Between The Real and the Shadow (Natural Snow Buildings

Between the Real and the Shadow is both a stand-alone CD self-released by Natural Snow Buildings in a limited edition of 30 CDs, and the fifth and final disc of the I Dream of Drone compilation.  The album was recorded by Mehdi and Solange in their home in Vitré, France in 2007.

Ghost Pathway to Midgard is a nearly hour-long drone, although not quite as long as Night Coercion's The Great Bull God or our reigning champion, Sung to the North's The First Conjuror. The track consists of three separate movements.  Much of the track as a wall of noise - overdubbed layers of guitar feedback with the reverb set to 11 over a droning harmonium until it eventually becomes a solid mass of monolithic static noise.  But surprisingly, after some 38 minutes of this, the noise fades out and the second movement begins, a gentler, more forgiving drone of wordless vocals and finger cymbals over washes of electronic sounds.  At around the 48-minute mark, the instruments fade away leaving only the vocals, and you'd be excused for thinking the track was ending.  But loops of the vocals continue for the rest of the track with only minimal instrumentation, a soothing oasis after the first half of the track.

Loki's Trick is the shorter track at "only" 22 minutes, seven seconds.  This track initially jumps out and grabs you by the throat but quickly segues into some of the most melodic guitar work by NSB since The Dance of the Moon and the Sun.  A heavily distorted.electric guitar eventually takes center stage and leads the piece into darker territory.  About halfway through, the drone enters into the harsh noise realm and continues in that vein for the next nerve-rattling 10 minutes, accompanied by some Yoko Ono-style screaming.  Good times.   

Track titles and starting times are as follows:

1. Ghost Path Toward Midgard (0:00)
2. Loki's Trick (56:49)

I couldn't find a streamable copy of the album on line, other than the last 1¼ hours of the 5½-hour I Dream of Drone upload  on YouTube.  So once again, I uploaded a copy of the CD to YouTube for your listening pleasure.  You're welcome.