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 | M. Griffin:Sudden Dark (Hypnos - 1997) The nebulous mystery of darkness is a source of inspiration for some... M. Griffin, for instance. With the celestial evernight as his muse, and modern electronics as his voice, he conjures a vast, dream-like world of blackness with his 1997 solo release, Sudden Dark. |
| Is it the hypnotic soundtrack to a science fiction journey, or freeform accompaniment to your darkest dreams? Or does it even matter? Whether it's outer space, or the space between your ears, Griffin's world is a sublime place to be lost in... a dark space built of beatless ambience.
A 59-second mini-piece, chroma (close your eyes), serves as the doorway. A resonating wave and distant, distorted vocal fragments fade into silence which becomes... the sound of ringing sleep. As with all of the tracks on Sudden Dark, heavily processed layers of slowly mutating frequencies hover in a dense cloud. Long tones shift independently, their sonic tendrils interweaving with others to create a lush otherworld of sound. More minimal, floating rain's background is a barely perceptible rumble over which occasional slightly-more-musical passages and ghostly hisses slip. In a similar vein, immobile quietly drones along in a contemplative state of almost-suspended animation. The beauty lies in the subtle variations of the different elements. Vocal snippets in the haze differentiate the next (short) track; "In all this darkness, we're... almost invisible". At more than 19 minutes, displace is the marathon session of the disc. Again based in sound-strata, recurring whooshes suggest distant movement while other layers hum more statically. Perhaps we're in stasis, while other worlds move on? A beautifully "spacey" piece nonetheless, immersive and atmospheric in its length and breadth. Another relatively long track, gyre's most notable difference is a strange, incessant burbling. Low and high notes seem to randomly oscillate in muffled bleeps for 13 minutes. The mix mellows toward the end, and it's not uninteresting, but personally, I find this track a bit discordant. escape/approach is slowly engulfed in a vaporous, roaring void, with high frequency tinges and tinklings inside. Louder waves begin to ring across this space, filling it with an unknown resonance. Another deep-space dweller, atmosphera is chiming with dense sonic waves. A vast hollow sound of almost symphonic nature, this track swirls like clouds circling in a stellar vortex. unfinished closes the disc, again accenting the abstract soundwaves with broken vocal fragments which provide an unhappy ending. |
| Don't be afraid of Sudden Dark; it's a beautiful collection of truly ambient soundscapes. Even in all this darkness, my Thumb Up is very visible. You can learn more about M. Griffin in his exclusive AmbiEntrance interview, or at his own Hypnos website. |  |
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