Eldar is the project of Barcelona-based musicians Marc Merinee and Merce Spira, which, since its foundation in 2004, has released a few downloads through Black montanas and a couple of limited CD-Rs on the German label SkullLine. Sapere Aude, which has been released by the well-respected label Cold Meat Industry, is Eldar’s first CD release, though, and should elevate the project to greater promince within the European martial and dark ambient scenes. A cohort of guest musicians was recruited to contribute to the album, with all but one of Sapere Aude’s 15 tracks having been created in collaboration with other projects, including Argentum, Verbum, Plagiarism Is Art, Ruins Winter, Psychaotic, Der Blauer Reiter, The Wyrm, Persona, Erg, Miguel Mazur, Lomo Bajo, Nurss, R.E.O. and Escuadron de la Muerte. This seems like a risky strategy for a relatively new and unknown project to pursue on their first major release – having so many different artists involved leaves little space for Eldar to make a distinct impression with their own identity.

The 15 tracks of Sapere Aude are all fairly similar in length, varying between just under four minutes to just over five, with a total runtime of 68 minutes. The opening track, ‘Zeitgeist’, is the only one recorded without collaborators, and it’s a nicely ominous martial industrial piece, with orchestral strings, treated vocal samples and dramatic crashes of percussion layered over low-end textural rumbles, something like Cold Fusion, early Challenge Of Honour or Rukkanor. ‘Le Syndrome De Cotard’, recorded with Psychaotic, is more experimental, with a Stravinsky-esque classical arrangement blossoming slowly into a surreal, shadowy dreamscape, before fading into bleak, monochromatic drones. ‘The Grave Of Mankind’, recorded with Spanish project Der Blauer Reiter, falls somewhere between the preceding two tracks, combining desultory, exhausted snare drums with a fragmented piano line and gloomy dark ambient in the vein of Beyond Sensory Experience. ‘Alexander Nevsky’, with R.E.O. (not those of Speedwagon infamy, you’ll be relieved to hear, but a project called Reserva Espiritual de Occidente) offers a more vigorous and bracing martial experience, sampling Prokofiev’s famed soundtrack for Eisenstein’s 1938 film, and blending this with declamatory, reverbed female vocals and baleful ambient atmospherics, not too far from early Der Blutharsch. ‘Una Madre Reptil En El Nido’, with Miguel Mazur, is another track propelled along by forceful percussion. On the more ambient side, standout tracks include the predatory, serpentine dronescape of ‘Faith Is A Lie’ with Ruins Winter and the even more bleak and austere closing track, ‘26 De Diciembre’ with Escuadron de la Muerte, a cold, implacable hiss of inhumanity.

Overall, Sapere Aude is average, but not great. There are some interesting individual tracks, but the album never really coheres to present a distinct impression. I don’t think this is entirely the fault of the decision to work with lots of collaborators, though, because in the review I wrote for Heathen Harvest website of an earlier Eldar release, Ama Terasu, I mentioned this same lack of focus and coherence. It seems as though Eldar have yet to find their signature sound, and though I think this project possesses plenty of potential, they haven’t yet fulfilled it.