Die Form: Duality

Being the final installment of "The Trilogy of Passions," Die Form's "Duality" perhaps epitomies their stylistic changes to the more classical and melodic of recent years. Like the first two releases in "The Trilody of Passions," "Susperia de Profundis" and "L'âme Électrique," "Duality" is chock full of operatic female vocals (Eliane P. has never been better), bassy techno beats, and has, like "3 Arms and a Dead Cert"-era Attrition, incorporated an acoustic viola, performed by Franck Dematteis. And of course the booklet, as usual, comes with Philippe Fichot's wonderful photography of people melting into their surroundings, only to be kept from complete assimilation by bits and pieces of technology (seemingly a recurring theme in Fichot's photography). My personal favorite song off of this is "Love is Cold I," a very moody piece with Fichot reciting in slow speed, "Love is cold, life is life, life is cold, love is love..." while Eliane's vocals soar in the hight soprano range. Haunting. We also get to hear Mutsumi Oku return from the "Ukiyo" side project (Fichot's project with Akifumi Nakajima of Aube fame) singing on "Transvisions" and "The Missing Beauty." Previously, Die Form releases have been somewhat hard to come by here in the states, but a new distribution deal with Metropolis recordings has made "Duality" easily available at most music stores, which may help Die Form gain the noteriety they have already earned worldwide here in America.