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Mirror
Mirror

Posted: Monday, February 02, 2009
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Thomas Anselmi, in collaboration with Vincent Jones, has spent the past several years working on the multimedia Mirror project, incorporating cycles of video and live performance to create a cabaret-esque production that blurs the lines between erotic art and cinema. This soundtrack to his project is a veritable cornucopia of dark pop textures the likes of which will surely put many as much in the mind of the '60s when Nico released Chelsea Girl as in the '80s and early '90s when Angelo Badalamenti released albums with Julie Cruise for David Lynch's films. Pop-inspired melodies drift upon ambient waves of melancholic drama, transporting the listener into a world of gothic sensuality and sorrow. Beginning with "Nostalgia," which features Depeche Mode vocalist Dave Gahan in one of his most passionate performances, Mirror immediately presents a sonic landscape of divergent synth textures and classical undertones, with a grinding guitar solo to boot. Teen actress Frances Lawson appears on three tracks, her high-pitched voice bittersweet and tear-inducing as she sings with all of the grief and distress of a tortured diva broken down from years of resentment and heartache. This is especially so on "World of Darkness," in which she and Ronan Boyle duet like star-crossed lovers as all-encompassing pads flutter throughout, a sparse electro beat keeping things nice and slow, guaranteeing that listeners will find themselves swaying left and right, fighting back the tears. Laure-Elaine's voice is equally heartrending, just a tad breathier, which is befitting the almost whispering tones of "From No One With Love," which could certainly remind some of David Bowie's early Berlin period, particularly Low, albeit slower though no less intriguing with its flourishes of ghostly electronic tweaks. The same could be said of "Fat Girl" as the music will undoubtedly bring to mind comparisons to Bowie's "Sense of Doubt" and "Neuköln" from "Heroes", with Anselmi's voice harkening to John Lennon. The one purely instrumental track, "Twentieth Century" meshes gothic classical arrangements with avant-garde electronic composition, the track playing on every conceivable blackened mode. Lyrically, each song sends the listener into further depths of emotional turmoil, touching on all ends of the spectrum of love from the confusion and lament of loss to the illusions of happiness that precede it. Mirror will not be an easy album to listen to for anyone who has loved and lost, while at the same time providing perhaps the most perfectly downhearted soundtrack for just such an occasion. With additional performances by Mike Garson and Phil Western, Mirror is not only a wonderful accompaniment to unique multimedia experience, but is also perhaps one of the most genuinely saddening yet beautiful pieces of music you'll ever hear.