The Dark is the new release by The Third Eye Foundation, the work of Matt Elliot. It’s the third album in his most recent trilogy of work, released on the label Ici D’Ailleurs.
The whole of the first three tracks is is built around a single melody theme. An orchestra playing a sweeping, grand, melancholy phrase over and over as though they’re stuck in a loop of gathering darkness and storms with repetitive phrases of half-heard singing. It has the quality of dreamlike nostalgia, reminding me of The Caretaker or D_radio but with destroyed beats and really dark, pounding subsonics it is also a fair few worlds away.
This theme of the first three tracks metamorphosises so slowly, adding phrases, building with other sounds decaying – literally destroying themselves like old tape losing its coating – I didn’t realise what was happening at first, being pulled along by this soundscape. The droning of strings, woodwind and vocal passages, underlies all adding an unsettling, discordant air to proceedings.
Then the clouds break with sorrowful strings and electronically mashed beats build up a new uplifting feeling of light. Almost like the collapse of memories, it sounds desperate and chaotic. All the while the strings maintain their melody whilst around them structures crumble. The beats turn into a euphoric drum and bass by the final track, providing a sense of release from the darkness.
This latest Third Eye Foundation album is an intense and moving experience, leaving me feeling mentally drained by the end but it’s a journey worth taking.
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