Label: Prophecy Productions
Review by Warren Mayocchi
NOÊTA‘s stated aim is to make music as “an accompaniment for introspection”. Even the band’s name originates in the works of philosophy and equates to unconscious thoughts or ideas. “Beyond Life and Death” takes on the human search for meaning and the feelings which go along with the inability to find it. It is a grand topic, as Albert Camus wrote, “There is but one serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy”. While the band do put themselves in the genre of black ambient, they do not sound as dark as Albert Camus‘ words. NOÊTA are definitely ambient – there is a brooding sense to their music, the instruments breathe out notes at the tempo of soft rain. The vocals are angelic and have the trance like effect of a spiritual singer’s voice echoing through an abandoned ancient city. You can watch the music video for “Beyond Life” [link] to see what I am attempting to describe. The overall effect is a meditative album until the last track – “Urkaos”, which probably means ‘out of chaos’. This song has a spoken word vocal and begins with the line, “Do you believe there is a soul somewhere in the body? Then how would you know when you’ve found it?”. While the theme of the album is practically unnoticeable in the other songs, because they use broad strokes to create an atmosphere, this last song invites the listener to engage. It is quite unlike everything before it and might be a jarring end to the album for some listeners, as it was for me. “Beyond Life and Death” is an interesting opener from NOÊTA, musically it does not meet the ambitious goal of portraying the search for meaning, but it definitely works as a soundtrack for introspection.
Rating – 80/100
Tracklist
- Beyond Life
- In Drowning
- Darkest Desires
- Pneûma
- In Void
- Dead Soil
- Beyond Death
- In Thunder
- Urkaos
Line Up
- Êlea
- Ândris