As this review is obviously going to show I have struggled to accept Nhor. And it isn't the ambient nature of Momenta Quintae Essentiae which has distraught me, I find quiet meditative music easy to like and enjoy, I do not need metal constantly blaring at me. Perhaps I should have been alerted by the cover, where one strand of grey sketchy leaves resides against a white background. It is in the spirit of that cover that Nhor (a one man project from the UK) proceeds to lay out track upon track of ambient music extreme in its austerity, which I, perhaps sadly, comprehended as lacking flow and ideas.

You can hardly find music more minimalistic, regardless of the genre, expressed on Momenta Quintae Essentiae. Luna Oritur, Ex Lunae in Nubis Lucem, Tremere lay out sparse, repeating piano notes, not developing and not heading into any direction as these compositions unfold. It is if a child is trying to learn a simple piano lesson, attempting a combination of notes here and there, returning to where he/she has started, gaining little confidence in the process, only rarely trying for more daring sequences (end of Luna Oritur). Piano is not the only instrument this young soul is trying to learn. Acoustic guitar also makes a frequent appearance on Momenta Quintae Essentiae, taking a form of sitar (Nosce Te Ipsum) or cello (Hedera), but overall proceeding along the same minimalistic gaunt path, trying to combine and layer the two main instruments only periodically. Sometimes the volume is so turned down, everything is so quiet, there is an appearance there is hardly any music at all, as I strained to hear some piano chords and a couple of violin strokes and pained moans on Contra Ventum.

Closer Ante Primam Lucem finally provides an interesting polyphony and overlay, but who will have the patience to sit through this extreme bleakness for so long? My question is that if there is a genius behind it all, I just failed to recognize it. Perhaps it is just me, and this is best experienced on a quiet, totally still night, cold, lightened up by a few shreds of lunar light. My Latin is weak but apparently there are many references here to the Earth’s only satellite. That could be true, but surely even with moon being the only source of light, there is more life and movement than Nhor showed on Momenta Quintae Essentiae.