Ethereal Scores of Our Fleeting Lives, a music review

On January 7th 2014, I purchased the track “Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears” by A Winged Victory for the Sullen an American ambient music duo. The sweeping calming genesis builds to a heart-wrenching soul squeezing crescendo; it manages to free a single tear from my burdened eyes every time. Without fail it stops me in my tracks as it resurfaces in my headphones while my phone plays shuffle with my life. It was a one-off-purchase, or so I thought.

A couple of weeks ago, over ten years since my original purchase, Alexa decided to tempt me with her algorithmic peer pressure. She played the track “The Slow Descent Has Begun.” There was something familiar about this haunting darkness. Listening to the violins wail in search for some resolution only to leave me feeling desolate with a heaviness, a pit on my chest, was eerily familiar. Had I been here before? I asked her who was the artist. “A Winged Victory for the Sullen” she replied in her classic warm robotic tone.

I normally don’t purchase music. I am more-or-less satisfied streaming the cornucopia of melodies endlessly being spewed out of my echo device. Every now and then I stumble onto an artist that speaks to the fibers of my being, and so I open my pocket book and reward them for their valiant musical efforts. In 2022 that artist was Sun-El Musician. That year his African Electro Soul beats filled my spirit to the brim as I kept all three of his albums on heavy rotation. This year I found myself on the flip side of the coin. I traded the warm African chorus of “Ubomi Abumanga” for the contemplative tip-toeing piano of “So That The City Can Begin to Exist.” The undulating chords of “Atomos VII” don’t shy away from telling you there is something out there inside the cosmos of the cells that compose your heart; a stark contrast from the jovial plea for communion that is “Best Friend.”

Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O'Halloran have constructed a sonic abyss that simultaneously feels profound and insignificant; it sucks the air out of your lungs and breathes new life into the memory of the eternal explorer of our core.  The introspective journey you take with their music is not for the faint of heart. Don’t forget that as much as you’d like to believe you are prepared for what’s to come “All Farewells Are Sudden.”