Since 2003, Simon Heath's personal project Atrium Carceri has grown from obscurity to becoming one of the most well known names in the dark ambient genre. His second album, 'Seishinbyouin' does however remain my favorite among the five other albums he's released.
Simon creates an unbelievably dark atmosphere with this work that’s haunting, oppressive, sinister and mysterious sounding. Through out the recording we get treated to the usual dark bleak semi melodic ambient style, but there are lots of other things in this work that makes it appealing. One of the things that gives it such an unsettling feeling is the usage of odd sound effects, samples and voices. It makes me feel like I’m all alone in some dark dungeon or basement and the freaks of nature are nipping at my feet. There's also sampled conversations from Japanese movies and other aspects of interest are that at times the music does display more of a slight industrial sound mixed with the ambient style that we see best displayed on track six ‘Warden.’ Furthermore Simon also splices a little piano into the mix on a few songs, and every so often the album takes on a more bombastic martial approach too.
With ‘Seishinbyouin’ Simon has created one of the best dark ambient releases I have personally ever heard. Honestly you'll be hard pressed to find an ambient release so addictive, poignant, spooky and in general just excellent sounding.
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