Dark Music Review – Insomnia
Written By Casey Douglass
Brass, piano and various other textures are delicately woven into filmic soundscapes that echo the sounds of memories faded through time. Solemn vignettes seem to emanate from an early morning dream state, the late autumnal tones and noir-ish melodies drifting through fog, evoking feelings of quiet isolation and solitude. Recalling haunting and desolate places, a private world is exposed, where time and space are distilled down to what remain of distant pasts and hidden emotions, melded into a symphony of ethereal melancholy.
On reading the excerpt
from the album description above, I was intrigued by the early
morning dream state aspect of the words. So many ambient albums
seemingly cloak themselves in the darkest time period of the night
rather than the time nearer twilight, when the night holds its breath
to see if the sun will rise again, or at least, that is my
interpretation of early morning. What the listener has in Leila
Abdul-Rauf's Insomnia is a collection of tracks that slide
easily into this slice of time, one in which harsher or otherwise
composed tracks might grate uncomfortably on tired minds.
The Tracks
“Midnight” opens
proceedings, its lofty female vocals and chimes thrumming amongst a
deeper cosy sound. A short track, it soon becomes “Drift”, a
more subdued and reflective track. The notes and sounds created for
me the image of a sparkling pool in an underground temple, the
ripples reflected on the walls and taken up by the sounds in the
soundscape. “The Opening” is a string-led oscillating track with
a return of the female vocals again. A resonance joins them later, a
reverberating whine that builds into what seems like male echoing
voices at a distance.
“Clock Glows” is a
cosy track, one that uses simple percussion notes to create an almost
languid feeling of time passing and clouds drifting in the night sky.
Lighter tinkling notes join as the track continues, almost imbuing it
with lullaby credentials. “Pull” is a piano-led track that uses a
mixture of brass and female singing to carry the listener along with
the notes. “Seconds Tick” is another piano-based track, but this
is more frenetic and airy, like a beaded curtain fighting against a
strong breeze.
“Edges of a Mirror”
is up next, a composition with a crystalline sound, all high pitches
and ringing notes, slowly joined by a light drone that adds some
flesh to the bones later on. “Absence” is a track that utilises
repeating notes that set up a pleasing rhythm and that carry the
listener along in some kind of self-propelling motion. Strings and
echoing bassy sounds add more detail to what might be some flight
of fancy or vision of ghosts from the past, like a ship in fog.
“He Sits in His Room”
features bouncy notes that twang into more female vocals, the effect
being one that shrouds the ears in darkness as other notes mingle
with the soundscape. “Wane” is a track that features strings dancing in
an echoing space, brass and drone joining them before things become
quieter and deeper as the midpoint is breached. The final track on
the album is “Dark Hours of Early Morning”, a track that begins
with a breathy sigh and tinkling notes in the distance. A drone adds
another layer to things, the sounds becoming stronger and more bold
as the track continues. It seems to be very much a track in which
something is happening, like a wanderer looking out over a misty
forest canopy and seeing a giant tree surging into the sky, fireflies
and birds flitting around its branches like some shamanic legend of
yore.
Thoughts
Insomnia is an
album that I felt fully lived up to its description. There is a
certain aural caress to the music, but one that is more like the
silence during a nuclear winter rather than anything too warm and
cosy. Yes, there is often a warmth to the music, a relaxed feeling of
night-time and rest, but there is also the impression of forces being
marshaled and the prospect of being destroyed in a smother rather
than an overt show of violence.
How someone with
insomnia might fare if they popped this album on in the small
hours of the night, I don't really know. All I can say is that, even if you sleep
like a baby almost every night, you owe yourself the chance of
listening to Insomnia if you have any kind of interest or
appreciation for dark ambient that evokes night so completely.
I give Insomnia
4/5. Visit Insomnia on Bandcamp at this link for more information.
I was given a free
copy of the album to review.
Album Title: Insomnia
Album Artist: Leila
Abdul-Rauf
Label: Malignant
Records
