Paul K

Paul Kirkpatrick is the genius behind ‘Glitch Code’, one of my favourite albums this year. ‘Omerta’ could not be much more different but definitely has its charms for all of that.

Kirkpatrick says of it “Omertà is the soundtrack to a movie yet to be made. I wrote lots of music for films and TV etc but I am always constrained by the action on the film/program etc. But what if you flipped the whole creative process on its head and created the sonic work first and then produced a film around it? The titles of the tracks become the plot guides for the film. That is how I imagined the “plot” for the album.”

The result is atmospheric and, in places, eerie. Slightly mechanistic but with the synths carrying a sense of menace and tension. Every track succeeds in that I was envisaging the ‘action’ based on the music and the titles. The stories told amount to a narrative and the whole carries into a complex spy thriller or possibly a modern day escape drama. But this is what it triggers in MY head – the brilliance of the concept is that every listener will develop their own narrative and images based on their own experiences and mood. It would almost be better if the movie were never made so that every listener’s perceptions remain intact.

It is entirely instrumental, slow and deliberate, mixing real instruments and electronic sounds and throwing up the occasional surprise such as the trumpets in ‘Broken; which at first seem out of place but after hearing them are so natural as to be inevitable.

Ignoring the titles and just listening to it as an album it still stands up as a piece of ultra-modern fusion - it is beautifully played and positively mesmeric.

Not what I was expecting but that is one of the strengths.

www.paulk-music.com