The Enormous Space Album

One morning Mr. Ballantyne takes the tempting decision to stay inside his house. This is how one of the greatest and most popular J.G. Ballard short-stories begins. Through a suffocating dive into endless inner space, the psychological nightmare that follows reveals the fears of urban life and the dark sides of the human being. Seemingly, this short-story is unfolding in an uncomfortable and tense silence inside the walls of a house in a London suburb. Only few sounds are present and they are always distant and/or disturbing: the drone of a car engine, the rattling of the letter slot, the noise of the refrigerator, the air that blows through the open windows, the singing of the birds in the back garden. This compilation attempts to explore that intermittent space/silence. In the last few months many musicians found this short-story in their mailbox, with the request to create fitting soundscapes for it, if they were willing to struggle with this harsh silence. Of course, they were free to create whatever they like. Most of them already knew and love J.G. Ballard’s work; others read the story and liked it – all of them found the idea alluring and challenging. Their correspondence varies from soundtracks for specific scenes and conveyance of feelings and atmosphere, to coverage of themes the story contains. We have tried to put the tracks in order to follow the development of the story – you can hear this compilation while reading it, before or afterwards. One thing is certain: when you read “ The Enormous Space”, it will stick with you for a long, long time. We hope that this compilation can do the same.