AMBER ASYLUM, FROZEN IN AMBER (NEUROT RECORDINGS)

Conjuring images of stricken women posing in ornate high-ceilinged rooms, the music of Amber Asylum could at first glance be written off as elevated gothic pretension. Certainly, there's preciousness to this neo-classical ambient (post) rock, but a refreshing emphasis on sonic discovery and unpredictability militates against temptingly shallow dismissals. Before the music, however, the facts: Amber Asylum are a San Francisco-based collective revolving around Kris Force and Jackie Perez Gratz, and Frozen in Amber is a re-issue of a 1996 record, with the addition of three bonus tracks. Dark and compelling, the music flirts with so many styles (impressionistic, romantic, cinematic, electronic, post-rock) that it manages to (safely) avoid swooning pre-Raphaelite clichés while (dangerously) skirting the other extreme of avant-garde self-indulgence. Ranging from the passionate dark chamber sounds of “Volcano Suite” (moody, labyrinthine, fraught) through the slightly imbalanced gothic waltz of (what else?) “Black Waltz” to the truly inspired full-blown sonic psychosis of “Heckle and Jeckle” (a twisted rope of muted calliope-like organ, ominous electronic bass-line, discordant clarinet yelps and brays, processed fuzz, distortion), Frozen In Amber is a madcap über feminine dance through the ages. Nothing illustrates this better than the astonishing rendition of “Ave Maria” found here. The barely whispered vocal is more phantom than traditional soprano. Until close to the end, that is, when “chilling banshee” would better describe it. A relentless backdrop of crackles and hisses leaves the impression of an overplayed record being given one last unearthly spin by its own hopeless ghosts.

-David Antrobus (Pop Matters)