There is a group of small acts, collectives and individual artists that dot the
globe creating spacious scenes using a backdrop of layered or prepared guitar and
infusing environmental recordings. This initial work by Zimiamvian Night is
assimilated into this group that includes among others; Monos, Mirror and Zoviet
France (during their more spacious moments). These acts and artists employ the
richness and warmth of analog recording, with small detailed clips of the world
around them. The analog sounds, when examined closely, continue to display a
furthering richness of detail. Detailed examination uncovers new sounds and textures
as displayed here on the 1st Zimiamvian Night recording. There is a delicate
framework built around the hum and beautiful gauze created from the guitar, deepened
by layering and enhanced from the warm sound medium of the magnetic tape.
Imperceptibly the sound emerges and then fades infinitely, with no end in sight,
a quiet calm eventually settling in. Reviews
The distant howl of a fog horn turned low and dead prowls through the underbelly of
these three tracks. It's unsettling and nocturnal, the perfect musical score to
accompany the artwork included with this album. It may be a bridge lit by high,
bright lamps, but it could be a Russian winter scene, the details of a city lost
in the haze of a Ukrainian nightmare come to life. Submissive, intricately tempered
whispers, wails, and waterfalls slide through a maze of slowly turning passages,
each crossing the next and producing a wall of silent deaths lost to the trees and
mountains that seem to dot the landscape created in the textural sprawl of large,
impressionistic strokes and dizzying, detuned growls. The only light is the deep
blue color of the moon, it seems to emphasize the paths the cold takes as it digs
into bone and slows blood down into an icy sludge. Thousand year old corpses line
the inside of a long forgotten tomb marked by escape attempts made by the living
unfortunate enough to be trapped there and the unholy scripture of a language long
lost to history. Zimiamvian Night can be absolutely horrific, the manner through
which their vision is presented implies a certain scope and attitude, namely that
silence and softness can be just as heartbreaking and fear inducing as the onslaught
so often presented through power, high volumes, and abrasive sounds. The whole of
"Between Moments" is a suffocated draft beating through the heart of a sunken
city buried below years of war, weather, and catastrophe. The quiet movements and
subtle variations in volume and texture create an uneasy atmosphere that keep me
guessing as to what might be around the next corner. The music is also strongly visual,
painting broad pictures of empty, destroyed landscapes and scarred memories abound
with still fright: the sight of an almost dead human crumbling away or the image of a
hand protruding from cracked dirt. Thinking about what the last moments for that
human must've been like is much like listening to this record. My imagination has
taken wild turns while listening to this, often finding reason to be quite scared of
the dark. Zimiamvian Night's approach to sound worlds is slow and dominant, allowing
sounds to develop into silence before moving on. It's a panoramic piece of music that
spirals slowly into insanity, like watching a final heartbeat throb away in the
slowest of motions. - Lucas Schleicher / Brainwashed
Maybe the current state of economics in music business forces Infraction Records to stretch out to CDRs, maybe it's the fact that Zimiamvian Night, aka Mike Bennett, is just quite unknown. I don't know. Limited to 50 copies comes his release with two long tracks and one short one. Zimiamvian Night is also present in the world of ambient music, but in a much more abstract way. Whereas Koda present gentle tunes, Zimiamvian Night goes dark and abstract, stretching out sounds by computer means. In 'Between Moments', the longest track here, the music slowly moves out until it's gone, and then slowly built up again. Everything is done with great care, everything gets its time to develop. - Vital Weekly