THREE AMBIENT REQUIEMS: The three requiems start with part of Ingram Marshall’s otherworldly ‘Gradual Requiem’, a piece that blends sparse electronica with the Balinese gambuh flute to produce a mournful time-twisting effect. The disorienting soundscape continues without interruption in Cyberchump’s ‘Requiem for the Kursk’, the final part of a triumvirate contemplation on the sinking of the Russian submarine RK-141. It certainly manages to evoke an electronic aqua-sound saturated with despair and longing. The final requiem is subtitled ‘Le Veilleur Silencieux’ (The Silent Watchers) and provides Fields of the Nephilim with an opportunity to ratchet up the Gothic atmospherics to maximum. It is a majestic airy sound, filled with ghostly guitar work, sampled ambience and a voice that comes from another planet. As three requiems these pieces invoke a similar suppressed poignancy, expressed with unapologetic élan. They are all contemplations on death or the dying, but ! they are very much alive in their exquisite vision and musical depth.