“You’re tuned into Darkfield Radio.”
There it was again. The bellowed, repeating alert that Darkfield Radio was about to start. After thoroughly enjoying the experience which was DOUBLE, the service returns to tell a new story in VISITORS.
With DOUBLE, it created the suspicion that your conveyed reality, was not YOUR reality. An interesting idea to posit, leaving listeners in existential dread but for a moment after. VISITORS though, is very much what it says; It’s about visitors.
The visitors in this case are 2 beings named Alex and Jean. Feminine in tone, but other-worldly, they are more carefree than the narrator in DOUBLE. In fact, compared to DOUBLE, VISTORS felt like a nice walk in the park, rather than the intense, dingy, kitchen hell-hole of the former, while also coming with more physical interaction to it.
Now I will point out that I didn’t pull in a plus one for this even though it’s recommended. Definitely something about feeling like a bother, but also because “doing the spooky” by myself (potentially a euphemism) seemed interesting. I think this enhanced the experience a lot. The visitors teeter around you, through audio being produced which scrapes ever so closely by your eardrums. Faint whispers move between each ear, as you begin to recognise something remarkable in the background.
You can hear the other visitor.
At a guess, each user in VISITORS experiences one side of the story. The interactive moments I spoke of, feigned to separate you during a time in the production, have you interacting with one of the two beings in different ways. These are the noises and dialogue I said you could hear in the background. In fact, this very dialogue likes to throw the voices around you sometimes too, as these beings speak of their time with you, and the others they need to see. And while those moments where they feel close to you are remarkably chilling, so much so that I did open my eyes to remind myself of where I was, the beauty (or terror) is in the mystery.
Like I said, compared to DOUBLE, this was a delight. It’s not frightening due to the content, but because of how well it creates an environment through sound. The way it arranges Jean and Alex around you, and how they posture themselves in the ether, is just a treat. And really, the only thing malicious about the narrative, is the hunger these beings feel before they leave you be to visit someone else in the night.
And I just like to think, that maybe Alex and Jean are doing to be okay.
There's a wonderful consistency coming out of Darkfield Radio, with VISITORS providing a wholly different, and welcome, experience from that of DOUBLE.
A captivating story, with even better use of the audio tools they use, I hope to hear more from these very same visitors in future.
