Clive Wright, Taqsim to Antlia

review by dave heaton

I don’t know why, but the wisps of guitar that begin Taqsim to Antlia bring outer space to mind even if you don’t know that Clive Wright made the music as the accompaniment to a meteor shower party, with images from deep-space telescopes projected live. It’s not stereotypical science-fiction music, per se, but the gentle, probing instrumental music does feel related to music used in the past to represent space. That relation gives the pieces a historical and emotional resonance, instead of making them feel overly familiar or tired.

This music could never sound tired. It’s the quiet energy pulsing through Wright’s patient playing. It sounds like he’s watching the sky, playing what it makes him feel. Basically that is what’s happening, Wright using the sounds he can coax from his instrument to reflect his impressions of space, of how images and ideas of space resonate within us. It is internal music in a way, classic ambient music to sink into an individual space, but also made public. It’s a soundtrack to a party, after all, one where the trips we’re all taking within our brains and bodies are made explicit, writ large against, and with, the galaxies.

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