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Reviews:
Sleep Research Facility | Nostromo
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| From Blow
Up: (by Paolo Bertoni)
Rimanendo in ambito dark ambient logico un
titolo come “Nostromo” per un album che lo stesso Kevin Doherty
dichiara concepito pensando ai primi otto minuti di ‘Alien’.
In effetti l’album, pubblicato nel 2001 sempre da Cold Spring e
da tempo irreperibile, rielabora, dilatandolo, lo stesso senso di apprensiva,
disturbante attesa che permea l’inizio del film di Scott, con Sleep
Research Facility che esplora la suddetta nave spaziale trascinato da
masse sonore dai movimenti lenti e minimali che si dirigono verso una
foce di vuoto. Cinque i movimenti, sistematicamente cristallizzati - Doherty
d’altronde predilige un annichilimento emozionale che non meno adeguatamente
ha illustrato poi con “Deep Frieze” dello scorso anno - in
un isolazionismo claustrofobico dove la componente ambientale massicciamente
prevale su quella più propriamente oscura, che trova parziale soddisfazione
forse solo in A-Deck e C-Deck. La ristampa aggiunge Narcissus, ennesimo
riferimento al film, che paradossalmente è il pezzo in cui la dose
dark, nel prolungare il rimestare in liquami industriali di E-Deck, è
più consistente. |
From Dagheisha:
(by Roberto Michieletto)
Il disco di debutto (quando venne pubblicato per
la prima volta nel 2001) di Sleep Research Facility, attualmente ristampato
con l’aggiunta di una traccia (‘Narcissus’), oltre che
rimasterizzato, remixato e re-impacchettato, non può essere concepito,
all’atto dell’ascolto, se non come un flusso continuo, per
comodità suddiviso in cinque ‘Deck’ (da tradursi con
ponte di nave, ovviamente), da ‘A-Deck’ sino a ‘E-Deck’.
Il lavoro si compone di lunghe e profonde tessiture ambientali oscure,
diciamo che è appropriato parlare di dark ambient, che si sviluppano
partendo dai primi otto minuti del film ‘Alien’. Chiaro quindi
che l’intento fosse quello di ricreare atmosfere sonore tali da
evocare il senso di pneumatica solitudine e di inarrestabile fine imminente
indotto dalle immagini della storica pellicola di Ridley Scott. Per mezzo
di dense stratificazioni, risonanze e riverberi, basse frequenze, drone
misteriosi, forme di minimalismo industriale e un’ipnosi diffusa,
la band scozzese di Kevin Doherty costruisce una tensione impregnata di
un mood opprimente di minaccia, quasi di finta sicurezza, visto che il
vuoto entro cui pare di essere collocati, non è altro che il peggior
presagio di funesto divenire che si possa sperimentare. Pericoloso. |
From Gothtronic:
(by Remco)
In a faraway corner deep in space a city size
spaceship is stranded with broken engines and is drifting away into an
unknown territory. An organism of strange organism has settled in the
air canal system and is spreading over the diverse decks. Hear the deep
unsettling brooding sound from the heart of the spaceship. Impenetrable
bass drones resonates through the canals with endless sustain as this
spaceship goes deeper and deeper in this dangerous part of endless space
where no one can hear you dream.
This ultra deep ambience is based on the film Alien by Ridley
Scott and fit well to the uncomfortable atmosphere of this claustrophobic
film. Slowly we move through the vessel and visit the different decks
of this spaceship with its diverse nightmares deeper into the bowels of
the Nostromo.
Leaning on the colossal ambience from the abyss Sleep Research
facility bring slow evolving dark ambient in minimalist composition which
could be almost boring if the sounds weren’t arrange this tactical
and holding the listener tight with its sinister atmosphere of silent
rumble. Entering the void of endless vacuum the silence grows stronger
and takes you deeper in this mystic soundtrack of evolving darkness. As
the pulse grows weaker and the structures grow slower than the reality
grows stronger that there is no hope for rescue.
I would like to advise to listen Nostromo on maximum volume
or with headphones. Be sure no light can penetrate the room and slip away
in this sweating nightmare of Sleep Research facility. Nostromo is a very
impressive record originally released in 2001and I am Cold Spring grateful
for this superb re-release. |
From Chain
D.L.K.: (by Maurizio Pustinaz)
Alien has been released in 1979 after years of
work and different times Ridley Scott was about to quit because production
didn't care about his vision and for them the movie was beginning to be
too expensive because of the director's maniacal precision. That movie
had also the merit to introduce to a wider audience a master of the visionary
art: Giger. He created the monster and he painted different sets. If you
know the movie and you also checked the interviews included into the DVD
editions you can understand why Sleep Research Facility on 2001, for their
debut release, decided to take inspiration from the Nostromo crew story.
Especially inspired by the first eight minutes of the movie, NOSTROMO,
tries to reproduce the tension and the atmosphere of that great movie.
This new edition of the album allow to the dark ambient lovers to rediscover
a good CD where Kevin Doherty gave his best by creating five different
movements able to scare the hell out of you. Dark ambient isolationism
and drones will make you revive the first time you saw the dark corridors
of the Nostromo space ship. This reissue include also a bonus track titled
"Narcissus": an eight minute suite with fluctuating loops, light
hisses and different other hypnotic sound layers. |
From Rock-A-Rolla:
(by John S)
"In space, no-one can hear you dream"
read the liner notes on SRF's homage to Alien, although the dream in questionis
more likely to result in night sweats. Deeply unsettling, freezing cold
dark ambient, the six lengthy pieces here perfectly evoke the claustrophobia
of the space vessel in Ridley Scott's film, as the increasingly ominous
sounds guide us through the ship's various decks. Originally released
in 2001, this reissue comes with a bonus track 'Narcissus'. |
From Terrorizer:
(by Chris Naughton)
Following last year's awesome 'Deep Frieze', Cold
Spring have decided to reissue Sleep Research Facility's classic album
'Nostromo' with an excellent new bonus track. Anyone unfamiliar with Sleep
Research Facility should know that they love a good concept, and 'Nostromo'
has just that. Based around the first eight minutes of the 'Alien' movie,
and depicting a deep space haulage vessel moving slowly through the void,
what is presented is a slow burning, dark ambient soundscape designed
to chill you to the core. This album is more about atmospheric spacious
horror than melody or structure, and causes a petrifying unease within
its sound canvas. As we move through the Decks A-E there is an ever present
sense of solitude and a sense of apprehension like something is waiting
to pounce at any second. There is also an unsettling beauty in amongst
all the low end pulses and distant echoes that really has to be heard
to be fully appreciated. Exquisitely bleak, enjoy alone. |
From Zero Tolerance:
(by Calum Harvie)
It's testament to the genius of Ridley Scott that
Alien continues to influence artists almost 30 years on. One such artist
is Kevin Doherty, who, seven years ago, created the suitably epic Nostromo,
a musical interpretation of the first eight minutes of Scott's film. No,
don't rush off to remind yourself of what happens in the film during that
period; imagine the good ship Nostromo ploughing through the darkness
of endless vacuum while a subtle sense of foreboding begins to spread
and you have a handle on where Doherty is coming from. As he takes you
down to the very heart of the haulage vessel, it's apparent that this
is a very quiet piece of work, and all the more unsettling as a result;
Doherty deftly manipulates both sounds and silences to create a gradually
intensifying feeling that something bad, very bad, is about to happen.
And just like the film, Doherty knows that there's no need to crassly
spell out the danger; the horror is just knowing that it's there - and
that no-one can hear your scream. (4.5/5) |
| From Musique
Machine: (by Roger Batty)
After the release of their superb second album and one the
ambient highlights of last year Deep Frieze, it seems only fitting that
Cold Spring should revisit & reissue the projects first album from
2001 here presented with enhanced artwork and extra track.
As any Sci-fi/ Horror film fan worth his/her salt will know
that the albums title comes from the name of the ship on the original
Alien Film from 1979. The album is based around the first eight mintues
of the film & the near silent moving of the massive ship as it makes
it way though endless twist and turns of space. Each track is split into
deck letters starting with Deck A working all the way down to Deck E.
Each track getting deeper, darker and less active as we journey down into
the ships near silent pits were the darkness is pressing and seemingly
endless. This is ambience that slowly but surely strips it self down of
movement and event pulling you deeper and deeper into a sinister, vast
and tension fearful 'something might jump out' at you atmosphere. We go
from the throbbing lo-fi electro loop textures and relative active feel
of Deck A, down to the eerier static crackle and deep subterranean throb
of Deck E.
The extra track here is named after the smaller scout ship
of the Nostromo which of course lands on the Alien’s planet. The
track runs just shy of 8 minute mark and though very rewarding in its
own right it does somehow break the atmosphere and vast echo tone of Deck
E. As there is quite a lot more movement and textural development going
on with-in Narcissus. So a nice extra just best played on it’s own,
instead of letting it follow on from Deck E.
All in all a clever and atmospheric excise in ambience with
a intriguing theme, with plenty of scope for creeping one self out as
you walk the deserted decks of the Nostromo in ones mind eye. |
| From Judas
Kiss: (by Simon Collins)
Originally released on Cold Spring Records in 2001, and now
reissued by the label with a bonus track, Nostromo was the debut recording
of SleepResearch_Facility, the solo project of Glasgow-based dark ambient
musician Kevin Doherty. It’s a work of brooding dark ambient, and
it’s based on the first eight minutes of Ridley Scott’s classic
1979 sci-fi horror film Alien.
Now, we all, I’m sure, retain traumatic memories of
watching Alien at far too young and impressionable an age. Even though
the film is nearly 30 years old now, watching it is an essential rite
of passage for anyone with a serious interest in cinema, just like watching
Psycho. But SleepResearch_Facility’s album interestingly focuses,
not on the chest-bursting gore which everyone remembers all too well,
but on the beginning of the film, the prelude to the thrills which follow.
Think about it – at this point in the film, nothing
bad has happened. Nothing at all has happened, in fact – it must
be one of the longest sequences of establishing shots in film history.
Remember it? We see exterior shots of the Nostromo silently travelling
the unimaginable vastness of interstellar space. We see interior shots,
the camera tracking down the long, shadowy corridors and automated engine
bays of the spaceship. Nothing moves but the camera. The crew are all
safely asleep in their life-support pods. And you’re 11 years old
or so, you’re sitting in the dark watching Alien for the first time,
and you’re about to wet your pants with terror. Why? Because you
came to this film equipped with foreknowledge. You know this is an infamously
scary film, so you’re sitting there on the edge of your seat, waiting
for something bad to happen. And it does – eventually. But at this
point, the film is all about suspense and not catharsis.
SleepResearch_Facility cleverly play with this tension, as
Nostromo progresses steadily through five lengthy tracks, simply entitled
‘A-Deck’ through to ‘E-Deck’ (this admirable conceptual
austerity is interfered with by the inclusion of a bonus track on this
reissued edition, but more of that later). Simple waveforms of sound create
atmosphere with a really restrained economy of means. To some extent,
the sound of SleepResearch_Facility can be considered to mimic the sound
of the Nostromo’s automatically operating machinery, but beyond
that mechanistic level, SleepResearch_Facility are also evoking the remorseless,
amoral indifference of deep space, and that underlying feeling of tension
and dread alluded to above.
The cinematic mis-en-scéne gives free rein to the listener’s
imagination. It’d be interesting to read a review of this album
by someone who’s never seen Alien, just to see how much we all owe
to the power of suggestion. The deserted expanses of the spaceship Nostromo
are exactly the kind of milieu so beloved of dark ambient projects in
general. Whether it’s an ancient ruined city, a mouldering catacomb,
a derelict factory, a disused missile silo, a ghost ship or a spacecraft
with the crew in suspended animation, dark ambient music has an enduring
fascination with abandoned sites of human occupation, places where humans
have left poignant traces of their presence. SleepResearch_Facility’s
most recent album Deep Frieze does essentially the same thing with the
Antarctic instead of deep space – again, there’s the contrast
between hostile, uninhabitable expanses and the telltale traces of human
presence, which in the case of Deep Frieze are remote, indistinct fragments
of shortwave radio transmissions.
Just as Nostromo references Alien through its title (the album
artwork, incidentally, walks a fine line between evoking H.R.Giger’s
remarkable production design for the original film, and outright copyright
infringement), the name of the spaceship is itself a reference to the
1904 novel Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, who also wrote Heart Of Darkness
– an apt metaphor for the sound of SleepResearch_Facility. ‘Narcissus’,
the bonus track included here, seems to pick up on these connections –
Conrad, of course, wrote another novel in 1897, called The Nigger Of The
‘Narcissus’ (hey, just try getting that published now!). ‘E-Deck’,
the final track of Nostromo, segues straight into ‘Narcissus’,
which is a kind of coda to ‘E-Deck’, continuing and extending
the shimmering, cyclical tones of that track – if you hadn’t
been told, I don’t think you’d notice that the track didn’t
originally sound this way. These overlapping layers of sharp metallic
tones are reminiscent of Z’EV’s remixes of Polish gong-goblins
Hati, and ‘Narcissus’ is a worthwhile addition to the original
release, even if it does interfere with the minimalist neatness of the
original track-listing. |
| From Brainwashed:
(by Simon Marshall-Jones)
"Kevin Doherty of Sleep Research Facility originally
released this album in 2001, based on the first eight minutes of the film
Alien and named after the freight ship of which Ripley was a crew member.
At the end of 2007, it was reissued with new artwork and a bonus track
on the original label.
Going to see director Ridley Scott's groundbreaking sci-fi
space epic was one of those markers of my teenage years that I will not
easily forget; principally so for the fact that the claustrophobic atmosphere
and edge-of-the-seat suspense was superbly drawn and masterfully handled
but also secondarily because this was the first '18' certificate film
I ever saw. The viewing was accompanied by a certain frisson of excitement
because I had lied about my age in order to get into the cinema (I was
barely 17 at the time). I was also (and still am) a fan of the work of
HR Giger, he being one of the profoundest influences on my own artistic
output both then and now. Needless to say it made a huge impression on
me at the time and it appears that it made an equal impression on Kevin
Doherty.
Alien is nearly three decades old now but is still a deeply
affecting film, on both a straightforward action level and a deeper psychological
one, and has passed into the canon of films that are essential viewing.
The scenes on which this album is based are the ones in which the Nostromo
(the interstellar ship in which all the action takes place and a reference
to Joseph Conrad, the author of Heart of Darkness—a particularly
apt metaphor for the ship and what happens on board) is slowly coursing
through the deep black void of space. The film above all dwelt on the
claustrophobia, tight confines, and isolation of the setting along with
the helplessness of the characters confronting the unrelenting, unthinking,
and instinctual face of evil—oppressively dark, dank, and dripping
corridors, little hiding places where anything could be lurking and the
heightened sense of dread and fear palpably stalking the ship. Doherty
successfully translates all these qualities of the film into sound: low
bass rumbles and gentle susurrations (some just barely discernible and
some ebbing and flowing wave-like) get deep and firmly into the psyche
and create a sense of unease, creating a feeling that something brooding
and malevolent is stalking or lurking just around the corner.
Additionally present is the feeling of intense freezing coldness
and vast isolation, of immeasurably incomprehensible distances and voyages
lasting years, and that whatever happens you are far from the ken of man
and safety; that whatever you face you face alone. Just like in the film,
the evil was for the most part not necessarily an overt in-your-face species
of evil, but implied; indeed for most of the film its face was not even
revealed—nevertheless the tension subtly telegraphed imbued the
film with a sense of impending soul-crushing doom. Reflecting that aspect
the same is true of all the pieces on here. They are not overtly dread-inducing
but the insistent quietness and subtle deep undertones impart a tense
anticipation and expectation, a feeling that something unwelcome is just
out of sight and hearing but whose presence is nonetheless felt.
Bearing in mind that this was Doherty’s debut release,
the album is a tour de force of atmosphere and tension building, pitched
at just the right level and judicious in its use of sounds. Subtlety is
the keyword here and the vein of implied dread running through the music
on here is all the stronger for that subtlety. |
| From WHITE_LINE:
(by BGN)
Cold Spring has undergone a convincing evolution since it’s
early releases, and now sees itself positioned as one of the few remaining
“dark” labels in the UK that has not only maintained and sustained
a serious presence, but in spite of the economic and fiscal meltdown of
pioneering organisations such as World Serpent, inhabiting similar territory,
they have actually managed to thrive and develop new artists and genre
defying works by the likes of Clear Stream Temple, and Sleep Research
Facility.
The latter now enjoy the status of having their debut album, Nostromo
re-released, re-mixed, and re-packaged, testament indeed to the success
of it’s initial run, and the now ever-growing population of SRF
followers, and Cold Spring adherents alike. Sourced from the first 8 minutes
of the film “Alien”, Nostromo is an unsurprisingly dark and
brooding piece of work that takes us on a journey through the body of
the ship on it’s journey homeward. Doubtless, there are hordes of
you out there that know the outcome of this troubled journey, and SRF
have woven additional layers of narrative into their piece, resonant,
textural tracts that deepen our appreciation of the original, and listened
to over the film, would have made a fine alternative to it’s original
soundtrack.
This could be conceived as a singular work, divided into separate
movements, as tracks flow into each other, each representing the various
deck-levels of the ship, each, shimmering and breath-like, as wave upon
wave of dark vortices swirl and cascade. SRF have now refined their techniques,
building tension, and impressing a deep sense of foreboding into their
work, that leaves the hairs on my neck standing on end. All elements of
the frequency spectrum are serviced by the low rumble of almost sub-bass,
filtered through granular elements, and bleak, protracted chords or tonal
sequences.
Those of you that know the film will understand the significance
of these desolate pieces, as one by one, the ship’s crew are picked
off by it’s seemingly indestructable alien stow-away, leaving only
it’s sole survivor to carry the film to it’s conclusion. SRF
subtly, and masterfully deny us any glimpse of the horrors about to occur,
but rather – play on our anticipation of the inevitable, a technique
that Hitchcock himself used to great effect, leaving us with only our
imagination to bridge the gaps.
SRF are, for me at the peak of their genre, never tripping up on cliché,
and continually creative and inventive, this is possibly one of the most
accomplished, and elegantly treated interpretations of film that there
could possibly be. Absolutely essential |
From Sonic
Immersion: (by Bert Strolenberg)
"Nostromo" is actually a re-release of an album
by Sleep Research Facility, aka Kevin Doherty, which was already put out
in 2001.
It’s a concept album inspired by the spaceship Nostromo
from the sf-movie "Alien", and especially the mindblowing interior
of it, which is featured in the first five minutes.
Kevin describes the quiet, slow morphing soundscape textures
as "a simple exploration of the vast ship in all its quiet darkness".
To me, the carefully sculptured and molded music that depicts
the shaded atmospheres encountered on the ship actually feels like a living
thing in all its foreboding, unsettling manner. This reissue also contains
the bonus track "Narcissus"(which is the name of the escape
ship Ripley uses to escape the Nostromo at the end of the film).
"Nostromo" is highly cinematic and above all a fascinating
mind trip of haunting sonic scenery which no fan of free form ambient
textural music should miss. Recommended! |
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