Rostau is born from the magic of istants.
There will be no more records under it’s name, for there is no chance to reproduce the sounds and the inspirations behind the realization of the songs.
“To Die and to the Stars Ascend” will remain as a monument to the secret force behind every single istant and to the beauty of the application of will to the inconceivably intricate plot of the Being, whose explaination generally proceeds unrecognized under the name of Chaos.
Also, it’s an act of hearing towards the distant echoes of the spirit freed from matter, a journey through different states of existance beyond the finitude of the plane we call reality, a statement shouted from the black towers that mark the borders of the realm of reason, towards the shifting vast lands that lie beyond.
Rostau is a single album project. “To Die..” was recorded in very unique ways across the span of some years, and the conditions and inspirations behind every single note and sound cannot be reproduced. Therefore, any other record from the musicians behind the project will turn out to be too different form the original sound to be named Rostau still.
Moreover, any album from a band beyond the first is irremediably put in comparison with the others, while Rostau thinks that any musical production should be listened with virgin ears and mind.
“To Die..” will be shining alone like the stars it sings about..
Tracklist :
1. Celestial Hive Mind
2. Ahriman of the Thousand Sons
3. To Die and to the Stars Ascend
4. 3.33.333
Total playing time : 36.36.666
note : the first 3 songs were produced to be precisely 11.01.111, while the last was 3.33.333. However, the burning process of the actual cds forced the lenght of the tracks to slightly different timings.
Symbolism
Album and Songs Notes
About the album :
The order of the songs in the record is specific. It’s a progression from the most canonic sound to the most experimental one.
Many of the keyboard sounds contain very low frequencies, and many songs have fine pan effects. In order to taste the full experience proposed by this album, we recommend listening it with good headphones. This is particularly true for 3.33.333.
The first two songs’ lyrics are inspired by the Warhammer 40k universe, while the latter two are lyricless and about life, death and the journey of essence towards the unknown.
The sounds used by keyboards are taken from 3.33.333 and further processed (so they come from heavily processed guitar sound).
The record is supposed to play old school as a general feel. Thergothon, Ras Algethi and early ’90s extreme music was greatly inspiring this.
1. Celestial Hive Mind
This is the first song written. It’s base riffs were composed in 2003 and recorded in summer 2004. Guitar lines were recorded with a very economic guitar and a 15W amp, then processed with a pc. This process is the same for every guitar line in the album.
Lyrics were written on a hot summer day, and recorded immediatly after on pc. The singer had low voice that week, so he decided to record in an affordable sighing style. The outcome was so unsuspectedly pleasing that stayed up to the final version, 4 years later.
The lyrics are about Tyranids, an alien life form from the universe of Warhammer 40k.
2. Ahriman of the Thousand Sons.
This song is about a charachter from the Warhammer 40k universe, Ahriman, who performed an incredibly powerful spell to rid his legion from the effects of mutation. Any psyker in the legion had his powers enlarged, any other died and his spirit was sealed in his armour forever. This is the twisting Path of Tzeench.
The song has a progressive structure, each section telling a part of the tale, from the betrayal of the Thousand Sons Legion to the overkill made by the spell. The focus of the song is the ritual, starting with the solo guitars and keyboards in the central part and proceeding with the dark invocation of Ahriman chanting “I know your Ways, oh Changer of Ways…”
3. To Die and to the Stars Ascend
At first this song was only about the two main guitar riffs, which were recorded in the same summer pc session as Celestial Hive Mind. It sounded very dronish. As the concept about life, dying and death emerged, the song grew to mirror the feelings which were increasingly inspiring it. It gained it’s final form in the end of summer 2007.
The song is clearly divided in 3 sections. The first is a symbol of life, the central represents the process of dying, and the last stands for the first stages of death. It evokes the images of the soul hovering in a suspended mood, lingering to depart the limited material dimension of time and space. It’s not by chance that this last section echoes the first one, the symbol of life.
The short section between the first and the central ones is the moment in which one realises that life is ending, and the beginning of dying.
4. 3.33.333
The process of creation of this song is unique, and symbolyses very well what we mean about the beauty of will applyed to chaos. It is the unique gift of a unique moment, and the conditions that let it be born will never be met again.
No sinth was used to produce this piece of time and space condensed into music, only two deeply processed guitar lines.. even if “guitar lines” could lead to misunderstandings. These sound lines were made almost entirely by low volume noise, both coming from the guitar and from the ambience were the microphone lied for the recording.
The one who recorded and processed this song wrote a note shortafter, deeply touched by what he and the moment created and willing to remember how it was possible. here it is :
“It is composed of two single wavelines of heavyly noisy guitar and ambience, which cross each other on the pan and volume lines. I worked a lot on both aspects to create strange and alienating acustic background best feeled when listening with headphones. The guitar lines were recorded a night i was stoned.I played in a 15w miniaplifier coming with a 100 euro guitar. near the ampli and the microphone there were a fan constantly going and a cpu case switched on and opened, with the noises of fans and cpu flowing. Instead of playing notes i created the sound moving the guitar nearer or farer the pc monitor, generating variations in the interference noise produced by the ampli and the other items. i tapped the body of the guitar with my thumb following vague rithms and melodies, sometimes near the high strings side and sometims on the low ones’es. Only a couple of times i played the pick on the strings, and that later created the most intese sounds. this extensively distorted and noisy tracks were then heavily post processed , starting with particular noise reduction and hiss reduction algorithms, then enveloping those sounds which were too high in db value, inverting one of the channels to add deepness to the sound, and finally the two tracks were interlaced through pan and volume automations, other envelopes, compressors and hard limiting.”
Listen
Rostau isn’t here to make money, it’s here to be listened to and to trigger aesthetical pleasure and emotions.
Therefore, “To Die and to the Stars Ascend” is free to download. We encourage anyone to share the album through p2p circuit, and to spread it as far as they want.
If you like the album and/or the artwork and the ideas behind them much enough, you can buy the record on this site. Write me.
The album is a pro-printed cd in a soft digipack.
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