The old bard sat muttering by the hearth in the creaky wooden tavern. His table a scatter of maps, aged leather-bound books and unravelled scrolls lit only by the flicker of candlelight and occasional fizz of embers when drawing on his pipe.

Once a chronicler to the kings of old and trusted advisor in the great war, his grey, ragged demeanour concealed a regal past of breaking fast at the finest tables across the land.

The second age of the machines had taken its toll, fracturing once great empires to but a tribal fight for dominion and a race to find the firestone, for the prophecy was said to say that he who yieldeth the stone, ruleth the land and to him the machines shall answer.

Mages of fire led armies of towering machines across the land in search of the stone, burning anything and everything in their path. Cities crumbled, settlements were burnt and displaced citizens all now looked to the rising sun for the next age to begin.

And the legends, the truths and answers all now sat with the bard, for he had discovered a secret code hidden within the ancient texts and stories of old that would lead to the firestone. A nod to the barkeep furnished him with another tankard of the finest mead as he continued to decipher the code.

Fabled Machines of Old

Bandcamp

Voyage to the End of Time feat. Atrium Carceri

The Sacred Scroll

Strawmills Burning feat. Atrium Carceri

Nighthunters

Age of Rest

Earth

Ambient Veterans Atrium Carceri & Herbst9 team up on this mysterious album 

The harbor was humid and hot in this mysterious land, nothing like the frosty cold ports of home. Yellow smoke danced to the beat of the drum joined by hypnotic women. The crowd spiraled inward, dancing to far away bells and the murmur beneath the ground. 

You awoke sweat clad in linen sheets, the naked woman passed a long pipe. The cherry sparked red like a dragons eye. Head leaned back against a soft pillow, body free falling from soothed skies. A thud as your body hit the ground on a pathway built by giants. 

Chanting, ritual drumming and spoken word weave in and out of this album that pays tribute to the old ways.

Ur Djupan Dal

Atrium Carceri & Herbst9 - Sov Ej Hos Kvinna, Som Är Kunnig I Trolldom

After their acclaimed album Black Corner Den, Atrium Carceri teams up with Cities Last Broadcast once more to bring the 19th century to life.

Meet the bearer of all the keys and protector of the holy order of things. Come and drink your way to an elegant dream.

Black Stage of Night is the result of a year of nightly studio sessions, again in the company of the trustworthy lantern. Two Swedes, separated by the Atlantic Ocean and united in their vision to create an album that invokes the dream state.

”Can you feel it? The mind becomes the attic. High above the murky streets. A window overlooking the great order of things. Here comes the night to warm itself. Chaos unmade. Darkness drawn to the light and kept company. Sleep now or spend the quiet hours by the lantern. It will be lit all night.”

Crooked tape loops combine with piano and acoustic resonances. A melancholic, dusty and timeless album that grows and pulsates.

The CD version comes in a 16 page hard cover deluxe DigiBook with matte lamination. Digital booklet included with download.

Black series:
cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/black-corner-den
cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/black-stage-of-night

Black Stage of Night

Attic and Wormwood

Finally, we see Robert C. Kozletsky return with a dreary and guitar driven follow up to 2016's Stone Speak. Against Civilization is where Robert takes a different sonic path. Vastly different from past releases, but still wrapped in the solemn sound Apocryphos is known for.

Civilization is a curse. Your head hangs heavy in the windowpane as you gaze upon the dregs of society. It soon collapses and nature turns feral. Those desperate to cling to their hollow idols fall silent, eyes sunken. They are not there. They have abandoned us. They are against civilization...

Features stark and captivating artwork by Erik Osvald and a 12 page booklet with extended artwork and text emphasizing the turmoil within the music. Close friend and fellow collaborator Pär Bostrom (Kammarheit, Cities Last Broadcast, Hymnambulae) makes an appearance on two tracks.

Recommended for long nights, rainy days and fans of cold and emotional soundscapes

Against Civilization

A Feral Nature

Dead Melodies and Zenjungle join forces on this dark noir ambient album

Far beneath the lofty empire of steel and brick, a perpetual blanket of darkness reigns harbouring mankind's darkest sins. And amidst this grotesque illusion of grandeur, in which the elitist grip ever tightens, the forsaken's demons awake from their slumber wreaking havoc in the eternal shadow. Man's greatest creation and ruin rolled into one in an endless labyrinth of forgotten secrets, unsolved mysteries and stories that are yet to be told.

Step into the haze of the low lying smog and lose yourself in these noir tales from the darkest corners of the city, courtesy of Dead Melodies and Zenjungle.

Recommended for fans of Dark Ambient Noir Jazz

Anthropocene

The Lowering

Beyond the Ghost returns with an album ripe with film-like ambience and sonic details from abandoned cityscapes.

You get trapped in the loop of time and you'll get spat out into a world molded by your own thoughts, purgatory. The skyscrapers cast shadows so deep that the flickering neon lights strobe your tired movements. You must have walked these streets a thousand times before, searching for someone, anyone. The cold wind hits your smooth face, it should have been bearded by now, but time is glitched out here. Everything is frozen, but you keep moving, chasing your own shadow.

Recommended for fans of foggy soundscapes, acoustic layering and Silent Hill atmospheres.

Eternal Drift

Threnody

Cryo Chamber is a 24 Bit dark ambient label run by Atrium Carceri focusing on deep high quality dark ambient with a cinematic edge.

The Sacred Scroll

Cryo Chamber

Related tracks