Originally released on cassette by Scotch Tapes and bearing a title which when translated from the German is revealed to be Full Moon Songs, Albany, NY, husband and wife duo Bone Parade?s Vollmondlieder (issued on CD through their own Wind and Fog Records) is the kind of ambient darkness that makes your flesh feel like chewed meat. Somehow it?s fitting; I hear a song like opener ?Mandragora,? am enveloped in the esoteric drone and operatic vocals, and finally the unbridled noise, and can?t get the words ?lake effect snow? out of my mind. It must be freezing up there by now.

There are four tracks on the CD version I received, though five listed on the back of the hand-made, hand-sewn sleeve (and you?d be amazed at the effect a few dangling threads can really have on making what?s otherwise a common form really stick out), and the obvious reference point is SunnO))), but with the already mentioned operatic tendencies of Erica Sparrow, an entirely different atmosphere is brought to the fore. On ?Death and the Maiden,? as Kevin Johnston provides washes of noise behind, Sparrow recites a spoken word that culminates with the repeated line, ?The moon is hungry,? and listening to Vollmondlieder, I?m afraid it just might come and eat me. Jarboe at her best can evoke a similar discomfort, and Diamanda Galas presents a likewise feeling of drama and musical consequence.

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