Has anything ever sounded more prog than this? The band themselves describe it as their ‘second album in an evolving three-album suite, telling the story of consciousness raising itself from Earth-bound reality to that of higher forms’. Simple pop songs these ain’t: the music is every bit as lofty as the concept.
Echo Us is the project of one Ethan Matthews, and with Tomorrow Will Tell The Story he appears to have invented medieval futurism – it sounds like Clannad being sucked through a wormhole and dumped into an alternate reality where robotic druids watch over humanity.
It’s nothing less than a giant aural cheese dream. As such, weird, unnerving chants moan over ominous, ambient synths, the pitch on the vocals twisted and shifted into nightmarish shapes. Middle Eastern calls to prayer snap Archaeous Of Water V 2 I. The Light It Moves, En Vie Est Lumière out of its hypnotic reverie, before Archaeous Of Water V 2 II. Echoes Of Eras (snappy titles, eh?) plunges us back into the dark, magick-evoking pagan incantations that scream Hammer Horror.
Frankly, ambient music has never been less relaxing or more unnerving than this.
