STALKER (WITH B. LUSTMORD)

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This is very hard one for me to review. It's a very dark and low-key ambient work inspired by the Tarkovsky film, and that's the easiest thing to say. But what it gives to a listener, that's the problem. A quote: "A guide to possible interpretations of an ambivalent reality, a non-Euclidean geometry, as yet unmapped, inaccessible through linear perceptions. To illuminate, decode and decipher this landscape of fractured density, ultimately to deconstruct these unfolding dimensions, where dreams are only whispers."

I have seen and enjoyed the film, and I could simply state that Rich & Lustmord have captured the strangeness of the 'forbidden zone' (and that alone). But that would sound as if I found this music interesting and rewarding to listen. No, it mostly just made me tired and frustrated. It's so minimalistic and eerie in the same way from start to end that it asks TOO much patience. Maybe it would work better as background soundtrack for a horror story.. no, the atmospheres would not fit together anyway. There's just the hollow, estranged sound wallpaper that keeps continuing, with wailing and extremely slow layers of synths and distant-like throbbing or dropping sounds. It evokes images of sinister unknown place; abandoned, post-disaster, unsafe, vast, metallic, threatening... But the whole 68 minutes of it is too much time to waste. The film, very slow and demanding itself too, at least offers a "whole" art experience, whereas listening to this CD just leaves you wandering in the scene all alone and blinded.

The key words, again: DARK, MINIMALISTIC AMBIENT. If you want that and nothing but that, this is your music! Others, just ignore.

I write this review as a long time fan of ambient music. From Brian Eno to The Hafler Trio to Tangerine Dream to the full on drones of Alvin Lucier and Aube, I love the stuff. That's why I was so surprised when Stalker failed to move me at all. I like the other works of Lusstmord that I have heard, but I am unfamiliar with Robert Rich apart from this album, so needless to say, I was puzzled. I listened to it again, at a louder volume, but there was still nothing there. Since then I have tried listening to Stalker in every setting and volume imaginable, but it simply fails to reward.

I think for ambient music to work, it has to leave some room for the listener to insert his own thoughts into the music. It has to stimulate the imagination, providing just enough material to get you going and then backing off. Stalker, on the other hand, is oppressive and pessimistic. It doesn't open the doors to your subconscious, it closes them. After countless listens I still can find nothing in this music to reward my patience.

So with reluctance, I have to advise even avid fans of minimalism and dark ambient to steer clear of this one. Pick up Zeit by Tangerine Dream instead.