A Haunting and Heavily Theatrical Release from Austin Oting Har
- R.A.G.
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
A beautifully told and experimental set of pieces from Austin Oting Har is a very experimental and vast release, put together in a multicultural approach and performed as a theatrical, operatic play, separated by acts and with far fewer boundaries than the norm, which is enticing, but it also swallows you up, because the record is packed with beautiful instrumentation both digital and natural from cellos and violins to electric guitars and amazingly performed vocals.
The Opera itself is a unique take on Greek tragedy and is composed of Greek and Western classical approaches, along with the electronic instrumentation, and the entire thing sets incredible moods with each piece.
The opening track, "Prologue: A Waking Nightmare", has a way of setting up the whole thing, and this is a very eerie, dark, and spacious piece.
It's got a lot of depth, and along with distant violins holding out steady notes and giving you that uncomfortable and almost tense feeling, you have sound effects that have even more surrounding.
The whole thing feels like you're actually in some kind of environment, and I really love this because it's so unique and its approach.
"Blue Lightning", is a much more experimental track featuring different kinds of vocals, affected with vocoders and more, and this one brings a little bit of an electronic field to the table, which you don't really expect after the first track, so it was really refreshing, but at the same time, it pulls you deeper into this piece of work.
In the initial prologue, you're going through the main character's recurring and prophetic dream, while the second piece follows along chronologically and lets the story start digging in a little deeper and with a bit more intensity.
"Voices In The Wind" features acoustic instrumentation that also comes through in layers, affected with some reverb, and these layers are something that really wrap you up. This is an interesting piece because of the bending of the notes feeling like the instrument is almost being tuned down and up as the performance goes on.
This was very engulfing, and that reverb effect lets the tones and twang of the instrument really drip.
"Good Times" is the track that goes back to the main character's waking nightmare, and you hear all kinds of different chants and spoken words coming through, but again, these are prophetic and send messages to the character as well.
It's all very deepening, and there are a lot of layers to this, so there's plenty to chew on, but it's a record you should listen to from start to finish, all in one shot. There are loads of different aspects and approaches throughout this piece of work, but it's also an operatic play, and that theatrical sense gives the songs chronological order. So, the entire story is from start to finish, meaning you don't want to skip around or just listen to one or two tracks from this piece.
You want to listen to the whole record from start to finish.
Perhaps one of the most haunting pieces is one called "Mountain Witch", and this one is over 16 minutes in length, features operatic vocals in an animated sense, along with all kinds of deepening and spacious backbones that make it reach out with its fingers and grab you.
Between the keys, violins come in, and vocals on this track, you are definitely in a bit of a trance listening to it. You find yourself swimming through this piece and looking over your shoulder at the same time. He has such an amazing way of delivering pieces that have that intense feeling. The feeling of uneasiness, and this is a big part of the main character's emotion, so it's displayed perfectly throughout this record.
The pieces of each have something different to them. They are all unique to themselves, but confluent with the storyline and connective between the other songs.
It's all really wonderfully woven, and the performances are really edgy and again, quite haunting.
One thing that really kind of shocked me was the final track, which is not necessarily the end of the theatrical play aspect of things, but rather a remix of "Mountain Witch".
This remix was really cool and really finally brought out a heavy-handed electronic feel and still kept some of the edgier tonality at play, giving the entire thing the creepy feeling it was meant to have, but with a little more drive and push.
I feel like that combination between the natural and electronic instrumentation is something that really makes this unique, along with the fact that it is an actual story based on Greek mythology and performed, remolded, and reworked into something with its own atmosphere.
Most certainly don't miss out on this one.
I would listen to this one with headphones and again, all the way through from start to finish. It's quite an unusual and breathtaking escape.
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