Article by David Rosales.

Desolation is a full-on ambient project that blends simple and solid harmonic backgrounds, repetitive phrases of a dark coloring, with recorded lamentations both human and otherwise. The aim seems to be to produce the whole array of impressions encapsulated within that single word: desolation. The music’s structure is progressive and appears to be segmented in an episodic manner, which normally implies a loss of continuity between sections. This unwanted effect is expertly avoided by providing smooth transitions, interleaving ambient soundscapes, nature sounds, vocal improvisations, all of which bring variety within a strongly directly concept that never loses content density or a strong sense of purpose. Furthermore, the album being simply distributed between two long tracks reinforces its unity and the requirement that the audience listens to the whole work as if commencing a mental journey, which once begun must be seen through to its very end.

Chorus From The Ruins achieves the efficiency of the best ambient classics without the need for overcomplications of any kind, be they technological or musical, setting aside as well convoluted abstractions that leave the listener wondering if he is still listening to music. As with the rest of the work by this musician, Desolation delivers an extremely raw yet intuitively refined work that revives and unveils deep human (only human?) experience. Desolation works by arranging sounds that smoothly progress and are arranged to arrive to definite points. However, as true ambient, the conclusion is not a monumental cadence leading to the majestic resolution of all musical disagreements throughout the oeuvre. Ambient is typically simpler and more subtle, the philosophical implications being significantly different than the allusions to immanent destiny pouring forth as extension from the Godhead towards unmovable doom which lie at the center of the Common Practice Period. Closer to a dense soundtrack in this respect, the ending towards which all progress builds has a conceptual, an almost verbal, quality to it that is predominantly emotional in the earthiest and most bestial of senses, leading to an ending that could be described as both tragic and cruel, rather than bleak or depressive.

— Un Poeta, Luz, un verdadero poeta, es un ser omnipotente en el vasto dominio de las Ideas, de las Palabras y de los Símbolos. Transforma en flores y músicas la materia inerte del idioma. Vuela por el Infinito, dialoga con los Elementos, somete a su voluntad las formidables fuerzas ocultas. Su cabeza es como una ánfora sagrada llena de secretos y de prodigios. Pone su espíritu en cada vocablo y hace de las voces rosarios trémulos de emociones y de melodías. Es águila y alondra, es rayo y es céfiro. En su enorme corazón palpitan todos los amores y todos los dolores de la Humanidad y su latido es como el retumbo del trueno y del mar. Es, en fin, la más asombrosa manifestación de las energías eternas, porque la Gloria prolonga su poder y su personalidad a través de las edades. ¡Es un hombre, y más que un hombre, o, por lo menos, el que está más cerca de Dios!
— Froylán Turcios, ‘El Vampiro’

Very little compares to the work of Desolation in this Chorus From The Ruins with its original taste as a hybrid — nay, a synthesis of ambient, soundtrack and dungeon synth. What makes this work unique in its transcendence is that from an artistic point of view, it shares with the best music a holistic character that moves purpose to a finality beyond any verbal dissection by being far more than the sum of its parts, its influences or its methods. Any of the building blocks we may identify on its frontispiece can never reveal the mystery of the vast construction. Does an architectural description of a gothic cathedral actually capture the essence of that dark and pervertedly unholy place? Is the energy of the Mayan temple complex transmitted through the detailed accounts of historians and anthropologists? The author of Chorus From The Ruins is motivated by more than emotion, but also more than merely rational thought, and rather than being possessed by the daemon brought forth by each musical and artistic artifice, moving through technique towards the unseen unity beyond all.

Tracklist:

First Chapter
Demo I: ‘Ritual For The Tyrants’
– Rites of Blood
– Blood on Stone
– Ritual of the Bloody Vengeance
((15:00))

Second Chapter
Demo II: ‘Dawn Of The Cult Of Cruelty’
– Dawn of the Cult of Cruelty
((27:05))

SUB SPECIE AETERNITATIS

Tags: 2008, Ambient, chorus from the ruins, dark ambient, demo, demos, desolation, review