ULVER — Perdition City: Music To An Interior Film (review)

ULVER — Perdition City: Music To An Interior Film album cover Album · 2000 · Non-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Perdition City: Music To An Interior Film" is the 5th full-length studio album by Norwegian music act Ulver. The album was released through Jester Records in March 2000. It´s the successor to "Themes From William Blake's The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell" from 1998, although the two full-length albums are bridged by the 1999 "Metamorphosis" EP.

The "Metamorphosis (1999)" EP is important to mention here, as it marked a significant stylistic change for Ulver being an experimental electronic music release. "Perdition City: Music To An Interior Film" continues down the same electronic music path (although much more structured and featuring more memorable moments), featuring an experimental, ambient, and atmospheric electronic music style. There´s an Angelo Badalamenti (composer of the soundtrack for the Twin Peaks tv-series) influence here, when it gets most lounge jazzy, but combined with a dark, melancholic urban atmosphere. The subtitle to the album "Music To An Interior Film" is a very accurate way of describing the music and its impact on the listener. It is the type of music which creates cinematic images of dark, rainy urban environments, sleazy back alleys, and noir type settings.

The music is predominantly instrumental, but does on occasion feature subtle melancholic male vocals, which reminds me a bit of the most quiet vocal parts on the latter day Talk Talk/Mark Hollis albums (and sometimes "like on the opening minutes of "Hallways Of Always"" appear a bit more mainstream accessible). There are also some female vocals on the album, but they are even more sparse. Saxophone is used on opening track "Lost In Moments" and on "Dead City Centres", and to great effect. The sound of the saxophone creates a feeling of desolation, isolation, and longing for companionship in the decayed urban atmosphere created by Ulver.

"Perdition City: Music To An Interior Film" features a well sounding electronic oriented sound production filled with programmed drums, synths, piano, bleeps and bloops, samples, and other effects. Upon conclusion Ulver have created an intriguing, dark, and melancholic electronic music album, which at times may drag a bit too much while building atmosphere (tracks like "Tomorrow Never Knows", "We Are The Dead"), and "Dead City Centres"), but other times shine quite a bit with great atmospheric moments of gloomy cinematic beauty. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.
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