Fixed Expression - Soundtrack for a Peaceful Agony

 Released: February 23

Soundtrack for a Peaceful Agony is something of a love letter to life and the end of it. Hovering around in the sonic realms of dark ambient, noise, neoclassical, and firmly experimental, Fixed Expression takes this disparate pieces and ties them together into a dark yet subtly hopeful collection of 10 tracks. While heavy in subject matter and atmosphere, there is that persistent element of lightness that comes across as almost ethereal at times. “Sie7e” captures this duality magnificently, blending choral pads and minute little piano sounds that play out sad but unbothered melodies. The ghostly atmosphere of the track feels introspective, hopeful, gloomy, and delightful all at the same time. 

For many of the tracks, the degraded sounding quality of some elements gives everything a fragile aesthetic. In the two tracks with spoken word, the distorted and low fidelity quality of the vocals makes this prominent with “Song For Mother Earth” standing out in this regard. The vocal are slightly abrasive, emphasizing the sibilant qualities of the vocal and making it feel like an otherworldly signal coming through worn electronics. “Piglets” does mostly the same but the soundscape altogether is much more sparse and spacious, giving these broken words more room to speak. Aside from the pianos, distorted vocals, and field recordings, the synth choices here make things rather interesting as well. “Romantic Dreams” is one of the few tracks that seems to be entirely comprised of synths. It is another track that keeps things rather sparse and carries that consistent degraded quality in its lead synth as it plays out a fragmented and lonely melody. It’s all part of a quite beautiful, although somewhat morose, exploration.