Procer Veneficus - Saltwater & Glassmoon

2.5

Release data:

Procer Veneficus – Saltwater & Glassmoon
CD-R, New Age Dawn/Stellar Auditorium Productions, 2008

Procer Veneficus is the alias of one Derek Schultz, who composed the music of this 42-minute ambient recording in December 2005.
On his site, Derek says you cannot understand the sound of Procer Veneficus unless you have walked at the edge of Los Osos past midnight.
At the same spot, the music itself is described as an assembly of deep and slow ambience from a small-town December filled to the brim with rich Pacific longing.

“Ocean Spheres” starts out nicely atmospheric, stepping in a quiet world of deep, meandering soundscapes with an cathedral edge to it, which continues on the second piece “Descent through Glassmoon”.

The 11-minute “Amaranth and Liqueur” opens with drifting synth-beds of clouded, impenetrable textures, but as the track progresses the overall sound spectrum gets ghostly and dull.
The minimal dronescapes on the 5-minute “Atmospheric Lull” lack contrast to make a worthy listen. The closing piece “Departure” is a tad better, as the drifting textures shift to a lighter tone, but remaining sounding dull.

Another minor point on this release are the long silences between the tracks. I’m sure quite a bit of work on both production and mastering would improve things, now the outcome stays formless and too distant.

Website: procerveneficus.bandcamp.com