veslemes: apolithoma

Veslemes (aka Felizol) makes his debut on Invisible Inc with this astonishing new album that comes hot on the heels of last year's ground-shaking I Know Where You Live Vangelis!. With Apolithoma film director Yannis Veslemes takes us further into the dark crevices of his psyche. The album's themes are inspired by the dystopian sci-fi of JG Ballard's The Drowned World and The Crystal World: both novels eerily prophetic in their dystopian visions of an irradiated Earth over which a bloated, blinding sun makes living as we know it bearable only within a few hours around dawn and dusk. Sea levels have risen and cities that are not wholly flooded are overgrown with emergent new flora adapting to this new and hostile environment. In more remote locations, overgrown jungles and forests are exhibiting signs of a strange crystallisation: entire swathes of jungle petrified, calcified, crystalized, fauna included...and stories of missing explorers rumoured to themselves have crystalized! An allegory for our times, for sure....but more importantly, the album is as adventurous musically as it is conceptually. Where on the surface we have stories themed around an external dystopian world, the music, like the rising floodwater, presents us with a lens through which to look at the internal world: on one hand a distorted prism into what lurks beneath, yet at the same time a perfect reflection - a mirror into the psyche. At times dark, at times playful, unreservedly psychedelic, the album's wildly different musical styles all capture an atmosphere that is as profound and mystical as it is unique. It's clear too that Veslemes' background in film and OST production has a strong influence making the whole album seem like an imaginary soundtrack to a film that never was. Several of the pieces are strongly reminiscent of the early works of Barry Adamson...but where these faux soundtracks were solely dark and brooding (in particular the classic Moss Side Story) Apolithoma adds mystique, profundity and light which balances the music perfectly. Featuring an assortment of guest musicians on saxophone, clarinet, vibraphones, oboe, guitars and other instruments not often heard in partnership with electronic music, the resulting collection of songs is up there with the best of Invisible Inc.