The Alias Sessions

Murcofs The Alias Sessions contains music that Fernando Corona composed for Contre-Mondes and Normal, two performance pieces by Geneva-based dance company Alias, choreographed by Guilherme Botelho. As an album experience, its a nearly 90-minute behemoth which reveals itself at its own pace. There are several stretches of stillness and near-silence, but even at its sparsest, its captivating and full of surprise. The synth notes that suddenly spark out from the void during Dandelion Heart provide an early moment of suspense, indicating that there will be further twists in the road ahead. Unboxing Utopia is extremely aired-out techno with a leaden, trudging beat -- far from the precise, jittery micro-glitch of Coronas work at the dawn of the millennium, and with a much more doom-laden atmosphere. Underwater Lament has a submerged pulse, bringing to mind Emptysets earlier, beat-driven work, with bleeps, pings, and pulses setting off minor explosions. Shadow Surfing is a moment of relative brightness in the middle of the storm -- while not exactly joyous, theres something uplifting about its rippling textural waves and skipping beat patterns. Ideology Storm begins as a nervous heartbeat and gradually becomes more fleshed out, and the suspense is kept up during the icy Dividing Space. The spiraling arpeggios of Fire Thief provide a beacon of light, dramatically calling out from the inescapable bleakness, then Systemic Amnesia drops soft melodies on top of brittle, scraping beats before transforming into a much grander, more sorrowful lament. With The Alias Sessions, Murcof expands on his past approaches, creating his most immersive work to date. ~ Paul Simpson