Shinrei Project - Last Songs On Earth

'A Film inside your mind' - this is the credo that Shinrei Project want us to believe with this release. This act is a project of Ivan Rogar and Josip Fackovic - known from upcoming and seemingly popular act 'Kult Of Red Pyramid'.

I've never, honestly listened to anything claiming to be 'Orchestral Ambient', and with the exception of a handful of Celtic-sounding tracks (and the entirety of Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings OST), I have little interest in movie music either, so needless to say, I have reservations (yet also, strangely interested) in this release.

Our opener 'Hopeless Days (Original)' is the quiet, reserved, morose track often intended for the passing or departure of a major protagonist. It's swirling ambience and sombre undertones really bring the song title into a tangible entity, and it carries a bittersweet comfort to it that welcomes the introductory melodies of 'The Fog' - a track leaning towards the gentle crescendo of a bleak and despairing melody - definately a thriller in writing, with some of the background sounds pre-empting a struggle through a darkened forest - this is music, as indeed the duo promised, to create a film within one's mind. This theme is continued with ' The Black Vector ' - a track that reminds me, if I dare compare it to modern movies, of the scene in the horribly under-rated (and scientifically flawed) 'The Core' - this scene in particular dictates the crew entering the Earth's core, in search for a way to start it rotating again to prevent annihilation of mankind. It has an ominous, enigmatic feel to it.

It's an unusual classification, if I'm totally honest. Ivan and Josip could have called this Dark Ambient, excluding a handful of tracks, and it would have passed off in the same way. By choosing the wording they have, they've painted this as a much more mainstream and accessible release, and it seems to have actually paid dividends.

Titles like 'Signs in the Ruins', 'We will protect you from yourself' and ' A Stranger In Your Own Land' make it clear that the nature of this imaginary movie isn't one for the happier cinema-goer; self-loathing, barren decay and hostile environments form a simulation where you can be teleported into a completely alien and unsafe world, yet not even worry about spilling your popcorn or paying the extortionate ticket cost.

Reccomended. Feb 25 2012