Listening further and more closely, I perceived that Fragmented sounds more contemporary—the music has an industrial edge. The album has a tasteful minimalist quality as does much of Cluster, but it sounds more relentless and more driven in pace.
A tasteful minimalist quality
I enjoyed reviewing Fragmented by Parallel Worlds (aka Bakis Sirros). Some tracks at first reminded me a bit of Cluster, the essential electronic duo from Germany. I felt that the sequences and pulses were like Roedelius’ classical piano arpeggios and the other pads and perks were reminiscent of Moebius. Listening further and more closely, I perceived that Fragmented sounds more contemporary—the music has an industrial edge. The album has a tasteful minimalist quality as does much of Cluster, but it sounds more relentless and more driven in pace.
One of my favorite tracks is “Moments.” As with many solid indie pop songs, when warm, emotive melodies take effect, they are supported by a strong beat; the effect being a cheering one. Another favorites is called, oddly enough, “Failure.” “Failure” features a combination of glitchy sounds and steady progressions. The glitchy arps exhibit just the right blend of rhythm and melody. The pads are featured in such a way as to be abstract but not too cold—a successful generative piece. “Failure” is favorably reminiscent of Science Fiction.
Overall, Fragmented is a strong release. Some tracks are not standouts but are still quite good, such as, “For A While” and ”Vactrol Engine”—the latter features some enjoyable synthetic voice sounds that remind me of a Ridley Scott film. As the tracks are somewhat minimal in nature, Fragmented works well as a full-fledged ambient album. It would be quite useful occupying the background while people work or meditate. As a direct listen, it works well enough, yet is not very active or bombastic. All things said and done, maybe that is not such a bad thing.
Overall a very listenable album and a good one to check out, and released on a standout label. Highly recommended.
Fragmented is available on DiN. [Bandcamp]
