The lights are out, tensions run high, you break a cold sweat... That is the image I get as 'Twist of Fate,' the collaborative effort of Lydia Lunch and Philippe Petit, begins to trickle down my ear canals. It is instantly eerie, with Petit providing dense textures and thick layers, creating an unsettlingly perfect bed for Lydia's occasionally melodic, always intense 'storytelling.' She does go back and forth every now and again, between spoken word and haunting singing, which surprisingly at times seems vaguely reminiscent of Ogre from Skinny Puppy's side project Ritalin. The layers and digital manipulations come and go, slowly fading in and out like some ocean of sonic fury whose waves relentlessly beat against a shore of bone dust and ash. At times Petit's soundscapes are so sparse, and light that they'll actually relax you just enough so that when the disembodied drones and reverb washed samples quickly creep back in, you feel that much more uneasy. This collection of just 8 songs is both dreamlike and haunting, with swirling evil, enveloping the senses. It'd be the perfect soundtrack for a psychological mindfuck. Not only that, but it comes with a 45 minute companion DVD of a live set performed by the pair, which features versions of many of the songs on the cd. The DVD is definitely more tense, jarring, dramatic. Petit's layers, textures and manipulations are even thicker still, with more of a harsh edge and noisy feel. Lydia's vocals are also noticeably darker and more frenetic; at points nearly reaching a banshee-like screech. She takes the original lyrics and brings them to new places, shifting tempos, ad-libbing, and just overall increasing the intensity tenfold. It's also quite interesting to watch Philippe working his craft, using Theremin like devices, laptops and even using such mundane items as a blown up balloon to build up the audio walls around him. The entire video portion is superimposed with a plethora of mood setting images such as visual textures, and even a wide variety of stills of Lunch, seemingly spanning her entire career. The music is definitely edgier and tenser on the DVD, and while the vocals have a certain magical sense of urgency to them, they are a bit more smooth, refined and evilly seductive on the CD. Together the DVD and CD make a great set; both a great listen and a great watch.