Ambient topic - Selected works Deel 2

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The fifteen contributors to this compilation were asked to create works invoking “senses of disconnection, isolation and solitude”. While I’m by no means certain that I could have guessed such had I lacked this information—there’s nothing as overtly referential to same as was heard in the mid 90s “Isolationism” quasi-movement—I’m happy to report that there’s not a seriously weak track to be found here (though a couple verge on the overly ambient) as well as a handful of excellent ones.

The first cut causing my ears to perk up is David Toop’s “Chair Creaks, Though No One Sits There”, an eerie piece with a group including Rhodri Davies, Miya Masaoka, Stefano Tedesco (vibes) and Emi Watanabe (Japanese flutes); a wonderful combination of instruments creating a breathing, expansive sound world. One of several lovely field recordings is encountered with Richard Chartier’s soft, deep exploration, “A Field for Recordings.3”, containing faraway booms and wind whorls alongside closer clicks and crackles. Hadn’t heard anything by Scanner in quite a while, but he serves up an intriguing mix of found sounds and piano, leading into the first of two real stunners, Jeph Jerman’s “Albuquerque Hotel Room”. Isolative? I suppose so but for this listener, more beautifully evocative of a specific place, of the hum that pervades enclosed spaces. It seems to be purely found sound; if so, it’s a very well chosen, subtly haunting sample.

An enjoyable, if Eno-esque track by Zane Trow (“Bryry”) and a fine troubled work by Janek Schaefer that mixes natural sounds with swelling, organ-like drones lead into another beaut, “untitled III” by Ben Owen, a low-level, metallic friction-sounding piece that seems just on the other side of being clearly heard, as though clarity is being frustrated by some unseen barrier. If any of the cuts here achieve success in that initial charge, it’s this one. Ben Frost’s lovely piano (with some electronics) composition, “4 Good Reasons to Leave All This Behind”, evokes Satie and early Bryars and precedes perhaps my favorite of the disc, the concluding “Riwalla Farm (Excerpt)” by Greg Davis. All but silent, my guess is that it involves a nighttime field recording at said farm where an exceedingly gentle rainfall is in progress accompanied by the odd low rumble and animal cry (bird? goat?). Beautifully realized.

Overall, I received more a sense of peacefulness and acceptance than isolation (at least in its pejorative meaning). In any event, “On Isolation” is a tasty compilation, well chosen and sequenced and worth everyone’s time.

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The more experimental membership of the Kompakt roster reconvene for another instalment in the Pop Ambient series, always one of the highlights in Kompakt's year. This time round contributions come from Klimek, DJ Koze, The Field and Wolfgang Voigt among others, and as ever the dominant aesthetic is one of luscious, effulgent soundscaping. Markus Guenter opens the record up with the cinematic expanses of 'Oceans Day', loaded with panning acoustic guitar and thick synth string chords. Next, Wolfgang Voigt assumes his All moniker for 'Sag Alles AB' which gravitates around a rhythmic CD skipping impulse that sounds like a macrocosm of a Shuttle358 track. Triola's 'In Lourdes' finds Jorg Burger producing a similarly lavish sound world, loaded with watery effects, delayed guitar strings and some gentle cymbal taps. It's actually quite reminiscent of Biosphere's Dropsonde. Thomas Fehlmann's 'Camila' adds a firmer rhythmic component to the compilation's flow. Production-wise it's a real auricular massage and the warm, padded 4/4 beat gives the compilation a heightened sense of direction. Possibly best of all is Klimek's magnificent 'The Ice Storm' which achieves the kind of electronic/orchestral ambience you might find on a Marsen Jules or Deaf Center release. There really isn't anything here that dips below excellence, in fact, 2008's edition of Pop Ambient is a particularly strong entry into the reliably outstanding series.

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InterZone presents Stars of the Lid.

Wij zijn er trots op om op 21 december Stars of the Lid te mogen presenteren.
Deze amerikaanse band staat al jaren op eenzame hoogte als het om gitaar-drones gaat. In 1995 is de eerste plaat verschenen op het illustere Kranky label.
Hun laatste en zevende plaat is overweldigend goed ontvangen en nu komen ze voor enkele live optredens naar Europa. De band speelt met een strijkkwartet en eigen visuals.

http://www.interzone-festival.com

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Op dinsdag 18 december 2007 22:48 schreef Detroit het volgende:
Gaan er nog Fok!ertjes naar Stars of the Lid deze vrijdag, 21 december? Het gaat denk ik weer een lekker stukje ambient worden voor de aldaar aanwezigen. .
[..]

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Op maandag 6 april 2009 01:23 schreef ehqo het volgende:
Vette kick omdat Steve Roach mijn brein heeft gesmolten met Distant Signals.

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Op maandag 6 april 2009 11:54 schreef zodiakk het volgende:
Ik vind zelf onderstaande ambient/drone releases van de laatste maanden de moeite waard:

Mokira - Persona
Quosp - Soundscapes II
Asher - Landscape Studies
Thisquietarmy - Transmissions to 3774379 258421 13s
Eluder - Warm Warning
Sleepy Town Manufacture - No Traces

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Op maandag 6 april 2009 11:54 schreef zodiakk het volgende:
Ik vind zelf onderstaande ambient/drone releases van de laatste maanden de moeite waard:

Mokira - Persona
Quosp - Soundscapes II
Asher - Landscape Studies
Thisquietarmy - Transmissions to 3774379 258421 13s
Eluder - Warm Warning
Sleepy Town Manufacture - No Traces

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Op maandag 6 april 2009 18:13 schreef On het volgende:
Één van mijn favorieten.

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James Kirby's work as The Caretaker has always dealt with the suggestion of haunted memory and the obscuring of temporal motion, and this latest album makes that more explicit than ever, with titles that reference amnesia, Alzheimer's, past life regression and other such memory misfires and short circuits. Musically, this album might be compared to Philip Jeck's manipulated vinyl tracts, featuring similarly oceanic swells of crackle and dust, with faded pianos or big band sounds wafting wraith-like across the mix. After conjuring the sinister atmospherics of The Shining with his debut album Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom, The Caretaker has been chasing this idea of sound leaving its indelible mark on a space and time, so consequently these creepy, semi-dissolved musical passages sound no more tangible than shadows, and the album for the most part comes across as some sort of séance held via wax cylinder. Arguably the most accomplished and rewarding Caretaker album to date, Persistent Repetition Of Phrases is an album you'll want to snap up fast

Vooral de titel track is erg hypnotiserend. Hij heeft nog meer toffe dingen uitgebracht, zoals een box die je zou helpen om je herinneringen op te halen, en laatst ook nog een ander nieuw album.