Byla - Byla - Translation Loss 2005
11 Songs
Running Time: 48:39

Disclaimer: Byla are not Cable. Byla also are not Mouth Of The Architect. Byla also are about as far removed from metal as one could possibly be, in fact. Enjoy. 

I'll have to admit being excited every time I check the mail and find a package from Translation Loss. Be it the redneck behemoth of Cable or the musical chokehold that is Mouth Of The Architect, I know I'm in for something heavy and credible. Composed of Kevin Hufnagel (better known from Relapse artists Dysrhythmia) and Colin Marston (Epicene / Behold...the Arctopus), Byla manages to retain that sense of credibility, while expanding on instrumental themes more suited to Sigur Ros than Swarm Of The Lotus. Although the album has fourteen separate songs, so seamless are the transitions that I can in good conscience review the album as a whole as opposed to several segments. The music of Byla conjures up visions of slowly shifting horizons, and of the slow, steady melting of glaciers at the top of the world. Distant without a sense of being unwelcoming, the soundscape Byla creates finds lushness in the open spaces, in the tenor drone, the sustained note. Occasionally, waves of guitar wash over you, but never quite pull you under, which gives the album a relaxing atmosphere. Sonically, Byla (the band and the album) is a study in sparse beauty, in the unheralded work of the anonymous craftsman, who wishes to remain so. It's entirely about the creation and not the creator, to a point where the creator has put so much of himself into his work that to see one is to see the other. I'm sure I'm digging a bit deeper than even the makers of this album intended, but this just goes to show what a transcending effect something this unintrusive, yet captivating has on the listener. Although, again, Byla are far from what I would usually review on this site, the music speaks for itself, with it's own voice.

Transitional, ethereal, and crafted for the grey hours, for the twilight.