Live Report: Ambientalika IV

Event name: Ambientalika IV

Artists: Vestigial (IT) / New Risen Throne (IT)

Venue: Kulturno-informativni centar (KIC)

Location: Zagreb, Croatia

Date: 5th July 2025

There are two types of dark ambient events: (i) those that have a semblance of commercial acumen and logic to them, featuring current artists or genre legends in the biggest European cities where there's an actual audience and the faint glimmer of hope for a profit, and (ii) those that are hopelessly idealistic, run out of sheer enthusiasm, conviction and the desire to proselytise our niche music genre to wider audiences. Ambientalika is an extreme example of the latter, organised each year in Zagreb, Croatia (not exactly a hotbed of dark ambient activity) by Miljenko Rajakovic of TeHÔM fame and his select few acolytes, with the support of the city authorities and the Cultural-Informational Centre of Zagreb, where the event takes place.

This is far from the only peculiarity of Ambientalika, though. The event first sprang into existence in late 2023, following the accursed COVID period where no live activity was possible, and has so far gone through four iterations, which tend to be based around the featured artists' home country (Norway, Germany and Italy so far). In addition to that, this year the event abandoned any notion of ticket pricing (which was previously symbolic anyway) and has switched to a free-entry model instead, presumably in hopes of expanding the target audience a little. Just as interestingly, the venue used for the event is actually a mini-cinema, which means that there's a proper projector and a good-quality sound system in place; a dream for any dark ambient artist compared to most venues out there.

What pushed me to make the pilgrimage all the way from Paris and attend the 2025 edition, however, was the lineup. I had last seen Vestigial in Paris in 2013 for the Cyclic Law 10th Anniversary gig (one of the most epic lineups of all time), and his incredible latest album only whetted my appetite even more; on the other hand, I had never seen New Risen Throne live, and he was definitely on my bucket list. Therefore, when Ambientalika announced the fourth edition of the event just a couple of weeks before it took place (a sad, but necessary constraint of their operating model), I bit the bullet and bought the absurdly expensive plane ticket to Zagreb in the middle of the summer season.

After hanging out with the musicians & the organisers for a couple of hours, it was time for the main event. The 40+ members of the audience slowly poured into the thankfully airconditioned projection room of the KIC, where Miljenko gave a short welcome speech before letting the musicians take over for the rest of the evening.

Vestigial (IT)

As already mentioned, Vestigial has just released a kick-ass new album on Cyclic Law, and he wasn't shy to feature it, opening his set with Through a Million Points of Time, the formidable (and perhaps most recognisable) second track of the album. The accompanying backdrop was absolutely mesmerising, featuring black suns/planets over various natural features such as mountains and clouds, symbolising the passage of time. The deep, rumbling drones were interspersed with cutting metallic noises as the nature featured in the backdrop slowly transformed into a Gaia-like personification, with branches emanating out of her head and ropes representing her roots, watching over humanity as an almost disinterested and unaffected party who has been here long before the dawn of mankind and will be here long after the last human has self-destructed. The sound was positively immense throughout the set, and the near-constant bass drones aided by pounding rhythm sections really felt like filling the room from top to bottom.

One of the sonic elements I liked best on the recent album were the hyperprocessed, radio-like voices piercing the background, which were very present throughout this set as well, in addition to those massive metallic noises laid over subtle melodies that are so reminiscent of the golden era of Cyclic Law. As the backdrop morphed into lifelike mountains that almost resembled Rodin's Thinker and the forests and mountains got turned upside down, the music entered calmer waters, accentuated by whispers from the beyond, electronic voices lost in the echoes of humanity's folly and manipulated string instrument sections. In a particularly poignant moment, the backdrop even featured the famous brutalist Monument to the Revolution in Moslavina, located less than an hour's drive away from where the concert was taking place. The set closed with dramatic footage of destruction and scenes of snow falling upside down in the woods, almost as if challenging the fabric of time and space. An absolutely massive set worthy of the latest album, and a visual treat for the audience to boot.

New Risen Throne (IT)

New Risen Throne does a very different flavour of dark ambient compared to Vestigial, but in the context of the event, the succession and the running order made total sense. Gone were the references to nature and her forces, to be replaced by enormous structures, almost like - if you'll excuse the pun - the new risen throne of mankind's progression among desolate landscapes and gorges featuring withered human-like figures praying. The musical background was suitably sacral, with church-like choirs and whispered utterances over deep bass drones and mere hints of rhythm and melody. The feeling in both sound and imagery was almost elemental, and the impressive visual backdrop (which basically formed one continuous shot/animation over most of the set) helped reinforce the feeling that we were witnessing a dystopian future that seemed both distant and uncomfortably close at the same time.

Around the mid-point of the set, Miljenko himself joined New Risen Throne on stage to provide some ethereal backing vocals that joined a heavily processed choir-like section amid a scenery of lava flowing through an ancient structure. Rumbles and creeping mechanical sounds, created physically by the artist on the stage, set the sonic background for a kaleidoscopic visual amalgamation made up of agonising human figures. Melodies slowly started creeping in and coming to the fore, only to dissipate into a long drone as the backdrop shifted back to scenes from a forgotten temple with veiled figures, hinting at a symbolism similar to Vestigial's. The music completed its 360-degree voyage back to the beginning of the set with trebly melodies over choir-like voices, ultimately dissipating into spacey melodies as the narrative culminated with images of imprisoned humans serving as slaves to supracosmic entities. Not the most uplifting of scenarios for humanity's future, to be sure, but a powerful and thought-provoking performance nonetheless.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed the fourth edition of Ambientalika, and I believe the 45-or-so fellow members of the audience felt the same way. The setting was impeccable, with a perfectly clear audio and video experience, the line-up was about as elite as it gets, and everyone seemed to be in a very good mood afterwards, with the merch stand expectedly emptying out in record time. I can only give the biggest of compliments to Miljenko & crew for the level of organisation and the sheer enthusiasm put into this event, and wish them the very best of luck for the next editions to come, some of which at least I hope to attend. In the meantime, let me drop a hint for the next one - think north.

(Photos kindly provided by Anto Magzan.)