Released
1997
Label
Earthly Delights
Soleilmoon
Reviewed by
Michael C.
Lund
Contact
Earthly Delights
PO Box 2
Lostwithiel
Cornwall PL22 0YY
United Kingdom
Soleilmoon Recordings
PO Box 83296
Portland, Oregon 97283
USA
********
PO Box 11453
1001 GL Amsterdam
Netherlands
Visit
Last Edit/Update
04 June, 1998
Nocturnal Emissions
SUNSPOT ACTIVITY
Track Listing
1. i
2. ii
3. iii
4. iv
5. v
6. vi
7. vii
8. viii
9. ix
10. x
11. xi
12. xii
13. xiii
14. xiv
Essentially a one-man project, Nigel Ayers's Nocturnal Emissions has
been a presence on the experimental underground scene for two decades. The long list of
releases to have emerged from this most elusive of musical projects vary in musical
expression form bagpipe anthems, to 'industrial' music, to sound collages, and, most
recently, sonic landscapes of a more 'ambient' nature. The latest CD Sunspot Activity
came out recently on Soleilmoon, and is a deeply evocative and beautiful concept album,
centered around the astronomical phenomena of the title. X-ray images of the sun, and
brief snippets of scientific explanations of these, grace the cover of the CD. However,
the cover art stands on its own; no conclusive statements are made about the relationship
between sunspots as such, and Nocturnal Emissions' music on this CD. Meaning is alluded
to, but the task of pursuing it is left up to the imagination of the listener.
Although Sunspot Activity
consists of fourteen 'tracks' labeled with the Roman numerals from i to xiv;
the CD is really one long piece. The majority of the tracks flow seamlessly into each
other, and the in-points of these tracks serve as index points, marking passages of
gradual transition in the piece. Like a cloudscape slowly unfolding, the music moves along
with an almost mystical cadence; a steady, mutating stream of strange, manipulated and
processed sounds. There are passages, where the piece lapses into convulsive electronic
gurglings, but mainly there a great peace and serenity suffuses the arrangements. Many of
the aurals used in the composition have a slightly decayed edge, as if these were signals
that had traveled across a vast gulf of space and time.
Suddenly, the perturbed chirps of
an electric cuckoo cut through the fabric of cosmically inspired washes of sound, and
momentarily the music is brought down to earth through this intrinsically terrestrial
element of a bird's voice. The moment does not last -- soon Nocturnal Emissions'
music once more travels toward the stars. However, the cuckoo becomes a motif throughout
the rest of the piece. At times it is distantly audible in the background of the sound
image, at others, it leaps out of the very surface with startling clarity. The
relationship between the earthly and the cosmic is suggested in the contrast of these
sounds, and a strange atmosphere, as of something eternal passing through the room,
materializes.
The final impression Sunspot
Activity leaves behind is not unlike that of the films of the Russian director Andrei
Tarkovsky. This is truly music that invites the listener to ponder the greater and
lesser mysteries of life and the universe.
