RADIO SALVA - KATH' ARA ep

ARTIST: Radio Salva
TITLE: Kath'Ara
ARTIST LINKS: myspace.com/radiosalva
radiosalva.wordpress.com
soundcloud.com/radiosalva
reverbnation.com/radiosalva
facebook.com/salvamusic
ARTIST COUNTRY: GERMANY
LABEL: Self-released
GENRE: Dark Ambient

Tracklist:
1_ Falling Backwards
2_ Insight
3_ The Subsiding of the Flood
4_ Outside

Christian Salva is one of the newest and absolutely brightest to hit the PostIndustrial Dark Ambient world. This young man hit our scene only last year, but I feel he is well on his way to being one of the leaders of the Ambient sound. There is a great amount of depth in his work, and I'm not gonna use the word "potential" here because this guy has already proven himself to me. I'm hoping that others will pick up on his talent soon. Hurry before he starts charging!
Mr. Salva is already showing us that he is very capable of integrating abundant emotion into his music. Take a listen to any of the three releases he has let us have so far, and not only will you find that there is a new, modern accent to his offerings, but that he accents his tracks with variety. This is one quality that can assure name recognition with Dark Ambient fans. I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of sounds found in this, the Kath'Ara ep.
There is more than layers of drones put through different reverb parameters here [which is all a lot Ambient artists seem to think they can get away with]. There is so much more. Out of the four tracks that comprise this ep, there are two that are side by side that will stay with me for the rest of my life. These two are "Insight" and "The Subsiding of the Flood". I can not remember the last time I let two tracks just repeat in a hypnotic loop, not only for hours, but as was the case for this past weekend, DAYS. This pair is hopelessly beautiful, putting you in the very center of your Universe, letting you experience just how vast your own psyche can be because the ethereal nature of the pieces are just that, vast...
"Insight" is the dreamiest of the four, and much like "The Subsiding of the Flood", everything comes at you in waves. Both works are progressively melodic, but sparse. Samples included in "Insight" are taken form "The Passion of the Christ", these being screaming samples that only make the track sound more intensely emotional, giving the feel of a man desperately calling for someone that is being torn from him in some intensely romantic haze.
But even more intense is "The Subsiding of the Flood". While still being as sedate as "Insight", this track is much more powerful. As cold as is sounds, it is still very condusive to the most comforting and self-indulgent fantasy/meditative/intoxicating states of mind. Not only do we get a fair amount of expansive ambiance, but there is a sample of a choral passage from a gnostic mass, deep in tone and register, adding a very human contrast to the very Navicon Torture Technologies-style bass-noise that is included. Lee M. Bartow would be proud, or at least he should be, as this seems to do much to proliferate the "Power Romance" genre he practically pioneered.
Also worth noting is the last track because of its closer resemblance to a move away from the Dark Ambient sound. This track, while not my favorite, is the one that surprised me the most. "Outside" is a very great track because it is much more indicative of a Depeche Mode-like style, like something that would have made the final cut for "Ultra", one of Depeche Mode's most brilliant, but terribly underrated albums. There is a one-note bass sequence that actually sounds like an electric bass, the most melody to be found in the whole ep, shifting its sound here and there, but not to excess displaying awesome synth textures, and the thought provoking sample of the phrase "Jeder ist allein" [everyone is alone].
There is such an incredible amount of beauty in this ep. And its free! I know I don't write about anything I don't recommend myself, but I REALLY mean it when I say that your life will be enriched so much more if this work is in your collection. This is proverbial opium of and for the mind. I am deeply grateful this exists.

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.archive.org/details/RadioSalva-KatharaEp2010&reCache=1

ARTIST STATEMENT:
The "Kath ´Ara" ep is about wandering the small space between thoughts and emotions. It´s about taking a look through the outer shape of the things we call "reality". It´s about the human being inside us. It´s not about religion. It´s about a deeper kind of belief.