This EP tells of a space epic, immovable and unstoppable cosmic forces in a gravitational war for supremacy. Ambience is a genre that I often struggle to find enjoyment in however this EP is a real journey of intelligent and conceptual delights that I enjoyed every single second of.
The Roche Limit
The point at which one celestial body can no longer maintain its own gravitational self-attraction and disintegrates due to the gravitation and tidal forces of a second celestial body.
Peter Adjobia (Dragon, Edgewood) and Paul Jetten (Jettenbach) met some 20 years ago at Slimelight London where Peter was a resident DJ. The two formed a friendship founded from a mutual love of obscure Electronica/ Industrial, Post-Rock and Science Fiction novels. While the two talked of starting a music project back then, it has only recently come into fruition. The Roche Limit is the beginnings of a musical partnership, a collision point where the pair's varied and diverse influences coalesce.
Inner Demons Records.
Review
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The celestial constructed theme is immediately apparent. As the intro track pans across this storied vision, I am reminisce of the background atmospherics of the classic Space RTS games Homeworld (especially Homeworld:Cataclysm) and Stellaris as well as the eerie and not so empty corridors of Dead Space.
Something immense and unescapable is vividly pictured with the calm and alluding soundscape in this progressive and spine chilling soft drone of electronics. You can almost hear choir like voices amongst the din that aren't even there; Such is the imaginative scope that sound alone brings to the fore. It both clears the mind and implants it with weighty imagery of the slow but imminent celestial death.
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An Unrelenting pulse draws you in from the edge of your hearing like that of concentration 'Theta waves' tucked between the sweeping pitches sliding from one ear to the other. There dawns a sense of majestic beauty in the implications of a planet losing its orbit. Billions of years of astronomic history changing in what is effectively less than a cosmic eyeblink. It even reminds me of the releases from NASA where they had translated recorded data in to the 'sounds of the sun' and other bodies. There is a real peace amongst the slow and cataclysmic storm; Unrelenting in its unstoppable momentum. How this has been achieved by 'simple' sounding Human electronics and a few descriptive words of theme, is beyond me..
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The final track starts very differently with a sharp and abrasive sound that is intense in its desire to be heard and pushed to the forefront of all else. A sense of danger and imminent harm plays out across the distortion. Calamity and a struggle against the inevitable is told like an electronic scream of binaric information in the simple yet complex ambient resonations.
This track skirts the fine juxtaposition line of hope and fear, excitement and dread laced with cyber punk-esque story telling through audio format alone. It is also inviting of a mental-self deep dive of reflection of your own place in the universe and how small you are whilst the sounds drift out. In space no one can hear a planet scream..
Tracklist
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Conclusion
With Classical music we had Gustav Holst writing incredible pieces for entire orchestras to pay tribute to the planets of our solar system. Dragon and Jettenbach have captured this same spirit for the modern age in the form of ambient electronics that in contrast to orchestras prove that sometimes, less is more.
What others could have produced as perfectly acceptable base backing ambience has instead provided for one of the most satisfying and enjoyable listens as these two artists have put decades of skill into a beautiful and powerful piece of storied concept with undeniable synthetic elegance.
Each tone plucks at different strings in your mind or some unknown part of the cosmological energy entity that we are inside these temporary flesh forms. It certainly makes your mind wander..
Scores
Technicality: 8/10
Soul factor: 8/10
Energy: 7/10
Vocals/Samples: N/A
Re-play value: 9/10
Overall score: 8/10
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