Review: Xeeland ‘Laws & Triangles – Music Inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker’
Andrei Tarkovsky’s works are not easy watches. The Sacrifice, for instance, is painfully slow, a real slog if I’m brutally honest. Stalker fares a little better; however, if it’s quick thrills you’re after, then Tarkovsky’s work will probably not be for you; you’d be best suited to the Fast & Furious franchise or whatever guff is currently offered up by Hollywood in the name of entertainment.
The film’s synopsis, according to Wikipedia, centres on an expedition led by the ‘Stalker’ (Alexander Kaidanovsky), who guides two clients – a melancholic writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolai Grinko) – through a hazardous wasteland. Their destination is a mysterious restricted site known simply as the ‘Zone’, where a room supposedly exists which grants a person’s innermost desires.
Xeeland, aka Jason Stöll (Ex-Mugstar, KLAMP, Sex Swing, Jaaw, God Unknown Records) has created for us an album inspired by the movie; the original soundtrack was an ambient score by Tarkovsky’s regular musical collaborator Eduard Artemyev, so it’ll be interesting to see what he conjures up.
Opener Laws & Triangles is ambient loveliness of which Brian Eno would be proud, a low hum permeating throughout while enveloping you in its warmth. The repetitive synth work keeps your attention by hypnotising and mesmerising in equal measures. Magnetic Rain adopts a darker tone; remember those moments in Twin Peaks when you knew something ominous was going to happen? Well, that’s this, mirroring Angelo Badalamenti’s wondrous work. The whole thing has an otherworldly, cold and detached feel, making it chillingly brilliant.
Porcupine is an interesting mix of Lustmord-influenced dark ambient/post-industrial and almost oriental meditative sounds, making the whole thing is deeply unsettling and haunting. The foreboding Don’t Go Back is suggestive of something deeply unpleasant on the horizon were one to turn around and not heed the warning provided in the track’s title. There is a ‘50s and ‘60s Alfred Hitchcock mysterious quality to the primary sounds, while the industrial clattering in the background is straight out of the Einstürzende Neubauten playbook, intriguing.
an otherworldly, cold and detached feel, making it chillingly brilliant…
Asleep In Water is the album’s shortest track at nearly a minute and a half long, and the naturalistic sounds on offer are a pure joy to listen to. This is the kind of music you’d find on one of those relaxation compositions, only a lot more engaging. Death’s Companion borrows from drone music, early Earth perhaps, but with a little of the psychedelic electronica slipped in for good measure that’s found on Terry Riley’s A Rainbow In Curved Air.
Devour Your Mind is the dictionary definition of minimalism, ideal accompanying music for any number of horror movies, especially of the adapted Stephen King variety. Very little happens. yet to quote the PR ‘The spaces between sounds become as important as the sounds themselves’. It’s reminiscent of what Miles Davis himself said that ‘It’s not the notes you play; it’s the notes you don’t play’, and in Xeeland’s case, it’s very effectively carried out.
Telekinesis appears to tap into kosmische musik, thus, Popol Vuh, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze all seemingly make an appearance, but there’s an ‘80s vibe too, nodding to post-punk, new wave and synth-pop. The whole thing feels very futuristic and neon, which, as a fan of the latter genres, was always going to prove something of a favourite and the perfect concluding track.
The music on Laws & Triangles is strong enough in its own right that a prior viewing of Stalker is not compulsory, however, so as to properly register its full impact, it’ll prove beneficial. Highly recommended.
Label: God Unknown Records
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Scribed by: Reza Mills
