This is the soundtrack album to Natasha Urbans 2022 film exploring what life was like during the total Solar eclipse that happened on 11th August 1999 as viewed from within Serbia during the Balkan war, how the fear of total darkness made the eclipse a far scarier event than in the rest of the world at the time. I haven't seen the film so my review of Bill Gould and Jared Blums soundtrack is based on how the music makes me feel, while trying to relate some of the dread that war created. This sounds nothing like Bill Gould's work in Faith No More but is an extension of his work with Jared Blum in Talking Book.
The A-side opens with Winter Morning with a chilly ambience with dark foreboding sounds impinging on the desolate scene, as if something terrible is about to happen on this day.
A Branch And a Bench has the feel of pained distress, of a punishment beating, as the wind howls around you.
White Bones have been found in a dank cellar, the pulses and tones hint at the sort of awful untimely end those bones met.
Two painters are zoning out, trying to block out everything, with washes of colour over the bleak scene of utter despair.
Four Lakes has a chilly hazy feel, almost the opposite of the glorious beauty of the seven lakes of Rila mountain, although this would sound even more thought provoking sitting on that mountain top.
Milena seems to inculcate all the sounds of pain and distress Milena suffered before and after becoming Kafka's Muse, as this modern Milena is an equally tortured soul sadly, as she tries to escape from all the horror.
Pigs And Dogs aren't fighting in the slurry but seem to be resting, staring each other out in a moment of calm before the next storm in the shifting ambient soundscape.
Unused has a dance music effect being tortured into something more horrifying as if you're in a field of pain and sorrow.
Spiderweb has the feel of raptors circling overhead observing ready to swoop in and steal the spiders catch as the Chinese cadences seem to hint at a new way forwards.
Dad At Bridge staring at one more bombed to oblivion bridge he can no longer cross, mesmerized by the distressed tonal shifts among the horror he can't seem to escape.
The B Side opens with Bell Cycle with gravel footpath footfall accompanied by a jews harp twanging along to the dark ambient tones, leading us further into a distressed environment.
Skin Craters has long deep tones excavating craters even more pitted than Michael Hutchence's skin, as the astringent sounds seep out.
Stuffed rabbit stares out of a window as if it is in the Valhalla of taxidermy on the Essex Road rather than in a dilapidated bombed out house in a war zone, as the sonar beeps over the birdsong seeking out some unseen enemy.
Total Solar Eclipse blots out all the light as deep bass ruminations rattle the soul, listlessly drawn towards the bright white streaks emerging among the swirling cacophony.
A Rebirth has a buzzing crescendo set within distorting sine waves. Stag beetle Hillock has been trodden on, you look in disbelief at what’s below creeping over your feet, creeping strings aid your flight as you try to quell your fright and not give away your position to the enemy, hoping the Stag beetle hoard is less damaging than that enemy.
Autumn Evening closes the album as the leaves are falling taking away your cover, Crackling branches are falling as another fighting season comes to a close as winter starts to draw in, as you dream of a future utopia far nicer than the horror show your living through.
Find out more at https://koolarrow.com/bill-gould-and-jared-blum-announce-nov-24-release-of-the-eclipse/ https://subost.bandcamp.com/album/the-eclipse https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/bill-gould-and-jared-blum
