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Robert Fripp - The Gates Of Paradise
| Artist: | Robert Fripp |
| Title: | The Gates Of Paradise |
| Label: | Discipline Global Mobile DGM 9608 |
| Length(s): | 59 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1997 |
| Month of review: | 04/1998 |
Line up
Robert Fripp - guitarist and soundscaper
David Singleton - digital compositor
Tracks
| 1) | The Outer Darkness | 23.38
|
| 2) | The Gates Of Paradise | 13.56
|
| 3) | The Outer Darkeness | 10.17
|
| 4) | The Gates Of Paradise | 11.41
|
And some CD Rom stuff.
Summary
The fifth in the list of the soundscape series. I once hope to find music
that can be well described as SoundEscapist but unfortunately I have
encountered none such to date. But ehm, Robert, I know there was this box for
the first four Soundscape albums. What do we do with this one?
In fact, when Pie Jesu came out (this track is in fact part of Gates Of
Paradise) then I was told a box would come out. Now it seems they have chosen
for the single CD approach again.
The music
The Outer Darkness takes up the longest part of this CD, while three of
the four parts of The Gates Of Paradise were also present on the
Pie Jesu CD single. This makes the rather eccentric The Outer Darkness
the scary focus point of this review. Especially Wailing I opens
with some very scary sounds and soundscapes sounding like a bunch of
bats being disturbed by the lone cave explorer. The track that had been quite
dark already up till then takes a definite turn for the spooky. Some of the
music on this track can be compared to Eddie Jobson's Theme Of Secrets, and
specifically the track Spheres Of Influence. No need to make this track
into the soundtrack of a horrormovie, it is one to itself.
I can't keep up with the subparts, but during the track there are some
rather noisy parts, as if one is in the tunnel of the subway with cars
racing by at a distance. The first part of The Outer Darkness ends in
the stormy chaos of A Wailing And Gnashing Of Teeth.
The Gates Of Paradise is lot a dreamier and less confronting. Its first
part Abandonment Of Divine Providence was already present on Pie Jesu.
The same holds for the slow moving, pious Pie Jesu in which a soothing
churchlike atmosphere is evoked.
The second part of The Outer Darkness again calls Eddie Jobsons
Theme Of Secrets to mind (without real melody of course) and
although less scary, it IS spooky.
The album closes with the second part of The Gates Of Paradise.
The first part of this track is Sometimes God Hides, a phrase
that has become, it seems, a "slogan" for Discipline Global Mobile.
Compared to the rest of the CD, this is rather ordinary:
not very ethereal, but very dreamlike with some piano added (Yanni's
Keys To Imagination in its softer moments comes to mind). The title of
closer Acceptance as always describes the music well.
Conclusion
Again the atmospheres are greatly evoked on this album, the darkness in
The Outer Darkness and the pastoral feelings in The Gates Of Paradise.
Still, the overall darkness of the Outer Darkness, the feeling of being
underground, alone in a cave, makes listening to it, not a happy experience,
though an interesting one.
© Jurriaan Hage