Oureboros is a collaboration founded in 2006 by Canadian artists Rich Oddie and Aron West a.k.a. Tnon. Oddie, West and Christina Sealey formed Orphx in 1993 to create psychedelic noisescapes inspired by early industrial music and the emerging Japanese noise scene. In 1995, Oddie and Sealey began to incorporate more rhythmic elements into Orphx and the two have gone on to establish themselves as innovators in the fusion of techno and industrial music. West left to co-found Tropism - a diverse project encompassing harsh noise to discordant soundscapes to unclassifiable software based mutations. The Tropism catalogue now numbers in excess of 300 entries, and the project continues as Tropizm whose focus is all forms of experimental ambient electronics.

On their first album, Oureboros deliver dark audio environments suitable as carriers to nether regions and beyond. The dense atmospheres vary from brooding to melancholic. Electro-acoustic soundscapes are supplemented by intermittent guitar, percussion, and violin, creating a captivating hybrid of synthetic and organic elements. Oddie and West present a unique fusion of deep ambient electronics, apocalyptic industrial, and ritualistic six-string walls of sound that evoke elements of black metal and shoegaze.

The project's name is derived from the ouroboros, an ancient symbol of self-reflexivity, cyclicality, continuous re-creation and renewal. Referring to Oureboros, a suspenseful further development can be expected after this magnificent debut.

"SINCE THEY WANT WAR THEY SHALL HAVE WAR" (Gjöll)

On their second release, Jóhann Eiríksson and Sigurður Harðarson follow the ideological path that they began with Way Through Zero. Instead of one conceptual work divided in parts, Gjöll presents six tracks. The lyrics printed in the cd booklet show this project's empathy for the individual who is able to detach from political, religious or social necessities. Even without listening to Gjöll's music you can already feel the anger, the challenges of society's excrescences, and the frustration about the way things are (and about the way things should be).

As on the previous album, Gjöll transcribe their musical statements into a process in which the listener is forced to open up. Pulsing drones, mighty synth layers, heavy sequencer patterns and disembowelling sub-basses combine with Harðarson's ear-piercing vocals and the result is an unforgettable listening experience. This project's music is hard to compare, but both musicians are able to merge the intensity of grindcore or doom metal with industrial's sonic variety.

An outstanding release and recommended to the open minded listener.

Gjöll are two individuals, Jóhann Eiríksson (member of the musical projects Reptilicus and Product 8) and writer/vocalist Sigurður Harðarson (member of the grindcore band Forgarður Helvitis). Way Through Zero (Icelandic: Leiðin Gegnum Núllpunkt) is their initial release.

There is more than one meaning for 'Gjöll' - one of these meanings can be directly translated: noisy, clamant, thunderous and raging. Gjöll is the 'river Styx' of Norse mythology - the river located at the underworld's edge. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/norse_mythology

The music, lyrics and artwork of this CD should be seen as a conceptual work. The lyrics in Icelandic tell a story of a man's anger evolving. In the beginning this person is pessimistic, moody, powerless and always hiding his head in the sand. The second part shows his rising anger toward the powers that oppress him - part 3 shows the pure hatred which seemingly absorbs his soul and drives him into madness. But then in part 4 a process of analysis and rethinking takes place: he realizes that the only way to fight his oppressors is to change one's perception - power is only existent as long as individuals give it the right to exist. The man finds peace as soon as the vicious circle is broken. "The beginning of all revolutions - and maybe the only real revolution existing" (Gjöll).

Within the first minute you will be haunted by the story's musical visualization. Each of the five parts stands for itself, showing the evolution of the man's mental state: from depressed to aggressive and then finally released. Various astounding sounds are found within its isolated shell - pulsing sub-basses, synth layers over a driving rhythmic sequence, noise drones, ambience with high frequency sonic attacks and silent melodic phrases. If we should dare a comparison then the Scandinavian dark industrial sound isn't that far from the Way Through Zero.

An important fact about the album's concept: this story happens in the present. Moralists, advertisements and politicians are mentioned by Gjöll as oppressors; while today's Western consumer society is the cause of anger and hate.

Besides the mythic 'nostalgia', the pictures of Nordic rune stones included in the plain, beautiful artwork are part of Gjöll's self-conception: "these stones carry memories of the past and all our digital creations will never last that long. We will be a gap in history. We don't have any romantic visions of life having been very nice in the Viking times, when the runestones were made, but back to those basics is where we might be going." (Gjöll)

An outstanding release. Recommended to the open-minded listener.

The open minded listener knows Marc Medea as one half of the Belgian duo Silk Saw and now the listener will also know Marc Medea as the man behind Individual. Individual debuted on ant-zen with his appearance on the Daruma compilation. The compilation featured the short version of "180 Bullets Per Man" - the title track of Individual's first album, also presented by the antz.

Medea's definition of this album: "An abstract battlefield combining subbasses & furious rhthms, low wavelengths & sharp metals, dry kicks & pricks. Declined in multiple layers of sonic masses, from the slowest organic mood to the fastest cold grinding, these resonating terrorbeats have to be understood as a refusal of all compromises and the expression of a methodic anger."

Individual's focus is that of using rhythmic patterns to create a psychic (or even maybe a psychotic) mood - if you are willing and able to discover this listening experience then you will find yourself trapped in a complex building of rhythms and drones.

180 Bullets Per Man is a subliminal war against your aural senses.

Templegarden's was founded in 1993 with the aim of producing very dense and ritual-ambient sounds. Actually TG's is an organised loose collective featuring A. Schramm, A. Börner and P. Münch along with several friends. The sound-variety has become enormous, but it still remains in the ritual sector. Old myths, nature, magic places and the unexplainable are their main inspirations.

Their second CD release Done Rooms sounds as if it has been recorded in a cave or crypt; treated voices, hypnotising rhythms and atmospheric soundscapes mix with dark non threatening aural sculptures. This is an addendum to 'regular' spiritual music, and is extremely removed from boring 'new age' sounds.

This project was founded in 1993 as a collaboration of the former cult-project Ars Moriendi by P. Münch (Synapscape) and A. Schramm (Asche). The aim of TG's is a very dense, ritual-ambient one. In 1995 A. Börner (Morgenstern) joined this project. They made several interesting live-performances all over Germany. Actually Templegarden's is organized as a loose collective with several friends, so the sound-variety has become enormous, but always in the mystic ritual sector. Old fairytales, nature, magic places and the unexplainable are their main inspirations. Most of the sounds are a result of sampled ethno-loops, a convertion from natural analog datas to digital. So the technical aspect of this project becomes a symbol for the dialectical relationship between nature and (industrial) culture, which can be experienced in those special Templegarden's atmosphere: the impression of ritual-emotional maturalness, which we're all seeking for, is satisfied by the result of a technical cultural act.