Dark Music Review – The Infinity Coordinates
Review Written By Casey Douglass
Pavel Malyshkin ( Ugasanie ) presents us with his dark space project Silent Universe. Explore the anomalies that lurk in the infinite dark. Listen to magnetic readings of dark space as you probe the unexplored. This album brings dark rumbling sounds in the raw isolated style that is Pavel's expertise. Recommended for fans of space ambient.
There’s something
seductive about the harsh, empty vastness of space. One of my
favourite meditative practices is to imagine myself resting on some
kind of spacecraft as it journeys from one galaxy to the next, the
light of a million stars glinting on its hull. When a dark ambient
album comes along that fits that theme, I take to my bed and indulge
those images with eyes closed and blanket warm. The Infinity
Coordinates is the latest that has accompanied me, and it did its
job wonderfully.
The soundscapes created
are smooth and expansive, the tempo fitting the shape of a universe
in no hurry to provide entertainment for a puny human on an
intergalactic jaunt. That being said, there are quirks and
interesting events that you almost feel lucky to have witnessed,
rather than them being orchestrated just for you. One example is
opening track Spiral Space, a composition that creates a soundscape
of flaring sounds; a shimmering environment in which you wouldn't be
surprised to meet your own self coming towards you from the other
direction. Things seem to move on later in the track, giving the
listener the feeling of being left behind, much like seeing a
jump-ship speed away from the vantage point of a desolate moon.
The idea of desolation
brings me onto another track that I wanted to mention by name:
Emptiness of Other Worlds. The deep drone and what appear to be
robotic sobs meld with the other sounds to create the impression of a
space traveller finding a deserted city on some backwater planet, but
one that is millions of years unoccupied. The music gave me the
impression of harsh shadows picking out the remains of architecture
as the nearby star casts its rays over the lifeless dust. A
melancholy soundscape but one well worth spending time inside.
Pulsar is another great
track, one that builds into an electromagnetic soundscape that tunes
the listener into the sounds of a pulsar. Other elements in this
track create a pulsing momentum, and I half got the impression of the
beam of the star, when it came my way, resembling a giant eye staring
at me. And no, I’ve not just watched too much Lord of the Rings.
The Infinity
Coordinates is a very fine album, one that leads the listener
through a space that, at times, seems impartial, and at others, seems
to be half aware of being visited, even if millions of years too
late. If you enjoy the setting of space, The Infinity Coordinates
is an album to pick up when you can.
Visit the The
Infinity Coordinates page on Bandcamp here for more information,
and be sure to check out Pulsar below:
I was given a free
copy of this album to review.
Album Title: The
Infinity Coordinates
Artists: Silent
Universe
Label: Cryo
Chamber
Released:
Dec 26, 2017
