Music Banter - View Single Post - The Anthill 2.0: Albums, Artists & The Chance To Win A Million Dollars!

Anteater · 09-01-2013, 12:52 PM

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On 'Album Spotlights', we look at specific albums by different bands/artists/outfits that in some way stand out from the crowd. Perhaps the album has an unusual backstory, atmosphere or some other set of traits that elevate it above its ilk and era. Whatever the reason however...enjoy!

Geinoh Yamashirogumi – Ecophony Rinne (1986)

1. Primordial Germination (11:50)
2. Falling As Flowers Do - Dying A Glorious Death (7:56)
3. Dark Slumber (5:12)
4. Reincarnation (13:38)

From my perspective, great music in any genre is clairvoyance: for a brief period of time, whether through words or via vibrational patterns and a rich instrumental palette, you are allowed a glimpse into some facet of experience or reality that lies beyond your immediate forbearance. And when it comes to the album experience itself, your time with it might tell you far more than you ever could have imagined about those who conjured it into being.

Ecophony Rinne (which translates to Reincarnated Orchestra) is a late 80's offering by the elusive Japanese music cabal Geinoh Yamishirogumi (the guys behind the soundtrack to Akira) which attempts to capture the experience of death and rebirth in a musical setting. Lots of primordial musical elements collide with chime-infused Gamelan and some sleek synthesizer work that wouldn't be out of place on a Tangerine Dream outing or some of New Age's spacier purveyors. Needless to say, it's a beautiful combination between the bizarre & unnerving, managing to get under your skin a bit despite being only 4 tracks long and not even clocking out at 40 minutes.

Sitting through this album from start to finish is a bit like reading Edgar Allen Poe's famous poem 'The Bells' for the first time, or maybe something like the first part of Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House'. Despite being the musical equivalent of a seemingly tranquil descent into death, there's some darkness right there under the surface, beating like a heart. Watching as a life trickles into nothingness. Waiting for the spirit to leave the body...