In Place of Dreary Patterns

exploringthecavernousbeyond - a blog for colder, stranger, more inexplicable musical trinkets

Archive for category Ambient

Ultra United - (2002) Ultra Audience (****)

Jul 5

Posted by Mr. Landry in 4 stars, Ambient, Dark Ambient, Electronic Music, Noise, Reviews | No Comments

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Ultra Audience is the sole document of ambient / noise group Ultra United, and thus evidently quite the labor of love.  There is a lot of passion in these 9 tracks, each which is accompanied by a  picture or short poem in the beautiful, colorful booklet, raising the question of whether the album is meant to follow some kind of vague, abstract concept.  The poems are often in stilted, cliched rhymes, but they lend a very personal air to the music and overall the packaging is undoubtedly marvellous.  I spotted a used copy in a local record store, having never heard of this group or album, instantly gravitated towards it and ended up buying it.  For something by a group so obscure and likely made on a low budget, it sure looks great.

Many groups that blend the genres of ambient and noise are jam bands of sorts, letting abrasive textures take over their music when it suits the flow of the improvisation.  This is where “Ultra Audience” differs…  it is obviously solitary, composed music, and is almost totally focused on textures of sound as expressors of emotions.  Which movements on the album should employ volume and harshness has been carefully chosen.  Accompanied by the poetry inside the booklet the message, the album seems to say, “This is how I have felt during my life.  Listen, and if it’s unpleasant…  Now you know how it was for me”.  So much ambient music focuses on the cosmic, but this musician is not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve.  The poems reference the happenings of a life we have no hope of further access to, but leave the music with this general sense of significance in the context of a life.  The unfortunate side effect is a certain angsty cheesiness in the vein of the woman sexily exhaling cigarette smoke on the cover, but this can be mostly avoided if you put the booklet down.

Each track is its own notably different textural realm, separated from the others by at least 10 seconds of silence. Some of the noise tracks simply rest in a suspended state, (”From Consciousness to Nowhere” and “The Volunteer”, accompanied in the booklet with the phrase ‘life in a locked groove’) mimicing the feeling of being stuck in a depressive rut.  These are the album at its most unpleasant.  One can feel they endure the noise, a humourless grey sheet that brings back every dismal rainy day, for a reason.  This is not a nihilistic album, as is obvious in the very dramatic synth pieces (similar in style to Vidna Obmana, vintage Steve Roach or even some old Skinny Puppy instrumentals), like “The Quiet Riot” and “Sunset”.  These tracks have wonderful, sensitive melodies, but are few and far between on this album.  “Physical Initiation”, with its abrupt lurch into static life, is a well placed opening gesture.  “Scrape the Sky” contains aggressive analog synth squalls that are like a storm.  Only “The Incendiary Lover”, led by a needlessly distorted synth line that makes the track sound incredibly cheap and sequenced, really gets any criticism from me.

The noise textures are not volatile bursts of furious feedback, rather they are cold digital distortion created through DSP.  They have less depth than analog noise often does, and on their own, the sounds are rather uninteresting, but by the end of each of the rather lengthy tracks they are densely intertwined in such a way as to be mesmerizing to me, although they may still be unlistenable to some people.  I feel the dullness of the textures reflects the stagnation of desensitization and apathy.  As Maurizio Bianchi said, sound “to work on complete realising of the modern decadence”.  The highlight of the album for me is the absolutely transcendent closer “Snow Muzak” which after beginning with 4 minutes of silence, uses its digital cleanliness to evoke an unnaturally simple, glistening surreal dimension not too far removed from the work of Gas or Oval.

“Ultra Audience” is a solid album that succeeds in bringing the genre of ambient to a more personal, immediate and narrative place, as well as integrating it with elements of digital noise.  It had to grow on me, as it’s very slow moving music.  Fans of minimal ambient music should pick this up if they see a copy.  4 stars.

Coil - (2004) ANS (*)

Jun 19

Posted by Mr. Landry in 1 star, Ambient, Avant Garde, Electronic Music, Reviews, Tribal / Ritual Ambient | No Comments

coil-ans

Regardless of the spiritual meanings behind what the group was attempting to accomplish here, this 3 disk set is ultimately, as the title of my review indicates, completely unlistenable. The sounds here do not sound composed; if they evoke anything, it is only an anomaly, an accident- I do not believe one can simply translate an image into sound and still find the SOUL of that image, that thing that made it interesting/worth looking at/spiritually significant, remotely intact.

The ANS is evidently capable of creating some ghostly, strange sounds worthy of inclusion on a Coil album, but the virtually unchanging drone of the ANS is all that is found on the album, and even it is not structured in any way. There is no attempt at track ordering. There is no humanity. This is the closest to mechanical randomness in music one can find.

Perhaps if the rest of Coil’s truly beautiful, transcendental discography did not exist, “ANS” would hold SOME value, but as it stands, even if you evaluate “ANS” as something to use an ambient backdrop for other activities, many other Coil albums are far, far beyond it (”Time Machines”, “Queens of the Circulating Library”).

I’ve heard every piece on this set at least once by now, but I basically had to force myself to listen to it. I can enjoy maybe 2/3 of one track of this at a time from a purely textural standpoint, but it is completely empty sound. I doubt that I would even pay normal CD price for this (I downloaded it), so the fact that they charge more than $100 for it leaves me with no other choice but to give it the lowest rating possible.

In conclusion, I find it admirable that these adventurous musicians would try to work with such a machine. However, I have no idea why they released this. If you haven’t heard Coil, get the “Musick to the Play in the Dark” series. If you’re already a fan, get every other release first, and there are a LOT.

Originally published on Amazon.com on July 27th, 2008.

Z’EV - (2009) Sum Things (***)

Jun 17

Posted by Mr. Landry in 3 stars, Ambient, Avant Garde, Dark Ambient, Electronic Music, Noise, Reviews | No Comments

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Z’EV has always been a musician who has had my respect (he is completely uncompromising), but whose music I could not truly enjoy.  His earlier percussive works, such as “Heads & Tales”, which often contained vocal samples, are more enjoyable with their concise compositions, discernable direction and polyrhythmic energy, but for the most part, his albums are such austere, unfeeling exercises; perhaps he is focused more on the process by which his works are created than the resulting sound, as are many other avant garde artists whose work sounds similarly lacking in human warmth or logic patterns, such as Ryoji Ikeda or Richard Chartier… or perhaps with his works he intends to take us on a journey to a mental space so distant that most get inevitably lost along the way, unable to emotionally relate or comprehend where the ‘trip’ was supposed to lead.

“Sum Things”, six tracks of ringing, beatless sound (described on the spine as “a possible form for cold dark matter”) is no different, showcasing many of the aspects which make him unlistenable.  As often with Z’EV, every track seems to be a separate product of the same experimental method, making for an extremely consistent sound throughout the record.  In this case, the primary and only sound on the album is a grainy, harsh metallic resonance, which rather than being ambient and pure is mulched up with unpleasant artifacts caused by performing excessive time stretching and compression on a sample.  Only rarely does it approach something I would call ‘textural beauty’, something I’ve found in even the most unapproachable avant garde quite often.   Mostly it rings obnoxiously in a muddy morass of high frequencies.

Though the music ends up sounding similar to ambient music in some ways, and does drone on, I have not been able to interpret the sound as representing a space, something ambient music generally does.  There is only the haziest ‘landscape’ hidden in the sound here.  It does not ‘reverberate’ as ambient music should… reverberation being the way the human ear determines the size and shape of the space in which sound occurs.  The dull cacophony of this album seems random at first, and repeated listenings do nothing to make any kind of organization apparent.  There are louder and softer sections.  The last track is almost on the level of noise.  But it seems to mean little.

Dark ambient, despite its name, is not always a masochistic genre of music to partake in.  Many artists known for their fear inducing music are, for the initiated, pleasant to listen to in many ways.  Lustmord’s music has a sense of hugeness and cosmic unity about it, whereas Lull specializes in a sort of cathartic, escapist hypnotism and sonic impressionism.  Many an artist’s work could be called ‘badass’, and is thus enjoyable as subtle, slightly campy apocalyptic daydreaming rather than coming across as actually disturbing.  All seem driven by a human sense of aesthetics.  Even Aube’s work, nearly comparable to Z’EV’s in inaccessibility, has a certain spatial order and rhythm.

The universe of “Sum Things”, on the other hand seemed to be governed by a being with no soul, no desire.  It is abrasive without ever really being loud, breaking inhibitions or exposing a shred of aggression.  Nor does it express the simplicity and clarity of any kind of zen or meditation state.  The only keys we get into the bizarre world of “Sum Things” are the photos contained in the album packaging.  Eroded, precarious natural pillars of rock of a grey color the album does seem to reflect.  Even Steven Stapleton’s “Thunder Perfect Mind”, which came across as completely unsympathetic towards human life, was understandable in its sheer hostility.  As far as I can tell,there is no force of will present in this music.  The structures of the pieces would lead me to believe that they were caused by glitches or pure mathematics (just look at the track titles), and not a thoughtful process of composition.

So, after giving Z’EV another try I must concede he remains sonically interesting to me, but completely unlistenable.  Perhaps if he chose the best of six tracks here and including it on an album with other, completely different experiments, it would be possible for me to listen to all the way through in one sitting.  I give “Sum Things” it 3 stars on the basis of feeling like there is still something I’m not getting here.  Perhaps this is generous, but I admire those who are unafraid to really push the boundaries.  This is only for the most adventurous, and even they may be disappointed.

Scorn - (1997) Logghi Barogghi (****)

Jun 15

Posted by Mr. Landry in 4 stars, Ambient, Dark Ambient, Dub / Chillout, Electronic Music, Reviews, Sampling / Instrumental Hip Hop | No Comments

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Regardless of what I say about it now, Scorn’s 5th album “Logghi Barroghi” is destined to be dismissed as just another in a long string of minimalist dark ambient beats.  In my opinion, it does distinguish itself from the others - it is one of the most unfriendly, minimal and alienating albums I know, and certainly the most ‘out there’ Scorn release to date.  Though it is hard to enjoy, it has the rare distinction of being a musical enigma.

Even by the standards of the always dismal Mick Harris, “Logghi Barogghi” represents a particularly deep and bizarrely unfamiliar circle of hell.  Its tone is one of nameless fear and confusion.  The messy, hallucinogenic red blur on the cover, like the vision of a individual massivelty inebriated at the point of despair and black out, staggering down a threatening and alien city street in the night, proves the perfect image for the drugged disoriented terror that is this album.  In a way it is more unsettling than his spacier ambient works as Lull because it brings the darkness back into the context of our urban everyday world with the organic sounds of the drums and bass.  These familiar timbres keep the listener grounded, prevent this album from providing the psychedelic escape into peaceful abstraction of space ambient.  Instead, it comes across as very dystopian.

These rough break beats fall into what at first seem to be sluggish hip hop grooves but soon morph into shambling mantras as layers and layers of rhythmic electronic ambience are quietly and systematically added.  The impatient listen will start to wonder around the 3 minute mark when the main hook / theme of the track will be introduced, only to be disappointed when the song ends 3 minutes later without ever resorting to anything of the kind.  Listeners able to immerse themselves in the subtle polyrhythms of these carefully constructed loops will find themselves drooling.  For those with time, this is a sublimely rhythmic experience.  Nobody can make a loop feel ’spiral shaped’ quite like Mick Harris.

Apparently, vocal samples cannot reach this abyssal plane without becoming stretched and mutilated into garbled nonsense.  Indeed, no words can really describe the emotion on this disk and would thus only cheapen it.  The sound palette here is incredibly stark; nearly every sound is muffled, chopped up, distorted and then muffled again, sometimes in very arbitrary and chaotic (yet emotional ways), resulting in a very gritty sounding production.  No sound can hold together for long.  The bass lines commonly utilize ungodly low frequencies, and may not even be audible on some lower budget systems.

“Spongie”, which is dominated by the sound of a whining mosquito turned drone, stands out as especially bizarre.  “Out Of” gets points for containing the closest thing on the album to a nice cleansing spliced break beat solo ala Aphex Twin or Venetian Snares.  “Black Box II” is refreshing with its sparkling high frequencies.  Mostly, though, as with every Scorn album since it became a solo project with 1995’s “Gyral”, the tracks, while all good, keep a very consistent sound throughout the album.  After you’ve heard a few songs, the rest of the album won’t surprise you.

All in all, a solid and unique Scorn album.  It is definitely possible to listen to “Logghi Barogghi”, though I feel that to really allow yourself to be absorbed into it is to willingly descend into some sort of psychological dead end.  Listen at your own risk.  4 stars.

William Basinski and Richard Chartier - (2004) Untitled 1-3 (*****)

Dec 18

Posted by Mr. Landry in 5 stars, Ambient, Electronic Music, Reviews | No Comments

basinski-chartier-untitled

The modestly titled “Untitled 1-3″ seems to have been majorly overlooked and allowed to pass into obscurity.  It’s a shame; this is a truly epic ambient collaboration in the grand tradition of Robert Rich and Lustmord’s “Stalker”.

Before hearing this record, both of those artists were at least somewhat familiar to me.  I can handle Chartier’s completely unlistenable ultra-minimalism in incredible small doses, provided I have the time, hi-fi gear and truly complete silence required.  My girlfriend once commented, “it sounds like dog whistles”.  I can’t argue.  I find the presence of collaborators often improve and balances his work, as they’re most often working in the realms of sound actually loud enough to be audible and closer to typical frequency ranges.  Chartier’s contributions are forced to be a little less uncompromising.  I enjoyed his “Chessmachine” with COH, and ended up quite impressed with “Untitled 1-3″.

This is certainly no Raster Noton-styled exercise in academic, mathematical forms of composition using basic waveforms and the like; rather, it brings ideas from such music into (slightly) more accessible arenas.  The sounds on this album were clearly made to sound beautiful (indeed they do), and the overall structure and sound is similar to the dark space ambient of Lustmord and Lull, putting this album more in line with Basinski’s work.  I’m so far only familiar with his also very minimal Disintegration Loops set, but judging from that set I can tell he puts a lot of emphasis on texture and aesthetics, and paints with nearly as subtle a brush as Chartier.  His music is emotional, evocative and moves in the patterns of the subconscious mind.

“Untitled 1-3″ is colder, most spacious, more static than all but the most empty feeling space ambient.  It clearly benefits from the influence of the Raster Noton school, as it strives for supreme, exact attention to detail and succeeds with flying colors.  Any audiophile or deep listening will find hours of enjoyment with this album.  Furthermore, as is common with the basic waveform school of artists, nothing here is exactly recognizable as a “synthesizer”.  These are artists who frolic comfortably in the infinitely blank canvas of electronic synthesis and create sound for sounds sake, and yet end up with something quite thematic.  It’s a perfect compliment to the abstract wash of color on the cover.

The first track begins with a warm bass drone, pulsing in subtle rhythm.  Layering builds and eventually an arctic whitewash howls an ode to loneliness.  It could be the wind, it could be the wails of living creatures.  The perfectly engineered sounds will keep you wondering for the 20 minute duration.

The second track is the most melodic of the set, as well as the longest.  Glassy, nearly-harsh higher frequency melodic resonances haunting fade in and out of the mix, sometimes building into chords.  There is little soul in these tones, however… they sound as if they could be the product of a natural phenomenon, ancient and unsympathetic.  Something like wind is again present, but here it is more faintly heard.  We could be in a cave of ice, even under the surface of the ice in a slow moving subterranean flow….

The third track is shortest and oddly enough most active of the  three.  Airy, whirring midrange reverberation is the name of the game here, sweeping in and out in blissed out gusts.  This track has more warmth and zen feeling, and may be my favorite on the disk.   Again, these drones recall the wind.  Glitches, clicks and other more abrupt sounds are somehow placed in the mix in such a way as to not be jarring in the slightest.  The resonance from the previous track appear on occasion, but seem less threatening and alien.

In summary, this is a challenging ambient masterpiece.  There is little human warmth to be found, and those inexperienced with the genre of space ambient will find it hard to detect the changes in the pieces.  I found arctic images to describe the music, but these are merely interpretation, and in truth this kind of synthesis is close to being sound without association, as you may guess from the pieces and album being nameless.  Having said that, this is one of the most complete, aesthetically engaging and immersive sound worlds I’ve experienced, and sadly underrated.  5 stars.

Between Interval - (2009) The Edge of a Fairytale (*****)

Nov 7

Posted by Mr. Landry in 5 stars, Ambient, Electronic Music, Reviews | No Comments

between-interval-the-edge-of-a-fairytale

While I have listened to all of Between Interval’s past output, I have never been truly impressed until hearing “The Edge of a Fairytale”, which, ever since seeing its artwork and song titles, has captivated me completely. Always fascinated with the stars and space (”Secret Observatory”), Between Interval now successfully brings you among them, to feel the size and shape of the void. Yet the void seems friendly when this album is playing. It takes the blurry, whooshing resonance of past albums like “Autumn Continent” into a newfound sharp, airy and crisp clarity. The album is so powerfully WHITE and PURE… A truly blank, holy white, blissfully at one with the massive, shining universe. Somehow never harsh or unpleasant, resonant whitewash blots out all other melodic tones, replacing them with rushing, beautiful sound. It’s like a splash of cold water in the face… It has the purity of snow, of mountain air. And yet it seems a creation of celestial or spiritual inspiration more than an ‘arctic ambient’ piece like Biosphere’s “Substrata”. The album seems charged with a strange magical vibrancy, making the title seem quite relevant.

Occasional processed melodic voices flicker in and out the mix in tracks like “Atlantis Lost”, gone before the mind can really even process them. It adds a little lonely urban flavor, reminiscent of Burial’s Untrue or the works of Scanner. The album seems to alternate between personal, introverted sensitivity and a universalized divine bliss. He’s obviously been listening to a lot of Lustmord, as well.

While his music has gotten a great more existential and spacey with this release, Stefan Jonsson, now calling himself Stefan ‘Strand’, is still less patient than an older ambient master like Steve Roach… His tracks are fairly short, and still use conventional synth sounds, loops and rhythmic structures sometimes, although they don’t really have “beats”. They seem almost energetic, and like fellow Scandinavian Biosphere, he doesn’t usually allow himself to drift too far into space, with a few marvelous exceptions, such as the epic “Leviathan”, or “Pillars of Creation”, a truly ecstatic highlight track. Perhaps now, however, I can see “Strand” eventually joining the ranks of Steve Roach and Robert Rich as one of the great ambient masters. He has been lumped in with them in the past, already, but I believe this was a comparison wrongfully made. He still seems like a younger musician to me. This is his “Structures from Silence”, or perhaps even his “Dreamtime Return”.

Other highlights include the absolutely magnificent “Eden In Shadows”, creating some of the most pleasing mental images I’ve ever had from an ambient track. It truly is the sound of the Garden of Eden. The sounds truly seem to evoke a place more lush and full of life than even anywhere on Earth… Warm synth chords resonate with the feelings of these sounds perfectly. It’s Strand’s crowning achievement so far.

In conclusion, this album is a invigorating masterpiece, a blast of spiritual energy and light. Between Interval has become one to watch for me, and this album is why. Recommended for any fan of ambient music. An unconditional 5 stars.

I do expect even greater things from him in the future, seeing as ambient musicians typically age like fine wine.

PlatEAU - (1999) Music for Grassbars (*****)

Sep 17

Posted by Mr. Landry in 5 stars, Ambient, Electronic Music, House, Reviews | No Comments

Plateau - Music for Grassbars

After the scatterbrained, inebriated mindfuck that was Skinny Puppy’s entire career, cEvin Key’s solo projects have wandered even further into mindbending strangeness.  Most of the albums have been filled with layer after layer of disorienting noise in chaotic dense collages (Download’s “Furnace”, “Music for Cats” released under the cEvin Key name), but with the marijuana inspired project PlatEAU, he’s finally learned the value of keeping things simple.

Inspired by the best of Detroit-styled amelodic, minimalist house (read: Richie Hawtin), “Music for Grassbars” has a vintage, in your face sound palette.  The machines are twisted and turned on themselves, creating disjointed, shambling but always repetitive rhythms, contrasting the constant shifting and variation that made up the beats in Skinny Puppy.  The music here is cold, subtle and possibly improvisatory, at least in part.  It holds you in its hypnotic single-mindedness, creating a clear mind, a certain lack of mental noise.

Those looking for a quick industrial or EBM fix will not find it.  However, those who have gone beyond the typical techno anthems and popular DJs and are already interested in electronic dance music as listening music will probably eat up the odd atmosphere and somehow groovy seasick rhythms.  cEvin doesn’t shy away from dissonance or strange moods.  The album is insistent and aggressive in its coldness at times, but spacious and mellow at other times. It remains listenable.

The few moments of melody that do appear are delicious; warm, analog shimmers that echo in the distance.  The reverbs on this album sound beautiful.  This, as any of cEvin Key’s work, is a perfect album for the audiophile, production nut, or lover of well crafted electronic sounds.

As far as highlights, the album flows incredibly well and most of the tracks run together as in a DJ mix, so individual tracks aren’t always easy to remember.  “Dutch Flowers”, however is a chilled out instant classic of house music, and a great track to listen to in order to test the waters and see if you can enjoy this sort of style.

I do have to admit, this album is a lot like cEvin Key saying “see, I can be a techno DJ too”, and I’m used to him being the innovator, and not the follower, but this album succeeds so incredibly well at what it’s trying to do that I can’t fault it.  cEvin Key puts his own stamp on an already established genre.  I can’t think of another minimal techno artist who took us this far out into nowhereland except the master himself, Plastikman.

5 stars.  Highly recommended, along with the second album “Spacecake”, but that’s another review.

Robert Rich - (1983) Trances (*****)

Aug 11

Posted by Mr. Landry in 5 stars, Ambient, Electronic Music, Reviews | No Comments

Robert Rich - Trances (Cassette)

“Trances” is Robert Rich’s other 1983 album, and stylistically, it’s much like “Drones”, but sees him expanding his sound palette, add clarity to his production, and creating more evocative, complicated sound environments.

“Cave Paintings” begins like the pieces on “Drones”…  a pleasant loop, this time of what sounds like sped up cricket sounds, establishes a backdrop for a warm drone with shifting, resonant harmonics.  Extended synth improvisations introduce themselves.  This time, though, shimmering, golden sounds that could easily have originated from a rhodes piano rise in liquid arpeggiations compliment the chords.  The song feels, at risk of waxing overly poetic, like light shining through honey.  The mix is much more clear and three dimensional.  Several minutes before the song ends, most of the drone drops out, leaving the sound environment strangely empty.  Though it never becomes outright threatening, like some of the material on “Drones” and “Sunyata”, by the end, this emptiness has given risen to new synth themes that are quite mournful and nostalgic.  All in all, an amazing track.

The second track, “Hayagriva” is more spacious, less melodic, and feels very dry.  The bassy drone from the previous track returns, but definitely feels a little less warm, a little less sympathetic.  A, sparkling, crisp electronic buzz that would sound like power lines overhead if it didn’t resonate in such a pretty major chord crackles quietly in the background.  It brings to mind images of ruins in the open desert.  The usual slow synth chords do eventually enter, but create little human feeling to sympathize with beyond a vague sense of anticipation.  The movement of the piece is again reminiscent of clouds, but this time other sounds are present to remind the listener that they are on the ground, looking up.  Near the end, it’s as if the wind begins to pick up, and a longing, airy chord overwhelms the mix for another somber ending.

In conclusion, both these pieces are fantastic, and “Trances” is a must have Robert Rich album.  Highly recommended to anyone not opposed to the concept of ambient space music.  5 stars.

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Robert Rich - (1983) Drones (****)

Aug 11

Posted by Mr. Landry in 4 stars, Ambient, Electronic Music, Reviews | No Comments

Robert Rich - Drones (Cassette)

Following “Sunyata”, the long form, beatless spacy pieces would continue for the following pair of albums, “Trances” and “Drones”, both released on cassette in 1983.  Each contains two pieces around half an hour in length.  They still have that time-eating ’sleep concert’ feeling, as well as the youthful, raw intensity of their predecessor album.  First to be discussed is “Drones”…

With opener “Seascape”, Rich created his first real masterpiece.  Half an hour of sound that may have been improvised, but regardless creates a coherent world.  Mournful, wandering, anxious thoughts rush quietly over the sounds of shore in the form of warm synth chords.  Song title and sound have combined to become Rich’s first real theme piece.  It’s a song for a sunset on the coast, sketched, it would seem, by someone with plenty of demons and preoccupations.   The dark, unsettling feel of “Sunyata” continues here.  The production is the same thick, soupy murk.  This time, however, Rich seems to have a clearer idea of what he’s going for.  By the end of the piece, we’ve drifted a long way from where we started.  A pure, resonant guitar echoes across the surface of the water from miles away, the first inkling of the ambient guitar sound he’d use so much in later years.  “Seascape” fades out.

The other piece from the original release, “Wheel of Earth”, is a lot more static, and reminds me of watching clouds pass slowly overhead.  The whooshing, airy sound of the song, as well as its overall pacing, are very reminiscent of clouds, and recall Steve Roach’s work.  Hauntingly slow, lonely synth notes ring like sirens in the mist.  A feeling of hugeness is achieved.  It’s not as emotionally involving as “Seascape”, but still transports the listener, and hypnotizes the listener the same way as can the gradual movement of the clouds.  A solid track, although modern technology has helped this kind of thing greatly in the last couple decades.  Just check out Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana’s “Well of Souls” double album to see what I mean.

The third track, the shorter, 12 minute “Resonance”, is only available on the double disk reissue, but since that’s the only edition available anymore, most people will hear this track.  The song is what its title indicates, pretty much - a cold, distant, resonant hum, evoking industrial machines with their hums and whirs, but so far underwater that theor sounds are rounded, faint, more like ghosts.  It’s an uneventful, simple but remarkably dark piece.

In conclusion, “Drones” contains 3 solid tracks that all explore different realms in their lengthy running times.  If all 3 tracks were as powerful as “Seascape”, it would easily be a 5 star album, but as it is, I would say it deserves a 4 in its original form, and a 4.5 with the addition of “Resonance”, which, unlike “Wheel of Earth”, does not overstay its welcome, or feel at all dated.  I recommend this to anyone interested in Rich, but it shouldn’t be the first album of his they hear.  Only “Seascape” is among his best work.

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Robert Rich - (1981) Sunyata (****)

Aug 2

Posted by Mr. Landry in 4 stars, Ambient, Electronic Music, Reviews | No Comments

The cover for "Sunyata".

The cover for the reissue of "Sunyata".

I’ve decided, after recently listening to a lot of Rich’s work and getting really immersed in it, that I’d like to go through his whole discography, and of course, as I do, I’ll be reviewing each album, which brings us to his first release ever, the very beginning, the actually quite epic and lengthy “Sunyata”.  If you get the latest rerelease, you’ll only be getting the 1st and 3rd tracks, but I’ll review it as the original complete three tracks, since that’s what I listen to whenever I put it on.

“Sunyata” sees Rich as a young, eager, nocturnal force, channeling unrefined, otherworldly, energy in long, formless slabs, 20 minutes or longer in length.  There is no rhythmic component what-so-ever, not even in the droning swells of sound themselves.  There’s also no real structure… these pieces were almost surely improvised, and the listener really feels the young Rich dreaming and visualizing along with them, making his way across some uncharted, exciting mental landscape…  It’s actually some of his least mainstream work ever, showing that this particular artist never set out for easy success with the new age crowd.  Trademarks of his later albums, such as tribal drumming and handmade flutes, are completely absent here.

The sounds themselves are vague and shrouded in mystery.  No sound is distinct, everything merges into a thick, soupy resonance.  This gives the songs a certain lack of specificity… they could evoke so many different environments, each not quite visible through the thick fog of heavy reverb.  Rich delves deep into the surreal realms of fantasy, contemplates the mystery of nature.  He does not keep the listener safe, indeed it could be said that he is trying to scare you…  It dares to go further than Eno’s “Ambient 4: On Land”.  It’s as if the feelings in this music were too intense to restrain…  sustained unease permeates the first track, “Dervish Dreamtime”, and it seems no coincidence that within the drone, there could almost be a human voice, singing out some relentless melancholy in a 19 minute sustained cry.  The eerie, glassy red shimmer of the second track, “Sunyata” is at least for me, the highlight and by far the most cohesive track on the album, so it makes sense that it was later used for “Trances / Drones” (Rich’s 2nd and 3rd albums) 2-fer reissue.  “Oak Spirits” is another long meander, and draws you in even deeper due to its 40+ minute running time.

There is a clarity and focus that Rich would find later as he started to explore the art of making thematic records and produced classics such as “Rainforest”, “Seven Veils” and “A Troubled Resting Place”, but for now, Rich is content to wander from place to place like a dream…  Indeed, like the dreams of the audiences he intentionally put to sleep.  I’ve heard that the songs on this album were originally designed for the sleep concerts Rich frequently put on in the 80’s, and nothing could be more fitting.  Countless times already, I’ve drifted off to these sounds.

In conclusion, his later work creates a more complete, consistent, cohesive and subtle sound environment, but “Sunyata” is still incredibly powerful on its own merits, and while it’s a little dated, still sounds absolutely beautiful.  It lacks the “deep”, “mature” feeling of later Rich, but then, it did come from an adolescent mind, and the seeds of all his later work are absolutely here.  I recommend this for those who are already fans of Robert Rich, or for people who wish his more structured, faster paced works were closer to pure space ambient.  Solid stuff.  4 stars.

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