Cluster Lizard - Edge of the Universe

A Closer Listen

The sun is twinkling across waves which seem to stretch on forever.  The Ukrainian duo of Dmytro Fedorenko & Kateryna Zavoloka take us into an altogether different forever – that of Sagan, Greene, Hawking, and deGrasse Tyson, a dark, cold, silent yet no less spectacular space. Timely!

You may be wondering what on earth a Cluster Lizard is. Such lizards are actually not of this earth. They are large armoured worms with a penchant for eating the brains of living creatures and exist within the universe of Canadian science fiction TV series Lexx.  This is the milieu into which Cluster Lizard wishes to transport us: the realm of astrophysics and hurtling interplanetary crafts, where everything is in a constant state of flux.

Futuristic swells pan from left to right, imitating the hurried movement of space travel. Oscillating synths swoop and rise like crafts chasing or giving chase. Through it all, aggressive drums propel the spaceship forward. An urgency permeates this 12″, implying danger, conflict, treachery and escape.  That is not to say that this all seems rushed. Quite the contrary; transitions are carefully calculated.  The musical state can be manoeuvred from driving bombast to murmuring clicks and reversed kicks.  Patient synthetic strings soar and dive with malice and fortitude. Each of these moments provides a probing plane of existence to contemplate, a snapshot of an internal, breathing scene.

Album track “The End of Time” appears to reference Justin Barbour’s 1999 book of the same name.  In light of Cluster Lizard’s planet-hopping, cosmos-exploring, sonic journey, the following Barbour quote seems appropriate:  All the instants we have experienced are other worlds, for they are not the ones that we are in now.  (Jon Buckland)

Sat Jun 24 00:01:11 GMT 2017