Robert Rich & B. Lustmord - Stalker

Robert Rich & B. Lustmord. Stalker 1995. 4.5 stars.

A few months ago I wrote a post about Andrei Tarkovsky’s surreal sci-fi film Stalker and its meditative soundtrack, which I had tracked down thanks to a few intrepid readers of this blog. Now I’ve discovered an alternative score to that mind-bending film courtesy of ambient artists Robert Rich and B Lustmord who painstakingly create a haunted soundscape with the same spiritual energy as Tarkovsky’s masterpiece.

Like any great dark-ambient record, Stalker is rich with detail. Natural sound samples like dripping water, gusts of wind and disemboidend vocies fill the estranged spaces of the record. The compsoitons are not just rough collections of found sounds however, as they are driven by subtle rythms, synthesied loops, drones and unsual percussiive elements. While these densely layered compositions are as slow moving and hypnotic as the film’s images, they are still highly engaging, capturing one’s attentions in a ghostly ebb and flow.

Whether its taken in as a companion peice to Tarkovsky’s work or on its own merit, Stalker is a powerful work of art that is full of mystery. While its fullest spirtual thrust comes towards the latter end of the record, as beautiful choral voices make their way through the labryith of sounds, Stalker remains consistently powerful and immersive across its entire duration. If you have any interest in ambient music, or are simply looking for something to think or meditate to, you owe it to yourself to find this album.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 9:44 am and is filed under Film, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.