Review of Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow [12k1055]

The Silent Ballet (.COM)

Tomasz Bednarczyk has a definite vision and purpose in mind with his album, Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow, but this definitive vision may be too singular and limiting in its musical scope. The album is beautiful as a slowly morphing, surprisingly bright-sounding ambient composition, but the sound is limited and I don’t hear as much progress as I’d like to in his work. “But ambient music is supposed to be repetitive right?” Yes, but its repetition must have a purpose. The best ambient music has the ability to explore vast depths of musical and emotional realms through a subtle experimentation with texture and harmonics. Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow takes a bright, major key – if you can really give the songs a key – outlook on the ambient musical ideal and explores the possibilities of sound within a very limited aural plane – which is a lofty goal. However, the rather close to straight-up sine wave tones that are the predominant sonic material of the first half of the album experience very little movement and progress. There is very little material to differentiate songs and ideas.

The album tries to make distinct thematic ideas, at least that is what I am lead to believe with the varying song names, but within the ten tracks, “The Sketch”, “Kyoto” and “Little Spring” are the only standouts that make an impression, but this is because the instrument of choice changes, or a few extra samples of found sound are added to give some variety. However, these novelties of sound are lost once you realize that the song really isn’t going anywhere or exploring new sonic ideas. This is the biggest fault of the album; the initial song ideas are really beautiful and interesting, but this interest diminishes quickly as the songs fail to progress and mature. If they were all compressed into one song, it would be a hell of a lot more interesting, but as individual works, they lack their own direction and meaning.

The aforementioned “Little Spring” is a wonderful piece of ambient work. It is what the album should have been throughout. There is a slight change in pacing, tone and possibly key about three quarters of the way through that just hits the spot. I almost felt a sigh of relief when I heard this slight but brilliant change in the sonic character. I nearly jumped out of my seat screaming “Yes! This is what Tomasz Bednarczyk has in him!” It’s a shame this breakthrough came so late in the album, but I’m glad it came. I think Let’s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow holds a lot of potential, but it was never allowed to fully bloom and show Bednarczyk’s true talents.

View Release