Numina – Through The Gate To Nowhere

The realm of Numina is a desolate place; these seven pieces orient and then guide us through the remnants of times long gone. People you have known, lives which at one point you interacted with raise up before your very eyes; a valley of slowly lifting mist which ebbs and flows not based on physical constraints but by the subtle nuances only grief and loss can provide. Do not play this in hopes of being taken to a better fate. One drifts endlessly with nothing but their own regrets to anchor them. If you've seen the classic horror movie 'The Beyond' then what Numina have crafted will make perfect sense.

This is where souls without a home wander, where there is no sun and yet somehow an eerie pallor is cast over the land.

I think he's somehow been within this void and put his experiences there down in aural form. There's quite a bit more to what's on here besides what the overpowering drones and elusive shards of melody would indicate. A vast, formless wasteland in which the phantoms of the dead wait for the next phase of their existence only to have that door slammed in their face again and again. No one is coming to make this end, what is before you is what will endure; I'd like to believe that this sort of place is where all the faithful who haughtily claimed to know the mind of their god are going to wind up.

No, there will not be torment and endless gnashing of teeth... just the dull, maddening passage of millennia trapped in between the states of life and death. Welcome to oblivion, now enjoy the view. Have any complaints? Scream as long and as loud as you like, no one will answer. Given the state of our world where everybody has to stay in constant contact and demands instant replies, this is the worst possible outcome imaginable ; I do not expect that there's much of a demand for this kind of material but Numina continue to provide it and I think I can work out why.

A little dose of poison everyday accustoms one to it, allowing the individual to endure and embrace what would kill anyone else. This artist has quite a few doses for you to imbibe. I come away from hearing this and find I've got a smile on my face but not due to any juvenile nihilism: 'Through the Gate to Nowhere' is a wanton acolyte of emptiness, it is the siren song of ruination. Despite the trend over the last few years in the underground to strike some kind of devil's deal with popular culture, Numina will have none of it. Keep your ephemeral rewards and your temporal accolades dispensed by egocentric celebrities, this is a journey into the mind where the guardrails have long since been removed. Don't doubt the sincerity of what is contained herein just surrender to this balefully engaging release and find yourself renewed by it's dissonant lullaby.

For no matter how dark it becomes, there is a light emanating from within. It is yours to command, should you stretch out your hand and move beyond doubt.

Numina "Through The Gate To Nowhere" CD

Jesse Sola, the solitary figure behind Numina, based in Denver, Colorado, has released his latest album "Through The Gate To Nowhere" via Relaxed Machinery at March 20th, 2015. Actually, this happened only 9 days after his another release, a collaborative album "Broken Stars Through Brilliant Clouds" with Zero Ohms on Spotted Peccary label. I still keep in mind Numina's previous outstanding solo work "The Deception Of Reality" on Hypnos, released back in 2012, so let's unlock the gates... Out in limited edition of 200 hand-numbered copies and featuring some stunning photographs by Peter James, taken in the Wasdale, a valley of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. By the way, Peter James is responsible also for the mastering job, while the artwork layout is created by Steve Brand.

"Promontory" clocks over 7 and half minute mark and unfolds the journey with tenebrous array of meandering, drifting, traversing and piercing washes and drones, authentically displaying the album's cover images. The next piece, "Down To The Valley Of The Water", keeps on perplexing path, where dissonant layers continuously return, rumble, perforate and climax. Towards the end, the trail heads though more relieving terrains and "Arcfrost" almost imperceptibly invades. Nearly 13-minute long journey calms down a bit, although always hanging in the fascinating earth's fissure separating ambient and dark ambient soundworlds. Absolutely breathtaking sceneries reveal and immerse devoted listener into magnificently flavored realms, where tranquilly gliding expansive zones meticulously collide with intensely discordant mindscaping subtleties. Wow, a true epic, tour de force by Numina!!! Bravo, Jesse!!! "Furrowed Transitions" delve deeper into unfathomable depths, although massively surging dronescapes, guarded by ghostly choirs, are softened by mesmerizingly circling penetrating grooves. Sharper ominous rumbles announce "Reflexion Canyon" and hold it in majestically sculpted sceneries, intricately dark and spacious. The longest track, "Amidst The Mist" reaching almost 14 minutes, smoothly shifts into warmly expansive and thrillingly immense aerial vistas, gorgeously gliding, sweeping and elevating. This gate certainly leads to pure atmospheric Eden, graciously infinite!!! "In Our Absence" perfectly merges darker, yet delightfully enigmatic timbres with flickeringly helixing euphoric patterns. Spellbindingly tiding piece and a very nice conclusion to this strikingly adventurous and stunningly entrancing exploration!!!

"Through The Gate To Nowhere" is another very strong album by Numina, exquisitely distinctive, offering to each journeyer a truly rewarding listening experience hanging on the utterly immersing edges of ambient and dark ambient soundcarving. The gates are opened and a 74-minute journey awaits, join now!!! And don't forget, there are hidden many other sonic jewels among Numina's extensive discography featuring around 30 solo and collaborative albums released during a 15-year recording career.

Richard Gürtler (Jun 14, 2015, Bratislava, Slovakia)