Altus – Solastalgia

	3.5
Release data: Altus – Solastalgia CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2024

I recall having quite some issues with the previous Altus album “Descender” but hearing the first textural waves of “Solastalgia” -created from May to July 2023- makes clear the latter (re) focuses on painting emotive, intimate atmospherics. The album is inspired by the term “Solastalgia” coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht who defined it as “the homesickness we feel while still at home.” In clearer language, it is best described as the lived experience of negatively perceived environmental change – the agony and desire we experience when we realize the world around us is changing.

Well, a darker, melancholic, sad, and desolate veil is hanging over and/or embedded profoundly in all nine slow-evolving, cinematic-ish soundscapes that melt ambient and modern classical motifs, akin to Altus’ previous recordings “City of Ashes” (2009) and “Hidden Realms and Vacant Spaces” (2022). Just immerse in the beautiful post/neoclassical “As we watched it burn” followed by the spacious, uplifting but still lonely spheres of “The Air we used to Breathe” or the sense of despair expressed through “Witnessing the Collapse”. In the end, there’s a sense of solace and comfort found in them all, even in the orchestral, stark, and highly cinematic “Where even the damned fear to tread”. All in all, this well-rendered release is for deeper (headphone) listening.

Overall rating: between 3.5 and 4 stars.

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