Experimental: Xaurix Xubatnix - Bowed Voltage (2024)

72 / 100

Bowed Voltage is a slow-burning, immersive experimental work that leans heavily on dark and eerie atmosphere.

Xaurix Xubatnix is an experimental project by Italian-descended ambient artist Jack Hertz, who is also the founder of Acousmatique Recordings, Aural Films, Poison Plant Music, and Sound For Good Records. The album Bowed Voltage itself was released in February 2024 as a single 52-minute track.

Bowed Voltage presents an experiment rooted in a form of acoustic sound which—judging from the tags and cover artwork—comes from a cello or violin, producing tones that feel more synthetic and almost drift toward dungeon synth, with the addition of sounds from various falling objects and the like. This approach evokes a dark and unsettling atmosphere, as if being in an unfamiliar place—whether a castle, a forest, an underground chamber, or even the deep sea—felt throughout the single track “The King.”

In the end, this Xaurix Xubatnix release converges into a Silent Hill–like atmosphere, something I often find myself saying about certain dark ambient releases such as Circle of Pines or artists associated with Cryo Chamber (Sabled Sun, Atrium Carceri, and others). Brave enough to try it?

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