Hypermnesiac
Slowing, 2020
8/10
An international assembly of musicians who are unclassifiable and constantly evolving, this 4th album from the trio of The Somnambulist has Marco Bianciardi, Thomas Kolarczyk and Leon Griese refining their genre defying sounds even further with a dramatic and sometimes soothing execution.
“Film” starts the album with gentle keys before a very unique mix of post-punk and Brit-rock builds into a tense and lush delivery, and “No Sleep Until Heaven” continues the atypical formula with thumping percussion where psyche-rock tendencies enter the equation.
Elsewhere, “No Use For More” gets quite adventurous with indie-rock nods amid alt-rock moments, while “At Least One Point At Which It Is Unfathomable”, which is largely instrumental, pushes and pulls with dark tension amid its post-rock influences.
At the end, “Tom’s Still Waiting” gets experimental in the best ways with skilled manipulation of space and rhythm, and “Ten Thousand Miles Longer” ends the listen with piano and plenty of jazz influences in the art-rock exit that’s aberrant- even jarring- but with boundless creativity.
An extremely meticulous outing, The Somnambulist make music that no one else could, as the three members display exceptional fluidity and a daring ability to mesh jazz, funk, industrial and cinematic qualities with this very unique effort.