Argentum by Mike Dickson

Sparse and lonely. Argentum sits in a space all of its own. Does this sound like a soundtrack to an imaginary movie? Does it ever. Arguably more so than its more framed predecessor or much else I have produced.

The first track has the pitiless glare of the sun all over it. Silver sands and the distant silver river that never gets any nearer, however much you want it to. And there is that chime over you, like a funeral bell for your own chances of survival. That leitmotif of the piano, repeating in the same way you are trying to make your way to somewhere that never approaches. Everything else fades away, leaving only the circle of the carrion-seeking birds overhead, and you know you will be the next. And that chime never goes away.

How does the second grow? Under a fathomless sea, perhaps? Powerlessly adrift inside a descending air bubble without anything else to do than just watch the creatures and alien landscape that looks back at you, with utter indifference. Every so often a blink of sunlight makes it down through the darkness of the water, as the sun is slowly blotted out by the weight of all that is above you. But instead of fear, all you can think of is peace and solitude and the beauty of all that is around you, knowing that in some way you are returning home.

The third brings you into a cathedral of space and light, where nothing seems familiar and everything seems to come at you from enormous distances and different times, then leaves without a trace.

Could the fourth be from a distant corridor where you can barely see through the hazy gloom? And the fifth lurk under a rock? The sixth moves slowly away from you, the seventh dwells inside you, and the eighth crowns you. The penultimate races with you and the last deserts you.

A soundtrack for a non-existent imaginary movie. Now playing nearer to you than you think.

Tracklist

1.	Argentum 01	9:19

2.	Argentum 02	5:58

3.	Argentum 03	5:30

4.	Argentum 04	2:02

5.	Argentum 05	2:15

6.	Argentum 06	4:57

7.	Argentum 07	3:56

8.	Argentum 08	3:28

9.	Argentum 09	2:42

10.	Argentum 10	3:24

Credits

released July 5, 2023

All music is (c) 2023, Black Cat Music Factory
All titles performed, orchestrated and arranged by Mike Dickson
All compositions by Mike Dickson unless otherwise stated.

Recorded in Edinburgh and East Lothian
Artwork (c) Black Cat Art House

Numerous samples stolen and mutated beyond belief from many different sources, without credit or any possibility of recognition, mostly because that amount of paperwork is not something that anyone really deserves.

License