You can run but you can't hide from the melodies
Artiste: Carbon Based Lifeforms
Nationality: Swedish
Album: Refuge
Year: 2013
Label: Leftfield
Genre: Ambient
Tracks:
RCA (+)
Birdie
RCA (-)
Leaves
Lost
Escape
Marauders
Chronological position: Seventh album
Familiarity: “Interloper”
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: More or less what I expected. I really like these guys!
Best track(s): Pretty much all of it
Worst track(s): Nothing
Comments: I've liked CBL ever since I went looking for some ambient electronic music that wasn't dance or trance or dubstep, and was advised by I think Rezz to try these guys out. I tasted “Interloper” and was hooked. Now this appears to be a motion picture soundtrack but that's ok: this Swedish duo are well suited to the atmospheric nature of cinematic music, as is evident from the soft opener, the enigmatically titled
RCA (+) which builds from a gentle beginning into something a little more tense, with swirling synth soundscapes and ethereal piano.
CBL are known too for their slowly building soundscapes, rather like Solar Fields, and indeed the first minute of
Birdie is nothing but a softly rising synth effect until piano and guitar fill in, and
RCA (-) has a much darker and threatening undertone with a big wailing guitar line growing to something of a crescendo, while
Lost is almost minimalistic, the music nearly in the background, if you can imagine such a thing.
Escape has a darker, throatier feel to it and is carried mostly on some bassy synth. There's definitely a sense of running, of flight about it.
Like most of CBL's repertoire, you're talking about spacey, laidback, mostly soft and definitely ambient music. Great to drift off to sleep to, study to or anything else that requires or allows music in the background, but can be enjoyed by direct listening too.
Overall impression: What I expected. Another flawless album from the Carbon Based ones.
Hum Factor: 0 (You can't hum this stuff)
Intention: As ever; keep up with the releases