TRAGEDY & GEOMETRY

Tragedy & Geometry is basically very active (usually mid-paced) ambient music that relies mostly on thin sounding cascades of notes held together by soaring synth melodies. When most people think of ambient, they may think of never-ending drones that sound ethereal or angelic, and while this album does have that ethereal sound, most of the tracks on this album have some energetic character that alludes to Berlin school style of electronic composition and newer experimental electronic artists, except the spacey atmosphere is traded for more serenity.

Although this album's music is initially very soothing and engaging, it starts to get very samey and uninteresting just before the half-way point. Only a few tracks stand out to me, and those are "Batteries May Drain" which features Haushildt's serene ambient combined with an uptempo drum track that makes this sound like the most sophisticated synth-pop, "Music for a Moire Pattern" which is primarily an epic showcasing of Hauschildt exploring the glassy cascades of synth patterns for 11 minutes and gets quite hypnotizing, "Overnight Venusian" which adds considerable darkness to the sound that's been established on all of the previous songs on this album (finally some mood change), and "The Impossible Flower" takes the same glassy synths and adds an effects that makes them sound as if they were submerged in water giving this single track a strong aquatic feel (very video game "water level"). Even with four standout tracks, most of the album still sounds entirely samey and, while pleasant, feels more like a chore to get through than an enjoyment.

Tragedy & Geometry is a very soothing album that is as relaxing as it is beautiful, but lack of variety throughout makes this album a bit too long-winded (especially at over an hour in length), but what we have here is proof that Steve Hauschildt, performing solo and away from his group Emeralds, has a lot of potential. This is a good album, but I'm confident that Hauschilt can do much better.