Dark Ambient Review: Echoes of the Future
Review by Casey Douglass
Proto U’s dark
ambient album Echoes of the Future continues the themes
explored in her previous albums: Earth Songs, Khmaoch
and The Edge of Architecture. The
theme of this album revolves around what a post-Earth event might
look like, humanity strapping themselves into gigantic metal vessels
and blasting off into the wider universe.
Album Blurb: The space center sleeps as the sound of your boots echo down endless hallways. Rocket fuel reeks from the colonization ships outside, one more to go. You steal one final look at the charred horizon as you enter the last ship bound for a new home. Do we deserve a second chance? A deep space ambient album that invites you to take part in the discovery of cosmic anomalies and abandoned space stations in search of a new home.
As this is a space,
sci-fi type album, the expected rumblings, buzzings and beepings
don’t take too long to appear. They do this in a way however, that
remains interesting and full of texture. Take the opening track Gone
as an example. A mechanical “ticking” gets things going, a sound
that threads a sustaining rhythm through the other sounds that emerge
around it. Added to this are some mellow tones that move from ear to
ear and some rumbling thundery sounds. It’s hard not to imagine the
view described in the album blurb, gazing through the window of a
space station as massive ships start their drives, and float gently
away from their docking clamps.
Things change up for
the next track Interlinked, where a kind of shimmering hangs
in the soundscape. High tones join it that become almost shrill at
times. Among the other elements of the track are gentle buzzings, and
a fantastic “boiling” effect that to me, sounded like what might
happen if you could boil digital bytes, or code, in a saucepan. When
you get to the hints of voice transmission near the end of the track,
you feel like something has exchanged protocols and a handshake has
taken place. Maybe a ship has docked with the subject of my musing
below.
Next up is 43258D.
This track seemed to bring to mind what it might be like to visit a
steampunk-styled planet, one of metal, steam and fire. The muted
opening sounds, airy or watery, are joined by a deeper rumbling a
little later, and by the midpoint, help create a resonating
maelstrom. The fuzzed sound of an astronaut breathing at the end drew
parallels with the album art of Echoes of the Future, for me
at least. Someone who had entered a strange planet, made his or her
way through the hissing corridors and pumping chambers and finally
entered a glowing core of stillness and tranquility.
Drawings of Nebula
really seemed to be the audio equivalent of looking at some of the
stunning deep space photos that we get from the Hubble telescope.
There are “radio frequency sweeping” tones pinging off masses of
particles, and later, hissy static being joined by wolf-like howls
and more human voice-transmission effects. If the fleet or ship at
the heart of this album were passing close to a nebula, this track
does a good job of encapsulating what that might sound like.
The final track that I
wanted to mention, and also my favourite, is Hounds of the Void.
This track, for me, had an ominous tone. While the others were awe
inspiring, or simply interesting, this track rumbled with threat,
which I liked very much. It didn’t cause me to think of the human
fleet, but a change in viewpoint to an alien threat. Massive ships,
darker than dark, making their way through the universe looking for
prey. The track starts with a deep tone that throbs and pulses. These
pulses grow and are joined with other higher tones, which might
suggest starlight beginning to glint on clustered metal shapes that
weren't visible a moment ago. The track seems to contain a metallic
shimmer, that sits above the rumbling. There are small tones and
voice-like calls/beeps, I couldn't decide which. All I could do was
imagine this fleet moving past from a fixed point, the ships looking
sharp and dangerous, the soundscape making me feel like I didn’t
want to be seen. Absolutely fantastic.
Echoes of the Future
is another superb album from Proto U. If you enjoy the more
sci-fi/space ambient variety of soundscape that it contains, you
really should buy a copy when you can. It’s mellow, smooth, awe
inspiring and dark, the spaces it creates both massive and haunting.
A perfect album to listen to as these cold winter nights draw in.
Check out the Echoes
of the Future page on Bandcamp at this link. You might also like
to listen to Hounds of the Void below:
I was given a copy of
this album for review purposes.
Album Title:
Echoes of the Future
Artist: Proto U
Label: Cryo
Chamber
Released: 28
August 2018
