Take a stroll through any film house that is having a sci-fi drama/romance film festival and you will hear songs akin to those on dyanMU by Enrico Coniglio. Tension from ethereal pads and metallic accents coexist with traditional piano melodies to provide a space that is harmonious as well emotional. It is exotic but also traditional. The backgrounds are very reminiscent of Aphex Twin's Ambient Works Volume II, where one can't help but feel something "spooky" about the sounds that move in no apparent direction, yet subconsciously feel like there is a pattern to the chaos. It is slow and arrhythmic, which lends to the alien nature, but the ability to find peace amongst the mysterious is what lends a supernatural essence to the music.
The piano melodies are generally simple and well played - almost too well played. I get the air of classical training when I listen to the piano, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I bring it up because it is borderline non-sequitur; it almost sounds like it doesn't fit. The ambience has such a dramatic textural element but the piano is played in such a clean and pristine way that it sounds like two albums together; a piano album played over an ambient album. The electronic, ambient only tracks are quite delightful as the textures have large dynamics and sweeping flow. This again leads to the feeling of two albums smashed together.
On that note, if this were really a soundtrack to a sci-fi romantic drama, track five, "Bell-Ringer," would be the act II reunion between the robot-killing detective and his once alien, blond haired mistress. It is so cheerful, with its staccato upper octave plinking and falling major melody line it seems completely out of place on the album. However, it's short, sweet, and perfect for a romp through a sunny meadow. Then the dark ambience rejoins the crowd and all is back to "normal."
A feeling that can't escape me is that dyanMu sounds like the graduate project for a composition major at some University. It is not to say that it is poorly done, but the piano elements sound a little too heavy handed compared to the ambience. The piano is the undeniable lead instrument, but it sounds as if the album was written for piano by a pianist, and then ambience was added to make it more "modern". If this is the case, the contrary is true. The album feels a little behind the times if it is intended to be an avant-garde piece of music. The pairing of heavy piano pedal tones amidst fuzzy background ambience is something that has been going on since the days of Stockhausen which in turn have been synthesized into modern music and cinema, hence the reference to film music; the music sounds mainstream-ized.
This would be a fantastic film soundtrack, or a fantastic new-age piano album, but as a single piece of experimental ambient music it feels a little too simple. This being said, the album is still fairly enjoyable and something worth listening to or using in your next film project - whether sci-fi romance, slasher, or avant-garde - give it a try.
-Greg Norte