All I can find to explain what is here are endless crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations, a dark noir album filled with harmonic textures and creeping reverbs.
Harmonic textures and creeping reverbs
Cinematic noir brass and midnight bass & drums hunted by a singing presence. I am haunted by cynical malevolent characters in a sleazy setting and an ominous atmosphere of psychological crime thrillers with dark, stylized visuals bringing me hardboiled American crime high-contrast lighting and the extensive use of shadows. Shadowy urban ghosts with no hope, just quiet persistence, low- and high-contrast lighting creates dynamic areas of light and shadow.
All I can find to explain what is here are endless crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations, a dark noir album filled with harmonic textures and creeping reverbs. I am running for my life, going deeper into the darkness and it all seems hopeless. Picture a murder scene with a guy coming up the stairs as seen from behind. He wears a long coat. Humphrey Bogart; Robert Mitchum; Peter Lorre; Robert Ryan all are my latest victims in these sinister stories brought forth in a shadowy cinematographic style. The concept of chiaroscuro is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, employing unusually bold contrasts affecting the whole composition.
This story begins, “In the neon-lit streets of 1950s Las Vegas…” and we are met with the sounds suggesting a grizzled detective who toils on what he knows to be his final case. His work is concerning the brutal murder of a Marilyn-lookalike singer, found strangled and stabbed in her dressing room, her image haunting his every waking moment, in seedy strip clubs and shadowy bars.
Darkness horror dread ::
Sexy horns strings darkness horror dread long slow sustained, to choke on the “Neon Dawn” (5:39). The beat comes together and the details are spiraling into a dread dirge as she sings and the trumpet explains. We sway and swoon. Her voice frames the cinematic opening summary of the situation. Sick at heart he relentlessly seeks out any leads, determined to crack the case and bring her killer to justice. They all tell him that there are forces at work in this town that will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.
Keyboards falling with us into the void, a smooth ride once the falling sensation is overcome. Try to relax while vertigo beckons, falling in slow motion, ghosts offering whispered prayers and pleading until it gets quiet again, very strange, perfectly strange “Figments and Fragments” (7:16). With each step he takes towards the truth, he risks losing his grip on reality, his mind fracturing under the weight of his obsession.
Piano tension shatters my will to continue, “Haunted Man” (6:05) broadens out into the scary night here to face the angry ghosts, sadness overflows and nothing… There is a beat now, telling the mood, explaining the sirens, a harmonica or screaming ghost train? Now she sings with strange eyes, remembering while the piano trembles and keeps the whole very nice balance that includes ghosts and a sax tonight we are all keeping together in this long night.
Will the detective eventually solve the case? Or is this another wrong turn, an abrupt opening that just turns. Onward now, we deepen the drama, “A Web of Deceit” (6:35) Piano spirits and a harmonica weaves into a dark spiraling melodrama that breaks new ground after floating helplessly the pieces could fit together not yet oh wait maybe now the original plan was not to end like this, will he succumb to the darkness that threatens to engulf him?
Hammer notes with the beat of survival ::
In a city where everyone is playing a game and no one can be trusted, the truth may be more elusive than he ever imagined. Hammer notes with the beat of survival. Bass reverberations. A claptrap line beat, I like these ghosts quite a bit. They are like pictures. Old pictures that cannot become more alive. Is she gone? “Pictures of Her Come Alive” (7:21) brings strings with a vocal ooooo.
Gently swaying, watching the moon beams emotional devastation and horror, strangely peaceful after such a tragedy. The distant train calls while the hidden choir glows; it all fits so perfectly she calls from the void. Windy piano. “Daydream Sequence” (7:47) Voices from the holy radio on the breeze and a cornet growls stunned.
The reverberations extend, dead horn sounds during the cycles of this shameless horror atmosphere. I scream again and again, make it stop, orchestral dust and the wet ectoplasm make strange monsters, at execution hour. Drums. We are already dead too so this is how it will be forever? “Hearing Voices” (6:41) leads to “Neon Twilight” (7:37) and a sad piano floats in the glare and she sinks into eternal darkness. I am left with nothing. Bare lonely piano sad goes through changes but everything ends.
Neon Twilight was released from the Cryo Chamber on June 18, 2024. That was the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; at that time 196 days remained until the end of the year. There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the truly great man is the man who makes everyone see all the results. Remember that one day we are all going to die alone. Try harder. She is waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
Written, Produced, Performed, Mastered: Pierre Laplace
Artwork: Simon Heath
Saxophone: Juan Torres Fernandez
Vocals: Emmanuelle Decoster
Neon Twilight is available on Cryo Chamber. [Bandcamp]
