Glass Throat Recordings


	SMOOTH ASSAILING Seattle transplant chet scott is the lone man at work behind ruhr hunter. he's also in the dark folk duo the elemental chrysalis, with james woodhead. last but not least, he keeps himself occupied by running the glass throat recordings label, who've put out a few releases, most notably albums by beneath the lake and gruntsplatter in addition to all of the projects that chet's released. "Torn of This" is ruhr hunter's second release. where 1998's effort ritual before the hunt was dark and, pardon the obvious statement, ritualistic, what we have here is a bit more rooted in the experimental folk genre. torn of this does still retain quite a few of those darker aspects, but they're a little more subtle this time around, and there's more going on musically to balance out the sound. opening track wounded by my own blade sets things off with some nice acoustic guitar playing over what sounds like the noise you'd hear when someone swings on an old playground swingset, then the guitar stops, the swing noise continues, and a stark background soundscape picks up, continuing like that for a few minutes before some tribal drumming and electric guitar drone take the track to it's conclusion. it's a very nice tone setting piece. the majority of torn of this spends it's time combining sparse multi-instrumentation with darker soundscapes. the album's shining moment comes with the title track. it's a beautiful song that fully realizes a musical theme that was used in a couple of tracks, including the opener. it also marks the first time that we hear chet sing. coincidentally, it's also the first time that we wonder why we hadn't heard chet sing until now. he has a great voice, it's just a shame that the song is so short. closer black loon, white mountains, features vocals as well, but they're not used in the same manner. Looks really can be deceiving, if i would've seen a picture of ruhr hunter before listening to his music i would've expected music resembling something more like sunn o))). instead what we have is a nice experimental folk album that, while it does venture down darker paths at times, it never loses it's focus, which is creating earthy music. part of the charm of ruhr hunter's sound is that you can really feel it's authenticity, he comes across as being genuine. during the whole new weird america craze a few years back, that's what was really lacking, a sense that they actually cared about the type of music they were making and weren't just doing it because it was the it thing at the moment. MUSIQUE MACHINE Ruhr Hunter's second full length is a mix of grim strummed guitar work, eerier drone work and other instrumental greys, all lit by inventive and eerier Sound element use. This is One of the projects darkest works thus far like music for grim cowboy film, or gloom ridden trips across grey unchanging desert landscape that are littered with decaying cattle carcass and squawking vultures. For me this seems to have less of a forest based feel and more of a lonely and shadowy American of small town's homicides and broken down ghost towns. I guess musically it's a mix of dark folk/ doomy country music, eerier soundtrack work and dark ambience, with a few hits at post rock/ instrumental rock along the way. Stand out moments would be the eerier, erratic duel machine purr and thermin like wail of Brichwood- which brings to mind been slowly stalked by a shadowy hunched finger on a chugging tractor across dead grey corn fields. Also A Colony of Bees , Asunder which mixes disquieting bee sound with vibe like tones and eerier streached ambience and sound elements. Almost giving a supernatural un-easy feeling like been placed on a sacrificial alter between realities to a strange buzzing god. AVERSIONLINE E-ZINE 9/10 - Years in the making, this is definitely Ruhr Hunter's finest work to date. There's no way I'll be able to properly convey what's gone into this release, but I'll do my best to speak its praises. Just as experimental, just as conceptual (if not more so), far more mature, and far more musical, "Torn of This" goes above and beyond what one would expect from an experimental noise project. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Ruhr Hunter is moving into an entirely new realm of exploration. Yes, there are elements of dark ambient electronics here, but for the most part the sound sources are musical instruments, and while used rather unconventionally, the outcome is still incredibly melodic and moving. A tangible musical thread extends through each and every track on the CD to varying degrees. An incredibly wide range of instrumentation is used this time out, including bass (fretted and fretless), acoustic guitar (six and 12 string), autoharp, hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery, organ, bell chimes, vocals, and of course environmental recordings. "The Sower & The Sown" is a brilliant epic, simply an incredibly monumental piece. "Birchwood" is more minimal and very quiet, perhaps along the lines of what might be "expected", but not in a generic or insulting manner. "Knowledge to Know is Eye" creates a lull of ethereal sounds that is very relaxing and hypnotic in its repetition, while the title track is far shorter, utilizing plucked harmonies with painful, screeching string scraping and excellent singing vocals deep in the distance. "Black Loon, White Mountains" closes out with subtle monotone vocals towards the end (in an almost Neurosis-esque sense) before fading to an excellent bass harmony outro. The layout, as with all Glass Throat releases, looks fucking incredible. All of the artwork is by the mighty Stephen Kasner, presented here on thick, ultra high gloss paper. The textures are superb, and the photographic work inside the booklet comes as a big surprise. One font is used throughout to maintain a consistent appearance, and each track is listed along with its running time and the instruments used to create it. Viewing the imagery alongside track titles like "Of Wolf & Flame" and "The Sky is Denied", among others, confirms that nature is still a large influence in this work, but it's obviously a bit more personal this time out - notably due to the inclusion of vocals (which I'd love to hear explored further). The bottom line is that brilliant sound quality plus great compositional arrangements equals one amazing record. This material is on par with that of artists who are receiving far more press and widespread attention than Ruhr Hunter is. If there is any justice in this world that fact will soon change. because this CD should propel Ruhr Hunter into the spotlight... Running time - 61:49, Tracks: 9 [Notable tracks: The Sower & The Sown, Birchwood, Torn of This, Black Loon, White Mountains] TRIUMVIRATE A Highly imaginative, darkly cinematic work that at times brings to mind the sights and sensations of the gray juncture between land and sea, and the melancholy seclusion of America's Pacific Northwest woods in Autumn. Built upon a foundation of manipulated and altered environmental and field location recordings, the material integrates ingrediants of acoustic instrumentation such as guitar, stringed instruments, piano, and organ with strategic use of subdued, introspective vocals. The work strikes a superior balance between forlorn minimalism and denser compositions. SEVEN E-ZINE "Torn Of This" the second full-length release from RUHR HUNTER (there ís also a split release with GRUNTSPLATTER and a collaborative work with CHAOS AS SHELTER), is a stark, somber affair accentuating the dark ruminations of the earth. Chet W. Scott, the man behind RUHR HUNTER and the GLASS THROAT label, has fleshed out his dark sonicscape sound with an array of instruments, including everything from the familiar (acoustic guitar, electric bass) to the unique (hammered dulcimer, antique autoharp, energy chimes, Sukop fretless bass/e-bow), giving "Torn of This" a distinct atmosphere all its own. "Wounded By My Own Blade" opens with strummed acoustic guitar amidst a scattering of sounds (the halting caw of a crow and odd echoed nuances), and the strange caress of a metronome-like metallic screech; the mood tumbles into a more despairing murkiness as the track progresses, still sprinkled with a smattering of sounds. Further in, the ominous is highlighted by the war drum and all-around darkness that looms subtly, menacingly, on the horizon. After bells introduce "The Sower & The Sown" space is emphasized, an emptiness littered with crisp sounds that resonate with much power because of the barren terrain they fill. A descending, arching melody, along with one that sounds as though it utilizes a wind instrument, gives the song an ambience not unlike something soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone would create! "Of Wolf & Flame" is sculpted around a RUHR HUNTER trademark: A single note, echoed to eternity. Add a groaning sound over the top (someone has awakened Bigfoot) and tinny sounds that flutter along with the echoed note, along with a cluster of bowed instruments throughout, and a magical symphony in the forest unfolds. The temperament of the sounds shifts as the track moves forward, growing more tonally weary and wise as the track evolves...Fascinating! The thickest darkness on the disc is on "The Sky Is Denied," a brooding darkness dotted with antique bell chimes that clink and clank with oddly muted timbres. "A Colony Of Bees, Asunder" opens with jittery, crystalline tones that mesh with samples of honey bees, a hive of manipulated tones that intrigues throughout. "Torn Of This" is a wonderfully eclectic, though solemn (that's not a bad thing, just a choice by the artist, and one I fully endorse because it's done with such passion), listening experience...Highly recommended!! WORM GEAR #12 "Torn Of This" marks a substantial maturation in Ruhr Hunter's sound, new to the cauldron are melodic musical passages, and even a bit of clean singing, and an overall more ethnic feel. All of this blend extremely well with the traditional drift and drone that Ruhr Hunter has come to be know for. Autoharp, dulcimer, and bass provide the bulk of the musical elements, floating up from the atmospheres, with delicate repetitive, melody before receding again. There is also a percussive presence on the opening track, "Wounded By My Own Blade", in the form of ritual drumming and heavy tom type beats. This is all mixed with subtle analog drones, environmental recordings and some of the Ruhr Hunter sounds that we have come to expect. The overall effect here is of an almost Ethnic Dark Ambient feel minimally akin to things like Vidna Obmana, Alio Die or some of the other Amplexus type releases, but the substantial difference from those projects is that "Torn Of This" is considerably more involved and animated. These tracks don't stall out they continually bloom with new evolutions and deeper hollows to sink yourself into that travel well beyond the preconceived expectations of an Ethno-Ambient release. The music is much more interesting and diverse and breathes deeper than those projects I think, it contains a real sensitivity that stands more as an example of the pinnacle of this kind of work than as a follower of a beaten path. The noisier elements in Ruhr Hunter's past never really surface here, and the release doesn't suffer in the least for the lack of them. The organic sonic fumes smolder and billow along well beyond the musical veins that rise but those elements pack flesh on the tracks where appropriate. It is not a purely melodic listen there is still plenty of darkness and mood so don't for a second think this is a drastic change, simply an evolution of the existing sound. Long passages of intense subtly, introspection and reflection waft forth and draw you to them, and you can almost feel the sea of rusty leaves crunch beneath their delicate weight. The vocals surface on two tracks, the title track, and the album closing "Black Loon, White Mountains", they are not dominant in the mix, and meld well with the surrounding atmospheres. "Torn Of This" is an impressively conceived and executed piece of work, the attention to detail, the emotional trail it takes you down, the sound, and as usual with Glass Throat releases, the artwork and packaging is again significant, dark artist Stephen Kasner contributed the illustrations. MAELSTROM E-ZINE Sometimes an album comes along that you couldn't imagine being any more sublime. Such is the case with Ruhr Hunter's "Torn of This". Essentially this record takes everything that is good about Brian Eno's indispensable ambient masterpiece, "Ambient 4: on Land" - namely the way each track is brilliantly unique and captivating and how the music succeeds on both an ambient, and more importantly, on a musical level - but does it all one better. This is high praise considering "Ambient 4: on Land" is for me what all dark and ambient pieces are judged by...The secret to the success of this one-man project is indeed that all the music is played, and played by a rich variety of classy instruments: a harp, fretless bass, acoustic guitar, and (one of my personal favorites) hammered dulcimer, along with wackier sounding instruments like a boomerang and a prophet 5, to name but a few. There's even a bit of wonderful singing on one track, proving that anything Ruhr Hunter decides to do will come off ideally. The tight compositions that make up the tracks are complemented by some use of field recordings, like crows on "Wounded by my Own Blade," for example. Think of the best stuff Lustmord has ever done, then add in musicianship that the dark ambient institution never had, and you'll get "Torn of This". While the trappings of the ambient genre makes these kind of records so often boring (in the sense that it is the intention to lull the listener into the carefully constructed atmosphere), "Torn of This" has the distinguishing asset of commanding the listener's attention at all times with its subtleties and crispness while simultaneously providing a powerful energy that calms and grounds. Sometimes clear, sometimes fuzzy, always brilliant, I can give no higher praise to an album. - Roberto Martinelli MANIFOLD RECORDS This new disc is a quantum leap ahead of anything anyone else is doing in darkambient noise right now. Ruhr Hunter have set themselves apart from the pack here. Ritual Before The Hunt, the previous disc, was amazing, a sort of stark, inhospitable landscape of ritual and darkambient noise that reached perfect pitch in its own way. Apparently that was just embryonic. The use of Dulcimer, guitar, war drums, bells, whispers and a list of more than a dozen other instruments makes this new disc remarkable, but more so for the seamless way they're worked into the landscape, each instrument building from the next, complementing the ideas evoked from the previous piece. These things don't, however, turn this disc into a musicians experiment in instrumental ambience. They create the structure for the chilling black-ambient marsh and clouds that sweep through this record so majestically. And though there is an undertone of rich ambience, Ruhr Hunter keeps his pieces melodic and memorable, not just drifting lengths of dark cloth. They have structure and emotion and tension and visuals. Visuals of the same effectiveness that a project from a totally different genre can manage. Think A Small Good Thing 'Slim Westerns' or Muslimgauze. Motifs that are actually that vivid, just different subject matter. Like the image of empty gallows on a dark moor, Ruhr Hunters forbidding themes raise up and consume the listener in morbid tranquility. We're raving now, so we'll shut up. I think you know if this will hit the mark for you by now! PS: always the best artwork from these guys... DEREK/DREAM INTO DUST The latest MALIGNANT catalog spurred me to order a few things. The one that stood out the most in my mind was the newest CD by Chet sScott, alias RUHR HUNTER, entitled ' torn of this'. I can't exactly recall what prompted me to order it; RH has never been an automatic favorite of mine, and yet, something in Chet's work has always struck me as quite well-done, balancing elements of the soul (drones, improvisation and ritualistic atmosphere) with those of the mind (good recording/mixing, attention to detail). This is by far RH's best release, and the one that held my attention the best as well as taking me on a sonic journey. Much of the amorphous genre of darkambient/experimental will, if done half decently, at least accomplish the latter; not many also do the former. RH achieves this (for me at least) with the addition of more prominent melodic/harmonic elements, often in loops, but also those that have a beginning and ending within a piece. However, chet uses these sparingly, and to greater effect for doing so. The other important ingredient, which all too many musicians fail to use (myself included), is space. This is not to say the album is minimalist, only that there is not an excessive clutter of sounds all too eager to usher you into an otherworldly atmosphere. Instead, each of the sounds comes and goes at a pace that feels neither rushed nor loitering. At times, the sense of space and use of carefully placed atonal sounds reminds me of certain work by ORGANUM (c. veil of tears) or NURSE WITH WOUND (c. 'homotopy to marie'). However, those are only surface comparisons; the ritualistic, melodic, and other influences help make it something of its own. I highly recommend this for those who appreciate dark ambient/experimental music that does more than create a space or evoke an atmosphere. however, it does those things as well, albeit a more individual version than most. AQUARIUS RECORDS/SAN FRANCISCO Chet Scott's dark ambient project Ruhr Hunter takes its name from the case studies of a German serial killer from the 1950s named Joachim Kroll who had been dubbed the "Ruhr Hunter" by the local authorities due to a concentration of his crimes taking place along the Ruhr River. Such fascinations with transgressive themes and Scott's calls for human cleansing (even if it may be metaphoric) lend themselves for placing Ruhr Hunter in the true-crime pulp elements of industrial culture as well as giving him the obvious crossover appeal with black metal mythology. Yet, this does little to embody the rich instrumentation that Scott puts into Ruhr Hunter, as those gaping Lustmordian drones so common within the dark ambient oeuvre are matched with smatterings of extended song fragments with acoustic guitars, ghostly harmonicas, tubular bells, delicate piano melodies, and a number of handcrafted stringed instruments. As good if not better than the atavistic, pseudo-pagan ambient works of Tribes of Neurot... PHIL PETROCELLI/SEATTLE ARTIST Chet Scott scores again! This guy is unstoppable in his quest to make everyone feel beautifully uncomfortable... DAVID REED/SNIP SNIP RECORDS If Wong Kar-Wai decided to make his take on spagetti westerns, "Torn Of This" would make the perfect soundtrack...Beautiful, dark, and melancholy. BEAUTY & PAIN "Gone are the Ritualistic noise day of this project. Chet Scott has now going into Post Rock with very avant-garde industrial music. Many Acoustc/Electric Guitar passages with ambient synths and percussion. Ruhr Hunter is not only writing a new chapter for his musical future, but for the future of music itself. This CD goes from the most delicate and fragile moments to very, very dark moments. This is a must have for anyone looking to what the 21st century will have to offer as classic releases."-Clint Listing AURAL PRESSURE Runes and looms, the desolate energy spun by Ruhr Hunter, solo project of Chet W. Scott, is at once compelling as it is disturbing, interlacing brooding ambience, environmental recordings, and neofolk sinews into wefts that bring freshness to the fabric of dark ambient music. For the most part every instrument, every audio nuance, every echo is a natural distillation and the liner notes in the booklet disgorge the array of recorded sound; antique autoharp, ocean hiss sample, bowed psaltery, voice, boomerang, hammered dulcimer, just to mention a few. The composite parts of Ruhr Hunter remain a haunting joy, from the - dare I say (and in a good way for those who remember the mournful echoic guitar) - Diablo-esque ambience of "Wounded by my own Blade" one is soon supplanted into the lull of mesmeric soundscapes where mutability glimmers a world while ever-changing palpable. The aural landscape is vibrant, metallic squeals keep pace to while tides of noise undertone the angular instrumentation that craves constant examination, striking oriental modes of disparate, free form melody unearth convergence where taken at individual assessment are seemingly from different ground. Never once is the listener droned into hypnosis, rather the undulation of elemental panoply musters a dream that the listener soon finds themselves irrevocably enraptured. While most dark ambient and experimental work shies from organic instruments, especially when multi-layered, Ruhr Hunter evokes innovative moods from non-electronica with surpassing results that will make you wonder why it is not more commonly employed in the genre. Clocking in at well over an hour "Torn of This" is well worth the space on any CD shelf. The presentation of the album is sumptuous. Thick, gloss booklet and tray are replete with the oil paintings of Stephen Kasner, aged and sepia-toned exquisiteness. The four-paged booklet features all instruments used on each track. HEATHEN HARVEST What first caught my eye about this project is its fantastic double raven talon swastika "logo" which also graces the cover of this, RUHR HUNTER's second full-length album. This aesthetic, along with pieces titled "Birchwood" and "Wounded by my own blade," betrays a deep nature mysticism and heathen sensibility which comes fully to the forefront in the music, a beautiful blend of various stringed acoustic instruments with melodic drones and environmental recordings. The sound has a strong ritual feel to it, but where so much of todays "ritual music" fails to conjure any real athmosphere or dare I say magic, this album succeeds due to the strength of its compositions and the superior musicianship of the man behind it, Chet Scott. One vague reference point would be the brilliant Italian project T.A.C. The absolutely stunning package design should also be mentioned. Earlier work incorporated bursts of what is commonly called "Power Electronics" into the churning ambient canvas, which gets developed more and more, culminating in the last release before "Torn of This" - "...Ritual Before the Hunt." The aesthetic of the newest album is further developed on the more recent collaboration with CHAOS AS SHELTER called "One" which also comes highly recommended. JUDAS KISS Torn Of This, released in 2002, is the second full-length album from the Seattle-based drone ambient project Ruhr Hunter, following 1998's debut album Ritual Before The Hunt, an untitled 1998 split release with Gruntsplatter, and 2001's One, a collaboration with Israeli project Chaos As Shelter. In a sense, I approach Torn Of This with the benefit of hindsight, since my introduction to the music of Ruhr Hunter was the magnificent shamanic initiatory journey that constitutes the band's third album, 2006's Moss & Memory (also reviewed by Judas Kiss), and it's hard to listen to Torn Of This without making comparisons to what was to follow. However, Torn Of This undoubtedly represents a considerable evolution beyond the dense, noisy layers of electronic drones which can be found on earlier work like Ritual Before The Hunt, the Chaos As Shelter split and The Cessation Of Spoil, a 1999 collaboration between Chet W. Scott, the man behind Ruhr Hunter, and Scott Candey of Gruntsplatter, which was credited to Triage. The nine tracks of Torn Of This total just over an hour, with all instruments being played by Chet Scott, who also sings on two tracks, although the bulk of the album is instrumental. Most of the album was recorded in 2001, although some of the bass lines date back to 1993, when Chet was working under the project name Torn Of This. Chet employs an impressive array of mostly acoustic instruments on Torn Of This, including autoharp, hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery, six and 12-string guitars, e-bow, theremin, fretless bass, chimes, field recordings and Crumar organ. After the melodic strummed guitar, dulcimer and carefully modulated minor-key chords of opening track "Wounded By My Own Blade", punctuated with a steady looped squeak and low ambient atmospherics, the 11-minute "The Sower & The Sown" provides a true anticipation of the way in which Ruhr Hunter's sound was set to develop, as clanging church bells toll to announce the arrival of a bleak, sparsely inhabited soundscape of melancholy bird cries, lonely, echoing whistles and intermittent fragments of melody, all underpinned by low, sustained organ notes. It conjures a vision of empty marsh landscapes in the misty grey light of a cold November dawn, or an estuary at low tide – a stark, desolate emptiness. "Birchwood", seems like a throwback to the earlier work of Ruhr Hunter, eschewing melody in favor of pulsing, buzzing layers of environmental recordings like cicada hum, and eerie bursts of theremin. "Knowledge To Know Is Eye", by way of contrast, doesn't depend on drones to any great extent, being based instead on delicately overlapping layers of rippling melodic chimes and guitar. "Of Wolf & Flame", as the title might suggest, is a darker, more forbidding piece, with baleful e-bowed bass drones and orchestral woodwind underlying the fragments of dulcimer melody. This track has a very cinematic, suspenseful feel, and in fact specifically reminds me of Bernard Herrmann's theme for Hitchcock's 1958 classic Vertigo. Since one of the working titles for Vertigo was Listen Darkling, and there's a Ruhr Hunter track on the split release with Gruntsplatter called The Darkling, I wonder whether Chet Scott is (like me) a Vertigo fan. Maybe it's just a coincidence. The title track, "Torn Of This", is a very short piece, less than two minutes in fact, with an abrasive scraping of strings counterpointing melodic bass and guitar work, along with the album's first vocals. This track segues into "The Sky Is Denied", a composition of bowed drone chords and e-bowed bass cut through with jangling bells. "A Colony Of Bees, Asunder" is definitely among the album's most unsettling tracks, combining incessant jangling chimes and sampled bee buzzing to create a frightening evocation of an alien and inimical hive mentality. Perhaps the album's highlight, though, is closing track "Black Loon, White Mountains", where softly strummed guitar and whispered and sung vocals are laid over warm, redemptive organ notes, giving this song something of the same feel as the most recent Earth album, The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull. This fades away, but there's a coda of deep blues guitar. Torn Of This is a work of great beauty, strength and honesty, and whilst it's not a masterpiece on the same level as Moss & Memory, it's a testament to the growing craftsmanship and nature mysticism of Chet Scott. I only hope that more Ruhr Hunter will appear in the near future, as this project seems to have taken a backseat to Chet's other bands, Blood Of The Black Owl and The Elemental Chrysalis, in the past couple of years. But just as the wheel of the year turns and nature's cycles renew themselves, it seems, from recent postings on the Glass Throat homepage, that the Ruhr Hunter will be riding out in search of new prey soon.