siLLy puPPy Chugging buzzsaw guitars, lo-fi production fuzziness, demonic vocal rasping piercing the wall of shadowy din with adrenalized rampages altering with creeping advances. These are the now well established attributes of Tobias Möckl’s one man band PAYSAGE D’HIVER which since 1998 has continued to deliver the sounds of a turbulent winter storm with no end. This Swiss soldier in the black metal army (as well as key member of Möckl’s other well known band, Darkspace), returns with another whopping blast of Arctic chill with his newest release DIE BERGE, the German words meaning “The Mountains” thus showcased on a dismal album cover of grainy black and white vagueness. Unleashing another ferocious attack of ambient atmospheric black metal some 26 years after the debut “Steineiche,” PAYSAGE D’HIVER is up to album #15 this time around and follows in the footsteps of the more modern releases with a sprawling running time of almost 103 minutes.

Despite the lengthy sojourn into the frigid icy sonic swells that rumble on for well over an hour, DIE BERGE features a mere 7 tracks with every single track but one hitting the 11-minute mark with the grandest of sprawlers coming first in the form of “Urgrund” which slinks past the 18-minute playing time. Now that’s a lot of jagged wintery downtuned distortion to soak in but somehow once again Mr Möckl showcases his knack to craft hostile frosty soundscapes that march on through lengthy processions like an intrepid journey into the unknown during the hostile shivery moments of winter delivered in a demeanor as chilling and inclement as the inhospitable apices of the Swiss Alps. Appearing as the sole contributor under the moniker Wintherr, his compositions on DIE BERGE emulate a nasty blizzard lambasting the peaks in musical form with oscillating swells of lo-fi distortion and the blurred distinction between treble and bass accompanied by the pacifying melodic touches of the atmospheric keyboard runs that so gracefully slink in and out of the treacherous soundscapes. Blastbeats and tranquilized drum percussion trades off with moments of a unifying bleakness as the bantering guitar and bass swells deliver maximum bombast.

While the world of black metal continues to splinter off in a great number of variations, PAYSAGE D’HIVER offers that respite into the world of darkened lo-fi grittiness that launched the Norwegian second wave black metal scene some 30 years ago and retains that general vibe which has become somewhat diluted and altered with the advent of more progressive and experimental black metal of the 21st century. DIE BERGE like the general PAYSAGE D’HIVER canon offers that much needed transcendental escape into a nightmarish and ominous journey into the turbulent black metal disarray that tames chaotic soundscapes into melodic almost post-metal like cyclical loops that rumble on for long segments of time yet somehow never seem to grow stale as the chugging riffs and hypnotic repetitive motifs slowly churn on for minutes on end. It’s very much the black metal equivalent to laying on the ground and simply watching the clouds drift by with subtle variations oozing out at glacial speeds. The album’s seven tracks may be lengthy but each forges its own identity despite deriving inspiration from the same playbook. Despite the simplicity of the melodic structure, the album is utterly mesmerizing and casts the perfect spell to allow the protracted paragons to perform their wintery magic.

Don’t expect any Alpine folk interpretations or experimental touches. PAYSAGE D’HIVER isn’t one to throw curveballs but rather delivers comfort metal of the frigid variety for those accustomed to the long drawn out processions into gelid wintery soundscapes that Wintherr has possibly become the most adept at crafting. DIE BERGE may not differ substantially from PAYSAGE D’HIVER’s long and well-established canon significantly but nevertheless this guy really knows how to keep the consistency in his work without falling from grace. Black metal is a fickle beast and can easily be slayed by too much regalia adornment. In the case of PAYSAGE D’HIVER it seems that keeping it simple without too much excess fluff has been the magic bullet that has propelled Wintherr and his project well into the 21st century with no signs of running out of gas. While i wouldn’t call DIE BERGE any sort of advancement in the established stylistic approach, i can say that Wintherr has delivered another wickedly delightful slice of chillingly frosty atmospheric black metal that keeps his legacy churning along.

siLLy puPPy In the world of lo-fi kvlt black metal perhaps no other act has done a better job at keeping it so old school pure as Switzerland’s PAYSAGE D’HIVER which is French for “wintery landscape.” Formed near Bern in 1997, this has been the lo-fi playground for sole member Wintherr which is an alias for Tobias Möcki who also poses as Wroth in the band Darkspace. Wintherr has been a master of cranking out lengthy sprawling ambient black metal albums over the years but really takes things to a kvlt extreme by classifying them all as demos. Only in 2020 with the release of “Im Wald” has he allowed a release to be classified as an “album,” but whatever! right? With most releases over 60 minutes, they’re friggin albums already :D

PAYSAGE D’HIVER was very much inspired by Burzum’s earliest albums, especially “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” and “Filosefem” which is obvious on this debut release STEINEICHE (German for “Holm Oak”). Despite the Burzum influences of mixing extremely lo-fi raw production styles with atmospheric ambience and sprawling soundscapes that flow on like frozen rivers in the Alps, PAYSAGE D’HIVER isn’t afraid to crank out some of the noisiest and most aggressive examples of black metal as heard by Darkthrone, Mayhem or Immortal. Add to that a touch of excellent songwriting that allows different segments of this behemoths to stand out and keep the tracks from falling into tedious drudgery, it’s not hard to hear even on this first offering why PAYSAGE D’HIVER has become such an underground kvlt sensation.

STEINEICHE only consists of four tracks yet reaches the whopping running time of over 72 minutes! Wow! Two tracks along exceed 20 minutes and the shortest is 11 and a half. To be honest that’s only true on the first CD-R as all the following releases removed the track “Déjà Vu” which didn’t fit the plan after Wintherr constructed a thematic approach which continues to link his albums together even to the modern day. Technically the music of each album tells a different story about a realm known as PAYSAGE D’HIVER with each track adding a different dimension to the story but when all is said and done that’s mumbo jumbo because if you’re in it for the creepy lo-fi black metal fix then these narratives don’t really add much IMHO. The secret of PAYSAGE D’HIVER is to construct side by side tracks of black metal and dark ambient which could theoretically be separate tracks but work so much better together.

The opening “Baumfrau” hits the 20 minute mark and is the most aggressive track on board with ferocious high tempo black metal aggressiveness rampaging in tandem with darkened ambient sounds of winter. The lo-fi aspects keep this firmly planted in another dimension that is merely bleeding through but never quite accessible in full spectrum. The music is vicious and perfectly depicts the cruel brutality of a frigid winter and its unforgiving punishing persistence. “Baummann” offers a slower funeral doom metal side of the black metal universe with the atmospheric ambience dominating while funeral dirge-like riffs echo in tortuous glee as nature and the underworld plot to bring the living to its knees. Once again Wintherr knows how long he can milk any particular motif and subtly changes things up without sullying the atmospherically bleak procession into the abyss.

“Der Baum” is the lengthiest track which almost hits the 25 minute mark. Beginning with a creepy synth marching along it takes several minutes before a demonic voice whispers from the netherworld however it’s unclear what frightful utterances emerge. This one requires a bit more patience as the dungeon synth drones on for a good long time but just as it sounds like it’s about to fade into oblivion around the 18 minute mark the percussive march of ambience transmogrifies into a swirling vortex of ambient bliss as if your consciousness has been lifted into the astral planes at least the shadowy regions where the light is in short supply. However just when all hope is lost, angelic voices emerge from the misty sonic brume and sheds a glimmer of hope and the track ends its 24 minute ambience in a completely unexpected way without a lick of black metal to be heard.

While the track “Déjà Vu” has been removed from STEINEICHE after the first CD-R, somehow i feel compelled to include it simply because it was originally part of the master plan before a larger picture started to emerge in Wintherr’s agenda. This song is based on a David Crosby song titled “Orleans” and possibly titled after the famous Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album. Yeah it takes six minutes of howling wind and creepy synth notes to begin the song but finally it begins and i couldn’t agree more that this track totally didn’t belong on this album. So after this one is nixed from the mix the album is only 60 minutes long on other releases other than the first however it’s not a bad track at all. Burzum seems to be a favorite of atmospheric black metal buffs and although i do like the early albums, his style has never grabbed me substantially. Personally i prefer PAYSAGE D’HIVER who picked up Burzum’s style as he sat in his prison cell and ran away with it. While this debut tends to get ignored, i actually love this one quite a bit. True it’s not an every day occasion when i wanna sit back and soak in bleakness but when i do, STEINEICHE.

Wilytank Another winter, another Paysage d'Hiver album/demo to analyze. Today, we have Winterkälte from 2001. Like the rest of the band's releases, Winterkälte is very unique in its delivery of winter themed black metal. However, one thing to note is that there's a few bits of material that sound like a precursor to Tobias Mockl's group project Darkspace, whose debut demo was released just a year later. This foreshadowing is really shown off on "Ich Schreite", "Eintritt in die Sphaeren", and "Finsternis". The music throughout the album though still retains the raw winter production Paysage d'HIver is known for and is also more minimalistic than Darkspace by not having as nearly as much variations in the riffs. The biggest comparison though comes from the lower tuning which makes the music sound even darker and colder as if the blizzard was happening at night, further supported by the excess of wind samples throughout the album.

Like the rest of the Paysage d'Hiver discography, the songs on Winterkälte all have their own style. The track list starts out strong with "Ich Schreite", a fast tempo track that eventually winds down to acoustic guitar strumming in the outer 9 minutes. "Ich Starre" starts out with the same opening notes, but is much slower and works as a nice outro of sorts for the previous song; a dreary calm after the storm if you will. Unfortunately, these two tracks are the high point of this release.

"Einsamkeit" is only wind samples and choral "oh"s, which would be fine if it was seven minutes shorter. But those last 7 minutes have no choral "oh"s. Just wind. After that is "Winter", probably the biggest disappointment on the release. Despite being 20 minutes in length, it's primarily the same mid-tempo riff with very little variation. There is a pause with wind samples and flute along with some keyboard ambiance, but afterward it returns to the same riff. Some more keyboards are thrown in but they don't do much to save the song.

The remaining two tracks, "Eintritt in die Sphaeren" and "Finsternis", are both faster tracks with decent amounts of variation that help end the album on a positive note. The album as a whole though falls among Paysage d'Hiver's weaker releases. The biggest problem is that it's fucking long. In particular, the wind samples stick around longer than they need to. Wintherr, you're a black metal musician, not a person who does field recordings.

Despite its self-indulgence, Winterkälte is still worth a listen for people already into Paysage d'Hiver. It really needs to be shorter though; "Winter" should have been condensed and "Einsamkeit" needs to have the last several minutes cut off. "Die Baumfrau" from Steineiche was perfect and even "Welt aus Eis" from the self-titled release had a sense of movement so Wintherr is capable of making long tracks work, and in the future he does so in both Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace. Winterkälte was re-released in 2010 with ten minutes taken off of the total release length though, so I advise you to get your hands on that version instead.

(80/100)

Warthur Though known for a blend of synthesised ambient music, wintry sound effects and black metal, Paysage d'Hiver has been known from time to time to drop the black metal from the equation for a more "Winter Synth" style - it happened on Die Festung, and it happens again here on Einsamkeit. Here, the sound effects are even more prominent, and listening to this album becomes reminiscent of hearing a distant, siren-like call appealing to you from across a snowy wasteland. Fans of Tobias' use of synthesiser and ambient influences in Paysage's more metal works might want to try this on for size.

Warthur At least one blogger refers to this stuff as "Winter Synth" - by analogy to the Dungeon Synth works produced by artists such as Mortiis (during Era I) and Wongraven - a comparison which is rather apt. The material is somewhat analagous to Dungeon Synth stuff since in both cases you are dealing with a musician with a background in black metal (not that all dungeon synth artists are black metallers, but the first wave generally were) dipping into dark ambient material produced on electronic instruments, but there's also stylistic differences. Dungeon synth stuff, for instance, tends to want to try and establish a quasi-medieval atmosphere and mimic medieval instrumentation, and doesn't show much influence from the wider world of ambient music.

Conversely, on Die Festung Paysage d'Hiver show the influence of electronic predecessors such as Klaus Schulze or early Tangerine Dream. The synthesisers are not afraid to sound like synthesisers here, but they're still channelled towards evoking a particular wintery atmosphere. Cold, almost unearthly - like a familiar landscape transformed by a fall of snow - the album is a fine piece of atmospheric background music.