Interloper --- Carbon Based Lifeforms --- 2010 (Ultimae)
In the wake of my review of Jean-Michel Jarre's “Magnetic fields” a few weeks ago, I developed a fresh interest in electonic “ambient” music, and went looking for something similar. The first real example I came across was thanks to Freebase Dali, who suggested --- not to me, but I took up the suggestion anyway --- these guys, and once I heard this track I thought, yeah, this is what I'm looking for. Carbon Based Lifeforms is a duo based in Sweden, who have released five albums up to now, all instrumental and all ambient, so far as I can see. The interesting thing about them is that their recordings all seem to flow together as one piece of music, so that although certain tracks are named as such, it's often quite difficult to determine where one ends and the other begins, and you really have to listen to the albums as a total experience: cutting bits out of them doesn't really do them justice.
And so we end up with over an hour of pure electronic ambient music, which is in the main very relaxing and I guess what the kids today call “chillout” music; certainly chilled me out when I listened to it, anyway. But because of the continuous nature of the music, it is a little more difficult to review the album even as a whole, since you can't just say “nice keyboard and synth work throughout” --- some overview of an album that would give! This leaves me to try to describe each track as it flows from one to the next, and keep up a sort of musical narrative as the album progresses. Tall order perhaps, but I'd like to be able to convey the overall feel I get from this music, so I'll give it a try.
And the album opens on the title track, which runs for six minutes. It opens with busy keyboard with spacey atmospheric synth backing, then a basic melody coming through on foot of some deep basswork, pulling in the percussion (drum machine, I assume) as the tune begins to take on some more cohesive shape. This appears to be the third in a trilogy of albums, with “Hydroponic garden” from 2003 starting the trio off, then continuing in 2006 with “World of sleepers”, each of these albums picking up from the last in terms of track numbers. For instance, “Hydroponic garden” starts at track 1 and runs to track 12, with the next album starting at track 13 and on to 22, while this one starts at .... track 24? What happened to 23? I don't know, but this seems to be the way Carbon Based Lifeforms work.
The same basic melody runs through the six minutes of “Interloper”, then it drops away to a single synth before coming up with some spacey runs and a sort of more bouncier keyboard, much more uptempo drumming and a vocoder getting in on the act as “Right where it ends”, er, begins. Much more dancy, more upbeat with some half-whispered vocals coming in, the rhythm almost a boogie blues one now, thumping along nicely as some pretty happy synthwork fills out the melody. Some breathy synth then comes in to add to the mix, a deep pulsing bassline accompanying the vocal which, though not really that discernible, is not necessary to be, as it's almost like just another instrument in the music. It all fades down then to whooshing synth and a fast keyboard run takes us into “Central plain”.
For almost a minute there's nothing else than that fast-fingered synth then it's joined by another, a bassy one but as yet no percussion. The music grows louder and more insistent, with little marimba touches poking their heads up every now and then, making a sound almost like rain falling, then the drums cut in and the heavier keys take over, with what could be a guitar sliding in too. It sets up something of a wail as the synths continue, getting faster and then it falls back to allow the banks of synthesisers centre stage, as more almost-unheard vocals slip by. There's a definite sense of Vangelis about this track, particularly reminds me of some of the music on “The city”.
Moving then into “Supersede” with a thick organ sound and some whistling synth, wind noises and tinking bells, everything slowing down to a much more stately pace, the sound of the wind like the inhalation and exhalation of breath. Other sounds like bird cries or whale song come in, with trilling sprinkles of ribbony keyboards, then the heavy percussion thumps in and the tempo goes up a little, handclap-style beats joining the rhythm, quite echoey. Warbly keyboard and a heavy bass accompany this piece to its conclusion, then “Init” opens with sound effects and a female spoken vocal, possibly a poem being quoted as church-style organ and digital piano take the melody in a return to the slower pace of the previous track, but even more so, very laidback and chillout.
As percussion hits in, the tempo rises but only very subtly, and bright keyboard is overlaid on the piano lines, a sort of brassy keys sound fading in and out too. A long atmospheric synth sound takes over, as everything else bar the bass fades away, then the drums slip back in and the lighter keys return also, and we're now almost halfway through this interesting album, or piece of continuous music, if you prefer. “Euphotic” keeps the tempo slow, with chiming synth and bells, no percussion at first, swirly eerie synth and a slow and simple bassline, and in fact the whole track continues that way, almost fading away until percussion hits in sharply near the end and the tempo slips up very slightly, but the melody remains intrinsically the same.
On a rippling keys movement which seems to evoke the sound of a brook or stream, “Frog” introduces some solo guitar and piano, in quite a siimple, almost pastoral piece, then the shortest track on the album, and certainly the shortest
title comes in on low, drony synth with a higher-register synth riding above it like a monorail, and sharp stabs of percussion fire off like fireworks through the music before a pan-pipes-like fluty keyboard sets up an eerie melody through the piece, and “M” concludes with some strident, insistent synth and a final flurry of drums and keys with some deeply-buried vocals as it heads into “20 minutes”, on the back of some slow ambient synth and celestial keys.
Some nice guitar and basswork, as the synth swirls and eddies, very slow and calm and laidback, as with a few last piano notes we move into the final track, the oddly-titled “Polyrytmi” with some echoey solo keyboard, very sparse, slowly joined by some pizzicato strings keys then some more robust synth, a walking rhythm beginning to assert itself on the developing melody, reminding me a little of Vangelis's “Alpha”; sort of like a ticking clock in ways. Some low bass joins in now, but still no percussion of any sort, then most everything drops away to leave just the “ticking” synth and the higher register key one going, the ticking eventually fading away in the distance, leaving for a moment only the single synth before suddenly the ticking one returns on the back of some more bass and finally some solid percussion, the rhythm picking up a little, until with a final blast of percussion and the rest of the synths coming back in everything once again stops and the ticking synth is left to finish proceedings.
TRACKLISTING
1. Interloper
2. Right where it ends
3. Central plain
4. Supersede
5. Init
6. Euphotic
7. Frog
8. M
9. 20 minutes
10. Polyrytmi
This isn't really an album that lends itself well to review: it is, as I already mentioned, essentially one big track that, though it changes subtly throughout the course of the over an hour the album runs for, stays basically the same. I've done my best to give you a flavour of it here, but to really appreciate this album I think you have to just immerse yourself in it, let it run through you and wash over you. It's an album to chill out to, to relax to, perhaps even to fall asleep to. Want something to dance to? This ain't it. But if you want something that will take you away for an hour and a change from the worries of the day-to-day world, this could very well be it.
This sort of music I've been finding hard to track down, mostly because when you mention "ambient" it's often faster, more dancy stuff that comes up --- your trance, your electronica and so on --- which is something that generally I don't have any interest in. This sort of music suits me exactly, so much so that I made sure to download all Carbon Based Lifeforms' albums, and will in all likelihood end up reviewing another one at some point.
Again, my thanks to Freebase for pointing me, if indirectly, in this direction, and if anyone knows of music similar to CBL do please post here, PM, email or throw down a suggestion in the "electronic music recommendation" thread.