Albums

Building Castles out of Matchsticks - Secret Land

Miss Fliss 01/09/2008

Rating: 3/5

Secret Land has the hallmarks of a sinewy dream world. Echoes, hums, thrums, bursts, shimmers, swirls. Canadian Anne Sulikowski took on the project of musically documenting events, thoughts, dreams, and Secret Land is the result. Under the guise of Building Castles out of Matchsticks, she weaves a fuzzy warm cloth of patchwork soundscapes. There's a constant undertow of symphonic bass and murmuring synth that conjure images of happy water babies, oceanic worlds of mermaids.

Anne's vocals are scant, which is a shame, as they add a vital but gentle pretty feminine sheen. Sometimes this experimental electronic music borders on the soporific, but if calm quiet solace is a draw for you, Secret Land is lovely ambient evening music to soundtrack moments of daydreaming, thinking, reading, writing, etc. it's certainly not music that has weight or immediate melody enough to have you glued to your stereo speakers, rather Sulikowski provides us with some pretty segments of sonic distraction.