Formication: Agnosia
Dark Winter

Agnosia (definition: “inability to recognize objects by use of the senses”) presents the five latest macabre mini-soundtracks from the black forest by Nottingham-based alchemists Alec Bowman and Kingsley Ravenscroft aka Formication. At thirty-two minutes, the plunge into dark ambient is shorter this time around yet the material is as ritualistic and mind-melting as anything the duo's unleashed before.

The EP's disturbing mood is immediately established when monstrous groans in “Symptoms of a Nervous Disorder” suggest a dying soul being dragged towards a forest burial pit filled with scurrying insects scurrying and distant wails (“A Sad Story of Not Having”). After a brief interlude of uncharacteristic calm (the peaceful “The Skeleton in Your Head”), the plunge into the dark underbelly continues (“Night-Time in the Forest of Sticks ”) where shadowy behemoths and swarms of chattering insects are encountered. The title piece finally arrives to lift the veil of blackness and instill some modest degree of hope to arise for at least one more day. However, the restrained dub-like intro gives way to disease that spreads throughout the decaying body, prompting hallucinations of croaking voices, sour tones, and burbling electronic patterns. Formication's music offers the crowning aural complement to to an evening spent ingesting peyote and absinthe while reading Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.

January 2008