I don't know where to start - this is an EP I've been appreciating and listening to for years so I'm pretty familiar with the songs by now. Although it seems like "Melancholie" is most people's favourite, this one is mine. It's definitely underrated and should be as respected as much as their full length album is.

The only way I can describe it is by saying that if pain was a sound, this EP would be it through and through. Considering the EP is about suicide, pain, death and sorrow, it isn't half rich with melody, life and an amazing sense of structure. I even think someone who isn't into DSBM that much could definitely begin to like this, because of its rich tone and strong layered undertones.

The feelings of sorrow are strong throughout 'This Empty Life' and 'Suicide' ('Suicide', in my opinion, being the best song off the release) especially, but then you have 'Hate' which Börner did a perfectly good job of translating into a sound. Blast beats accompany the powerful ambiance in pretty much every song, but it works really well considering it's a common characteristic of the genre. Not to mention ''The Old Ghost In The Well', which is incredibly unique compared to every other song on the record; the use of sound effects opposed to just being completely ambient instrumental is fantastic and gives it a really nice touch.

This also happens on 'Suicide' although I think it's actually a triangle which is making the "twinkling" sounds. If the stars twinkling made a sound, that would be it, and it just so happens to be on the EP named "TheStarsAreDeadNow" so it's like that is representing the death of the stars.

To sum it up, this is a really solid EP and will continue to be one of my favourite regardless of what I come across in the black metal / depressive suicidal black metal genres. It is definitely worth a listen... preferably in a snowy landscape in the middle of the night.

ColdWorld is the solo project of the German musician Georg Börner and indeed this is one of the most impressive metal debut’s that I have heard.

The EP TheStarsAreDeadNow has perfectly exemplified the talent Georg Börner possesses. Melancholie² Is the album which is most talked about when ColdWorld is mentioned, but this EP is a rare gem which is criminally under-rated.

The record starts with the track This Empty Life and here you go on a trip of ColdWorld, the atmosphere Georg Börner manages to create on this record is mesmerizing and simply beautiful, the vocals are well suited for the beautiful atmospheric music . The second track Hate has one of the most catchy riffs you will come across especially when you play black metal and this is the point when the album starts growing on you. The third track Cancer manages to keep the haunting and the cold atmosphere intact and sound beautiful at the same time, then comes the best track on the record, the track Suicide starts with a perfect intro and the synths in the background just add a lot more to the track and the atmosphere created throughout the song is marvelous and simply breathtaking which makes you want to kill yourself, the final track on this record is The Old Ghost In The Well which is an ambient track and an another example of musical genius of Georg Börner.

ColdWorld is one of the best current Black Metal bands especially when the genre is getting commercialized to quite an extent, ColdWorld can proudly keep the black metal flag waving high.

This is one of those albums I always recommend to people unfamiliar with black metal because I feel it's an accessible record for those not acquainted with black metal yet, particularly the track "Tortured by Solitude", which is the most accessible of the bunch. The aggression commonly found in black metal is mostly absent here in favor of more beautiful and atmospheric soundscapes, and it works great. ColdWorld and this album are truly something else. I've been trying to find similar music for quite a while to no avail.

Melancholie² is packed with atmospheric, cold vibes. It mixes soft, ambient-style keyboards with harsh, tremolo-picked guitar riffs, and it works better than one would expect. This certainly isn't something many would call "trve" black metal but rather a quite unique style. The keyboards are quite dominant throughout the album, but they're fundamental to the sound album is going for and thus never feel out of place or intrusive. They're the #1 reason why this album has such a unique sound. The guitars often take a backseat to the synth melodies.

The variety on the tracks of this album is commendable. They're all coherent and feel like they belong on the album, but they all have something different to offer. The ironically titled "Tortured by Solitude" is, musically, quite an optimistic and catchy track while "Red Snow" is something that could almost pass for a depressive black metal track. "Stille" is a minimalistic and melancholic track that only features a synth pad and guitar. "Hymn to Eternal Frost", on the other hand, is a majestic, epic track that has a very catchy chorus melody. They're all very different yet fit together and form a coherent whole.

One thing about this album that I don't particularly care for are the vocals. It sounds like they're there just for the sake of it rather than as an integral element that actually provides something crucial to the music. They're more like a distant whisper than your typical black metal growl. Think Burzum's Dunkelheit, and you get the picture. They're not necessarily bad, though, just insignificant.

But overall, I don't have many bad things to say about this album. It's definitely one of the best black metal albums that I've ever heard. ColdWorld may be a silly band name, but the music isn't one bit silly; it's amazing.

I'll get my grand declarations out of the way first. Melancholie² is probably the prettiest black metal album ever made. If not that, it' at least the prettiest one I've heard. I came across the work of Georg Börner and his project ColdWorld around the time this debut came out in 2008. I'd been searching for new depressive black metal to match a fittingly tenuous stage in my life. "My Dead Bride" was the first ColdWorld song I ever heard, and I can think of few times where a band's been able to leave such an impression on me with less than three minutes of music.

Having been listening to this album for almost a decade now, I can understand the detractors' criticisms of Melancholie². It's admittedly hyperbolic in its sentimentality, and despite its lo-fi fuzz there's an all-too clean sense of refinement in the way the material is executed. But with all that said, recognizing these would-be gripes in the years since hasn't stopped me from seeing it as a near-perfect work of art. Whenever I listen to it, ColdWorld takes me to a very specific place emotionally. I am leagues more embittered when it comes to black metal than I ever was back in 2008, but, like a trusted friend you fall in and out of contact with over the years, there is a warm comfort in hearing Melancholie². It's an album I feel like I've grown with to the point of extreme familiarity. Ironically, that fact makes the album extremely difficult to review.

Brushing aside my personal biases towards Melancholie² for a moment, let's cover the basics. Coldworld had released a promising demo and solid EP before this, but there wasn't special reason to believe that ColdWorld would be coming out with a masterpiece, come the debut. Despite an admittedly silly name ("Melancholy squared? Melancholy to the power of two? Square multiplication ist krieg?") there are precious few atmospheric black metal bands that seem to tap into some well of perfection. Whether you love or shrug off ColdWorld, "perfection" is hopefully a word we can all agree on, although we may take the term for different meanings. A seemingly raw, lo-fi blanket covers the sound-- the likes of which you've heard in a thousand other one-man BM projects. On Melancholie² however, listening to it the album intently enough, it doesn't have that cloudy murk of usual raw black metal. Hell, it doesn't even feel raw to me. It's as lo-fi as anything else, to be sure, but it sounds like Georg Börner has gone the extra mile towards taking all aspects of the sound under his control.

Some will interpret this move as a mark of dryness. That could not be further from the truth. Putting tight wraps on the sound design would be a call to boredom in lesser hands, but ColdWorld emerged on the scene already under the spell of a master. Burzum is the obvious frontrunner of the atmospheric end of black metal, and off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who rivalled Vikernes in terms of vision and lo-fi magic like this guy. That sounds like lavish praise to be giving to a project with a single album out, and it is, but the warmth isn't without good reason. ColdWorld stands out in virtually every way, in a genre that is notorious for sameness and throwaway acts. If Georg found a perfection in the execution, he mirrored it with his compositions. There's no subtlety in the music's emotional pull, but there doesn't need to be. ColdWorld's bleeding, melodic heart echoes the very best composers from the Romantic-era, where complexity was streamlined in favour of feeling. "Dream of a Dead Sun", "Red Snow" and "My Dead Bride" are meticulously structured and performed, but the resulting atmosphere gives the music all the life it could ever need.

ColdWorld succeeds as a DSBM record, bringing melodies and songwriting tact into a style they're sometimes absent from. "Tortured by Solitude" is one of those atmospheric black metal tracks that feels instantly familiar the first time you hear it, with overwhelming, tragic feelings belying the calculated approach. The archetypal depressive "woe is me" mentality comes through most noticeably on "My Dead Bride" and "Red Snow", but there are parts here that nearly sound cheerful by comparison. If there are any gripes of my own I can spot with Melancholie², it's the cheery break at the end of "Hymn to Eternal Frost". I get that ColdWorld is not a depressive act in the conventional sense, but a build-up that sounds like it's part of some lifeloving gazer band. Coldworld is at its best when the music surrenders to the negativity, trying to find catharsis through it rather than negation.

The pristine exploration of ambient ColdWorld shows on "Winterreise" is another mark of proof that the project can (and should) be compared on favourable grounds with Burzum. Almost everything Melancholie² touches turns to a pristine gold. And if I'm more jaded about it now that I used to be, I still love it as much as I ever have. There are so, so many of these one-man acts that try to do what ColdWorld do, but I don't know of any that come so close to the mark, and especially not on their first try. If I were to guess, I'd say the perfection stems from the fact that Georg Börner is all too happy to be making music the way he wants to, uncompromiing in the face of what people might be searching for in black metal. Turn up all the emotions to 11? Why not. Throw a theremin and electronic beats onto your closer "Escape" and casually push the definition of genre itself? Absolutely. The things that make Coldworld distinct from the rest could be loved or hated dependent on what you're searching for. I know where I stand, at least. An album I've been putting on on-and-off for a significant percentage of my life has got to have something going for it.

Coldworld sonically captures each aspect of winter perfectly. Through it's cold, grim, harsh, desolate and harmonious sounds, the entire album feels like a lifelong journey of traveling through an everlasting snowstorm. The opener "Dream of a Dead Sun" sets the distinctive aura of isolation and hopelessness that is reminiscent of Coldworld's EP "The Stars are Dead Now". As a whole, Coldworld tends to lean closer to the atmospheric realms of black metal rather than it's depressive suicidal black metal counterparts like Silencer and Lifelover. The vocals maintain a good balance and are neither too harsh nor too forced. Furthermore, Coldworld is able to create through a quite minimalist approach, a sound that can fill an auditorium and can be heard miles away while wandering through the woods.

Another personal favourite and highlight on the album is the track "Tortured by Solitude". Although it has a basic 4/4 drum beat and simplistic riffs, the song blew me away emotionally and gave the impression of fading away into nothingness. The eerie and ominous vibe on the closer "Escape" gives the impression of someone inevitably trying to escape to death, however they are soon met with their fate and slowly perish in the cold. This album is a true atmospheric black metal masterpiece that stands alone. While many other artists try to capture an epic sound with an overwhelming amount of harsh and brutal noise, Coldworld do the complete opposite. It always astonishes me how the lone mastermind behind Coldworld, Georg Borner is able to produce such an epic and emotionally driven sound through subtle and minimalistic instrumentation.

Overall, this album really demonstrated how atmospheric and epic of a sound Georg Borner was able to put together. He stands by Scott Conner of Xasthur and Jef Whitehead of Leviathan as being the most innovative, unique and talented one man projects in modern day black metal. Despite this album being Coldworld's only full length release, it will only be a matter of time in my opinion before black metalers experience another majestic and distinct work of art from Georg Borner. In the meantime, Melancholie 2 stands besides Amesoeurs's only album and Lifelover's Konkurs in my opinion, to be the most innovative and enthralling depressive atmospheric black metal albums out there at the moment.

Black metal's formative years showcased rough, lo-fi production in part due to necessity, with recording equipment being expensive and complicated, but also in part due to the aesthetics it lent to the music. Back in 1992, a conference call requires multiple phone calls without accidentally disconnecting oneself from the first call while making the second - sort of a dark art that a lot of people figured out but many more did not. By 2008, cell phones had buttons on their touch screens to make conference calls and recording technology had progressed to the point that nearly anyone could assemble a competent mix and a decent sounding album. Digital production offers highly accessible clarity just as digital phone calls can have some distortion, but the person at the other end will no longer sound like they're shouting from the other end of a cavern. However, if the sound of the cavern is of artistic merit, it is important that your cellular phone gets reception in that cave, that the signal isn't needlessly fuzzed out.

The production of Melancholie² seems both ill-fitting and disingenuous, it doesn't belong to the music, it's just lo-fi and has about as much of a dreadful atmosphere as a boring conference call. The whole damn thing sounds like a conference call, compounded by being on hold for a few minutes while widdly music box tones ping the worst "on-hold" music I have ever heard. Much worse painstaking pinging than the infamous Burzum "prison albums" - what the fuck is this guy's excuse, did he record the album while in a phone booth? Would you like the drums to play a different beat? It'll take a few minutes to get to the next section, we need to get everyone on the same page

The vocals sound phoned in in more way than one, echoing and tinny, weak and not at all captivating. The guitars are tinny and irritating, with plenty of digital noise that is unpleasantly harsh rather than atmospheric. The drums sound awful and do very little for the music. In essence, it's black metal done wrong, a common assessment that could be enhanced by a comparison. Compared to Forgotten Woods first album - the drums there help the music move with varying fills liberally placed at the end of long riffs to give a sense of separation, thunderous tones cracking with each it, while here the drums are a tiny ticking timekeeper with barely any attack. The guitars of FW are crunchy but the tone wasn't overwhelming, they played catchy riffs that could easily be remembered - the guitars here are a fuzzy wall of stagnant tremolo picking that are directionless and don't play anything at all memorable. The vocals of a good black metal band have a certain character and voice that speaks to you, not some tinny screaming buried in the mix that'll make you wish Varg had recorded some vocals over the phone while in prison, just so you know that it would sound better in practice, not in theory. This is a particularly uninteresting and boring breed of bad black metal.

You'd have better luck hearing this type of black metal if you listened to a Burzum cover band on speakerphone with long samples of Hlidskjalf cut in every few minutes.

Georg Börner, the man behind ColdWorld, displayed a good deal of confidence in the emotive power of his full length debut when he decided to title it Melancholie². Unfortunately, he seems to have miscalculated. While on the surface, the album displays lots of sorrow, angst and moodiness, it all feels contrived and unconvincing. Melancholie² feels like having a funeral when no one has died; you’re going through the motions but you’re not sure what for.

Categorically, ColdWorld is best described as depressive post-black metal. The music displays a decent amount of Norwegian influence (especially Burzum), but there are a number of dissonant, dreary passages that recall Xasthur. From post-rock, there are many of moments of icy dreaminess that hint at Sigur Ros and clean guitar leads similar to those of Explosions in the Sky. A number of soundtrack style ambient passages round out ColdWorld’s sound.

These elements are employed in the pursuit of a sorrowful, reflective atmosphere. However, poor execution means that the affect is only achieved at the surface level. While the musicianship is technically sound, it is too austere. The cleanliness of the performance stands in stark contrast to the deep emotions Georg is trying to draw out. The performance has no soul. No energy bursts forth from the guitar, the drums are flat and the synths are especially inundating. Georg is infatuated with these female vocal samples that sound like they were lifted from an Enya album. Only the violin—which is a creative touch on Georg’s part—really draws out any fervor. Another problem is that the vocals are quite poor. Georg has a weak and crackly growl. He tries to shelter it with distortion and reverb, but lipstick can only do so much for a pig.

The closer to metal ColdWorld remains, the better it sounds. “Tortured by Solitude,” which blends post-rock leads, mournful violin and metallic fuzz is actually quite beautiful. “Red Snow” is also fairly effective; it starts in a doomy dirge before peaking in a skyscraping post-rock lead. On the other hand, the more rock or ambient tracks are tortuously dull. “Escape” is the worst culprit, employing disjointed electronic percussion and lulling lead guitar over for eight excruciating minutes. Unfortunately, this sort of sleep-inducing drivel makes up about one-third of the album.

At its best, Melancholie² is like a good Hollywood drama. Even though it’s synthetic and follows a predictable storyline, it still manages to pull at your heart strings, albeit in a mechanical fashion. At its worst, Melancholie² is like a daytime soap opera; it’s full of unbelievable melodrama, unconvincing emotions and plastic execution. In both cases, ColdWorld fails to stir anything beyond the most shallow of emotions.

(Originally written for http://deinos-logos.blogspot.com/)

Titles like "Tortured by Solitude", "Hymn to Eternal Frost" and "My Dead Bride" suggest that this album, the first for German act ColdWorld, should be a pretty dreary and sombre affair with hints of deeply buried anger and frustration, like many other recordings blessed (or maybe cursed) with the "depressive black metal" label. First track "Dream of a Dead Sun' adheres quite closely to the broad template of depressive BM: at once solemn and melancholy yet brimming with hostility and potential malice thanks to a strong noisy barrage of BM guitars, efficient no-nonsense percussion and grim croaking BM vocals from ColdWorld man GB who handles just about everything here. There are hints though in the background voices and light synthesiser touches to demonstrate that ColdWorld is not merely any old depressive BM act and that GB has more, much more, to offer to this music.

Progress through the next few tracks and we're treated to violin melodies, definite melodic guitar riffs and passages of keyboard-generated tunes and clouds of pure tone, all of which show that GB has a definite pop sensibility, an easy familiarity with creating and sustaining a particular mood or atmosphere, deft songwriting skills and much knowledge of music genres and techniques outside BM and, indeed, metal generally. It would be no surprise if we were to find that he's worked or is working in some other area of music under another name and achieving some success there. Indeed the danger with this album is that the music, whether it's straight-out repetitive minimal BM, ambient tone poems or a BM fusion with blues, electronica or elements of German Romanticism, seems almost "made to order", it's all just a little too consistent and well-crafted. Everything is perfect and spontaneity is in short supply. You want constant showers of BM guitar noise balanced equally with plaintive pure keyboard tones heavy with existential pain? Check ("Red Snow", "Tortured by Solitude"). Want a nice all-ambient mood piece that tugs at the heart-strings and makes you feel sad that life is often so hard to endure? Check ("Winterreise"). Did you want fries with that? Did you say you want large fries? You get the idea.

In a recording where every song is created with a lot of care and attention to detail, not much being left to chance, there's no filler apart from the superfluous "Stille" which rubs in the tail-end of "Red Snow" but nothing really jumps out and grabs you by the throat either. Everything goes very smoothly and, for depressive BM, a little briskly. All very efficient and tasteful too. Later tracks like "Hymn to Eternal Frost" and "My Dead Bride" veer close to schmaltz in parts where a synthesised choir or orchestra appears. Outro track "Escape" experiments with laidback blues, a spacey sci-fi ambience and very quiet licks of electronica for a while until BM guitars and a solo violin knocks this curious mix aside. Not that I care really because while this is quite an unusual combination, it doesn't sound inspired and there's something about this track that seems calculated. The violin melody seems a bit cliched. Escape? The only "escape" I experience is when the mournful violin playing - gosh, the violin here is always "mournful" - ends and the recording is over.

Cynical and jaded hack writer I may be and while I appreciate music that's well-made and produced, with this kind of BM, I'm looking for music that can express intense feelings and moods for much of the time if not all the time, music that gropes and flounders around in the dark trying to reach the light, music that knows what it's like to feel lost and abandoned in an unfeeling, uncaring world too self-absorbed and busy to know that it's rushing headlong into self-destruction and catastrophe. ColdWorld's music as it is can't yet do this: I feel it's too knowing, it emphasises technical chops too much and it's short on one thing depressive BM must have ... soul.

Having covered another ambient black metal band recently, Totgeburt from Switzerland, it is easy to see why the tides between good and bad are so wide apart when it comes to this sub-genre of black metal which rarely ever homes a band who sits upon the fence directly down the line. Totgeburt were an unusual band, blending ambiance and black metal music in twisted ways in order to provide the listener with a more true to life depiction of the insanity disorder that plagues some of mankind’s most troubled souls. Totgeburt were one side of this sub-genre, unable to maintain interest levels at a high standard throughout the duration of their full-length but this band however, are able to maintain high standards, increased levels of interest and even leave the listener wanting more. Its no secret that Germany’s ColdWorld are considered to be one of the, if not the very best the sub-genre has to offer, mixing black metal traditions with ambiance. Considering the majority of music within this area of metal has some degree of ambiance to it, one would imagine that bands who specialise in the sound would be able to fulfill our every need and want but that isn’t the case most of the time. In actual fact, most bands struggle to get the balance between ambiance and black metal right.

Thankfully, and its probably coming as no surprise nowadays, ColdWorld have managed to successfully mix the two entities together and create a minimalistic haven for black metal fans worldwide. Its no wonder the German scene is viewed as one of the most, if not the strongest scenes on the global market in terms of this genre. The level of success this part of the world has seen is down to their talented array of musicians, especially in the field of depressive black metal (which some argue ColdWorld fit precisely in to - but its difficult to judge without conflict and confusion) where bands like Anti and the supreme artists of Nyktalgia operate their trades. Georg Börner, G.B. as he is usually known as, is the sole creator of this band and, once again, exceeds the expectations of the listener with his one-man act because one man bands have a tarnished reputation within the metal scene. The majority of people recognise the difficulties that one man bands will face when creating their music solely by themselves, despite having the added advantage of not being drawn into debates over musical directions and thus causing unnecessary and unwanted heat between musicians, but this doesn’t stop people from collectively disparaging one man bands, or even neglecting them due to the fact that, apparently, one man cannot control all facets of the instrumentation and be a justifiable success - wrong. G.B. has managed this with much to spare.

His efforts deserve a lot of credit because of the simple fact that he is alone, he is creating this expression by himself, without any help whatsoever. His efforts have rewarded us, the fans, with a fantastic sample of what ambient black metal is all about, the epitome, if one will. I myself know a number of small-time one man successes. Fellow German band Wigrid, for example, despite being a “Burzum clone” and operating with a drum machine, have managed to build up a positive reputation that has taken the underground by storm. I rate his music as one of the best examples of depressive black metal the genre has come up with. His portrayal of pain and sorrow is almost unparalleled within the scene and, until now, bands like Nyktalgia and Wigrid were cruising along with the top down, thinking that they’ll be at the top of the pile forever, but there is always going to be competition from somewhere and with the arrival of this band in 2005, and the debut EP ‘TheStarsAreDeadNow’ in 2006, people began to ignore the material that had been floating around for several years previous to ColdWorld and take notice of the sound coming from the direction of Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany. Whether or not this counts as a depressive black metal record or not is up for debate, but given the possible influences behind the music, it is very likely that we can assume this was intended on being a depressive record, with an ambiance in the background that would spark mass debate and hysteria, as well as experimenting with the sub-genres set roots.

Given the relatively young age of the sub-genre, its still possible for bands, like ColdWorld, to experiment with the roots without running into too much trouble from irate fans. In fact, ColdWorld were greeted with open arms in the midst of their arrival a few years ago. The genre was, or perhaps still is, in the eyes of a small number of people, a major overhaul and ColdWorld were here as our saviour, our saving grace, to provide us with an opportunity of seeing this overused sub-genre in a different context and a new light, which would reflect even more positively against the rest of the pack, whose ideas were running short and energies running on empty as they failed to keep up with this band of juxtaposed ideas. So, once again, it is the case that we have encountered a band whom operates on juxtaposed ideas - ambiance and metal, joy and sadness, positive and negative vibes. G.B. is a compositional mastermind as he stretches the limits of the imagination with his creative and solely ambient pieces, like ‘Escape’, for example, which is a collection of electronic sounds that entrance and a guitar that provides a subtle upbeat message that compliments the previously used negative emotions. ColdWorld are, and I hate to use the word, a genius creation, mixing affluent material with material that conjures an image of desolation and wasted life. I must admit, it wasn’t always a bed of roses as I found it difficult to buy into the hype surrounding the band, despite knowing of their existence for a few years before the debut full-length, ‘Melancholie²’.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with the first EP and couldn’t work myself into the mood for the atmosphere surrounding ‘Melancholie²’, despite being a fan of ambient music, and even trance in my mislead youth. The mix of traditional black metal styling and entrancing ambiance took some time to become accustomed to. I felt a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, but now that the dust has settled, the material has sunk into my blood stream, and is now in full flow on an unstoppable course around my body and into my heart. There are just too many deceivingly delightful elements to be heard. The juxtaposition, once again, plays a significant role in this - harsh rasps, clean, almost operatic vocals from the choir of the dead situated alongside one another during songs like the haunting, yet remarkably beautiful ‘Dream of a Dead Sun’. This song is followed, again, by a song with a fantastic array of emotions, from the sorrowful violin passages (which give a classical vibe to the soundscapes alongside the choir-esque vocals), which were unexpected - making them even better in the mix - alongside the angst ridden guitar and vocal duet. Of course, the biggest and most significant juxtaposed idea is between the ambient and black metal elements, which contain, as always, a Burzum vibe. The pressure is now firmly on G.B. to keep this level of brilliance, or to perhaps even exceed it. I look forward to whatever comes next with excitement.

When it comes to providing an adequate amount of sorrow and beauty within an atmospheric black metal release, which albums usually come to mind? For those who are really familiar with black metal altogether, it wouldn’t be all that complicated to provide a couple of titles right off the top of their heads. But for others, not so many are as quickly recognized, since most black metal bands don’t tend to fall in the same category in which the word “beauty” is present to describe what they have created. Well without a doubt, ColdWorld’s debut Melancholie² should definitely come to mind when one thinks of such beautifully created works from a black metal band.


First of all, Melancholie² can certainly be given the title of one of the greatest offerings to come out of the black metal genre, and not just within recent years, but since many now notably influential acts have been offering their share of impeccable efforts from all periods of this often ridiculed and sometimes misunderstood style of music. Now, what makes an album like Melancholie² that much more appreciative is the fact that such an incredible work of art has been created by only one person. That being Georg Börne (aka G.B.), who’s definitely a cut above the rest and thus can claim a well-deserved place amongst the best-of-the-best of very talented one-man(d) acts who have presented audiences with this type of melancholic sound. At least this can be said based on his efforts made on Melancholie².


ColdWorld’s debut offers, as stated previously, a very enchanting atmosphere that has the ability to place the listener within its created icy isolated domain. This is in part courtesy of a very ‘crisp’ and suitable production, and in the case of this type of release, is very fitting to say the least. Blending together well crafted ambient pieces with mournful sounding black metal (DSBM if you will, but not quite entirely) and even electronic sounds which can be found on the appropriately entitled closing track of “Escape”, makes for a very refreshing and relaxing combination of ingenuity and creativity, in which other bands who have also attempted to combine such aspects within their music have yet to offer as adequately and perfectly as G.B. has with his debut effort. The vocals are very much in the same manner as your typical black metal record that focuses on the more solitary and unnecessary parts of life (again, much as many DSBM bands mainly do) except Melancholie² is simply not as easily placed in the same category of being depressive or suicidal, for the most part. This release is not just limited to its simple percussion courtesy of the programmed drums (which in no way brings down the quality of the music for ever being too dull or repetitive) or the melodies provided by the guitars and keyboards, but also has within its possession string (violin) and choir-like moments that provide an unmistakably uplifting feel to the end result. It would be pretty safe to say that Melancholie² is a whole smorgasbord (not the buffet type) of sweeping emotions, that come together flawlessly and without the unnecessary aspects that can sometimes plague such types of releases.


ColdWorld’s debut is definitely one of the finest examples of the incredible musical abilities that can be found within the black metal community, as well as being a fine example of the talent that one-man bands can offer. Melancholie² not only offers mournfully beautiful ambience it also manages to create the type of unbelievable chill that only a handful of similar artists who stand at the top of the totem poll (the standouts of the scene) have been able to. It’s not all that often that certain musical outfits usually get things right their first time-around, but when they do, the end result usually tends to be in the same manner of marvelously created efforts such as Melancholie².

Rarely do I find the inspiration to review albums these days, but when an opus like this is born, I consider it my duty to make all metalheads aware of its existence in order to give it all the attention it deserves, and some more.

As with every other ethereal listening experience, I stick to my trusty mantra: this is an album to be heard, not to be read about. The haunting, entrancing and practically unsurpassed soundscapes and atmospheres of this unbelievable masterpiece cannot be justified by means of a keyboard. I will, however, give a few guidelines as to what can be found here.

As opinions always differ, and due to the fact that we, as of yet, only have names and titles to go by, it's hard to know whether this album can be objectively labelled as depressive black metal. Personally, I'd prefer not to put any sort of label on it, as I consider the music reflective and dreaming rather than just focusing on hopeless pain, suicide and wrist-slitting. One of the amazing things about this record is that it's been created by one man; you'd think that an opus like this required a whole staff of experienced musicians and producers, and several years of hard work. The procuction is clean, but not overdone. It accentuates exactly the right instruments at the exact right times, creating near perfect atmospheres. Keep in mind that this is commonly labelled as 'ambient black metal', and quite rightfully so; it is slow, melodic and shoegazingly atmospheric. Swirling layers of keyboard hovers above the rest of the music throughout the record and, as can be heard on standout tracks Tortured By Solitude and Hymn To Eternal Frost, are occasionally accompanied by violins and actual choirs(they must be genuine, such perfection can't be achieved digitally, and I can clearly hear breathing in between the notes...). Also, much to my delight, the occasional major chord is included in the chord progressions, in that special way which only adds to the melancholy and depth of the music, rather than making it lean toward a cheesy, ride-over-the-frosty-plains-toward-the-battle-for-the-greater-glory-of-Odin folkish power metal atmosphere. Very few bands possess this gift, and ColdWorld takes it to total perfection.

The rest of the instrumentation is also immaculate, and perfectly completes the musical entity. The guitars, along with the keyboard, cry forth unbearably beautiful melodies of ethereal loneliness and sorrow, the conflict between reality and dream. The programmed drums, though always sticking to doing their job in the background as they should, are clearly above average in sound and performance. The vocals provide an interesting contrast to the music by being thin and very, very sharp(bearing much resemblance to Wrest of Leviathan), layered with effects to erase every trace of human voice. Some might get turned down by this, having expected something else; I consider it perfectly fit since they don't take up too much space, and avoid diverting any attention from the music. In my ears they fit the rest of the music perfectly, sounding as hauntingly distorted and inhuman as is necessary to complement the feelings evoked by this music.

The ambient parts, amazingly enough, are extremely well-performed and are easily up to par with anything composed by experienced, professional ambient artists. Three tracks(Winterreise, Stille and Escape) are entirely ambient, and constitute perfect interludes to the rest of the music, making the entrancement even deeper, submerging you in dreams and visions of comfortable, dark winter landscapes with gleaming white, snow-clad trees and deep blue, starry skies, lit by dancing auroras. When a friend of mine first introduced me to this album out in his cabin in the woods, Escape was one of the tracks he played, and I could not believe that I was hearing the same artist. Creating such mesmerizing black metal, and then going on to deliver a long piece of ambience with electronic complements, was something I didn't think was possible. ColdWorld, however, breaks all boundaries I initially thought atmospheric black metal had. It's perfect, it's immaculate, it has everyhing I have ever wished for in a black metal album, and trust me, I have searched everywhere for music like this, only to find certain satisfying aspects in other bands. With the exception of the first song, every second of this album had me completely spellbound and oblivious to the world around me, which I never think has happened before. The mental effects of this music is monumental: when listening, solitude no longer becomes something painful; it becomes something beautiful and sublime. This music is soothing, calming, achingly beautiful and melancholic at the same time, and thus it's essentially impossible to put any label on it other than ethereal. Every listener will be sunk into his/her own individual universe, with landscapes and visions unconsciously designed by the listener through his/her innermost dreams and visions of a sanctuary beyond this world. It will lead you to insight, make you discover new aspects of your own mentality, it will be the soundtrack to your strongest emotions. Such is the force of this music, and I'm still far from a sufficent description...

Enough. Just go listen to this album, right now. You will, NOT, regret it.

ColdWorld is the solo project of German musician Georg Börner, a.k.a. GB, and Melancholie² is the debut album, following the release of a limited edition EP, TheStarsAreDeadNow, in 2005. I say German, but ColdWorld is more specifically a Thuringian band, and the central German ‘Bundesland’ or province of Thuringia is a fertile breeding ground for black metal, with notable Thuringian bands including XIV Dark Centuries, Absurd, Heldentum, Farsot, Wolfsmond, Eisregen, Ewigheim and Menhir. ColdWorld’s debut album convincingly demonstrates the band to be a more than worthy addition to these ranks. At the heart of this cold world of frozen desolation burns a secret fire of passion and regeneration.


Melancholie²’s nine tracks occupy 50 minutes, and the album opens with ‘Dream Of A Dead Sun’. Seven lonely, lambent keyboard notes drop into a bleak soundscape with an understated backdrop of orchestral strings, forming a simple repeated phrase. There’s a powerful feeling of vastness and isolation. Then the guitar kicks in with a blazing, surging riff which immediately grabs the attention. You need only to listen to the first few seconds of this song unleashing itself to be left in no doubt that this is a black metal band well worth paying attention to. The anguished, blackened vocals hover on the margins of comprehension, but the lyrics are delivered in English. The song is propelled forward with blastbeat drums, and the energy and velocity of the delivery recalls ‘Reverence’-era Emperor. Keyboards add majesty and atmosphere, but are never allowed to predominate over the guitar, and the production is surprisingly clear and spacious for black metal. ‘Dream Of A Dead Sun’ is an instant classic.


The next track, ‘Tortured By Solitude’, adds yet another element, a mournful violin leading into a bouncy, compulsive riff of detuned guitar which reminds me irrestistibly of Sonic Youth – which sounds bizarre, but check it out and you’ll see what I mean. The last time I heard indie-inflected guitar work like this in a black metal context was on ‘The Claws Of Time’ by Darkthrone, from their underrated Ravishing Grimness album. Anyway, it works tremendously well here - ‘Tortured By Solitude’ is, if anything, even better than the opening track, with violin and keyboards soaring redemptively above the guitar work. The major key used here is unusual for black metal, but Kampfar and Drudkh have both successfully used major keys like this. After the furious Sturm und Drang of ‘Tortured By Solitude’, ‘Winterreise’ (‘Winter Journey’) provides some breathing space, with a slow, minimal ambient keyboard composition very much along the lines of Burzum or Vinterriket, and recalling the album’s opening minute. Whereas Vinterriket produce entire albums sounding like this, though, ‘Winterreise’ is only a brief respite before ‘Schmerzensschreie’ (‘Cries Of Pain’) fades in on a solid barrage of guitar over mid-paced drums, slower than ‘Dream Of A Dead Sun’ but still throwing a blastbeat every now and then – this song is on ColdWorld’s MySpace page at the time of writing. ‘Red Snow’ is, at eight and a half minutes, the longest track on the album, and it possesses a monumental, elegiac quality, filled with a hopeless longing and exquisite bittersweet melancholy, which is so much richer and more emotionally satisfying than the total negation which is all too often the default setting of black metal. ‘Red Snow’ ends with a quiet passage of simple plucked arpeggios. ‘Stille’ (‘Sillence’) is a short but sweet instrumental piece, reprising the previous track’s arpeggios, and layering them over wistful keyboards. Nice enough, but it doesn’t really go anywhere – this is really the only track on the album which is less than totally compelling. ‘Hymn To Eternal Frost’, however, is another triumph, with mid-paced drums and a commanding riff reinforced by violin. Abstract choral notes aspire to the heavens, whilst the remorseless guitar and drums remain locked to the frozen earth, and the violin laments the eternal conflict of dreams and reality. The track fades out on choral vocals. ‘My Dead Bride’ is a quite short and doom-laden track, again using choral harmony vocals in the background. The final track, ‘Escape’, signals yet another innovative departure from the black metal mainstream, introducing static crackle and warm, glitchy electronica and a keening theremin over a trip-hop beat, something like Peccatum. There’s no doubt that a lot of black metal fans will recoil in horror from this wanton experimentalism – ‘tr00’ and ‘kvlt’ it certainly ain’t – and I’ll admit that it’s not my favourite part of the album, but I’m still impressed that ColdWorld have the self-assurance and confidence to show such readiness to take risks on a debut album, and the core tracks of Melancholie² like ‘Dream Of A Dead Sun’, ‘Tortured By Solitude’ and ‘Schmerzensschreie’ are so good that I for one am happy to cut them some slack here.


Melancholie² is one of the best black metal releases of 2008, and ColdWorld’s debut ranks alongside L’Acéphale’s Mord Und Totschlag and Sjenovik’s Jouissance as one of the most interesting debut albums I’ve heard in years, and the best German black metal since the early Bergthron releases. It often seems as if black metal’s glory days are long past and that the genre has become stale, commercialised and formulaic, but every so often, a project like ColdWorld springs out of nowhere to give us all hope. Ah, fresh blood – I love it! Just don’t get them confused with Coldplay…


This review was originally written for Judas Kiss webzine:
www.judaskissmagazine.co.uk

Coldworld is a one man ambient black metal project hailing from Erfurt, Germany. The project's sole member, Georg Borner has worked on this project since 2005, releasing an EP and a full length album, both of which were well received in the black metal community. His newest release, a second full length album entitled “Autumn” was released in the Summer of 2016 on Cold Dimensions. Borner has remained consistent throughout the Coldworld discography and “Autumn” certainly does not take away any momentum or quality that existed in his previous releases.

If I were to compare “Autumn” to it’s predecessor “Melancholie”, it is certainly a more uplifting and warmer record. However, before jumping to assumptions, it is not a shoegaze band incorporating black metal, more a black metal sound that uses ambient motifs, folk instruments and triumphant chord progressions without any gimmicks. I really like how this release knows how to layer it’s instrumentation without turning it into a wall of sound of reverb and tremolo picking. In terms of production, it’s raw yet polished. It still keeps the harsh feeling of black metal but was certainly worked on to sound big and nicely spaced out.

The songwriting, to me, is second to none. Yes this is black metal, but it isn’t all blast beats, Borner isn’t afraid to put in a riff or two. It is not entirely repetitive nor does it drag on, as all the songs have a good length. This album does not overstay it’s welcome despite being just under an hour with 8 tracks. It feels as though all the songs serve a good purpose. The performances are tight and well written and I particularly liked the inclusion of stringed instruments, acoustic guitar (more so Track 5), as well as a very nice use of synth pads which add more layers to songs. The vocals performances are fantastic. While the harsher vocals are what you would expect, the cleans that include harmonies as well as female melodies are a great addition without being too much of a gimmick, as I’ve said before.

The music is able to put across an original idea/feeling that is rare in the genre (or at least not done as well). The main characteristic of black metal is its association with Winter and cold and grim feelings. This album takes this idea of capturing the feelings of a season and applies them to Autumn (in my opinion it would be a hard task to work with Summer or Spring). Autumn is like the transition from happiness to grim. The leaves fall and vegetation either dies or prepares for the dark and cold winter, so with that, this album takes a melancholic approach and makes use of uplifting riffs as it prepares itself for the coming of snow and ice. To quote John Donne, ”No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace, As I have seen in one autumnal face”. This to me, sums up the release perfectly, as the season of Autumn is beautiful and is able to translate to black metal.

The standout tracks to me would be ‘Void’, ‘Womb of Emptiness’, ‘The Wind and the Leaves’ and the opening track ‘Scars’.There is a fantastic use of voices, in a harsh and melodic sense, as well as orchestral and/or folk instruments, similar to an artist like Saor. The first two tracks have catchy and uplifting riffs, whereas the second half of the album (after track 5) are much more darker and evil sounding. The instrumental “The Wind and the Leaves” has a very traditional and medieval sound, using only a violin and acoustic guitar and harmonising the melodies, it is a nice interlude but is long enough it can be listened to out of context of the release. “Womb of Empitness” is certainly the most in depth song on the album, it is the most layered and has the longest runtime of nearly 10 minutes. However it is most certainly the most crafted song and is the heart of the release. Other songs such as “Escape II” and “”Autumn Shades” are great for putting the flesh on bone for this album, while not being total fillers.

This LP is consistent and I have returned to it more often than the previous releases. I don’t have much problems with it, at least nothing worth mentioning. The use of pads and unconventional black metal instruments, as well as great use of different vocal styles while not branching too out and having riffs rather than constant blast beats really gave a breath of fresh air. Coldworld certainly hits the nail on the head when it comes to themes and while I have not gotten a hold of the lyrics (Borner has stated in that past he purposely does not release lyrics), I would not put it past the intellectual ability of the artist to fall short on them. The depth of the music and the comfortable mix make this release memorable.

Eight years. It's insane to think I've virtually waited a third of my lifetime for a second Coldworld album.
Georg Börner's first full-length with this project, Melancholie², arrived at a perfect time in my life. Perfect as
in the album scratched a very specific itch; everything else at the time seemed imperfect to the point of wanting to
throw it all away for good. I was listening to a ton of "pretty" atmospheric black metal at the time, but something
about Coldworld stood out. It was completely bombastic and overly sentimental nearing point of ridicule,
but it worked on the merit that it felt completely sincere. When depression or tragedy hit, it always feels hyperbolic.
Coldworld's mesh of pure Romanticism, lo-fi black metal and light progressive touches made
Melancholie² an instant favourite of mine.

It's enough to say that my excitement for a follow-up never wore out. Even if my tastes since veered toward
increasingly dark and experimental music, the return of Coldworld would inevitably mark a significant full
circle for myself as a listen. It took roughly eight autumns for Coldworld's own to finally arrive. By general
standards, Börner has created a great atmospheric metal record. By the standards of eight years' wait and a
masterpiece that preceded it, however? I love Autumn, but I feel mixed about it. Perhaps it's because the airy
depressive sound is less striking in the midst of countless bands having done the same thing in the interim.
Perhaps it's the less consistent emotional tone of the album. Admittedly, the relative disappointment could even be
a result of the fact that I'm not the same person I was a decade ago. Autumn is a great album, but it's far
from the quintessential masterwork I might have been hoping to hear.

Autumn is an eclectic bag of emotions, reeling between the depressive, uplifting, aggressive and mild. With
such a wait, it makes sense that Coldworld would want to say so much in little time. Where the first album
was a singularly depressive experience, Autumn means to reinvent the feelings of the listener with every
track. "Scars" is a cathartic and melancholic opener-- those two words, by the way, will probably be used to death to
describe this album in coming months. The blastbeats and shrieks are tempered with melodic guitar leads and
gorgeous violin. "Void" stresses this contrast between dark and light even further: segments of the song are knee-
deep in depressive murk, only to give way to bright post-rock airiness and airy female vocals. Whether it's from
song to song or within the songs themselves, Coldworld's latest material always looks to balance the two
extremes. The result, more often than not, is something beautiful that nonetheless could have gone farther with
less compromise.

Even if Autumn suffers from awkward emotional flow, Coldworld once again handles both extremes
brilliantly. "Womb of Emptiness" is one of the best atmospheric black metal tracks I've heard this year, rising and
falling in predictable fashion but hitting all of the right marks. As a composer, his best work is found in "Autumn
Shades". Even if it pales lengthwise compared to "Womb of Emptiness" before it, the classical harmonies and chord
progressions tug at that nugget of perfection I know Coldworld is capable of. Even if the clean vocals run a
bit thin (reminding me closely of Herbrand from Enslaved) I can feel that intimate sensation of my heart
slowly breaking while I listen to it. That is Coldworld.

There is such perfection here. Unlike the debut however, it's mired with a list of less successful elements.
Throughout listening to Autumn, I felt myself wondering what kind of mood Georg was in when he wrote the
thing. For the debut, I could envision the man literally dredging himself out of a sea of molten depression in order
to bring the music to life. Compare that to Autumn, where I'm still left unclear on what the emotional intent
was supposed to be. There is light and dark, sure, and I gather that's the kind of balanced experience
Coldworld means to evoke. Even so, getting dragged down into the murk only to have the music abruptly
switch to pretty female vocals and nice guy post-rock feels awkward. Or consider how serene the violins are on "The
Wind and the Leaves", only to cut out of the mix and make way for hateful riffs and dread via "Climax of Sorrow".
Where is the intuitive flow? There have been times listening to this album I've felt convinced Georg Börner wasn't
inspired by these extreme feelings writing Autumn, but rather the memory of having felt them at one point.

I guess it's easy to feel jaded when someone's waited for an album for so long. It would take a master argument to
put this in the same aisle as Melancholie², but Coldworld has a brighter future ahead of them than
the dark depths of its music sometimes imply. If Autumn fails to create an overarching emotional journey
like its predecessor, I can at least love it on the grounds that it's a fantastic collection of atmospheric black metal
pieces. I can only hope that we hear another album like this from Coldworld without having to wait so
many seasons.

Originally written for Heathen Harvest Periodical.

Can the time have passed so quickly? Eight years have come and gone since one-man band ColdWorld recorded and released its first album "Melancholie²" and it is only now in 2016 that ColdWorld maestro Georg Börner (hereafter GB) has overcome the dreaded second album syndrome and brought forth follow-up album "Autumn". One could be forgiven for expecting not much to have happened in the intervening period - eight years are plenty of time to have gone away and done something completely different, so much so that, simply in order to pick up where "Melancholie²" left off, a recapitulation of that album might be necessary - but "Autumn" turns out to be a different beast altogether. There is a warmer, more uplifting mood and the scale that the album operates on seems much larger, more epic and soaring.

As on the first album, GB strives for perfection in everything, right down to the smallest detail, and this along with his nose for a memorable pop-sounding tune when he smells one means that the music still suffers a bit from being too polished and needing more spontaneity and roughness around the edges. But if you can reconcile yourselves to the lack of interesting surprises and quirks that might have lifted this recording to another level (and a different and unique one as well), you can still find a fair amount to like, if not really relish. Apart from the craftsmanship and the attention to technical detail, there's the layering of textures to create a rich sonic world of orchestral tremolo guitars that itself generates particular moods that listeners can readily identify with and into which they can allow themselves to be subsumed. And when GB does straight-out black metal, boy, is it ever sharp and vicious, like a prowling shark with a mouth full of needle-like choppers hunting down panicked seals. Even if the screaming isn't quite as all-out berserk as I'd like it to be, it's still very screechy.

However, even with a set of great sounds and an ear for what works as music, musicians still need ideas and original creative flair, and I'm not quite sure that GB has enough flair to match his other considerable gifts. Opening track "Scars" is a good piece with plenty of raw BM / post-BM variety: a mix of raw BM and clean vocals, rapid-fire blastbeat and juddering tremolo guitar fury against a wall of orchestral sound. The track following is more relaxed but seems less inspired and a fair bit of padding is starting to creep in. "Womb of Emptiness" floats in post-BM / blackgaze territory with a warm attractive sound before turning into a dark chilly song.

After a short interlude dominated by a mournful violin solo, "Climax of Sorrow" brings the listener back to cold sinister atmospheric BM with bite and a heavy grinding rhythm. This is an impressive, no-nonsense track big on deranged squealing anger that subsides into dreamy dark shoegaze reverie. Of all the tracks on this album, this one is a standout. "Nightfall" is good too although it is more repetitive.

I'd have preferred something more individual and adventurous even if hit-or-miss but listeners who like to know what to expect and revel in a richly layered world of epic music and moods will be happy with ColdWorld's "Autumn". This is a very solidly constructed album with every considered sound crafted well and put in its place.

Eight years ago, Coldworld released Melancholie², which has a become a fairly renowned album in the subgenre of atmospheric black metal. Many people, including myself, were captivated by the album's intense atmosphere, layered instrumentation, and lush orchestral additions. Melancholie² lived up to it's namesake, portraying an eternal, melancholic winter, with no sense of refuge or respite. With Autumn, Börner has once again conveyed similar imagery, but with a sound that simultaneously differs from Melancholie².

The most notable and significant difference from this album to the last, is the remarkably improved production. While some may argue that quality productions removes some of the more "atmospheric" elements of Black Metal, I do not believe this is the case with this release. Each Instrument is heard clearly, however, they also blend together smoothly, creating a layered and harmonic sound. The same atmosphere of isolation, depression, and Coldness is still conveyed here as it is on Melancholie².

In terms of instrumentation, Autumn uses the standard guitar, drums, bass, found on most black metal albums, as well as the continued heavy use of synthesized choirs and orchestras, which has become Coldworld's hallmark. The synthesized components of this album help create a strong atmosphere and are devoid of any "cheesiness" that other bands often possess when using keyboards/synthesizers. Instead the keyboards assist the other instrumentation in creating a bone chilling atmosphere that will cause the atrophy of the very essence of your existence (okay maybe that's a bit dramatic). Ultimately, the instrumentation of this record does a very good job of creating atmosphere and has improved from Melancholie² in terms of technicality and musicianship.

Overall, this album is another excellent release in Coldworld's discography, with some minor complications such as the sudden transition between the quiet acoustic guitar of "The Wind and the Leaves" and the startling abrasiveness of "Climax of Sorrow" However, As stated before these are small issues, and do not take away much from the overall experience this album has to offer.

When black metal musicians go for ambient, it rarely ends well. They usually underestimate the entry level for the genre and think that all mellow exertions may pass. On the contrary, when black metal musicians go for neoclassical vibes, assuming are more than utterly simple synth piano or string layers / interludes, it mostly ends well. It reveals the poetics hidden behind walls of shrieks and distortion. What experienced listeners hear and feel in regular black metal and what stays hidden to those who are less experienced. Stripped of metal arrangement, what remains is the essence.

Who, among black metal musicians, could commit a more charming neoclassical track, other than G.B.? I think nobody. At least I have never heard a neoclassical track, released in a black metal project, that is stronger than this one. One potential candidate would be "La dryade" by Gris. Georg, who listens to a great deal of classical music and plays violin and nyckelharpa, also in folk band Sangre de Muerdago, has emotional and inspirational access to what many black metal creators vainly aspire. It is a man with unmet sensitivity, capable of conveying emotions in one of the most convincing ways in the genre. The reflection of those noble inspirations are reflected in this piece as well.

It is performed on two instruments, piano and violin. Even though it is very slow and minimalist piece, each note resounds with a crushing sense of melancholy and brokenness. Like words in a well written poem, they single-handedly carry the essential narrative of the emotional condition they describe. There is a large dose of resignation and a small hint of hope. The grand expression of crystallized sadness. As in poetry, the meaning is unclear, but we can guess that it is a very personal piece, treating about the author's private issues, as well as his reflection about the direction in which humanity is recently heading.

Dedicated to those, who find solace in extremely sad and touching, neoclassical music, examples being Eric Satie and Martha Otero's "Lunae Lumen" project. There isn't much more of such quality pieces around in here. A masterpiece in minimalism.