The 1960s cult horror film »The Dance of the Dead Souls« is a great example of atmospheric cinema, with a humour that comes from the contrast between overdramatised mimes and stiff, artificial dialogues. Belgian synth musician Miaux has now released her own alternative soundtrack to this film. On »Black Space, White Cloud«, she showed she could convey great emotions with minimal means, namely melancholy. This is what made her 2019 album so special: it found this Berlin School synth minimalism à la Schulze, Roedelius, but with an emotionality that the role models would probably (wrongly) have dismissed as sentimentality. This quality is not brought to »Never Coming Back« in such a pronounced way. The seven pieces are more distant. Miaux builds up the atmosphere more than she depicts the interior. Her synthesiser replaces the organ of the film and creates a cool, thoughtful introduction to the album. As the playing time progresses, the mood darkens, and the pieces get a threatening note that works well. Miaux also shows with »Never Coming Back« that she is a great songwriter. Her skills aren’t really suited to reinterpreting a B-movie soundtrack, but it would certainly be interesting to hear how that would sound. Miaux would probably go one step further and try something in the direction of Hollywood. Her feeling for melody could certainly move the masses.
Never Coming Back
