Sacred Frequencies – La fin de la ligne
Recommendation: ☀☁☁
La fin de la ligne is the first album from Sacred Frequencies,1 a side project by DARKPYRAMID, out on the Dream Catalogue imprint TKX Vault. This sixteen-minute, single-track EP is a phone call from the abyss. It begins with a (admittedly clever usage of) dial tone that becomes the foundation of an uninterrupted drone, where synthesizers build and oscillate over the atonal sound of a receiver that’s neither hung up nor redialed. It’s ominous2 like most TKX Vault albums, never letting up on a constant tone3 of ever so slight dread that continues through the whole work, as if you’re not quite sure if you want the phone to be answered, or if a dawning horror is slowly coming over whoever made the call. The choice to eschew any compositional element except for harsh synthesizer tones layered over the dial tone foundation is a fascinatingly good one; HKE is probably the only artist in the game who could make a soundscape out of a phone line.4
If that abysmal American remake of One Missed Call were remade again into a short film, then this album could very well be its soundtrack. It’s entirely different from other DARKPYRAMID releases, which probably has something to do with why the name was dropped off the album and the artist name simply became “Sacred Frequencies”. La fin de la ligne is a necessary part of one’s venture into the yawning depths of TKX Vault. The blurb says it is “only to be enjoyed while laying on your back in pitch black darkness”, and I’m inclined to agree. Challenging, but awesome.
Tracklist
1. La fin de la ligne – (16:46)
1The album was originally titled Sacred Frequencies 1: La fin de la ligne, released under the DARKPYRAMID name.
2Thesaurus: “spooky”
3Pun intended.
4The reverberating crescendo in the background at the ~(7:50) mark deserves specific mention.