The vast darkness of "Pristine" by the Latvian-French trio Nostra (formed in Riga Latvia in 2016) is a heavy alternative post rock experience that hinges on subtle sonics and orchestral rock atmospheres sans a string section. Beginning with haunting electric guitar harmonics and wooden percussions in tandem, with rumbling sounds amping up tensions, it is not long before a booming bass anchors it all down, completes this monster engine. Fanning electric guitar notes, unexpected half steps, take your head to dangerous places, with sharp edges.
Once the bass and guitar get massive against what might be synths (or not) it feels like a battle of some sort on a large scale is about to take place. Nostra, comprised of Harijs Ijabs on guitar, Xavier Landes on bass and Einārs Kotāns on drums, draw their musical influences from various genres, from post-rock and postmetal to cold wave, including sludge and doom jazz. Press notes reveal that [Nostra is immersed in a post-Soviet urban landscape scattered with crumbling buildings and abandoned industrial complexes. This ‘post’ environment where nature slowly sprawls through cracks, concrete and metallic edifices have been haunting Nostra’s music since their inception.]
In the end, "Pristine", is darkly cinematic, a growing angst and boiling over tension that feel historical in nature like a sonic representation of a million small deaths, a culmination of the masses against the few and good people surviving because they are good.
["Pristine" is one of the two ambient compositions from Nostra's new album, "Sea of Fertility", out now. While the rest of the album is leaning more towards post-metal, Pristine (and Kyes) is more in the post-rock vein.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4r5m7FosAXSl4BdnNvgVHd
https://nostraofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/nostraband/
Nostra is a Latvian-French trio formed in Riga (Latvia) in 2016, drawing its musical influences from various genres, from post-rock and postmetal to cold wave, including sludge and doom jazz. The band is immersed in a post-Soviet urban landscape scattered with crumbling buildings and abandoned industrial complexes. This ‘post’ environment where nature slowly sprawls through cracks, concrete and metallic edifices have been haunting Nostra’s music since their inception.
After Transmission(s) (EP, 2018), Nemoralis (LP, 2019), and Law of the Tongue (EP, 2020), Nostra is releasing a second full-length album Sea of Fertility on October 14 2023. The nine songs were recorded and mixed by Jānis Kalvāns and mastered by Harris Newman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tindersticks, Silver Mt Zion, among others). After a first LP (Nemoralis), which was more polished and surgical in its sound, the intention was to continue in the vein of The Law of the Tongue, characterised by a rougher tone, with more clearly layered instruments, abrasive guitars and bass, more dynamics, and less compression.
so dark!
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