| Review by Lucas Schleicher/Brainwashed.com link This German duo must have some understanding of what it means to be universal. Their sounds are of sources that are completely unknown to me (though I can describe their qualities) and yet they can evoke a sense of comfort and complete familiarity. The way that "Mletkin" begins, I was sure that I was going to face more of the faceless. The sounds on both of these songs begin darkly, as though the demonic and evil were central to Herbst9's music. As the sounds progress, however, light and simple keyboards play steady one and two note melodies that fade and drift between eachother. Harmonies begin to phase into the body of found sounds, sacred melodies, and quiet rattles and soon after, it's difficult to imagine anything even remotely dangerous or unbearable. Enenylyn is a beautiful mixture of the seen and the unseen, the light and the dark, or the mundane and the sacred. "Mletkin" begins as an uneasy whirl through a long and empty shaft; only medical light illuminates the walls here and what waits at the end of this drop is black and grievous. A strange trembling sound fills this shaft until, at last, the fall ends and it empties into a perfect space filled only with the most healing of light. The frog sounds and cosmic rushes of sound all mesh together with the aquatic rumble of enormous caverns and starlight moans. The movement of the entire song is one of life and death. "Mletkin" begins as an undefined mass and, in its attempt to find itself, opens a wound that spills out the most wonderful music. All this only to fade away into the undefined again. "Tynemlem" continues by picking up the aquatic sounds from side one and translating them into a slightly less dense piece of music. Again, it seems as thought Herbst9 likes to move between concepts, never allowing a sense of fear to linger for too long, and never letting the aura of life in the keyboards stand alone. As a strange mud or thick liquid boils in a cauldron, a slow steam builds in pipes layered just beneath the ground and pebbles roll about on the floor through the volition of their own will. Just as new and recognizable sounds begin to breathe themselves to life, a faint and strongly emotional melody begins to cycle in the background, growing louder with each repetition. A river of natural and synthetic roars, groans, and hushes sketch themselves over this melody until the piece collapses over the edge of a waterfall in a sudden and explosive death. Once again I find this isn't enough: I'm wishing that these fifteen minutes could be expanded into a full fourty or fifty.
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