Nhor is a solo project by the British musician of the same name, about whom not too much information is possessed, and, all things considered, secrecy and mystery are well suited to one who has chosen to produce music that is certainly not aimed at the masses. The content of Within The Darkness Between The Starlight, the third full length released in four years, is a successful demonstration of how ambient and black can coexist, especially when their balance is skillfully dosed throughout the entire work. Muted acoustic moments, often almost intangible, are often overwhelmed by black-like outbursts equally endowed with a certain atmospheric aura that ends up giving life to an ensemble of undoubted charm. Music for the few, it was said, and it can only be so, since listening to this work is certainly not easy and probably only an ear accustomed to listening to certain post-rock (Alcest) or black that more falls outside the usual canons (compatriots A Forest Of Stars and Fen, for example, but more for the type of approach than for the actual musical content) can appreciate the undoubted quality that transpires from these notes. Absolutely well inserted in a roster full of creative names and grappling with not always conventional genres, such as that of Prophecy, Nhor succeeds in provoking a thin layer of melancholy without searching for catchy passages or with a gothic aftertaste; the sense of unease and sometimes estrangement from the things of this world are evoked both by the essential piano touches and by the blast beat progressions overlaid by an excruciating scream. A disc absolutely to be listened to as if it were a single track made up of several movements, Within The Darkness Between The Starlight lives its best moments in the doom nuances of Rohmet Etamu and in the soft and touching The Temple Of Growth And Glimmer Ascends, without forgetting the title track that somehow constitutes the compositional emblem of the English musician, with its alternating moments of absolute peace and forays into the territories of the most disturbing black. A pleasant discovery.

2013 – Lupus Lounge