Consider the infinite universe: given the possibility of other worlds and other Earth-type planets—let alone the other Earths in alternate universes—how soon before we make contact with another life-form? The idea has troubled our creative consciousness for ages in the annals of science-fiction, and now it has been revived in musical form by Above, Convenience Store! This interpretation colored my experience of their latest record, Vermilion Concord, released on March 11th.
A still from the video for the track Supra Sun, out now on Sparkwood Records’ youtube channel.
Behind the release is the rising star of netlabel music, Sparkwood Records of Norway. Earlier this year, Simon von Bockstal of netlabelism.com referred to them as a possible new heavyweight dynasty for the IDM netlabel scene. They specialize in ambient, electronic, and experimental music and seek to promote original and intriguing music production. Their efforts have yielded impressive results so far, and this newest record by ACS! includes an uncommon offering for the Bandcamp.com price: a limited edition cassette tape mailed straight out of Norway.
As I mentioned above, what follows is my own interpretation of Vermilion Concord, based on its sounds and all other artwork attached to the product. I think that most listeners would agree, however, that ACS! and Sparkwood are shining examples of the musical ingenuity being produced today, making the internet a creative playground for producers and fans and all lovers of such music.
The symmetry of the tracks, both in configuration and by their titles, led me to consider Vermilion Concord as a concept album. All tracks are called by two-word phrases which evoke vague ideas of interplay between human activity and ecological or natural phenomena: Mount Myopia, Holocene Shores, Strange Harvest, Fallout Zone. The first half of the record is light, airy, and breathable whereas the second half is a mix of darker ambient textured with industrial tones. During Strange Harvest, the longest track on the record at just over 8 minutes, the listener is dropped into uncertainty: digital whirring, distorted voices, electronic devices calculating results with unimaginable consequences. One can sense the intrusion of some meddlesome presence that does not care for human valuations of beauty which were represented in the first four tracks by melodious strings and young voices at play outside. By the fifth track, Infect Route, these earlier tones are being challenged by sinister voices distorted by an infusion of some of the dark ambient which will follow.
The sounds begin to make less sense; the search for meaning is hopeless by the middle of Strange Harvest. A heavy bell tolls, a dog barks, and a final crashing thud ends it all. The track is book-ended by testimonies from people who sound genuinely traumatized by some perceived unnatural phenomena they witnessed out in the countryside where farm animals get targeted by visitors in spacecrafts.
Aerosol Horizon begins to whisk away the darkness and introduces a ghost-like quality to the ambience. The keyboard sounds out like a set of victory brass. What has won, the forces of good or of evil? The sense of the music is that such a question is void. The album’s tone is lightened for Vermilion Concord’s ambient tour-de-force: Supra Sun.
Supra Sun is the musical background for a mega solar flare or some supernova, a challenge from nature to viewers on the ground. This cathartic track sets the idea of relentless human progress against the natural need to the finality of a sunset. We hear vocal samples again, this time representing scientific authoritativeness but also of fear in the face of shattered life paradigms. Life and death forces twirl about the stream of scientific advancement, each waiting to jump in at humankind’s next eureka moment. The final track, Caldera (Cauda) can be heard as coming after the end of the record which was the fading out of Supra Sun. It is weak in tones of finality, reminiscent of movie end-title cards reading, “The End?”.
There is thoughtful artistry in the creation of the physical release. The cassette comes with a slip cover portraying the band’s mystical logo, and the record’s cover was illustrated by Inna Hansen, a Norwegian artist skilled in illustration both realist and fantastic. A dead or unconscious cosmonaut lies on some rocky red terrain, a glorious peacock standing above with its plumage magnified by an overbearing sunset.
Vermilion Concord’s cover illustration by Inna Hansen
It’s an exciting time for the ambient-electronic scene. In all its facets, Vermilion Concord represents the ingenuity that can flourish in the netlabel environment. Sparkwood Records is indeed becoming a champion in the field and will benefit listeners by continuing to form pairs of art and music that are high-energy but also introspective.
Vermilion Concord can be streamed and purchased on its Bandcamp profile page. The band’s soundcloud page is here and for Sparkwood Records click here.
As It is Found 