Space is death without a graveyard. This EP charts an imagined visit by the bystanders of Apollo 11, through sampled speeches, cacophonies of saturated effects, occasional harp and piano notes, and waves of distorted bowed strings. It’s the music of drift, unencumbered by drums or percussion, lyrics or melody. It wanders without any particular direction, and never goes very far from its ominous beginnings.
Despite this, it never gets dull or repetitive. The continual introduction of new motifs and patterns keeps your interest while you stare vase-eyed into the void. The short running time (less than 25 minutes) helps keep things from going stale until the music can shift to a new set of ideas.
I would do as the liner notes suggest: this is meant for listening in a single sitting, rather than consuming individual tracks. The musical ideas entwine and link into a sparsely decorated chain, floating in space. I wish there was a single-track version of the EP, because the dimming fades between certain songs breaks the flow. Better it was all a single unfolding event.
The sounds it encapsulates are very well done. The instruments are sharply recorded and performed, crisp with distortion. “surface” begins with ominous, nervous, excited, and wary soundscapes. Crackles like a ship being prepared for launch. Soon the siren-like sounds of “pomposity” begin. Audio clips emphasize the ego of man, reaching away from the earthly womb and into the nothing of space.
In “astrollaunt” the sirens and launch continue, until digital screams fade away like Earth in the distance. Harp plucks pick up in “crescent, lunate” and further in “middling” which becomes scratchy and strained, like a limb being extended. It juxtaposes news of a successful moon landing with nervous, twittering music.
The last tracks have industrial overtones at times, like cEvin Key floating in zero G. The sound effects are like hungry baby birds lost in a metallic vault of echoes. Piano chords go unresolved, until the whole thing fades from view.
Overall, an intriguing and enjoyable trip through the hope and anxieties of outer space.