I remember watching a short film years ago that visually chronicled a journey from the outer reaches of the known universe to the molecular-level structures of a human. I guess it was made to show emerging techniques and technologies in digital filmmaking. I only mention this because Unanswered feels like the soundtrack to a similar conceptual journey.
The first two tracks look outwards into the vastness, ‘Eternity’ being a dramatic and atmospheric score seeking to capture the impossible scale of the universe, something that we can only really relate to in abstract ways, hardly able to grasp its enormity, yet able to marvel over the beauty with which it paints existence. ‘Over the Clouds’ follows, similarly cinematic visions, yet is shot through with raw guitars to balance the digital deftness and pulsing bass beats…still very much music writ large.
Track three, ‘Teenage Sunday Sadness’, is where we begin to move from outer space to inner thoughts, the song a journey in its own right. Moving from the skittering and carefree into deeper and more melancholic tones, it perhaps captures that realization that the weekend is over and the regimented nature of the week awaits, as the title might suggest, but also the pathos of looking back at our formative years, a time of innocence now lost but for memories and faded photographs. Pathos as a soundscape.
‘Negative Space’ is the final offering, drifting, delicate and dreamlike, and the only track to feature vocals courtesy of Alison Thom, a song of loss and longing and love – “l’attente d’un retour” – shimmering electro-pop dancing deftly with sweeping and swooning strings, gorgeous, bold and beautiful.
Instrumental albums, or in this case, largely instrumental albums, talk through sound and sonics rather than words; communication comes through the music’s ability to evoke emotion, ask questions, provoke thought and stir feelings and memory. Never has music alone taken the listener so far out of their body and so deep into their own self as mokroïé does here on Unanswered.
Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
