Daily readers may have noticed a rarity for our site: we've just reviewed four modern composition albums in a row, all with a release date of June 16. Every one of them is worth purchasing. This day will likely be the Best Day Ever for genre fans, except perhaps for those who are financially strapped.
The seeds of Ecosystem can be found on the original score to 2022's Oscar-nominated documentary All That Breathes, which contains a superlative track called "A Broken Ecosystem." With its mix of tender piano and crunchy electronics, the piece establishes a template for Ecosystem, which contains a similarly cinematic tone. A fascination with nature is nothing new for Roger Goula, whose last album, Overview Effect, was our #10 release of 2016. That album celebrated the epiphany of seeing the "pale blue dot," and seven years later, this message is as timely as ever.
The album's key component is that it flows so seamlessly between the string ensemble, electronics and samples. This is immediately apparent on the opening "Gift," which adds orchestral elements to a clearly electronic beat. Titles such as "Symbiosis," "Broken Harmony" and "Perfect Balance" are reflected in the music, which requires the same symbiosis, harmony and balance in order to achieve its goals. Of this triptych, "Broken Harmony" is the most effective, as well as the closest relative in title and timbre to "A Broken Ecosystem". In fact, we're going to go out on a very short limb and say that the latter is a longer, reworked version of the former, adding even more depth.
Each track is described as "its own ecosystem." As such, each operates as a vision of how various forces might work in tandem or in opposition. While it would be hard to upset the balance of the music with a preponderance of strings, it's easy to do with electronics. "Intra-actions" becomes the album's apocalyptic track, providing the only moment in which the listener might get up to see if the stereo is broken: the ending rises to a deafening swirl, then cuts off like the silence following a car crash. This ecosystem didn't work, but serves as a warning to other ecosystems with sentient participants; don't let this happen to you.
In contrast, "Everything Is In Everything" begins with strings, a respite. Despite the cacophony of "Intra-actions," Goula is an optimist. The melodic integrations of this track and closer "Becoming One" display faith in humanity. In order to reflect our ecosystem's current trajectory, Goula has to share the nightmare possibility, but by returning to the vision, he restores the thought that what is broken can still be fixed. (Richard Allen)
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