Absolutely gorgeous dark ambience makes up this new collaborative project from Martin St�rtzer of Phelios and synth/electronic musician Christian Stritzel, a follow-up to their previous collab album Klang Ist Ewig from 2007. Might not be obvious from the album art (a series of macro-photographic pieces from Follower Of Clay depicting abstract frozen surfaces), but this is every bit as dark and ominous and immersive as the other recent slabs of abyssal drone that Malignant has put out this year. Recorded live during a "sleep concert" (a la Robert Rich) at the Sophienkirche (Phobos Festival) in Wuppertal, Germany in September 2011, Tiefschlaf consists of six "phases", each one moving though varying soundscapes formed from desolate arctic synthesizer rumbles, distant metallic reverberations and icy field recordings (which often include the sound of waves crashing against a shore), then shifting into these breathtaking kosmische vistas that are deeply influenced by the darkest shades of Teutonic space music. The album seems to alternate between these two modes, going from frozen abstract drift and mysterious field recordings to sprawling nocturnal ambience that ripples with echoes of early Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. The fifth track on Tiefschlaf in particular opens up a massive black hole of electronic desolation and grinding drone, a slowly drifting cosmic cloud of ominous choral voicings obscured by massive bass-heavy rumblings and sinister minor-chord drift. Obviously, anyone who is a fan of Phelios's dark, Lovecraftian take on cosmic electronic ambience is probably going to love this, but the way that the two musicians incorporate the use of field recordings does make for a uniquely different take on this sort of immersive interstellar drift.

Comes in a six-panel fold-out gatefold jacket. As with all Malignant releases, this is highly recommended to fans of dark, heavy, evocative electronic ambience. Limited to five hundred copies.