Dylan Rippon: Hail! Taikonauts
‘Hail! Taikonauts’ is Rippon’s second instrumental album. The various recordings were made over a three year period between 2004 and 2007. It is also a concept album. Inspired by an exhibition of Chinese Communist Poster Art and Lynn Pan’s book ‘Mao Memorabilia The Man And The Myth’, Rippon became intrigued by the power of nations to create their own narratives no matter how far-fetched or outlandish. ‘Hail! Taikonauts’ is an imagined silent movie, filmed in China and starring Chinese actors. The movie is created as a piece of beautiful propaganda with Rippon’s fantastical music set to each scene. The synopsis of ‘Hail! Taikonauts’ also serves as a cue sheet for each track and can be read in full here. This is certainly a far-out album in Rippon’s discography but there are many moments of true beauty. The blissed-out acoustic electronica of ‘Cedars’, the awe-inspiring claustrophobic soundscape of ‘Vallis’, the strange and wonderful ‘Aristarchus’. Picture the film in the epic proportions of Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’ or Cuaron’s ‘Gravity’ and let the music transport you. In order to work the listener has to contribute their own visions, their own dreams. Rippon’s magic eye again demonstrates spooky foresight. The story was sketched in 2007 in all its bizarre hallucinatory glory. On December 1st 2013 the BBC reported that China’s first lunar rover mission had successfully launched. There is a Long March 3B Rocket on its way to the Moon as you read this. By 2019 all those dreams may be true.