Originally released as a C90 and here spread across two LPs (and four tracks), Space Finale has a definitively analog quality to the sound, both in format and in the soft, obscure nature of the textures of each piece. While a very strong work, there are a few moments that hold it back from being as brilliant as it could be.
Side one of the first LP opens the album very effectively.Wobbly melodic tones cascade around, like the sound of a 1970s educational film strip, the woozy pitch fluctuations occasionally pushing it into darker, horror movie soundtrack territory.This is only amplified with the addition of a low bass rumble a bit into the piece, adding a sense of menace with the undulating rhythms.Eventually this gives way to a hollow industrial collage, with slight hints of feedback and the occasional fragment of an untreated field recording making itself known.The sound lightens with a heavily reverberated ring that gives way to a soft, melodic outro.
The flip side is a bit less sinister and more melancholic, keeping the unidentifiable churning thumps and thuds, but focusing on buried melodies that are extremely somber.No clear instrumentation is at play here, but the shimmering notes sound like the music of an ancient civilization that has just been excavated, crafted with instruments unlike any in use today.The two sides of this LP are very different from each other, yet feel unified in their approach.
The material on the second record isn't quite as enchanting, however.It opens with sparse, chiming sounds that are eventually transmogrified into dense, bass heavy layers of noise.The murky reverberated textures eventually part to reveal what resembles plucked string instruments uncovered from a ton of audio grime.However, the transition into humming machinery sounds feels like it could be lifted off any so-called dark ambient album, as it lacks any identifying quality.While its evolution into heavier, more overdriven textures that eventually dissolve into raw noise helps the situation, it still sticks out as a sore spot on an otherwise well crafted side.
It's on the fourth side of the set that things feel as if they're falling apart.The hollow, echo-ey textures and occasional radar blip sound like the most generic of experimental ambient music.The opening field recording elements and the melodic bells and incidental sounds that close the track are strong, but everything between them is just dull.It almost seems as if Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa lost their creative drive at the end and instead fell prey to using filler to pad out the album.With this excised this would have been a very powerful hour long work, but stretched to 90 minutes, it has some dull spots.
When Space Finale is "on," it's very good, emphasizing the analog textures and sounds used to create this very atmospheric work. However, the dull spots that occur in the second half really caused my attention to drift away from the record and onto other activities, which is never a good thing.It's a strong, but flawed album.
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