Review Summary: The Horror...
Sublunar defies conventions, it does not want to be understood, it does not belong in any defined category. Because of that it can be incredibly frustrating. It is abstract music in the proper sense, the kind of abstract music you can hear indefinitely without ever knowing what it is about. I know. For more than three years this music that refers to something that must be somewhere floating silently between the Moon and Earth -whatever it may be-, or even perhaps on Earth on the hidden depths of the ocean, or in a -yet-to-be-explored forest, or at some point in time -perhaps at the end of it?-, this piece of music leaves me puzzled, sometimes anxious. Without a solid structure, lacking any fixed rhythm, filled with languishing tones and cavernous sounds, floating direction-less, almost without hope, evaporating into the air, this music is almost instantly rejected by our brain. And then, the profound sadness, the melancholy, the intense sense of loss emanating from this otherworldly soundscapes -all this points at something humanly problematic. And there comes the alternative. Maybe this creation does not point out to something in the outside, but to something hidden in our minds, perhaps in the subconscious.
That would explain the indefiniteness, akin to the elusive memory of a fading dream, something that you feel, even recognize, but you cannot ultimately grasp and bring clearly into the light. Kane Ikin has done something tremendous here. He has achieved the duality organic-abstract at the utmost level, the "synthetic form" that simulates the living. These compositions sound vital, but hide their true form - or are they even real? They are always suggested, outlined, but forever inapprehensible. Like an indescribable and unclassifiable emotion,
Sublunar points at something that can only be experienced or felt, but not rationally understood. You can never look behind the doors, and quite frankly, you do not want to. A piece of music like this is extremely rare and unique, music that transcends its mere physical attributes and projects something bigger, more significant, but also elusive and cryptic. Yes,
Sublunar is a paradox. Something that at times can only be strongly despised, at times only viscerally experienced.
Sublunar stands on its own, forever silent in the nebulous waiting for something...or someone.
