Chris

Posted Saturday, February 3, 2024

10mo

INTP

Virgo

Ecophony Rinne - An Album About Life, Death, Sleep, and Reincarnation

I'm not one to review albums. I feel music and people's interpretation of it is so extremely subjective, I find little point. Not only can I not relate to you, despite the power of language, how the album actually sounds, but I can't express how it will make you feel, on account of I'm not you. Good luck trying to describe how a song sounds with any accuracy or without using instruments to describe it. We can relate the tone, and how it feels to me, but relating that to how you'll receive it is quite hard. That being said, there are albums that are so seminal, so important feeling and so foundational to the human spirit that I feel it could and should have something written about it. Despite the Wall and Quadrophenia being two of my favorite albums of all time, I have not had the desire to really put down on paper how I feel about them. The album, "Ecophony Rinne" by the Geinoh Yamashirogumi however I won't let go by without saying a few things. First, briefly the group that composed this dark symphonic masterpiece is made up of a few hundred participants who come from all walks of life, not necessarily musical backgrounds. However through combinations of vocal, sound effects and percussion, they create music that the only way I can describe it is ritualistic rites and dark earthly ceremonies that celebrate the pure essence of raw life, spirt and death. What I mean by this, can only be shown (or heard rather) in this album, and their follow up "Ecophony Gaia". Both albums (I'll even toss in their comission work of Akira Symphonic Suite) complete a trilogy that tells quite a tale. For those who are into Cottagecore, stick around for this. Okay first of all, the album Ecophony Rinne. Look at the artwork for this. Really examine it and I'd love to hear what others think of it, because easily, it's probably my favorite album art of all time. Just from the art, you can get a feel for what journey this album is going to take you on. There's a few albums that I say are always improved by turning off the lights and putting on a pair of your best headphones. Ecophony Rinne, sits at the top of that list. So, the album, at its core, is a concept album that details the cycle of birth, life, and death. The album starts with "Primordial Germination". What an awakening of the senses. It embodies every sense of the words in the title and there's this warm sense of life being breathed into the world. There's this beautiful vibrant growth that emerges in the middle of the track and as it crescendo's, the explosion of birth, life, greenery, humid dark jungles, and deep oceanic flourishing erupts from the speakers. It's measured, slow and creates this dawning of life on Earth. The feeling and sensation it creates is palpable. The album begins with the birth and proliferation of life everywhere. The next track "Dying as Flowers Do" is exactly as the name suggests and is the other side of the coin in which it describes the death and loss of life and the slow demise and end of that raw essence. This portion sounds like funeral rites being given. It's a slow, sad and chant based choir and laments the death of all things. The following track is maybe my favorite, "Dark Slumber". The album itself is very dark...not just visually, but even at it's most 'optimistic', the album has a dark and almost creepy and definitely eerie tone. Dark Slumber is what solidifies this assessment. After we had the birth and spread of life's essence thoughout Earth, and the subsequent death of all such life, we have this great long slumber. Where the end has passed and there's this great pause after the tiring events of eons and eons of vivacious vitality and then the withering cessation of it all. Life itself has entered this grand slumbering and it's time for darkness to take it's long reign. I also love the idea that there's not 'nothingness' at this time. It provides this glimmer of hope that I love during dark times. The quote "It's always darkest before the dawn" comes to mind. Rather it be life on Earth or throughout the Universe, we have this idea that all life has not ceased, but rather it's entered this dormant, sleeping cycle, and despite it being maybe hundreds and hundreds of millenia, eons upon eons, life is not all gone, it's just waiting for it's time to return... Which lovingly brings the album to it's close with "Reincarnation". The coda, the event that makes the entire journey worth it. The track does something ingenious and I smile like an idiot each time. The choir and precussion that accompanied the opening track "Primordial Germination" returns in this part to express that it's signaling the return of that pure essence. Life spreads once again, the birth of forests, running streams, flora and fauna. The cycle begins anew and in theory you can start back with Primordial Germination and take the trip again. There is something important about this album. Something that just speaks to me as someone who loves loops, and rebirth as a concept. I don't do drugs (at least not how I think of drugs) I have experimented with some mushroom gummies and things claiming to have 'mushroom psychedelic' effects. The jury is still out for me on just how well these actually work and if they're just not 40 dollar easy CBD leftovers. The album hits me hard even when I listen to it straight. But holy hell, Ecophony Rinne when I've had a dose of Amanita Muscaria, it takes on this entirely vital and far more impactful message. Maybe it's the giddiness or euphoric vibe that takes over but I'm nearly brought to tears by the fundamental beauty of what exactly is being conveyed. Even as I sit there, staring into the album artwork as the sounds of life blossoming, it's transcendental. The wide eyes of the creatures of fauna that border the album, vibrate and shift under their own essence that resembling breathing. The album radiates pure, undisturbed breathing. There's few albums that I feel can provide the same level of fundamental importance. What that importance is...I don't even feel like I can quantify. But there's something about the tone and feel of the album that just needs to be listened to and heard. Acid trip, optional. I'm not even religious (far from it) but I need this album to be accurate. What I mean is for the last 3 years of my life I have been struggling with depression and the thought of this existential demise of human life and the shuttering of life on our planet going dark being the end of life everywhere doesn't help. My own life problems, seem worse when I know that we humans and our biome of Earth could be the last beacon in the universe of life... just sounds so disheartening. But this cycle of life, death and rebirth provides such a strong message of hope that I can't help but feel so word swept by its ability to convey this. In my heart of hearts, I know it's not true and that life *is* that fragile and precarious, but hearing the rhymical tribal drum beats of life returning and regrowing after its long empty void makes me think that we're going to be okay.