Band: Nuit en Agharta (a.k.a. Night in Agharta)

Album: La progéniture des Anunnaki

Album Year: 2006

Label: ??

Genre(s): Tribal, World, Psytrance, Ambient, Listen for yourself

Band Website: ???

Rating: 8.5/10

Well I was given this album under the pretext that it was supposedly a traveler’s (dark) ambient audio chronicle of his journey to the hollow earth. In my opinion this album sounds nothing like what I would imagine the hollow earth to sound like and it is probably the farthest thing from (dark) ambient possible. I would be hard pressed to make a musical comparison, but if I had to say anything I would say that La progeniture des Anunnaki reminds me of Shpongle. Yeah that’s right, Shpongle. Nuit en Agharta presents eight tracks of world/tribal music blended (quite well) with elements of psytrance. Yep, that’s starting to sound like Shpongle, isn’t it? Initially, a good part of the album is comprised of tribal drums and what sounds like Native American chanting, but once you get a few tracks in huge psytrance synthlines present themselves along with danceable beats. It’s a weird album. Later on parts of the album breakdown into some nice thick ambient textures that continue to convey the same feeling as the earlier tracks. Apparently Nuit thought that one psytrance track was enough, as the album never goes back into that direction. The remainder of the album is all ambient, and does begin to start sounding like what I would imagine the hollow earth to sound like. Lots of organic sounds here and some weird distorted voices. It builds slowly and carefully. Forever. Nuit en Agharta has mastered the art of building and layering to achieve thick meditative/psychedelic atmospheres.

Despite (initially) being the complete opposite of what I was expecting, I really did enjoy this album. I believe Nuit en Agharta is only one person, and I would really like to know how a single person put all of this together. Like a good Shpongle record, La Progeniture des Anunnaki is huge. There are so many different things jam packed onto this album, and yet everything melds together to create a wholeistic picture and experience for the listener. This isn’t a bunch of random shit thrown together, everything seems to be at least fairly meticulously chosen and placed to present a very cohesive idea. The album is full of peaks and valleys, and it feels very planned and at least in my opinion is well executed. The builds flow smoothly into the valleys and vice versa.

It would be impossible to explain this entire record in a short review, but if you are into meditative organic ambient music then I encourage you to check this one out and expect the unexpected. Songs range from 3 minutes to 17 minutes.  It’s a very intense and strange journey, but I think that it is one worth taking. My only qualm is that there is almost too much on this album. I really like the organic ambient tracks, but they seem so drastically different from the earlier tracks. At the same time I feel like they are a natural progression of the music and for that reason they work even more so. Well, I encourage you to check it out and see if it works for you.

-[.d4n b4rr3tt.]

may 2007