FAINT WAVES

I may be somewhat biased here, as I’ve been closely affiliated with Dream Chimney in the past, and have become acquainted with Personal System/Norus over the last couple years; this music speaks for itself though. Liminal City ’87 is as much a live set as it is a sort of concept album, it has a foot in both musical worlds, and is executed beautifully. As the title suggests, this set was actually performed live in Tokyo at the Shutl venue for a ‘liminal space exhibition’, in which a handful of artists presented their own interpretations of liminal space through photographs, videos, illustrations, and music. The concept or the “narrative” behind the music is as follows.

New York, 1987.

A journalist begins experiencing recurring dreams about a strange, unfamiliar hallway and a man he has never seen before. The dreams feel unusually vivid, repeating night after night without explanation.

Days later, while watching a late-night news report about a series of mysterious disappearances across NY city, he suddenly recognizes one of the missing persons as the same man from his dreams.

Disturbed by the coincidence, he begins to investigate the case on his own. The more he learns, the more he discovers that each victim vanished in quiet liminal spaces: subway platforms, parking garages, hotel corridors, and empty shopping malls.

As his investigation deepens, the boundary between dream and reality begins to blur, and the places he visits become strangely familiar. Soon, he starts to question whether the dreams are simply coincidences… or warnings of something hidden within those places.

As that synopsis suggests, the music scoring that narrative is surreal and dreamy, it’s properly ambient and evocative. To Personal System’s credit, its sound and influences are many, but they’re not always easy to pin down. As I remarked during the Bandcamp release party that I was in attendance for, there are shades of Peter Gabriel, Jan Hammer, and Paul Hardcastle; those sounds are there but they’re obscured, additive rather than disruptive of the deliberately atmospheric material, material that often veers closer to BGM and New Age than anything obtrusive. Personal System has a strong penchant for Smooth Jazz and Downtempo, which often culminates in an anachronistic Trip-Hop sound to a lot of his work. That’s true of this release too but the cinematic nature of it manages to set it apart from prior musical excursions such as Transcoastal Night Drive and Distant Paradise.

This release is available on tape and CD, I purchased this album on CD (I own multiple tape releases from Dream Chimney but my tape player is behaving questionably right now) and I’m happy to say it looks and plays beautifully. If you are interested in liminal spaces, electronic music, ambient music, neo-noir, and general BGM/VGM, I suggest giving this release a look. It stands as a great testament to the talent of Personal System, serving as a well-executed and engaging concept album (complete with voice actors and sound effects), as well as an exceptional live album. I may be a close associate of Dream Chimney and an acquaintance of Personal System but I think most anyone with an interest in this sort of music will take an immediate liking to what’s being done here; pitch-bends, fretless bass, JV-1080 atmospheres, electronic guitars, dialogue, sound effects, tracks that flow in and out of one another seamlessly. What’s not to love?

Thanks for reading.

Liminal City ’87 (Live In Tokyo) is out now, everywhere. Available on digital, cassette, and CD via Dream Chimney.