Nostromo's record

REVIEW OF 'NO SUCH THING AS SILENCE' from E Mix

NOSTROMO

"No Such Thing As Silence"

Centaur CENCD 020

Nostromo is Sev Lewkowicz, who has clearly been listening to Johannes Schmoelling in his spare time (and indeed in his Spare Room - the name of his studio in Yapton, West Sussex). As in Schmoelling's music, there a slight jazzy feel to the use of synthesizers here, together with some guitar, strange sound samples and treated, distant vocals.

The title track, inspired by an account of the absolute stillness of the antarctic wastes, opens with distant radio voices but bursts into a rock-influenced workout with touches of later Camel or Caravan. On the following "Picnic At Hanging Rock" there's a gentler, spookier atmosphere at first, dominated by didgeridoo and percussion until the rock drums appear again over quiet, chanted vocals and sweeps of unidentifiable sound. The mood changes radically with "Blue Disco A La Turk", layering some quirky sequences over Eastern wind instruments and orchestral samples - thankfully it doesn't really become as "disco" as the title may suggest. Equally "The Mountains of Mourne" avoids obvious Irishness in favour of gently atmospheric suggestion, layering rainstorm sounds over breathy voices and sampled acoustic guitar - although the following "Raindance" is much more literal, full of native drums and sampled chanting, while the closing "Lament For Bosnia" starts with rather obvious (and not very tasteful) machine gun noises.

Overall the album's rather similar to Paul Lawler's "Bronx Age" release on the same label - excellently produced, rather filmic and conventional for the average synthy music fan, but with plenty of interesting sounds and textures. Think of it as the result of Vangelis meeting Enigma on the set of the new Wim Wenders film...


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