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 | Illusion of Safety:Of & The (Soleilmoon - 1997) The advertising blurb read: "Ten pieces of hauntingly atmospheric sounds that hypnotize and captivate. This is a soundtrack from another planet, a world with a dark red sun shining over a strange and terrible landscape, the home of restless dreams." |
| That sucked me right in; despite the fact that I majored in advertising copywriting and shouldn't be so easily swayed by mere promotional verbiage, I just had to track down this double-CD. So, I do... and pop in of , the 73-minute long first disc, ready to be hypnotized by its terrible otherworldliness. After a few seconds of teasing silence, I'm treated to a distinctly mundane (though slightly processed and out-of-tune) piano chord... a piano! What the hell is a piano doing on the strange dark-red-sun-planet!? Damn those copywriters! The good news is I get over this initial disappointment... upon further listening I realize that puer extends beyond mere hamfisted piano chords. The short-runner at 6:54, the track casts its own grey shadow with an emptily ringing aura of despair. playground is interestingly murky, with several layers of sound-textures roiling together. It's simultaneously rumbly, chimey and electric. The piece doesn't necessarily "go" anywhere; it just swelters in its own stifling atmosphere. There's a little more going on in erosion, which is similarly hazy, with various levels of drifting sonic mutations. Some are harsher, feedback-like washes, while others grumble up from the depths. Pretty bleak stuff... of course, I mean that in a good way. Slowly, slowly... p.o.e. hums into existence. It hums, for more than 20 minutes, pulses occasionally, and even resonates a bit here and there, but mostly it just hums, though. Whereas some of the previous tracks are a sonic morass...lilt at least has clearly dividable sections. It opens with quietly fuzzy bell tones, then segues into the lengthily-sustained sounds of an orchestra tuning up (with occasional coughing). After many minutes of swirling symphonics, the piece is overtaken by a darker and more machine-like rumbling, which also runs for several minutes, until eventually the rain begins to fall. The machine hum fades away on a whisper and the thunder rolls in. For several more minutes, one can enjoy the thunderstorm. Clocking in at almost 64 minutes, the second disc, the opens with immerse which begins as a quiet string and drone piece. Eventually though, it is engulfed by vast, roaring waves of hurricane winds. After several minutes of intense billowing, things smooth out into a fairly quiet machine clatter. clearing consists mainly of very deep, quiet electronic hums. A few other sparse sounds of higher pitch sometimes slide by. Its melancholy minimalism creates a dismal mood, but I like that sort of thing. center features its own electric hum, but it is denser, more chromatic and diverse. The piece is comparatively more musical, though still yet basically an exercise in droning. Beginning in much the same vein, holding grows to be louder and noisier, with some additional fluctuations and wind. Brassy tones and feedback squalls eventually well up into a full blown, though flowing, cacophony. At almost 19 minutes, this is the 's longest track, which is followed by the shortest. no thing spans its 6:19 with a beating heart overlaid by slight, resonant waves and strange, wringing (not ringing) sounds... like someone twisting their hands over a microphone. Or could it be a stomach gurgling? A bit weird, either way. The most truly "ambient" CD I've recently acquired, of & the is indeed darkly atmospheric, and entirely beatless. For most folks, it will probably be a love it/hate it kinda thing... Your enjoyment will depend on your threshold for long, seemingly directionless drones. |
| Overall, it's a nicely dismal piece of work, not tremendously exciting perhaps, but interesting and varied enough. I've got a thing for darkness, so I gladly give One Thumb up. But, y'know... I never did see that dark red sun... |  |
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