic pace. And it doesn’t change much for the rest of the following twelve minutes or so. But within this kind of musical frame, not changing, means a lot of internal, minimal changes and for the transcending effect, the monolithic structure is essential. | Hermansyndrome step into their track right heavy. 'Birth' starts with more distorted guitars and manipulated synthie sounds to go along in the same dark vein. A big block of feedback noise that slowly turns into a frenzy of chaos and rubble. But then after ten minutes they break into a full tilt riffage with drums, guitars and bass only break off after a few moments to introduce an almost romantic melody setting of synth strings and bird song. Which, as you may have guessed, doesn’t last long either. | The final participant are Aethyr and their track is most aptly titled 'Mass'. And I think they mean both the volume of something very big as well as the liturgic, religious event of the same name. I have no idea about the ideological background of any of these bands, and of some bands in this genre the intellectual background is very questionable. Yet, as most of these tracks are instrumental and a wave of noise carries no message aside its own distorted frequencies, I trust the good judgement of RAIG. The anarchistic value of listening to something that most people would call unlistenable in the first place is not connected as such with any side of the political spectrum. Anyway, 'Mass' amongst other things is the most industrial of the four tracks on here, due to the metallic percussions arising and the gothic chorus or rather echo in the back. || Of course, all four bands are playing in a very limited arena of fringe music. All of them slow, sludgy, dark and heavy and approximately fifteen minutes long, but that is intended to be showcased. So, if you are interested, here is the place to go to. Connect, contact and consume - to support the underground. Caveat!" – by Georg Gartlgruber of Monochrom-Cracked (Austria) (February 2010).
"VIR starts the split album with a distortion filled track called 'Clay' and despite the fact it sounds like it was recorded in a cave somewhere, it is a very impressive track. It begins with waves of distortion followed by screaming vocals and all kinds of sub-sonic noises. There is a acoustic guitar in there but it is buried under the all the various noises being generated. 'Clay' is a little too raw to be judged fully but its a impressive 12 minutes of Noise Rock that suggests Vir could be a band to watch out for in the future. | Next band up is VALI with a track titled 'Yggdrasil', it begins on its monolithic adventure with low rumbling bass lines followed by raw, distorted guitar work played at a snails pace and that doesn't change much at all for the entire 15 minutes. A decent track overall but very one dimensional and stagnant throughout but worth a listen. | HERMAN SYNDROME contains the musical theme of this split album with more distortion and feedback which extends way longer that is should in my opinion but the track explodes in a fury of Doom Laden riffing after 10 minutes but just as a groove is built, you guessed it, it changes again into romantic sounding synth's and strings. Again its not bad but sounds very much like a un-even and disjointed track. | The split concludes with AETHYR's track called 'Mass' and it is the prefect name for the piece and it is indeed a mass of heavy sounds in a similar vein of the other bands but more industrial sounding. It must be noted that all the music on this split is mostly instrumental and very much at the extreme end of the musical spectrum and Aethyr's track might the hardest track of the four songs here to digest easily. | All the bands are slow, noisy, sludge-filled doses of experimental noise rock and not for the casual listener. They are also not the kind of musical pieces that are instantly enjoyable, it took me some time to fully appreciate the 65 minutes of this split but after several spins i found i rate all four bands equally. They all show promise and potential so as this is just a showcase for the bands involved, i am impressed with most of what these four bands dished up here.For the open-minded and the extreme Doom, Noise freak out there but if you are such a listener then you will want to hunt this one down as soon as you can. (Score: 8/10)" – by Ed of Doommantia (USA) (June 2010).
The album was also reviewed at: Metal Library (Russia).
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