Explorations in the Extreme, On the Fringes of Music: The Icy World of Paysage D'Hiver

The wanderer in the winter landscape

It's been a long time coming for the blog, that at some point I would be talking about atmospheric black metal and in the same breath also about Paysage D'Hiver. The idea for this article came about when I recently discovered a new record in the genre with Jahreszeiten by Horn. Even after  listening to them and the genre for so many years, I can still confidently say that they are an incredibly unique atmospheric black metal band and my favourite band of all time. So without further ado, let me give you a sneak peek into the icy world of Paysage D'Hiver.

The Wanderer depicted on the cover of Schattengang

Paysage D'Hiver is a story, a story told over the course of each record. The central figure of this story is the wanderer, who is depicted on a lot of the album artwork, in the winter landscape walking towards the fortress. This winter landscape is a metaphor for Tobias Möckl's inner world and his spiritual journey towards himself, as he describes it. Each record symbolises a  different stations, emotions and  mental states experienced on this journey. The fortress, musically captured on the record Die Festung, represents his most inner self. Fittingly, this record can be seen as a refuge from the harsh conditions of the surrounding landscape, as it is the only record that does not feature any screams or even black metal. Instead, it contains a soothing mix of ambient and winter synth, giving the listener a much needed reprieve while exploring the discography.

Die Festung, the central piece of Paysage D'Hivers story
and the goal of the wanderer's journey

The self titled record, similarly to Winterkälte, describes some core concepts, with songs titled Welt aus Eis (World of Ice) and Der Weg (The Way). Einsamkeit is a meditative record about spiritual retreat and finding inner strength. On Nacht, and to a certain extent Schattengang, Möckl portrays the night in the winter landscape, Schattengang featuring one of the projects most evocative tracks with, Die Zeit des Torremondes, which includes samples of wolves howling at the moon.

Das Tor standing in the way of the wanderer on his journey

On Das Tor, the wanderer appears to face a monumental challenge, symbolised by the enormous gate on the album cover towering over the treetops. A few records stray away from the winter theme; among them is Kerker, a record that takes the wanderer into a dungeon filled with trolls. The records sound mirrors this change, with its cavernous production and use of echo. As far as I know it's also the only Paysage record not to contain any wind samples. Steineiche talks about a tree at the centre of the world, while Geister speaks about the ghosts inhabiting it. 

While the this unwavering commitment to a singular story gives the project a unique flair, this is also reflected in the music and cover arts. In terms of cover arts, the project has maintained a consistent style of low resolution style black and white art, which is often either hand drawn, as in the case of  Kerker, or grainy photography, as in the case of Kristall und Isa. After the 2018 LP re-release of all the material, the covers have also been given the same frame and text, except for Nacht. which has kept it's predominantly black cover, lending to the consistent feel of the discography.

Like most atmospheric black metal, the music takes inspiration from Burzum's brand of repetitive, low fidelity style, perfected on records like Hvis lyset tar oss and Filosofem. Alongside influences from electronic music such as dungeon synth and ambient, Tobias Möckl pushes the hypnotic and transcendental qualities of atmospheric black metal to their absolute peak, with song lengths that can easily exceed ten or even twenty minutes. Each song, and by extension each record, evokes a meditative feeling, inviting you to sit back, take in and get lost in the icy world of Paysage D'Hiver.

𝑺𝑬𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑺𝑷𝑨𝑪𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑾𝑩𝑶𝒀...