A short one…
Dream My Life Away is the latest effort by Mister (bleak) under the Carrion moniker. The guy, as you might know, is active as Gold (now called Gold Membership), D¥$FUNCTion, Aspects & Fragments, and several others too, but Carrion might be his most productive outfit.
This newest work gets released via the very young yet open-minded label Midnight Mall (home to, for example, another project by this guy, i.e. Vaporglow). It consists of one single track, clocking half an hour. It’s a digital-only release (at least as for now; some recordings on this label eventually got a physical release), which comes with really beautiful artwork: a hooded human silhouette amongst grain stalks or poppies and underneath a clouded sky, yet his reflection in the wave-less water figures a tree with leafless branches. Nice, this confronting contrast. Besides, the colors used are marvelous: a kind of yellow-sepia-brownish tint.
Dream My Life Away comes with a comparable contrast, music-wise; the quietude of smooth synths versus the injection of samples. It starts quite noisy, with alienated drones, spacy sound-effects and lullaby-like melodies, all in one, all shamelessly canalized into a bizarre experience. At the very same time, it is relaxing as well as confronting. Hey, didn’t I mention the contrasts behind the visuals too? Is it a theme? Of course it is; (bleak) is a professional in sonic manipulation. Anyway, the samples of shores against the cliffs (I think), like waves coming up and fading, before reappearing once again, create that mesmeric attitude, almost hinting towards some ANW-based format. The smooth, furbished Dreambience harmonies, soft and subtle, work soporific (not as in ‘boring’ yet rather as in ‘meditative’), and those squealing noises, like irritating birds permanently flying over (am I exaggerating), work like a psychoid trip of unease. At nine minutes, the ambience transforms when introducing dreamlike piano tunes, integer, starry-eyed, tender, and lush. Still the shore-like drones rumble and float by, and the multiform sampled additions cover the package, and the cozy synths keep on singing their fragility-laden berceuse. The final fragment, as from almost twenty-three minutes, delves into slightly darker territories; not ‘dark’ as in doomed or depressed, yet rather referring to a more melancholic, rueful concept. And oh yes, the very end is like the start, being rather ANW-inspired…
It’s like being performed in an abandoned shopping mall where the music still plays on (I shamelessly admit that I sort of stole this quote…)…
https://midnightmallrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dream-my-life-away
https://carrionnoise.bandcamp.com/
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-sado-rituals
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/empty-pool-carrion
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-1
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-3
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-4
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-2