Neronoia - Un Mondo In Me (2006)

This is an interesting release from Italian artists Neronia, a partnership involving the Canaan members Mauro, Andrea, Nico, and Teo, with Gianni and Alberto from Colloquio. If you have ever heard works from Canaan then you'll quickly get a picture of what these songs are about. For those who have not, the best way I can find to describe the experience is one of those scenes on TV or a movie where you see a diver get into the ocean, watch the immediate change of surroundings and then seeing and feeling the watery world where its calm, there is sunlight filtering through and everything seems to be moving at a slower, more gentle pace.

The music in itself is not by any means just simple moody or ambient tones. To the contrary this album reminded me so much of the second part of Tiamat’s amazing Wildhoney. If you remember that disc, that was the moment when the Swedes made a left turn on their black/doom approach into a total never-to-return-trip.

One of the most interesting things about this album is how the songs seem to be much longer than what they are. Every song seems like a 6 to 7 minute affair and the longest one clocks in at just over 5 minutes. I firmly believe this is one of the purposes of the band's approach, to create a mood on the CD where the listener will be engulfed and slowly swallowed.

Because of the synths and the gentle guitar chords, the whole work has a complete and sticky aura of calmness that seems to make you actually slow down. The plesant but firm singing, entirely in Italian, sometimes almost whispers out of the speakers and never becomes obtrusive or abusing.

Another thing that I found interesting was the end. It seems very sudden to the point of almost sounding inconclusive, with the music seemingly stopping smack in the middle of a song. This I attribute to the mood the rest of the CD has got you into where again, you have been in a slow tumble for almost 45 minutes and thus the effect seeming more violent than what it really is.

As you can see, this album is totally about atmosphere, about mood and about a sense of calm where your surroundings will slowly vanish and where you will be left with soft guitar and synth tones walking you through this musical journey. Add to all this a certain sense of indifference that I found throughout the work and you'll be surrounded by this blue-ish hue for the next 45 minutes as you sink into a an oblivion of psychedlia, nostalgia and ultimately heartache.