A Winged Victory For The Sullen

★★★★ Invisible Cities ARTIFICIAL PINEARCH MANUFACTURING. CD/DL/LP

Soundtrack score to the multimedia theatrical show.

A Winged Victory For The Sullen comprise Adam Wiltzie, co-founder of the American deep space ambient drone pioneers Stars Of The Lid, and the film and TV composer Dustin O’Halloran. The touring production of

Invisible Cities, based on the 1972 novel by Italo Calvino, was inevitably put on hold early in 2020, but this 45-minute suite of music is an immersive standalone piece. Taken together, the 13 tracks have an ethereal ebb and flow, with gently arcing melodies. But rather than being an ambient wash,

Invisible Cities feels three dimensional with some animated movement beneath the surface, from the hazy distorted keyboard playing a stately melody on The Dead Outnumber The Living, to The Divided City with its Glass-like piano arpeggios set on a sumptuous soundbed. The more overtly spacey spirit of Tangerine Dream infuses the radiant, chiming sequencer patterns of Nothing Of The City Touches The Earth.