The Parlour Trick - A Blessed Unrest

[Click on image for official The Parlour Trick website]

Country - America

Composers - Dan Cantrell & Meredith Yayanos

Release - December 2012

- Tracklist -
 1. {intro}
2. Half Sick of Shadows
3. The Lady of the House of Love
4. Mare Desiderii
5. Pandora
6. Planchette
7. The Yellow Wallpaper
8. Leafy Sea Dragon Nursery
9. Sheol
10. Scryer
11. Laudanum

- Review -
Every now and then, there is a musical project pushes its genres boundaries, dare say, even the boundaries of music itself. Okay, The Parlour Trick may not push the boundaries of music (per se), but as a dark ambient 'ensemble' (a word I choose wisely) they create an atmosphere often not heard in Dark Ambient, the only other offering coming close to this is Karjalan Sissit (maybe Fredrik Klingwall). They play their own form of ambience interlaced with classical and chamber music influences.

But unlike Karjalan Sissit, this is more brooding than hectic. This solemnly blists as if directly taken from a horror movie. Intersperses of choir-like elements and weird plucked acoustics also poke heads out from among the orchestration, giving the album a much more dimensional sound. But what really gives this album its drive is that amazing orchestration, a mixture of Violin, Piano, Accordion and Harpsichord, just to name a few. This album is, I believe, one of the best examples of just how amazingly complex Dark Ambient can be, and how this genre is, unfortunately, undermined so often. This is a perfect release, trust me, you'll enjoy every bit of it.