“Coronal Mass” is a pair of long drone works from Swiss multi-disciplinarian three-piece Strom|morts. Low, coarse synthetic bass tones dominate, while waves of other sounds- spacier and sci-fi pads, industrial hisses, occasional crashes and bangs, the odd tinnitus-tingling high note, an electric guitar cameo here and there, and so on- ebb gradually over the top.
With the Alpine connection, they are pitched as “dronemountains”, and the soundscape is certainly thicker than some droneworks- but equally, there is a certain sparseness at play as well, and these are far from being true noise walls. Variously it can sometimes feel like an expression of the top of a mountain where the air is thin, or sometimes more deep space-ish.
The release contains 2CD’s, one containing the track “Ejection”, the other “Injection”. Both tracks could’ve easily fit on a single disc, as the total run time is barely 33 minutes, but the conceptual idea of the infinite loop, and no beginning or end, represented in the artwork from Swiss artist Helge Reumann and even in the palindromic artist name, is behind the two-disc approach where no particular track is first or last. It has to be said there isn’t a spectacular amount of difference between the two tracks anyway- “Injection” has some more overt repeated synth notes and percussive crashes that almost slip into rhythm, as well as a guitar-heavy section about halfway through that slips into post-rock, but the drone tone dominates both equally.
It’s a well executed drone work with a relatively familiar set of ingredients, but executed with polish and professionalism amd ready to take you on a slow journey.