Ta'wil (2004) by Children of the Apocalypse (C.O.T.A.)

ALBUM LINKS C.O.T.A. Official Site Middle Pillar Ta'wil on C.O.T.A. Site Ta'wil on Tesco Distrobution

Over the past couple of years, I've become a big fan of Queens-based Middle Pillar, a music distributor (and sometime label) specializing in "gothic, ambient, magick, industrial and esoteric titles," the likes and number of which anybody is unlikely to ever find in a music shop. Their enormous catalog includes everything from Italian "Classical" goth to experimental noise to dark meditation music to Scandinavian industrial. Middle Pillar has really good taste as well, or so I've found, and so this fall I decided to go through their catalog, mark some titles that looked good (grabbing some sound samples online just to check) and place an order.

Among the several titles I ordered was the subject of this review, Ta'wil by Children of the Apocalypse (C.O.T.A.). Middle Pillar's catalog had described the album as a "ritualistic and tribal classic" and that was the hook for me, because I'm on the lookout for good dark meditation and/or ritual music and a group with "Apocalypse" in its name whose music is described as "ritualistic and tribal" sounded like one I'd like to hear. And once I heard the samples on the group's web site, I knew I was right and clicked "Add to Cart."

The packaging on the CD, originally released in 1996 and remastered and re-released in 2003, is a beautiful digipak, which I wouldn't mention normally in a music review, but not only is the packaging exceptional, but it fits the music on the disc to a tee. It's light brown, with the feel of a forest tribe about it, roots (or are they thorns?) on the front cover, beautiful calligraphic fonts throughout, and nature symbols. The smooth matte finish feels like soft wood, not the glossy processed feel of most CDs.

The album begins by immersing the listener in the sounds of the outdoors. "Blood and Soil" conjures a landscape of birds cackling, flutes oozing gentle songs, half-heard words, a tribal chant, someone slowly strumming an acoustic guitar. It's slow and steady, yet feels solid, as if the recording is taking the listener on a trip down a slow, muddy river. Birds sings in the trees, branches and vines hang down in the water, and voices drift in from the villages.

With "Dark Reaction," the album slides into a different direction, moving somewhere darker, perhaps into the forests. This track features more electronic elements, dark space music, backed with a slow tribal beat that begins like a slow heartbeat or stamping feet, gradually building into a dance. One can easily visualize a group of tribal people dancing around a fire, faster and faster, letting the energy of the universe flow through them and back out again.

"Ismaeli" seems to go to an even darker place. Perhaps it's because it's somewhat hard to completely grasp the heavily-filtered vocal track, clearly a recitation of a poem about "the Garden of Paradise," but the track has a creepy edge to it.

...The garden is well-watered by streams,
Shaded by trees.
It is full of luscious fruit
and sweet-smelling plants...

The words are coming out of the dark, from a place of great power, and that power is not necessarily aimed towards the good. The words of a god or a dark priestess, a prophetess, her voice possessed and unearthly. Eventually the voice fades and the song moves to percussion and sounds of water, almost as if the song is cleansing itself of the dark elements.

The title track, "Ta'wil," is another dark piece, dominated towards the beginning by a deep voice over bells which are decidedly not Jingle Bells. Perhaps the bells are possessed by demons, or simply hanging in a dark place, moved by unclean winds. From here the song moves into an exotic, Middle Eastern flavored instrumental, sounding at first like music to accompany a journey, but towards the end like a medium-tempo, very intense dance.

"Song for the Fifth World" is purely instrumental, with electronic and acoustic instruments creating a sonic landscape that, for someone carrying out a ritual or doing a meditation, can turn into anything. One can picture a harrowing journey up a mountain top or the flight of an eagle over a waterfall. I can easily picture somebody stretching or doing Yoga to this music.

The final track on the album, "Spiritual Warfare" is full of drama, like a movie soundtrack. I picture clashing armies, cities in ruin... perhaps the Apocalypse? (It would fit the band name, after all.) Dark clouds gather, lighting strikes, and there is no mercy as the song lurches forward through mud. In fact in one section of this track, I got the impression the music was dragging and finally realized that in a way, it sounds like either a techno track or a hip hop back beat slowed way down. Later on it speeds up, until at long last, it fades away.

With that Ta'Wil is complete. There are only six tracks, but since they range from seven to fourteen minutes each, the disc definitely constitutes an album. The lengthy tracks are another reason the CD makes such outstanding music for use in rituals and meditation; the tracks are long enough that one can carry out a lengthy visualization or ritual without any abrupt changes in tone. The music is also ideal for such use because it's largely voiceless, human voices confined to droning, chanting, whispering, and reciting bits of poetry, without lyrics to complicate things. One can simply let the mind roam through the worlds of sound.

About the Author:
Wendy Darling (nickname Wiebke Fesch) is a web designer, fanfic author, and editor of Inception. She lives in Atlanta, GA, where she is self-employed, operating her own web design business, Metro Girl. Wendy is co-author of a Wraeththu Mythos novel called Breeding Discontent, and is an editor with Immanion Press. You can reach Wendy at wdarling@abraxis.com.