This palindromaticly titled fifth release from Italy's Larsen is a thick and monstrous slab of sound, from the opening drone of "The Snow" to the Lustmord-infused electronics of the closer "Marzia". In between, there are forty-plus minutes of dense, mind-blowing orchestration and rifts of subtle sparseness. Recorded around the same time as the expansive album Play, SeieS comes across more song-oriented; though don't expect any choruses or bridges from these guys.

"Mother", the second track, is a work of genius; taking a simple repetitive line and building it up to anthemic proportions, with the help of Jarboe on voice and the talented Julia Kent (of Antony and the Johnsons fame) on cello. Thankfully, Kent's cello seems to be on almost every track and offers a beautifully organic counterpoint to the haunting electronics and guitars of Larsen. Add to that the voice of Jarboe (apparently the den mother for dark band worldwide) and you have a recipe for some striking pieces of music, though it is sad to not hear M. Gira in the subsequent releases of Larsen, after their debut Rever.

It is not until the end of the record that the skies above begin to darken in a sinister way. The last two tracks take a sharp turn to a minor place, from the thick guitar loops of Haulia (channeling Mogwai through a David Lynch soundtrack) to the expansive 12-minute plus "Marzia". The only problem is the "Marzia" is a little too simplistic in its plodding rendition of Black Metal as done by Peter Gabriel; for what passes for evil in some countries seems a little too passé to me, especially living in the country that seems to have cornered the market on selling its soul to Satan.

With only this one miscalculation, I can still whole-heartedly recommend this record to any fan of dark soundtracks or atmospheric math-rock song cycles. Larsen brings a competent hand to a seemingly dead genre and chokes it back awake and aware.