Marsen Jules - The Empire of Silence (2015)

Ten years after his debut-album “Herbstlaub“ on CCO, german ambient composer Marsen Jules takes us to his “Empire of Silence“. An impressing soundtrack to the epic power and beauty of nordic snow and ice-landscapes. Thereby he sounds even more elegiac, warm and romantic as ever before. This might be a result of a strict reduction to bittersweet symphonic string-sounds. Sounds which Jules elapses like a prism on the timeline and lets them meander on the slightly on the listeners eardrum. While others are still talking about “modern classic“, Jules is already moving on the particle-layer through the sound-continuum. Diving deeper into the sounds then ever before, he lets the frequencies mirror on the sound spectrum with an impressing precision. Actually there is not much space for “real“ silence on the album. Instead the epic sounds of “The Empire of Silence“ seem to unfold their archaic euphoria best at high volumes. An euphoria that carries everything away and occupies the whole space. For the track titles of the eight gems on this album Jules refers to different Words for snow in Inuit language, of which the legend says there are dozens. While the melancholic openers “penstla“ (the idea of snow) and “tlaslo“ (snow that falls slowly) still travel on soft ways, the album raises to its full euphoria with “kayi“ (drifting snow) and “skriniya“ (snow that never reaches the ground). With its epic magic the nine minute long “katiyana“ (night snow) thrills the listeners attention while “naklin“ (forgotten snow) brings a short inhale. The album finds its peak with the ecstatic glisandi of „chathalin“ (snow that makes a sizzling sound as it falls on water) and finds its finish in the beautiful and lofty “ylaipi“ (tomorrow´s snow). For everyone who is still not satisfied fully after this 55 minute journey through nearly endless stringlisandi, we recommend the 45-minute bonus track which comes as digital download with the cd version on bandcamp.