Gravitationally Bound
by RIKAAR
RIKAAR are back, and they've seemingly been honing their eerie cosmic song-crafting skills to perfection since march's Malin 1 EP. The brothers uncanny ability to build intrigue and draw delight from ominous long soft padded chords, this time incorporating experimental, yet feathered percussion into the mix.
Opener 'Odyssee to Final Frontier' is grandiose and foreboding, yet envelops you in warm blankets of sound and gorgeous floaty melodies, coupled with glitchy yet organic percussion. It's a tune of contrasts set to stun, and it achieves that with ease. You'll frequently find yourself at ease with the contents of the 'Gravitationally Bound' LP. RIKAAR can lull you into a serene space-like waking dreamscape like no other outfit. After the striking opener, many of the subsequent songs drift into this surreal territory. Certainly, the dreamy, creamy pianissimo of 'Unfolded Time' is chief among these types of pieces.
'Twelve Stars Shining' on the other hand is a livelier affair, soaring and expansive in its composition, but also sharply focused in execution. Snarling bass synths almost threaten to hijack the serenity of the duelling pads and keys, yet they're so expertly compressed and restrained that they never quite do. Everything on show here suggests a project at the peak of its power. This is all before the beat drops in, around the halfway mark. Stumbling drunkenly but with undeniable purpose, the piece crescendos in a pretty collage of sonic ideas, before being swept away into the ether.
Closing out the first side of the album is 'Space Ship Dock II in Sector YD3'. A warping back and forth of nicely arranged notes, the higher-octave stabs sounding especially pleasing against the lower warm drifting melodic shivers. In an album of high points, the middle here is surprisingly strong. Equally enjoyable is the side two opener 'Fluctuated Particles Collisions', with it's improvisational-sounding keyboards and growling lower-octave excursions. Rife with twinkling tubular sounds and melodic extravagancies over synthesized solar wind. It's a perfect distillation of the impeccable RIKAAR signature sound.
'Far Away Passing By' is the only song on the record that could truly be called a lament. Certainly the ambiguous nature of (mostly) ambient music all but guarantees a dip into the waters of melancholia, yet the majority of 'Gravitationally Bound' captures more of a sense of wonder than terror. It's not some alien galaxy you're invited to explore here. It's your own. This almost tense piece drifts sullenly around the milky way, and conjures an undeniable sense of delicateness. Paranoia even. Similarly 'MenTal Space III' pulls off a similar mood, yet it's less lamentful and more mysterious, as though to acknowledge some of the darker themes dancing away in the middle section of the record, while pulling the camera back a little to reveal the vastness of the universe, and how insignificant we all are in the face of the unfathomable abyss.
For a closing track, 'Unbemannt Risen' doesn't attempt to wow you in a cheesy 'this is the end so we have to turn everything up to eleven' sort of a way. What it does is place a lid on the mystery and melancholia, striding with assured cosmic bounds across the sonic landscape and lifting the listener into a blissful and beautiful ending sequence. Less credit music, more conflict resolution score.
It's a pleasure, having sat with, absorbed and regurgitated impressions of 'Gravitationally Bound' to say they have most certainly done it again. 'It' being craft a record that effortlessly worms its way into your heart. Everything on show here is guaranteed to hypnotise your brain into thinking you're floating through a warm aural nebula. If that sounds appealing to you, you already know you're going to love this.
George Ernst
Triplicate Records