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Cyclotimia
CD (ltd. 500) |
As the title suggests, the new work by Russian masters of electronic soundscapes represents a score to an imaginary sci-fi movie. The musicians call themselves admirers of old-school Sci-Fi / Cyberpunk genres, and for a long time they have felt a desire to make some music inspired by soundtracks of sci-fi blockbusters from 70-80-s... Spaceship battles, alien colonies, teleportation and mysterious droid ceremonies are only part of the images created by this music. The album contains both dynamic rhythmic "hits" and disturbing space ambient as well as avant-garde neoclassic pieces.
Reviews
This is a soundtrack to a non existing Sci-fi movie. I like the idea for the theme, it's an interesting way to explore music. The music of course tells a tale, a tale which you more or less need to make up for yourself since there is no-one else around to tell it for you.
The first time I listened to this album I did not like it. I thought it was quite horrible, mostly because of the opening song called “Battlefield” that is a very hectic and at-least for me unpleasant song to listen to. But as you continue to listen the story unfolds and you are met by new soundscapes and interesting music. I'd say that songs like “Sleep Factory”, “Colonies I Colonies II” and “Quiet Night” is the best ones on this album. You can hear a clear connection to the older albums like 'E$chaton', but it also contains elements from 'Celestis'. Continuing to follow Cyclotimia's development will for sure be interesting... [7/10]
Movie culture has this ability to sneak inside your veins and psyche, putting ideas and images from movies you have never even seen inside your mind. I missed out a lot of good movies, but I can even this up with a lot of bad movies I have not seen, the new “Tron” movie being one of them. Nevertheless, a brief glimpse on “Sci Fi Music” by the duo of Cyclotimia has immediately surfaced the movie in my mind, as my eyes caught bright bluish lines and grids that pierce an empty, black space. Not the old Tron movie, mind you, but the new one. Wild associations aside, “Sci-Fi music” is indeed described as “Soundtrack to a nonexistent movie”, which disqualify Tron from being an inspiration, fortunately, yet keeps us in the realms of futuristic cinema as far as the idea for the album goes.
The sixteen chapters of the album hold instrumental electronic music with different themes to them, as a real movie score should be. The sounds, synth based or computer generated, and even, at points, adorned with what sounds like acoustic percussion and bells, sheds a veil of mystery and vague understanding of what the storyline is. The album begins with “Battlefield”, which sounds like a fast forward version for Peter Murphy’s song “All night long”, yet with a futuristic sound to it. The opening track gains speed and a tense, warlike atmosphere to it, as MK and LM of Cyclotimia attempt to help the listeners visualize the beginning of the movie they are not watching.
Other moments, like the fifth track – “Base”, are more minimal and flirt with IDM and Glitch music while delivering the right mood for the overall work of the album. Other moments are weaker, like the following track – “Time and Space”, which, in my opinion, tries a little too hard to illustrate its title, as tiny, harp-like sounds are manifesting an expanding volume of space. However, Cyclotimia offers a wide variety of musical energies, from intense tracks to more minimal ones (another minimal track is “Quiet night”, that I really liked) and thus makes “Sci-Fi music” a very dynamic, constantly changing album. “Sci-Fi Music” serves as a good glimpse over the work of Cyclotimia, and this project has lots of work to listen to, including some other interesting looking theme albums. I think that out of their discography, my favorite is going to be their 2008 album – “Music for stockmarkets”. You can’t lose with this one.
Cyclotimia is an ambient duo operating out of Moscow. They seem to be an established project in the Russian scene, but rather unknown abroad.
The title of this album clearly evokes the main purpose of the artists. It clearly is a pure soundtrack for an imaginary movie or documentary. The influences are ultra space/astral like, giving an idea about the projects main influences, which must be found somewhere in the early 80s. The album sounds quite compact and not many tracks really emerge from the list. One of the most exciting pieces is the little bit more electro-minded “Mission”. Another noticeable track, this time for the writing is “Ending”. This is an intelligent and efficient ambient composition.
Cyclotimia sounds more like suited for the old-school lovers of ambient music, getting us back to lost times where electronic music was just emerging from the depths.
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