Published on Feb 3, 2022
This is the debut album from Limina, which is the moniker of the film and video game composer Tyler Durham. The Los Angeles artist offers us 6 very accomplished pieces with Hidden Spaces, where he manages to highlight the best aspects of electronic music, modern classical sounds and even New Age moments in a very unique formula.
“Muse” starts the listen with light and dreamy ambience, where a mysterious beauty unfolds with Emily Kriner's gorgeous violin weaving in and out of the precise texturing. “Expands” follows, and places more emphasis on percussive sounds, as an agile intimacy is built around calm keys amid a very soothing atmosphere that even touches on post-rock.
“Ponder” occupies the middle spot and mesmerizes us with its strong attention to detail that pairs keys with strings in a stirring fashion, while “Reflect” leads with a very strategic minimalism that's as hypnotic as it is pretty, and flows with a cinematic quality, which of course only makes sense seeing as how he's scored blockbuster films already.
Coming in near the end, “Absorb” is perhaps the best track present, and showcases much melody from the skilled keys and hazy backdrop, and “Enlighten” exits the listen and builds into a cathartic, soaring finish of fascinating and absorbing manipulation of texture and tone.
A record that plays just as well track by track as it does as a whole, Hidden Spaces benefits much from Durham's unconventional approach to song craft that certainly seems suited for a film score, and transcends time, classification or even structure.