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Various Artists
Projekt200

Projekt Records

Posted: Monday, January 28, 2008
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

To celebrate the momentous occasion of their 200th release, the fine folks at ethereal label Projekt have released this weighty three-disc tome, a trio of CDs devoted to the label's past and present. The first CD in the trilogy, appropriately titled "The Early Years," collects many of the tracks that would go on to help define the Projekt sound, so there's lots of bittersweet ethereal stuff. Label owner Sam Rosenthal's own band, Black Tape for a Blue Girl opens things with a new mix of the classic "Across a Thousand Blades," updated with more contemporary production values, and longtime fans will recognize a number of the other tracks as favorites. There's Attrition's baroque darkwave ballad "A Girl Called Harmony," Lycia's hopelessly bleak "Desert," and Love Spirals Downwards' achingly pretty "Write in Water." There are also a few surprises, like a long-lost alternate mix of dreamy pop duo Area's "Our Corner Drowning." Most fascinating, though, is "Taqaharu's Leaving," a ballad about a childhood soldier from Dead Can Dance drummer Peter Ulrich that draws on both classical and tribal elements. These days, Projekt is no longer an ethereal label exclusively, and that's immediately evident from the beginning of this compilation's second CD, "The Current Era," which opens with Voltaire's raucous, Latin-tinged "Day of the Dead." Lowsunday's "For a Moment," a moody but driving Joy Division-inspired rock song, is likewise a far cry from stereotypical ethereal music, and though "Wicked Days" highlights Android Lust's more melodic and harmonious side, the band still holds the distinction of being Projekt's sole industrial act. If Projekt is casting a wider net these days, the label still has a definite aesthetic and remains the preeminent label for moody ethereal and blissed-out pop, as evidenced by the fuzzy, dreamy layers of Tearwave's previously unreleased "Comfort in Angel's Wings," Mira's languidly pretty "Cayman," and Faith and Disease's wistful "She's Got a Halo." Fans of Black Tape for a Blue Girl will also want to check out "I Strike You Down," a smoky but sinister torch song recorded specifically for this compilation. Though overshadowed by the more dramatic melancholy of Projekt's flagship acts, purely ambient artists have always been an important part of the label's history, and the third CD in this package is devoted just to them. Italian producer Alio Die starts things with the previously unreleased "Spring Music," a soothing composition laced with hints of bird sound and trilled flutes. Dirk Serries offers a track from each of his main projects; Vidna Obmana's "Breath of Closure" is moody and mysterious, cold strings panning across a foggy soundscape, while Serries' guitar-based project Fear Falls Burning offers a pleasant drone composition, descriptively titled "The World Turns in a Sea of Bliss." Rosenthal also shows up with two separate projects; As Lonely as Dave Bowman's "Pod Two" is classic space music, all endless voids of slowly expanding synth tones, while "Seven" is Black Tape for a Blue Girl at their most experimental, more a quiet tone poem than a fully fleshed-out song, but hypnotic nonetheless. For sheer beauty though, it's hard to beat legendary ambient composer Steve Roach, whose "In the Eyes of Noche" layers ephemeral female vocal harmonies over foggy pianos for an effect that's tranquil but also sweetly sad. Packaged in a DVD-sized cardboard case, Projekt200 is more than a retrospective; it's a work of art in its own right, a chronicle of Projekt's journey from cult ethereal/ambient label to darkwave powerhouse. Longtime fans will want this for the exclusive tracks, but it's a great introduction to newcomers as well, and out of 32 songs, there isn't a bad one in the bunch.