Murcof — Cosmos

This is Murcof  third album and it finds this electronica cinematic  painter’s composing with recordings of classical instruments, Which in theory is an interesting idea that should deepen and make his work more epic, but sadly in reality it feels rather hit and miss affair.

Don’t get me wrong there are some great ideas, atmospheres and melodies at play through out it just feels for most of it’s running time throw together and unfinished, It almost as if the record company were pressing him for new work so he downloaded a few tracks from his hard drive for it. It just done’nt seem to have an constent  album air  about it, it  feels  more like a collection of off cuts or half completed ideas.

When it does shine there are some great moments like the two part title track, which goes through all manner of dramatic & building cinematic territory- mixing together deep and heady string drones and patterns, delicate piano and sound elements - that really show he has the ability to compose great soundtrack work. But sadly there more misser than hits here, with tracks like the last track oort, which is  a rather  dull ambient unfold, string saw and bellow with static crackle- that's just plan boring and goes nowhere over it's near on ten mintues playing time, feeling  very much like treading audio water.

So all in all rather disappointing considering how great his last album 2005’s  Remembranza was. One for those who have already heard his other works and are willing to pick through the audio debris to find the odd shines of gold. Hopeful this incomplete experiment into sampled classical instruments will bear future fruit.