Quantum Earth Review by George Miler
Post date: Oct 06, 2014 11:2:5 AM
"I Can't Get Enough of This! Cinematic Grade A!"
George Miler, October 5th 2014
Sequential Dream's "Quantum Earth" album reviewed by George MilerBuy
A Seraphic Decamillenium
Something our species may get to do someday, according to thinkers as diverse as Neil deGrasse Tyson and David Brin, is to build universes. Sometimes I fancy that my favorite movies and shows are tucked away in several reconstructed black holes in our cosmos or in one of the multiverses hinted at by the latest observations of the Planck mission. Kuutana, Celestial View, Johan Tronestam, Chris Pearre (known as Synthesist), and Canada’s “The Roboter” have collaborated on a similar project of cosmic interior decoration, except that it is long lost Earth and its system of planets that their characters, the children of legendary Terra, restore.
In this short story which provides the background, it is 10,000 years later, and 10,000 light-years away.
The title track “Quantum Earth” is a busy number laced with cometary whooshes in an arena of cosmic vistas, followed by a muscular technetronic evocation of the future we do not expect to see. This sounds like the preparation for a journey, although it is not the point of origin that our remote posterity will visit, but the loving reconstruction of it via the technology they avail themselves of on the Universe Builder’s planet. Or perhaps this is a score for the journey to that planet. There’s a sense of promise and adventure whichever the case. In “The Universe Builders” Celestial View and The Roboter do a great job soundscaping the universe-building process and making it easy to visualize. Imagine a huge workshop in hyperspace with busy crews. Very enjoyable.
“Destination Terra” seems to start at 15 kilo-gees, gliding actually. Lots of good SF effects, and a gladdening, triumphal instrumental swell that must mean arrival. Very good use of large chords, Johan and Kuutana! (But I’m biased.)
“Solar Sails” beggars description. There are parts of this track that are utterly beautiful; truthfully most of it is. Synthesist & Kuutana conjure up the majestic but fragile beauty of the real thing as the sunjammer sails on light and particle-flux. Wait til 2:27 to be enthralled, an experience that is repeated over and over again. I wish it were twice as long. “Celestial Bodies” must augur a grand tour of the solar system. Exotic worlds, yes, and the music to go with it. Yet I think I hear a truly outworld quality in this track by Celestial View & Kuutana. I’m minded of merchants who deal in the foodstuffs of hitherto undiscovered planets, delicacies of the starborn which 21st-century taste buds have not experienced, the excitement of markets teeming with spices and artistries of a star cluster’s worth of worlds. This raises the question: What viands are available aboard this sunjammer? The visitors to Solar System 2.0 may be discussing the merits and finer points of the menu.
The Uranian moon named – like all of them – from Shakespeare’s plays is the locale for “The Ice Canyons of Miranda.” Cold crystalline canyons whose cliffs tower imperiously into a sky of dense black with stars sprinkled through it, not twinkling but hard and bright. The icy, faerie beauty is well wrought here. Then there is a speed-up past the walls of ice until they blur. This really feels like a tour in a chartered space-speedster, its propulsor-unit oscillations bringing forth faint resonances of Tangerine Dream.
“Fireflies in the Starlight” is as ethereal as the title sounds. Tinkerbell without the Disney frivolity. An auditory delight.“Infinite Improbabilities” – Real scientists love Hitchhiker’s Guide more than they do Star Wars because it’s pitched to them. They love the humor at any rate. The infinite improbability drive – if I correctly take it to be the inspiration for this track – has a more serious intent here. Echoes of “Drive” (Tomorrow’s World, but I’m guessing) in a few phrases are followed by a rapid percussive beat which could provide a high push to the business end of a space ship: or, in this case, the Quantum Drive of the Universe Builders. Our remote descendants must be getting ready to push onward to the farthest, most outlying probability strata.
I can’t get enough of this. Cinematic Grade A.
George Miler, October 5th 2014