CARBON BASED LIFEFORMS: REFUGE (2013)
1) Rca (+); 2) Birdie; 3) Rca
(-); 4) Leaves; 5) Lost; 6) Escape; 7) Marauders.
CBL's output rates seem to have slowed down
considerably since Twentythree — the only complete album in five years
has been this soundtrack for an obscure indie movie that allegedly tells some
sort of macabre story about one family's survival after a mass catastrophe and
is usually pigeonholed in the «survival horror» genre. You'd think that CBL, of
all people, would be the most uncanny choice for composer — but I guess
this was precisely the point, to have a couple of people known for making some
of the most serene music in the universe to lend their hand in the creation of
a disturbing, suspense-based movie. Then again, you don't really need to go
farther than ʽCentral Plainsʼ to be reminded that these dangerous Danes
(Swedes, really, but «dangerous Danes» rings so much cooler) can also be fairly
threatening and suspenseful once they get the opportunity to saddle that vibe.
That said, there is not much about Refuge,
an uncharacteristically short (less than 45 minutes!) collection of ambient
soundscapes very much in the vein of Twentythree, that would suggest danger
or threat — at least, not immediate ones. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at
all to learn that the artists simply used up some of the outtakes from previous
sessions: most of the tracks sound like less elaborate little brothers to their
far more thoroughly polished elders. Everything sounds nice, elegant,
melancholic, but without too much depth: ʽLeavesʼ, for instance, floats on a
shiny, multi-layered, but common bed of synth tones with a repetitive two-note
drip-drop landing on them at regular intervals — well, we've heard that kind of
«look at how elegant the universe is in its static mode and how all life is
just a regularly ordered icing on top» musical metaphor so many times now that
it is futile to expect some new epiphany. But it's pretty, all the same.
The best track is arguably ʽRca (-)ʼ, with a
steady, carefully orchestrated electronic crescendo that Godspeed You! Black Emperor
might well have appreciated — it's a little lost out there in the middle, but
it well deserves your undivided attention for about four minutes, with layer
upon layer of synth added until you really start getting the impression of
climbing the proverbial stairway to heaven, as the air becomes sharper, the
temperature colder, and the intuitive feeling of a supernatural presence more
and more distinct. Unfortunately, even GY!BE would probably complain that the
track is much too short, and the climax is over way too quickly, for the
track to become truly cathartic. The soundtrack curse, striking again and
again!
The only time the record actually comes close
to becoming «scary» is, amusingly, on its most optimistically labeled track —
ʽEscapeʼ, structured as soft techno with a deep, almost subconsciously
planted, bassline and, on top, populated with what sounds like a series of
alien explosions, coming from faraway but powerful enough to resonate all over
your living room. That sound is so atypically harsh for CBL that the track
really stands out, and in quite a respectable way at that, although eventually
it morphs into full-scale danceable techno, and the explosions are almost lost
against a foreground of much less interesting loops and effects. And then, for
the last track (ʽMarauders"), we return back to the same predictable
world of static serenity (well, dark serenity this time — sounds like all those
other «out there in space, watching faraway nebulae» tracks of theirs), lightly
sprinkled with electronic chirps from interplanetary-flying birds on their way
to the nearest warphole.
In short, nice and, like almost everything from
these guys, perfectly listenable, but a soundtrack is a soundtrack — or,
rather, a soundtrack is a collection of second-rate material that you wouldn't
normally want to include on a «proper» LP, especially when you're a loyal
disciple of Tangerine Dream. (Okay, not that loyal. Being loyal to TD
necessarily implies a schedule of at least three albums per year,
proportionally increasing at the same rate at which the artist is running out
of new ideas.) For major fans only, I'd say; others will just have to wait and
find out if there is still another Taoist way left for CBL to tell us how
wonderful and mysterious can a world be in which, for all it's worth, nothing
is really happening.
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