This project has been on Sheila’s “to do” list for an eternity, as Sheila has had it on the back burner for 30 years, as it was that long ago when the first four tracks that now form part of the album, were released as part of an educational video entitled Tour Of The Universe. The rest of the album was written in the last couple of years, and those tracks flow seamlessly from the older compositions. Sheila’s wish to have a coherent album of her own, separate and apart from her long association with the David Cross Band is now finally realised.
Sending us on a journey away from the gravitational pull of Earth, the epic trip loosely follows that of the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it leaves our solar system for the unexplored infinity of the beyond. Painting sonic pictures on the impossibly vast canvas presented to her, Darkfish captures the essence of endlessness with deft use of sequencers, synths, and all manner of keyboards. Sheila tells me that these included “… a mix of Juno 60, Korg M1, Yamaha TX802, Ensoniq VFXSD, Roland and Akai samplers on the original tracks, Kurzweil PC3K7 for piano sounds and a mix of Arturia vintage synths and Pigments on the more recent tracks. There’s also a little Moog Subsequent in there somewhere.” Enough to whet any keyboard nerd’s appetite, I think!
It is nigh on impossible to listen to an album of synthesiser music without making comparisons to Vangelis, and yes, of course his influence is there. Right…that’s got that out of the way! The first track Destination Forever viewable direct on Youtube, with its bubbling sequencers actually initially put me in mind of Philip Glass’s soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi, as it inspires in me the same feeling of contemplation mixed with awe.
Having reached escape velocity, Endless Space see us enter temporal drift, as swathes of slightly ominous synths intermittently remind us that the emptiness is not benign, cooped up as we are in the “tin can” of our heads. Incidentally, if ever there was a headphones album, this is it! This contemplative mood continues into Spiral Nebula, and the last of the original tracks, Voyager, threatens to break out into Kraftwerk territory and is an altogether more optimistic proposition.
The new tracks commence with Towards The Stars, which as its title suggests is another optimistic number, this time in a questing mood. Planet Earth Is Blue, with its gorgeous drifting piano that makes no statement beyond the “isness” of it all, building over a slightly menacing synth rumble, may be my favourite track on the album. Filmic possibilities abound in Leaving The Heliosphere, carried as it is on gently undulating waves of possibility. Gravity Well, with its opening repetitive and soothing theme draws us in before the sequencers take us on another path. The piece unfolds with a gentle majesty, before revisiting the opening motif and coming to a close.
Our ultimately insignificant footprint in the universe is given form by the final track on the album, The Pale Blue Dot with its delicate sounds and harmonics creating tiny ripples that spread out to nothing. The title of this track comes from Carl Sagan’s description of the Earth and its place in the grand design. This struck a deep chord with Sheila when she first read it all those years ago, and now at long last her ideas have form and have taken their place in the ever-expanding universe.