Robert Paul Corless – audio recording 019
‘Light Years Away’
A Review by Andrew James Barclay
Photographs by Paul Kever Burbeary
The new Robert Paul Corless album marks the nineteenth installment of his ‘Audio Recordings’ series of albums. Dark and retro tinged synth notes trace the delicate melodies. A sense of wonder fills my earphones, and I picture remote parts of the universe, never to be seen by the eyes of humankind.
The empirical elegance suggests something divine, something celestial and beyond reach. There are moments when more sounds come together that I think I’m hearing a human voice, lost deep beneath the wavering surface.
I can hear a hopeful mood, and an almost numinous presence.
Where does this cosmic sound come from?
Robert is somewhere behind the big black star, a million light years away.
His studio, a luminous space outside of time. Not unlike the astronaut’s room at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Robert’s age changes every few moments, just like that astronaut who had peered inside the monolith. Robert’s desk monitor is full of stars. His music is beyond earthly comparison. He is further away now than ever he was.
He can no longer get here, from way out there. No outer sounds interfere, because beyond the vacuum, sound is a luxury, not a certainty. Dealing with music in such a void is a tricky business. Drastic problems could arise at any moment
Robert sends an SOS to earth in the form of music, sent back to earth via radio waves. Out in the unknown, a man in perfect solitude. So remotely away from his past, and way ahead of his future.
Robert continues to create, from his home at the edge of the universe. He can no longer contact ground control. There are no conversations in the place Robert inhabits.
Just the music.
Who needs conversation anyway?
