Cementation Anxiety – "Liminal Instability"
An Opera Without Arias
On Cementation Anxiety's Bandcamp profile, you will find the words "The patterns merely mutate". Even if I think that's a shy and modest description of the project's impressive soundscapes, it describes this particular kind of music quite perfect.
When Cementation Anxiety Founder Kyle contacted me about his new EP "Limitation Instability", I was curious about what would await me. So, of course, I had to listen to it right away, and after a few spins, I have to say: I'm pretty flashed!
Cementation Anxiety has created a marvellous fantasy world
The record is exceptional. The total of five pieces hit a nerve with me and, above all, exactly my taste. The work is listed under Dark Ambient and Drone, and somehow there is so much more than that.
You should definitely listen to the songs one after the other – they form a sound concept that should not be separated. The music is hard to describe, and in any case, impossible to categorise or analyse.
What I particularly like about "Liminal Instability" is its naturalness and unpredictability. The record exudes it in every moment. Even though it is pretty carefully thought out and precisely composed.
The prelude to a journey
The first song, "Precipice", is the prelude to a fantastic journey. An atmospheric world builds up, the drone effects, still distant at first, announce what is still to come in the following four tracks. The tension rises. With its 5:48, the incredibly gripping intro is the most extended piece on the record and, at the same time, the transition into a fairy tale between space and time.
Is there a door opening into a parallel world? I can only assume so. The second song, "Breathless", definitely takes your breath away. With unstoppable speed, you glide through outer space while listening and forgetting your surroundings entirely for a moment.
With the first notes of "The Light On Your Fingertips", I enter a blooming meadow. Each flower has a different colour. As I walk on and take a closer look, I realise that they are not flowers at all. Instead, its tones – layered on top of each other, creating a wonderful ornament that couldn't be more beautiful, and there is still something there. Something terrifying and eerie. A crack opens up, and snow trickles onto the sea of flowers.
Soft and heavy
With "Your Shaking Hands", I have finally arrived in the icy and chilly world that I had only guessed about until now. The fear of a cemented planet – is it manifesting itself at this very moment? To tell a story of uncertainty and brokenness, of hope, tenderness and brutality so incredibly vividly without using words is a talent of inestimable value. The piece carries me away, and I'm eager for the grand finale: "The Thicker The Air". Sudden silence – a feeling like drifting away during the last phase of a deep meditation sets in – liminal instability.
The last song is, just as suspected, the highlight of the record and a great final act for an opera without arias. The droning gets louder. It seems to float over everything else now and takes possession of the scenery. I get an incredible desire to experience the EP live. Preferably under the open sky with only the stars above the people, who are speechlessly gazing towards the stage just like they were under a spellbound.
The sound increases to a brutal spectacle, heavy and full of fear. The sudden silence at the end of the song leaves me sitting speechless for a moment. The music of Cementation Anxiety reverberates in my mind for a long time.
"Liminal Instability" is the second record by the New Jersey-based drone project. You can listen to it on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms.