King Midas Sound
Solitude

THE REVIEW

Solitude as an inescapable condition for the individual's erudition. A model widely analyzed and glorified by Francesco Petrarch in "De vita solitaria," where isolation is chosen as the only viable path for cultural and spiritual enhancement. Far from the epicurean trivialities of existence, man breathes new life into his dimension.

However, one must consider that solitude is often not a personal choice but the inevitable consequence of abandonment. It would be interesting to know if Mr. Robinson appreciated Petrarch's theory, placing a hidden acknowledgment to the famous Italian scholar within the lines and sounds of "Solitude," or if the work in question is instead the result of painful autobiographical events. "Solitude" is a complex and fascinating work with a strong hermeneutic component, developed on precise states of mind such as abandonment, loss, and resignation as the ultimate catharsis of a logical and essential journey. A sound flow of rarefied sidereal suggestions in total despair, sealed by the evocative monochromatic magnesium flash of Japanese artist Daisuke Yokota.

The spectral ambient forged by Kevin Martin flows relentlessly through the cold, nocturnal areas of "Solitude," and Roger Robinson is its bard with his cynical but abdicated narrative, across the twelve transitory spaces that comprise this work published (by a singular twist of fate or perhaps not) on Valentine's Day. "Zeros," "In The Night," "Too Late," "Alone," "The Lonely," "Missing You," all titles that leave no escape, tracing a palpable line of anguish that permeates the entire album starting from the initial "You Disappear" with its hermetic symptomatology of loss. Impossible and shipwrecked loves, despair, apathy in a sonic multidimensionality divided into ambient and drone territories, steeped in claustrophobic and sepulchral loops, at times incredibly akin to the mourned Coil. Positioned rightfully among the darkest and most depressive works that have passed through my auditory conduit, it should be taken in small doses, not before reading the leaflet for those unacquainted with such sounds. For veterans of the genre, however, it is "highly recommended," on par with other fine products in the "Cosmo Rhythmatic" catalog, a Berlin-based label that never misses a beat and will be talked about in a rosy, or rather gray, and wonderfully desolate future.