SOMERSAULT 2004

LIMELIGHT
Lee Tran
The soundtrack draws on this crisp, icy landscape to create striking, sublime songs as colourshot and pristine as snow crystals...an elegant and moving soundtrack that is one of the best Australian albums this year...Exquisite


UNCUT
****
As critically acclaimed in Australia as any film in the country's history, Somersault also made media darlings there of its soundscape composers, Decoder Ring. On first play it'd be easy to dismiss their meanderings as textbook sonic cathedrals, a gentle cousin to Sigur Ros, Air, Mogwai or My Bloody Valentine. But this, their second album, really does et under your skin as it progresses, and its no surprise to learn that they're well versed in the cinematic, and that visual montages play a big part in their live performances. It's also deftly erotic (see You're Hot, Rough Sex) in that no need for guilt way that only arthouse can be.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - Feature CD
****
High and Mighty Sydney's decoder ring have scored the big time with the Somersault soundtrack, reports Bernard Zuel. There's a lovely wistfulness hanging over this album, evoking damp evenings in small terraces and drinks sipped slowly alone in dark cafes. It isn't tragic but it's sad in a quite beautiful way in a way that says more about the film than any review could...For those who go back a decade of two Decoder Ring's music will remind you of This Mortal Coils evocations of love swept empty rooms. In Rough Sex there's that classic 4AD records style of using the grand swelling moments that don't so much resolve as dissolve. There's tension maybe even anger, but it doesn't smack you in the face, instead it gnaws away at you. For those who go back a decade more, there are some touches of Tangerine Dream and, naturally, Brian Eno. You can hear it in the way space and emptiness are also sounds in several tracks and in the way delicacy is never sacrificed even as tempos increase and darkness descends. And if you're plugged in, in the last few years, you'll recognize the touches of Mum in the overlay of childlike instruments and wispy female vocals on petter patter rhythms. You'll also notice post rock elements in a few moments of jaded up propulsive rhythms. Music Box is the sound of putting on your galoshes and skipping through the puddles after a summer rain shower. Higher pushes you persistently until you arrive. Then you calm down at the down right prettiness of Alpine Way.


EMPIRE UK
*****
With Somersault, Australian director Cate Shortland not only proves herself a deft visualist, but a filmmaker with a great taste in music, too. To soundtrack her debut, she approached Sydney-based electro-ambientists Decoder Ring, realising that their smooth, snug stylings would perfectly complement her film's shimmering hyper-realism. Understanding that Somersault's protagonist is a fey sexpot with unsettlingly childish mannerisms, Decoder Ring employ kiddie xylophone plinks for simplistic but effective melodies, which they then open out with resonant cellos, lush synth washes and echoing guitar work. There's no edges here, no harshness, just comfort - and it's way too warm to be dismissed as chill-out.


MOJO
***
Think Mazzy Star and Virgina Astley go on a stoner picnic only to find Yo La Tengo in the next Field! This soundtrack inhabits a world of desperate slow motion melancholia, an elegy for things lost. Yet there is a delicate beauty at its heart.


ROLLING STONE
****
Sydney band decoder ring have composed a stunning soundtrack to Cate Shortlands's movie, Somersault. Shot in Jindaybine, the movie was received well at the Cannes film festival this year, earning a standing ovation and picking up international distribution deals. Decoder Ring, in retrospect are an obvious choice to score an arty Australian film given the cinematic breath of their existing mostly instrumental explorations into post rock and electronica the band have painstakingly crafted a specious and moody atmosphere walking the line between interesting music and unobtrusive ambience. Gentle piano lines intersect with delicate guitar notes, while vibraphones shimmer at the edges. They've found a vocalist known only as Lenka whose breathy strangely haunting Bjork-style voice that fits the title track and Music Box both fragile with beautiful sounds and precision percussion perfectly.


FASTER LOUDER
Decoder Ring seems to have truly crystallised a sound, focused it, finessed it and channelled it into something rather wonderful. Emotive and mesmerising compositions segue into, well, more emotive and mesmerising compositions. But it's all an effortless listen.There's a warmth throughout Somersault, as if the brief was to score a soundtrack reminiscent of being wrapped up in clouds. This is a Decoder Ring confident yet completely at ease with itself.


3D WORLD
Feature Album 8/10
Don't rush out to buy harmony beads but Decoder Ring's latest album is all about awakening. From day one, the haunting and cinematic sounds of the Sydney based outfit have always suggested they'd be a perfect fit for film, wisely, Australian director Cate Shortland got in first when she commissioned them to score her first feature length... Somersault is a gut wrenchingly beautiful love song laden with enchanting vocals while the other tracks blend into a sound-scape that will make you want to kiss like a teenager, feel the wind on your face, and cry just because you have the capacity to. Somersault may be a soundtrack but Decoder Ring's intensely personal approach to music makes you feel like the real star.

FILMINK
****
Their music is a stunning blend of rock, dance, ambience, and grove based timing that makes for an often staggering whole Routinely described as "cinematic", it was only a matter of time before they were tapped for a soundtrack and film maker Cate Shortland has shown great perception in having them score her dreamy, brittle but emotionally explosive drama Somersault. Working also as a stand-alone album, this really is a superb collection, with big spatial musical suites and soft, tender moments as well. The inclusion of female singer Lenka on a number of tracks is a bold move with her ethereal vocals clicking with the mix perfectly, and also suggesting the film's battered young heroine. "We're not sure where we stand in the scheme of things" the band has said "we're not necessarily a rock band but we're certainly not electronica either." One thing is certain: they're great soundtrack composers.


IN THE MIX
8/10
Decoder Ring's self-titled debut album from 2002 was a stunningly assured piece of work that masterfully showcased the band's versatility and breadth of musical knowledge. When commissioned by Shortland for this score, the band used a working cut of the film as their starting point...Without doubt, this level of interaction with the filmmakers has resulted in the band working more like a composer than a rock band rubber-stamping old hits for a soundtrack. Decoder Ring has once again proven their versatility by adapting their sound to the film. Not to be played on a bright and sunny day, Somersault could be the soundtrack to those emotionally drenched moments.
 

OZMUSIC PROJECT
Working astoundingly well in the context of this year's Australian cinematographic highlight but existing just as powerfully as an album outright, this record should develop into the yardstick for Australian instrumentalists and soundtrack composers alike... This soundtrack garners all the adjuncts that the film inspires: beautiful, honest, captivating and dynamic, but it does so on a level that transcends the usual limitations of a soundtrack. Brilliant in its own right, Somersault heralds a new age in Decoder Ring and the state of instrumental music in Australia.