Night Gestalt
One [Endless]
Reviewed by: Ziggy Merritt
Sound does not exist in deep space, yet many in film and music have tried to score it nevertheless. Few of these interstellar soundtracks give thought to the emptiness, the darkness, of the setting. Many are filled to the brim with the uptempo bombast of a full orchestra, or an anachronistic Western feel, likening the vastness of space to an unexplored frontier. Last May, Night Gestalt, the solo project of Dada Life’s Olle Cornéer, released his debut album, One, a minimalist IDM experience that gives depth to the maddening isolation of space.
The album allegedly tells the story of One, a spaceship carrying the last of humanity from a ruined Earth along with She, the ship’s onboard computer. The conceptual piece imagines the lives of these passengers, the fate they must live with, and the eventual spiral into despair that comes with the death of She. It does not play into the pretense of hope and heroics that are typical of a space opera. One is a solitary journey.
In this second iteration of Night Gestalt’s debut, that journey is extended. Each track is stretched to over an hour in length, totalling just around eight hours of minimal electronics. That said you won’t find much else that was not already there on the original release. Endless loops around almost imperceptibly, sending the listener into the same void as the doomed passengers of One. But in that same sense, One succeeds. The endless format allows total immersion into the depressed emptiness of each track. “One Part 1” and “Overdrive Control” are the most improved, trading in the intensity of later tracks for a sense of wide-eyed aimlessness.
Others such as “The Death of She” and “One Part III (The End)” are not as well digested in their new format. Their uncompromising desperation is best kept in a minimal dose. The added length only distorts them into something more disturbing that perhaps intended. Thankfully in the press release for the album, Cornéer helpfully expands on his intentions for the endless edition of his debut. “It’s more like a universe you can step into,” he says. “A lot of music is dynamic and takes you on a journey – I wanted to do music that only says one thing.”
Rating: Listenable
