Erdem Helvacioglu - Planet X [CD]

As any filmmaker knows, one of the most powerful aspects of music is it's ability to construct emotional arcs and guide narrative by purely sonic means. Simultaneously ethereal and concrete, both spectral and textural, Planet X-the debut collaboration between guitarist Erdem Helvacioglu and violist Ulrich Mertin-tells the story of the appearance in the sky of a new heavenly body and follows one hapless explorer's quest to discover what lies at it's heart. Over the course of two years, Helvacioglu and Mertin composed and crafted this project, building up layers of jagged scratching sounds, plaintive melodies, percussive hits, and dark drones. The two artists grounded the sound of the album in strings but also employed unorthodox recording techniques, sophisticated processing algorithms, and multi-tracking to achieve a rich, complex, resonant texture. Throughout, the sound is unmistakably forward-looking, evocative of the project's science fiction themes and redolent of the eerie, sometimes dark feel of sci-fi films like "Alien," "Moon," and "2001."