Review about cd "SATANISCHE HELDEN" from Vital Weekly 911, U.S.

Svart1 is a project of Raimondo Gaviano, who works in the fields of ambient, dark ambient, industrial and noise. He currently lives and works in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. He started to make music in 2007 and released music at several labels and internetsites. The album Satanische Helden is his first professional CD release. The music is inspired by several presentations aka incarnations of the devil himself in Eastern cultures. Of course the voice of satanist Aleister Crowley must be used to make the satanistic atmosphere complete. The dark albums treats the listener for 10 compositions which have aswell a dark ambient atmosphere, but also tracks with ritual percussion, industrial beats or noisy sounds. Svart1 uses electronics, edited acoustic instruments and field-recordings to create his music. The track “Ade” flows from a harsh-beattrack to a recording of a purring cat and these different sounds mix in harmony. Also in other tracks are several musical elements with different backgrounds mixed together to change the atmosphere or to give another layer to the music. Elements of choirs, industrial beats, the edited sound of cymbals, noise and ambient moods come together and create several interpretations of presentations of the devil. Some tracks are very noise and dark, but other tracks have a silent and ritual atmosphere. Honestly, I don’t have anything with the devil, jesus, allah, jehovah or any other god or religion, but this album will be a good worship to the devil, if you believe in this enemy and old friend and angel of god. The album is released by Industrial Culture and label run by the Raphael Feldmann from Germany. The aim of the label to provoke, to keep a mirror to society and to do releases for a elitist group of people who are involved or interested in that state of mind. In that case this album suits well in the ideology of the label, although I have my doubts if satanistic music lead to a real provocation nowadays.



Review about cd "SATANISCHE HELDEN" from Ascension Magazine nr 35, Italy.

SVART1 “Satanische Helden” (CD, Industrial Culture) Svart1 è il nome inquietante dietro il quale si cela l'operato del musicista italiano Raimondo Gaviano. Il suo “Satanische Helden” è la prima produzione su CD della Industrial Culture, label tedesca che finora ha pubblicato alcune uscite su nastro. Svart1 si muove in un terreno dove si incrociano il vecchio death industrial svedese e un'avanguardia attenta, fatta di manovalanza e artigianato. L'album è interessante e spicca fra le molte produzioni industrial (inteso come contenitore generale più che come sonorità) per la sua capacità di assorbire, grazie alla forte identità del progetto, gli estremi di un genere. Se ci limitassimo a scrivere “ambient noise” magari uno spiraglio pure lo apriremmo ma, probabilmente, sarebbe ben più efficace immaginare Svart1 come nato da qualche vecchio progetto Cold Meat Industry (Archon Satani, Morthound) smembrato e rimesso in piedi da una ricerca rumoristica puntuale e aggressiva. Oppure, pensate agli strati metallici e field recordings dell'ultimo Z'Ev, dopo che però si è addentrato nel buio paesaggio della copertina di “Satanische Helden” sotto un cielo rosso sangue. Titoli che non lasciano dubbi (“Baphomet”, “Astaroth”, “Samael”), riferimenti e sample “crowleyani” (“Abduxue”), rumori taglienti che soverchiano terrificanti scorci dark ambient: se è questo che cercate in un album, “Satanische Helden” vi esalterà. Ottimo.



Review about cd "SATANISCHE HELDEN" from Vox Empirea Webzine(September 2013), Italy.

After a year since the last reporting record represented by the live-set "Praha", the figure of Sardinian Raimondo Gaviano resurfaces again from the ultra-alternative underground proposing yet another incursion into the more radical industrial/dark-ambient/noise. The production's chronology attributed to the artist mentions from 2007 to today tens of digital-releases of different stylistic music direction, beginning by the creation "DaVisibilia Ad Invisibilia", eight IDM/ambient tracks published by the Japanese label Bumb Foot, followed in 2008 by the album "Audiebantur Gemitus Vulneratoroum" issued for the German brand Format Noise, a work built in collaboration to the Japanese electronic musician called Kenji Siratori with which Svart1 oriented the sounds towards experimental electronics/dark-ambient/spoken words formulas. 2008 was for Gaviano a year particularly productive during which he published, besides the title just described, a succession of other net-releaes: " Gutta Cavat Lapidem ", or seven glitch-ambient episodes entrusted to the Polish label Kaos Ex Machina Promotions, "White", a mysterious electronics/experimental-noise/dark-ambient five-acts creation licensed by Termonucleo and composed by the combination between Svart1 and Nanako. They followed the seven minimal/experimental/ambient songs of "Silentium Est Aureum", published for the Russian Clinical Archives, net-label managed by the avant-garde composer Alexander Lisovsky, succeeded by the five dark-ambient/industrial/experimental tracks included in "Frangar Non Flectar", published by the American label Black Montanas and, then, by "Incubi Succubi", an unique twenty-five minutes composition in dark-ambient/post-folk/industrial mode, issued again from Clinical Archives and played by Svart1 in duet with the Lithuanian musician-video maker-sound contructor Daina Dieva. "Ab Imo Pectore" is another album released in 2008 by Kaos Ex Machina Promotions with eleven dark-ambient/industrial experimental steps, while it closes the sequence of digital publications the EP "Caveat Emptor", published in 2010 by the Italian label Mono Records and composed by the protagonist on techno-electronics schemes in cooperation with the Sardinian d.j. and producer Claudio Porceddu. Listing now the "physical" releases on CD format, we open with the excellent "Spring Wind Brings Water", a very limited-edition album dated back to 2009 licensed by the German brand SkullLine, as well as result of the dark-ambient/neofolk elaborations shared between Gaviano and Matthew S. Toth, aka the dark-ambient/neofolker solo-project known as Shattered Hand. "Ad Extremas" is the title of the mini CD-R promoted in 2010 by Witte Dood Records including only one live-track, which was followed in the same year by the magnificent full-length dark-ambient/electronics "Non Tutto Ciò Che Tace È Morto" published by the Valse Sinister Productions and reviewed time ago by me. The tape-release "Der Schnitter", published in only fifty copies in 2011 by the Romanian label Mask Of The Slave, it continued the Gaviano's way into the exploration of new dark-ambient/industrial horizons, as well as the subsequent thirty copies on CD-r of the live field-recordings "Praha" were released in 2012 by Mrtvaja Record, concluding this list with the recent full-lenght entitled "Satanische Helden ", licensed in 2013 by the German label Industrial-Culture and shortly analyzed by Vox Empirea. Live-performer and particularly good as visual-maker, Svart1 has taken part in important East-European's dark-ambient and electronic hard-experimentation shows, while his musical experience and his technical expertise in knowing how to create the right atmospheres has branched over the years towards important artistic collaborations as, citing some names of the most well-known excluding those already mentioned above: Dirk Geiger, Haus Arafna, Klangstabil, Schattenspiel, Saffronkeira, Gianluca Becuzzi and Retina.it. The camera objective and the video shots taken by Svert1 immortalize evocative images that then will run during the live sessions played at festivals and theaters: dark photographic frames, depicting symbolic landscape's details or other ones focused on the most twisted, unexplored and obsessive dephts of the human psyche, manipulations of old films, burnt coloured or black & white sequences, each of them rallentated or accelerated , each of them perfectly integrated to the motionless of dark-ambient sounds or to the frenzy of electronic/industrial-noise. The inspirational criteria by which the artist conceives his own music derived from various sources mostly related to the subterranean aspects of the emotional sphere, both individual and social, sounds which aggregation rises a dark and cold cosmos used as prism through which to filter, probing , corrupt and transfigurate seemingly inviolable and natural elements like beauty, acoustics able to eviscerate introspections, fears, but observing also the repressed mental aspects of who is succubus and the ones of those who predominates. "Satanische Helden" is an opera absoutely darker, made with the most prevalent purpose of materializing the state of anguish that screams inside in the artist's thoughts interpreted by an heterodox, blasphemous optic, played by sinister rhythmic-harsh/industrial dark-ambient procedures, occult atmospheres, so congenial to support the concept of the album, or a sonic investigation on manifestations of demons in the Eastern tradition. The opening evolves from "Baphomet", full of darkness and midtempo industrial-percussive automatisms which austerity is combined to the infected electronic manipulations that flow copious from the laptop, to the hyper-saturated electronic eruptions and to the menacing keyboard roar that surrounds entirely with coldness the track. The voice belonged to the damned English writer and esoteric Aleister Crowley flowing now disfigured by sound filterings to which they follow unstressed dark-ambient pads extensions, distorted manipulations and an undercurrent of Arabian programmed percussiveness: all this in "Abduxue". It follows the next song, "Hades", propagating impure darkness activated by an electronic vortex that, screeching against an industrial percussive drumming base, it causes abrasions and glacial combustions of high intensity, strengthening inside a sense of oppression and drama. "Ahriman Ante" spreads amount of synthetic noises processed and infected by micro-fractures, by a turbid filament, obsessively repetitive, supported by obscure-ambient perturbations longer expanded until they reach an heretic liturgy of bell and spoken words. "Iblis" burns, rhythmically automated by industrialfire sections to which it follows the eternal and slow flight of pads similar to choirs coming from the Infinite, a sound-system that not gives respite leaving the listener transfixed by such solemn gloom. The album continues with "Angra Mainyu", a track created using powerful sequences of electronic material full of timbres recalling the cruel breath of hellish entities to which they follow by excruciating radiation and hyper- technological -industrial harsh frequencies so destructive to annihilate each element, along with drumming an hypnotizing abysmal-intoned laptop chord. "Samael" retrieves the dark-ambient sound highlighting it through meditative shadiness and by low modulations which fractionations take the recalls of Nature elements represented by the rain and the bright twittering of birds, alternating all this to the Oriental movements expressed with minimalism and sinuosity by the keyboard intonations and the humble ethnic-drumming. countering such calmness, the industrial clang played by "Rashnu" extends metal echoes surrounded by an electronic gaseous, radio-contaminating turbines, which makes sound opacifications devastating the structures by its roar, while the following "Astaroth" transmits hallucinated keyboard apportionments similar to an obscure mantra, integrally saturated by noises and by a tormenting cloud of synthetic effects that spinning cyclically and mechanically obsessing the hearing. The silvery bell clink reverberates clearly for the celebration of the final rite, "Ahriman Post", moving itself softly to the rhythm of a thin and lysergic-oriental drumming phase, concluding by these sounds an opera that represents acoustically and ideally a depicts the ancient pagan iconography related to Hell and to the interaction of its creatures with the Humanity, performing so the function of "contact" between remote Era and the current times next to Apocalypse, emphasizing into musics enigmatic charm and the terrifying presence of Unknown. The creativity of Svart1 calls every electronic stratagem to re-create the right mix of evocation and pathos, while his cold and disenchanted eyes scan the approaching and the subsequent evolution of the arcane spirits without any light coming from the flaming Levantine depths: malevolent shadows will dance with the listener forever sinking him into the damned chasm of "Satanische Helden". Conscious of this, get you close to it.



Review about cd "SATANISCHE HELDEN" from Son of Flies Webzine(September 2013), Italy.

Raimondo Gaviano mente pulsante del progetto SVART1 è uno dei compositori più validi e interessanti che la scena dark ambient / industrial italiana possa vantare. E' tornato per farci annegate nell'oscurità profonda della sua raggelante dimensione sonora. L'orrore dipinto dal musicista diventa il simbolo di una incontrollata evoluzione stilistica, forse, da un certo punto di vista, un'anticipazione concreta/realistica di quel che sarà il nostro triste destino. L'eretico "Satanische Helden" si pone agevolmente fra due versanti opposti: vivente e non-vivente, fra umano e tecnologico, balzando in primo piano grazie alla flessibilità critica che lo alimenta e contraddistingue da molti simili. La musica concepita da Svart1 è nata dai suoi stessi incubi interiori che non sono da meno di qualunque altro essere vivente si ritrovi a respirare con affanno in questa vita terrena, stuprata dallo sterile condizionamento materiale. Così, Gaviano entra nel torpore dell'immaginario collettivo violandolo ulteriormente, da solo lo circonda per poi annientarlo. Nei suoi tratti tecnici si colgono echi sonori dei migliori maestri del genere, ma si sente che il bestiale/cupo "Satanische Helden" è penetrato anche da una sentita / personale ricerca avanguardista. In esso, l'ascoltatore può abbandonarsi totalmente per poi seppellire meticolosamente la propria essenza sconfitta, molto prima che la tracklist si concluda. La tangibile originalità di Svart1 diventa il segno che lo rende "diverso"/"vincente"!!! Bisogna essere assolutamente felici diascoltare artisti come Raimondo Gaviano. Lavoro notevole. Da avere assolutamente!



Review about cd "SATANISCHE HELDEN" from Darkroom Magazine(July 2013), Italy.

L'act italico Svart1, forte ormai di una discografia ampia tra uscite in download, cassette e CDr, torna con un nuovo CD a distanza di tre anni dal precedente "Non Tutto Ciò Che Tace È Morto". "Satanische Helden", titolo nato da una citazione del primo singolo dei tedeschi November Növelet, prende spunto tematico da una lista di demoni che danno nome alle dieci tracce del disco, in cui compare anche la voce (un po' fuori luogo) di Aleister Crowley. I suoni spaziano da partiture ritmico-industriali a furori noise, senza tralasciare atmosfere pacate, generate con droni prolungati o sovrapposizioni di materiale sintetico. L'elemento percussivo è la nota più vitale del disco, usato a volte in modo superficiale con cassa dritta di sottofondo ("Ade" e "Angra Mainyu"), ma anche in maniera meno scontata laddove intervengono pulsazioni abrasive che assumono la forma del ticchettìo di un orologio, come in "Ahriman Ante", o nell'andamento elettro-tribale di "Abduxue", che segna uno degli aspetti più interessanti dell'opera. Tra qualche passaggio un po' fracassone, da cui trapela una certa difficoltà nello gestire accumuli sonori importanti ("Rashnu", "Astaroth"), trova spazio anche il piccolo gioiello "Samael", pezzo che, staccando col resto dei suoni, trova il suo nodo centrale in un tema di strumento a fiato accompagnato da percussioni etniche e cinguettìo di rifinitura: ne risulta un sound incredibilmente efficace nel trasmetterci l'esotismo di un rituale antico, fotografato in luoghi ignoti lontani anni luce dalla modernità. Nel complesso "Satanische Helden" si presenta con alti e bassi: idee buone ma di seconda mano, le solite strutture industriali 'casalinghe', ma anche alcune liete e inaspettate sorprese che trovano nel ritualismo post-industriale il loro aspetto più affascinante. In futuro sarà meglio insistere sui lati positivi e ripulire i suoni da troppo, inutile rumore: gli spunti interessanti non mancano.



Review about cd "SATANISCHE HELDEN" from The new Noise (June 2013), Italy.

Svart1 (Raimondo Gaviano) è un progetto relativamente nuovo di area industrial/noise/dark ambient. Ha base in Sardegna, dove ormai – tra Balestrazzi, Altieri, Santoru, Carìa – è tutto così freddo e buio che pare di essere in Islanda. Temevo, visti i titoli di album e tracce, l’ennesimo clone degli Mz.412, che comunque in qualche recesso del dna di Svart1 ci devono essere. Satanische Helden (“eroi satanici”), invece, ha i suoi momenti di eccellenza: l’accumulo bruciante di suoni in “Iblis”, la fusione tra techno e dark ambient di “Angra Mainyu”, lo strumento etnico a fiato di “Samael” (vedi alla voce Nimh, per rimanere in Italia) o i “tintinnabuli” più percussioni circolari di “Ahriman Post”. Forse ci sono un paio di intoppi (scegliere ancora Crowley, il beat di “Ade”…), ma pure il grosso delle altre tracce regge, senza dimenticare che stiamo parlando di un genere che è già collassato varie volte sotto il peso di miliardi di uscite, quindi è dura farsi ascoltare con orecchio interessato e/o dire qualcosa di nuovo. La strada, in ogni caso, pare proprio quella giusta, perché Raimondo suona in giro e instaura varie collaborazioni (anche per quanto riguarda la realizzazione di video), incrementando dunque la propria esperienza: forse serve solo proseguire convinti, togliere le ultime imperfezioni al suono e sbarazzarsi di qualche cliché, così da trovare definitivamente una voce unica e chiaramente distinguibile.



Review about cd "SATANISCHE HELDEN" from Black on line (May 2013), Germany.

Im April diesen Jahres hat der sardische Künstler SVART1 sein neuestes Album “Satanische Helden” auf Industrial Culture Records veröffentlicht. “Böse, böse, finster!” mag man sich in Kombination mit dem doch eher stereotypen Death Industrial-Artwork denken, doch ist der Titel des Albums eher ein Tribut an die implizite Forderung nach “More Satanic Heroes” von NOVEMBER NÖVELET. Damals, vor langer Zeit. Nach diversen Tapes (u.a. JOSEF NADEK, WYRM) und einer CDR ist “Satanische Helden” die erste reguläre gepresste CD im Katalog des Labels. Eine weise Entscheidung. “Satanische Helden” beginnt mit dunklem oszillierenden Stromkrach, der angenehm rauscht und knackt. Doch spätestens nach dem Intro des zweiten Tracks wird die Erwartung auch eines klanglichen Galakthorrö-Tributes positiv enttäuscht. Die tribalen Rhythmen lassen eher an THIS MORN´OMINA minus Techno denken, bzw. an den ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO-Ableger MOST SIGNIFICANT BEAT. Überhaupt zeigt sich “Satanische Helden” für Genreverhältnisse spielfreudig und abwechslungsreich. Nicht, dass man das meiste auf die ein oder andere Art schon andernorts gehört hätte. Die eigentliche Leistung von “Satanische Helden” ist der Mash-Up, der neue Bewegung liefert und Sympathien sichert. Gerade im Power Electronics-Sektor scheint alles gesagt, wütende alte Männer brüllen weiter zu BRSTSGTSCSCH ins Mikro ihren Frust in die Welt, während vor der Bühne verschwitzte Fanboys mit graumeliertem Haar Männlichkeitsrituale praktizieren. SVART1 setzt sich davon ab, macht Spaß und brettert unbekümmert auf die Tanzflächen, ohne dass die insgesamt zehn Tracks sich im formelhaften verlieren. Auch auf der heimischen Anlage kann man sich “Satanische Helden” am Stück anhören, ohne einzuschlafen. Natürlich gelingt das eine mehr, das andere weniger. In der Gesamtschau gehört SVART1 für mich zusammen mit ATRABILIS SUNRISE (RAUBBAU) zu den spannenderen Post-Industrial-Schrägstrich-Power Electronics-Projekten der letzten Jahre.