Release data:

Mathias Grassow & Carsten Agthe – Beyond the Silence (Live at Gut Saunstorf)
CD, Gterma, 2012

What we got here is a double-album with music played during an extensive live-set by Mathias Grassow and percussionist Carsten Agthe, complimented by a few new (improvised) compositions at the end of each disc.
The 160-minute outcome strongly connects to Grassow’s foundation for the albums “Wisdom of Fate” and “Dämmerung” and was performed in August 2012 at Gut Saunstorf, a non-denominational monastery, a place of stillness, contemplation and retreat situated in the Northern (Weimar) region in Germany.

At first, the drone-dominated tribal ambient music seems to drag on and on the first two pieces, as there’s not much really happening in the sound design. Fortunately, later on the ritualistic music starts to evolve as the dronescapes and light percussion become more prominent and varied. The outro “Silent Contemplation” is a gem on the first disc.

The distant, dense and soft wavering drone landscapes with percussive licks continue on the second disc, but didn’t live up to my expectation. The two mystic sounding tracks though at the tail, especially the silencing “The Coming of Dawn” make the difference once again.

Overlooking the whole recording, I personally prefer the upfront walls of mesmerizing drone tapestries filling the aforementioned studio albums. For me, these truly create a profound hypnotic realm to escape into.

Website: ww.gterma021to040.blogspot.se/p/gterma023-mathias-grassow-beyond-silence.html

You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Mathias Grassow artist page