Equitant - The Circle of Agurak promo 1993

Equitant - The Circle of Agurak promo/demo I 1993
1) The Fallen Walls of Agurak
2) The Finrir Wolf
3) De Occulta Philosophia
4) Castle of Töprak-Kale (Among Them)
5) ('Iss) Er 'Arbörkr
6) Under the Sasaian King Yezdenian III
7) The Goddess Astghik (Sea of Glasya)
8) Hofa Hilmir, ok Valhallar Visi

Reuploaded

Non-metal post, featuring Equitant's, formerly remembered from Absu and nowadays a maker of electronic music, debut release as a solo artist. Even though this recording features also his bandmates Proscriptor (flute) and Shaftiel (voice) and Black Mass Prayer aka Black Massith (while in Absu) helped him with the synths, it's mostly a solo effort. If you are familiar with the man's current and, well basically all solo work since late 90's you might be well-adviced the first two tapes are quite different from his EBM/techno/electronic releases. This one would mostly fit into the dark ambient/dungeon music category with some folky bits included. The folky parts seem mostly Celtic-influenced while the ambient parts divide roughly into half instrumental and half with spoken vocals included. The lyrics would seem to be more in the fantasy vein (concerning Agurak mentioned in the title) than mythology/occult Absu is known for. Equitant would seem to mix Celtic, Scandinavian and Howard-school sword & sorcery influences. This is judging from the track titles and narration, lyrics are not included. I got a copy of this and the 2nd demo from eBay some time ago, so a scan of the fold-out cover is included.

The sound and rip quality are good, the tape was not badly worn despite being just dubbed onto a regular old cassette. Some wear is occasionally heard but this can't be avoided. Moods presented are mostly quite solemn and gloomy with the synths dominant for majority of the time and the spoken vocals usually remain in the background. Which I find preferable. The folk bits I mentioned earlier are restricted to the intro and outro, track 6 features some distorted guitars which brings a nice refreshing change and Proscriptor's flute gives character to the 7th track. At the end of the day a good effort, recommended if you enjoy these kinds of works.