A new review for I Swear By All The Flowers” is in the latest Steam Punk Magazine:
The simplest way to sell you on this CD is to tell you that it was created entirely of antique sources, sampling music boxes, and wax cylinders to great effect. The entire album is restrained, soft, and pretty. As atmosphere, it’s nearly perfect.
That said, there is not so much that is intensely beautiful about the album, nothing to really draw you in, nothing that will haunt you hours later (with the possible exception of “sunrise”, the final track, performed on a lovely out-of-tune piano). But while this is to say that the work is not a masterpiece, it is certainly well executed and well worth multiple listens.
Evening of Light posted a new review of “Edison’s Frankenstein”:
Frankenstein, made in 1910 by Edison studios, is one of the oldest horror movies, though not one of the better known ones. According to this feature, all but one of the film’s copies were lost, and it resurfaced as late as the 1970s. Silent movies are usually supplied with a score from some stock music archive, but Daniel Tuttle, the man behind Life Toward Twilight, apparently wasn’t content with the versions of this film’s score that were out there. So, he set to composing his own. The project took some years too attain final form, but in 2008, the release was there, combining the original film with new score, and including a CD with more extended versions of the soundtrack compositions.
As can be expected, the approach is from the direction of dark ambient and industrial electronics, not a bad choice, even for a movie from a different period. The soundtrack combines simple piano melodies, synthesizer waves, drones and some quite heavy noises and percussive sounds here and there. The combination of film and score works very well, in particular in the part in the first half of the movie where Frankenstein conducts his experiment. The impressive stop-motion animation of the monster’s alchemical birth in the cauldron is accompanied by intense industrial ambient, both elements enhancing each other and forming the highlight of this release. After this climax, the pace of the movie slacks a bit, depicting the haunting of Frankenstein’s bridal night and the subsquent ‘dissolution’ of the monster in a less impressive way than the parts that came before.
All the same, this short film is a pleasure to watch, especially for historic reasons. In addition, the soundtrack adds a lot to the movie’s atmosphere, not in the least because the alternative (stock piano music) could be considered particularly gruesome (cf. [YouTube]). If you’re interested in old (horror) movies and post-industrial music, Edison’s Frankenstein is excellent value for money. And if you’re not convinced, and want to try before you buy, the soundtrack can be downloaded for free from the artist’s webpage.
Mick Mercer posted a review of “Edison’s Frankenstein”.
A cute idea this, where music has been added as a modern score to the original film of Frankenstein, just as Jackson Del Ray did with Nosferatu. (It’s anyone’s guess who will get to The Hunchback Of Notre Dame first.) We’ll get to the film shortly, because that’s the dvd, but the CD has twelve tracks which are out of sequence, presumably for a reason.
‘Discovered The Mystery Of Life’ is weighty string-torn ambient, stormy and bundling dramatically across initially mellow intentions. ‘The Evil In Frankenstein’s Mind Creates A Monster’ shuffles about, a lumbering cacophony of slow moving sound. Both ‘Appalled At The Sight Of His Creation’ with its plain and simple agitation and the equally brief ‘The Return Home’, a gentle introspective stroll, are instruments only, then we’re back to more shuffling soundscape with ‘The Monster Sees Himself’, not that we hang about as almost at once the groaning piano of ‘Bridal Night’ moves into a clumping rhythmic dementia.
‘Overcame By Love And Disappears’ heaves out the downcast cello and some supportive keys, before ‘Attack’ shows it’s almost got the length to start working as an ill-tempered but effective rhythmic piece which stands alone, because most of these are too short. ‘The Monster’ is thumpety noise again, before the milder ‘The Mirror’ breaks midway to imply tearful pain. ‘Leaving For College’ is all whispery with train sounds, glowing in a ghostly fashion, and ‘Edison’s Frankenstein’ is sensible and moody strings and keys again with a few noises off, like dragging sacks of strangely heavy leaves, into heavier morose rumbling then takes you through it all.
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A new review for “We Waited For A Subtle Dawn” posted on JudasKiss:
We Waited For A Subtle Dawn contains 15 tracks totalling 67 minutes. ‘A Subtle Dawn’ opens with a passage of a cappella wordless female vocals, which give way to a gloriously uplifting orchestral overture mingled with a confusion of looped crowd noise and staccato violins, which recall the work of modernist composer Steve Reich. Cymbal crashes and snare drum rolls add a bombastic martial flavour, but the track is over all too quickly, giving way to the choppy strings and strange scrabbling noises of ‘In A Chalice Shape’. Again, pizzicato strings and heavy rolls of percussion lend this track a cinematic, neo-classical quality. Life Toward Twilight are operating in the same general area as Shinjuku Thief, Frederik Klingwall or A Challenge Of Honour, at the point where neo-classical, orchestral compositions take on narrative overtones, evoking visions through sound. ‘”Time”, She Says’ is very different, though, eschewing orchestral instrumentation in favour of thunder effects rumbling across the stereo channels and a dense, gloopy morass of dripping and whispering, with a steady ticking clock fading in to mark the passage of time, a theme which continues into the following two tracks, ‘”Time”, She Points Again’ and ‘Years’, all of which reminded me a little of the recent Eight Studies In Transition collaboration between K. Mietzer and Horologium. All these tracks use cold, bleak dark ambient soundscapes, only occasionally introducing conventional instruments – a brief passage of cello, a lonely, remote piano melody, a dissonant blast of horns. The next few tracks are rather samey and indistinguishable – low, industrial ambient drones and subdued strings punctuated by deep, reverberating percussion and vocal samples, but the tenth track, ‘Eclipse II’ stands out, opening with thin, scraping high frequency tones, and bringing in dense barrages of textural noise and whistling feedback, something like Toroidh or Droin. Elyse Reardon’s vocals float above this uncompromisingly bleak backdrop. ‘Horbehutet’ is the lengthiest track on the album, at nearly nine minutes, and it’s a mesmeric, immersive experience of deep, Ain Soph-like esoteric drones and muffled, distant beats – I’d have been delighted by a whole album sounding like this, but Life Toward Twilight is a very eclectic and diverse-sounding project, ranging far and wide across various musical styles whilst preserving the prevailing dark mood.
“We Waited For A Subtle Dawn” is still available on CD, and can be downloaded for free from the Bottle Imp Productions site.
Sorry again to JudasKiss for disc mixup, normally promo packages go out with a lot of material. Will send you a better package soon!
The Headphone Commute posted a new review of “I Swear By All The Flowers“. They also posted a quick interview.
The review:
Tiny vinyl crackles are quietly put to sleep by a music box lullaby. The simplistic nature of I Swear By All The Flowers urges against dismissing the album too quickly. And so I dig. Bottle Imp is an independent label specializing in genres like glitch, breakcore, ethereal and darkwave. Its four first official releases are from a single artist, plus a recent addition to its roster, BLÆRG. That first, prominent name, is Life Toward Twilight, a Detroit based solo dark ambient and post-industrial project of Daniel Tuttle. Tuttle is the man behind the label as well, which features an archive of previous net releases available as a free download. But the record that I’m listening to is far from any of the above mentioned genres. It’s ambient atmospheres, dirty hisses, and analog noises as if they were recorded from… ah, yes! All of the sounds indeed were recorded from antique sources, like grandfather clocks, music boxes, old factories, steam trains, and yes, even wax cylinder recordings! I am a proud owner of a Victrola myself, which I occasionally wind up to marvel at its analog technology of sound magnification. An entire album made of such bits and pieces, with an old detuned piano, is a truly haunting experience. A meditative echo of the past. Voices of a forgotten era recorded by the magnetic fields of earth. This is an experimental album you’ll play over and over, and then talk to your friends about. Reminded me of The Refractors, Elegi, and Deaf Center.
The interview:
First of all, what gave you the idea of creating such an album?
Honestly, it was the next natural step for me in my music evolution. I consider myself an ambient artist, and my usual goal is to create a certain vibe and mood. I do not fully subscribe to Eno’s idea that ambient music should not be distracting in anyway. I like to tell stories, and I do that by adding stuff to the foreground of the music, though in very subtle ways. Most of my work in the past is narration to a story I have in my head. I still feel my music works as ambient music, though. I had been dwelling on this idea of making music that is intentionally low fidelity that creates an antique and rusty atmosphere. I love deep drones, but I wanted to move away from that and try something very different. My story is old, and I wanted the music to sound appropriately aged. The rule I set for myself in this recording is that I could only use sound sources that either were from the late Victorian era, or could have existed at the time. Then I mixed them using the same sort of production techniques I used for my older albums. Even the melodies are intentionally detuned and decrepit.
Tell us about the main character of the story within the music.
My protagonist is the ghost of an old man that died in autumn of the year 1908. The music largely represents this man’s memories, starting from his youth and moving all the way to his deathbed. The music is a reflection on his life, loves lost, long travels and sad nostalgia. I imagined it narrated like a fuzzy dream sequence, with no good order or rhythm. When building the album, each track represented an individual experience or memory, with some repeating themes. I usually do not tell the actual story, preferring the music to do that job for me.
Do you really own an wax cylinder phonograph? I’m a geek when it comes to antique technology.
I own a single wax cylinder, but no phonograph. I would love to own one though! I am fascinated by antique sound equipment, as well. When I was putting together the idea for this album, I contemplated a hundred different ways to go about the production. What I really wanted to do was record the whole thing on a wax cylinder phonograph, and then re-record it digitally for production. However, the technical and financial hurdles would have slowed down the production on the album significantly, possibly for years. I decided to recreate it the best way I could with the tools I have, which is ultimately how I get everything done. All of the static is from some very nice wax cylinder recordings. A lot of the background vocal snippets are from home recordings done on wax cylinders.
New review for “Blood” from Industrial.org:
I received “We waited for a subtle dawn” from Life Toward Twilight a few years back, and I liked it a lot. It was diverse dark ambient, and overall pretty solid. So I wasn’t really surprised when I popped in “Blood” and found that it was another slab of quality reverb soaked nefariousness.
The material on “Blood” is different in a few ways, mainly in that it has an overall stronger sense of cohesion and tightness, and it stays more in one stylistic direction, while still maintaining a lot of different aural inputs. It’s also different in that it’s only 17 minutes long, which may add to it’s feeling of cohesion a bit. There are a lot of creepy moans and howls here, and a lot of good found sound type elements of the darker variety, what with creaking and slamming doors and demonic poundings. Lots of very effective winds and muttered screams as well.
Overall this album sounds like a 16th century english village being slaughtered by a storm of very fucked up demons, which in my book is really, really cool. If you dig dark ambient you have no reason not to get yourself some “Blood”.
Emphasis added by me, because you know, that’s a pretty great description in my opinion.
Remember, “Blood” can be downloaded for free at Bottle Imp Productions. Higher quality can be had via iTunes or Amazon MP3
A new review of “I Swear By All The Flowers” has been posted by Mick Mercer.
…here we have an exquisite album of ambient composition that relies entirely on old sounds, and without the Goth ethos seeping into all areas of music it would doubtless have been a rustier, more angular affair, instead of which it’s a delight. So hurrah for Goth and on with the review of Daniel Tuttle’s latest work, with me avoiding any sudden shocks by advising you all to buy it.
A little card came with the CD which explains concisely – ‘All of the sounds used in the recording came from antique sources, including music boxes, ticking grandfather clocks, steam trains, wax cylinder recordings, early mechanical factories and old voices. An old detuned piano played by hesitant ghosts haunts the recordings. A warm static stays in place throughout, a constant reminder of the technical hurdles of early recordings.’ That static actually works as a keepnet on the project, barely noticeable but essential. Mind you, those hesitant ghosts are a bugger in the studio. “Let’s take that one again. Oh, they’ve gone!” (Or have they?)
‘Sleepy/Solitude’ tinkles through a music box, with the static clear, dainty and thoughtful. A threshing rhythm then stokes ‘Threnody To The Quiet Mind’ but the piano moves gently into the foreground, joined by ticking and distant chunky rattling. The piano perks up brightly during ‘The Theft Of Memory’, competing with a deft clutter of mechanisms and moving objects, splintering towards the end and on into the slow drone of a ‘A Trip To My Beating Heart’, which reminded me of an eerie version of the Salvation Army passing in a parallel street, then it mutates into a busy concourse of a station by the sound of it, in the busiest track which doesn’t upset the mood, it’s a weird peak.
‘Your Eyes Have Their Silence’ has more vocals lightly swirling in the dust and there’s a ghostly sheen which slowly grows bolder, and on into the comparatively joyful ‘Of Course, Words Collide’, the music box timid but glowing amid the scattering of worldy activity, which suddenly all stops and we crawl into the darker, contemplative space of ‘Threnody To Our Time Apart’ which has a sorrowful air for all its shuttling rhythm and warm piano.
‘An Incoherent Lullaby’ crackles and chimes sweetly, ‘We Sing As The World Dissolves’ has the sounds of the church filtering in through the haze, for this is often a light experience, and in ‘Sunrise’ we return to the heavier static, the ticking and the end of an old record, with pleasant piano wrinkles, where there’s the feeling of a day gone by, much as on recent Tor Lundvall albums, with a journey completed, a snapshot brought to life.
A short album, which rather works in its favour, but one which avoids the background music tag as it takes you somewhere else; a little strange and jarring initially, but gradually you appreciate being there. A little treasure, all things considered.
You can purchase the album from many places:
You can listen to the whole album for free at Last.fm
A review for “I Swear By All The Flowers” has been posted on Heathen Harvest.
I had heard about Daniel Tuttle’s project, Life Toward Twilight, some time ago and have randomly listened to some of his material. It hardly needs presentation, especially because it has already been spoken about in two previous reviews in Heathen Harvest. It had started in 1999, when the mentioned member of Ogun’s Will decided to begin his own project. When Ogun’s Will parted, around 2000, Life Toward Twilight became the main project for Daniel. In 2007 Life Towards Twilight counts with seven releases and many compilation appearances. ‘I Swear By All The Flowers’ returns to a thematic release, while the previous one, ‘We Waited For A Subtle Dawn’ was more a collection of tracks dedicated to Laura, Daniel’s sadly lost fiancée. ‘I swear by all the flowers’ is also different from previous releases in other characteristics; it sheds some of the percussion and dives deeper into ambient, in a very particular way, creating a storyline that one can follow through the record.
For the listening, one must be ready to be submerged into a place where silence is as important as every single sound. The slight distortion in the background recalls the sound a vinyl makes, full of static, when going round and round the player at its end. The chiming of a music box sound manages to generate a desolate atmosphere, where each detail comes sharply into view. This song paves the reception for the following ones: if one listens closely the listener falls into a place of delicate details and constant surprises – all so faint and subtle it is almost as if a secret unfolds like a blooming dawn flower that you can only take pleasure in if you are willing to give up a piece of your time. ‘Threnody to the quiet mind’ does not differ clearly from the initial song, but it does introduce a piano, that constructs a melody, which falls down, steps up again and again flounders. The background image sounds develop, including further mechanical references while keeping the static.
‘The theft of memory’ is obvious in its beginning, mainly because of the sharp melody that opens it. It is full of beauty, slightly oriental, very raw and intuitive. The atmospheres in the background are full of falling sounds, sort of if one found themselves inside the belly of an industrial mill, where wheels are turning and grain is raining over your head. The composition of the song is superb, and ‘The theft of memory’ becomes, without doubt, one of the most outstanding songs of the record. As a counterpoint ‘A trip to my beating heart’ is dirty, violent and chaotic. Throughout the song there is a growing buzz, a crescendo in noise, destruction and unravelling turmoil.
With ‘Your eyes have their silence’ calm returns, and so does the static, yet this time it fills up with moaning voices that create a disturbing atmosphere. Mechanical noises start coming in waves and what seemed to be a haunting composition becomes a violent and overwhelming field of devastation. A chord line moves in behind the noise, only to disappear again. Some voice samplers open the next composition, where the music box melodies pour in again over a much denser and darker atmosphere than the one found in ‘Sleepy / Solitude’. The noisy, machine-like background is constantly growing in each song, like a menacing animal. Once unleashed, it is never again completely controlled, until the birth of ‘Threnody to our time apart’. It rolls around various mechanical sounds, but they are closer to a domestic sound. A steam-like motor sound is laid out while the piano notes take the spotlight. The melody is broken and deconstructed. It is as if steps were faltering, brimming with a sweet desperation.
Calmness sets in as the percussion in ‘An Incoherent Lullaby’ is surrounded by wave-like sounds. Every note is strangely coherent yet floats uniquely in the surrounding static. ‘We sing as the world dissolves’ comes almost unexpectedly, until one is really conscious that the chimes have stopped and the machinery sets in. A chanting dissolves in the background, almost not there at times. The end belongs to ‘Sunrise’, returning to the flighty music box notes over the faint and ever-present static. ‘I swear by all the flowers’ is definitely a voyage trough many sentiments and reactions. It is an articulate patchwork of emotions, portrayed in an excellent way through noise confronted with delicate melody. Probably one of the better works of Life Toward Twilight to date, and highly recommended for all those that enjoy feeling gloomy, nostalgic and distressed.
A new review has been posted for my new album, “Blood” at Absolute Zero Media Webzine :
After meeting Daniel live 7 days ago I can say that his live show is what this CD is all about, Dark, Grim, Soothing, Creepy and Somber all at once. Blood by Life Towards Twilight is the most angry and upsetting thing I have ever heard by him. Remember the all the best things about Cold Spring artists like SISTRENATUS and KEROVNIAN and you’re coming some where close to the majesty of it all. This is like entering the mind and soul of the damned and not being able to find the way out. Though only seventeen minutes long if it was any longer I don’t know if I or anyone would want any more of this in one sitting. Its almost like all the best parts of MZ412 or Sephiroth all in one as well. This is just fucking un-nerving material. If this doesnt get Life Toward Twilight known to a larger crowd nothing ever will. This is Black Industrial perfection!!!!!
You can listen to the album at Last.fm or order a copy directly at Bottle Imp.
A new review has been posted for “I Swear By All The Flowers” at Evening of Light :
‘I Swear By All The Flowers’ is the fifth album by this project by Daniel Tuttle, and another one with interesting and captivating sounds. Where the previous album, ‘We waited for a subtle dawn’ was quite diverse in its sound, this album is more of a solid concept, as Daniel expresses it himself. And he is right about that. This album has a more ambient atmosphere, with some sections of slightly denser industrial influence.
The album is both shorter and calmer than its predecessor, and it lacks the heavier percussive parts that were present before. Instead, it focuses on a mixture of white noise, piano, music box melodies, samples, and other effects to create a haunting collection of tracks. Here and there, we hear everyday sounds, decrepit old records, confused female singing, or just people talking.
The combination of these aspects and the fuzzy, gritty sounds lends this album a unique mood. To me, it is as if these are visions and sounds picked up by the ghost of a deceased person, who still lingers somewhere between this world and the next. He or she has some sense of what is happening in the world, and can at times make out things through the mist, but it’s all jumbled and, more importantly, just out of reach. Even childhood memories and pictures of lost innocence drift through the consciousness of the musical protagonist. You can feel the yearning, madness, and grief, and that makes this a beautiful piece of music.
Those emotions were also what I found missing in the previous album, and combined with the clear musical vision, it lifts this album up a lot. This is a wonderful album for those who’d like to share this eerie experience, and look at this world from beyond.
You can purchase the album here.
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