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VARIOUS ARTISTS - Ambient Not Not Ambient In The Ambient Century, writer Mark Prendergast finds elements of ambient music in artists and groups as diverse as The Byrds, Madonna, and (unsurprisingly) Brian Eno. While the most common aural association with the term “ambient” involves gentle synthesizers and reverb, the musical concept reaches a far wider scope. Ambient music can be with or without beats, vocals, traditional instruments, tones, or repetitive structure; all it really requires is a depth that can either be ignored or focused upon, without a clear detriment to the listening experience. The myriad possibilities inherent in ambient music are smattered across
the diverse, engaging contributions to Ambient Not Not Ambient. Eschewing
the lo-fi glitch-dance sound most often associated with Audio Dregs,
this newest offering features contributions from artists within and
without its stable. It’s a gamble to put acts as different as
Baltimore psych-noise makers WZT Hearts and Skam favorite Freeform together
on the same compilation, but the result is a richly rewarding mosaic
of cerebral sounds. It’s obvious that a good deal of thought went into the sequencing on Ambient. Such a long-running compilation of ambient music could easily turn into dismissive wallpaper, but here, every new track brings a different attribute to the fold, such that the listener is constantly reevaluating the music. Nudge’s Dayrise plays like a more concise and fleeting Windy and Carl drone, laden with ascending guitar riffs and flat, airy bass. Following this is Even As We Here, by AM/PM, anchored in a quarter-note bass beat, and gradually developing into an ambient techno epic reminiscent of Detroit second-wavers Kenny Larkin and Carl Craig. Likewise, the dense percussion and menacing wall of sound on WZT Hearts’ Discuss Winter is followed by a break with Sawako’s Nst, built out of distant music box chimes. Ambient successfully captures both the settling and unsettling possibilities
of such minimally progressing music. E*Rock’s Exexpat is an unnerving
meditation of hollow synths and tenderly pained shouts, while the rapid
audio dicing on Lucky Dragons’ Sayles Street Ok Ok sounds oddly
celebratory. Contrary to some ambient music, Ambient Not Not Ambient
refuses to be ignored, but in the best possible way: excellent contributions
and flawless (and definitely not seamless) sequencing grab the listener
at each track. It only figures that it’s taken years to put together
Ambient, as it’s an exercise in perfection down to the last minute
detail. By David Abravanel
Stillstand oder Lähmung Einer der vielseitigsten Musiker aus Portland, Oregon, ist Paul Dickow.
Neben seinem Mitwirken bei Fontanelle und Nudge, veröffentlichte
der Multiinstrumentalist unter seinem Künstlernamen Strategy einige
schöne Techno-12inches im klassischen Vierviertelrhythmus auf ORAC
und Dreck, und war noch um einiges elektronisch-verspielter bei seinen
beiden Alben auf Kranky, die durchaus groovy genannt werden dürfen
– um hier nur paradigmatisch an sein fantastisches Debüt
»Drumsolo’s Delight« aus dem Jahre 2004 zu erinnern.
»Music for Lamping«, sein drittes Soloalbum, verzichtet
nun allerdings nicht nur völlig auf Beats, sondern auf Rhythmus
im allgemeinen. Dickows Ambient-Entwurf entsagt dabei sämtlichen
Stilmitteln, die eine Entwicklung, ein Fortkommen, eine Bewegung innerhalb
der Musik zulassen. So verharren die sechs Tracks fünfundfünfzig
Minuten lang im Schwebezustand, im Stillstand. Da sind geduldige Zuhörer
gefragt. Paul Dickow hat zusammen mit Audio Dregs-Mitbetreiber E*Rock
die Compilation »Ambient not not Ambient« kuratiert. Dabei
bestätigt sich nicht die Annahme, »Ambient not not Ambient«
könne stilistisch an Strategy’s »Music for Lamping«
anknüpfen. Die Compilation zeigt wunderbar die Vielfalt an musikalischen
Möglichkeiten, die unter das Banner ›Ambient‹ gefasst
werden können: von den Spieluhrenmelodien Sawakos, über den
introvertierten Techno von AM/PM oder dem zerklüfteten Gitarrenpicking
der Lucky Dragons, zur schnappatmenden Klangreminiszenz an Brian Eno
der Wzt Hearts. Man kann diese Compilation zudem als aktuelle Bestandsaufnahme
der Musikszene von Amerikas Kreativhauptstadt Portland lesen. Mit Beiträgen
von Bird Show, Nudge, E*Vax, E*Rock, Valet und anderen ist sie auch
dahingehend sehr gelungen.
VA: Ambient Not Not Ambient Perhaps Ambient Not Not Ambient's double negative is intended to stress that the collection isn't just an ambient and anti-ambient collection but that the latter content is so far out it transcends being ambient's mere diametric opposite—“not-ambient squared” in other words. Whether or not that interpretation aligns with the label's concept is unknown but what is clear is that the seventy-six-minute collection largely opts for psychedelic territory more than ambient per se. It's telling that a great many artists who appear are affiliated with kranky (e.g., White Rainbow, Bird Show, Chris Herbert, Valet) given that the Chicago label has itself migrated towards spacey projects of late. Curators Paul Dickow (aka Strategy) and E*Rock both make appearances, with Dickow sneaking in undercover as one-half of Smoke & Mirrors. Much of could be described as beatless and hazy moodscaping occasionally
humanized with murmured vocals. Grouper's (Liz Harris) “Quiet
Eyes” is representative of the style, with her hushed vocal set
against gossamer guitar-generated shudder and shimmer, while the phantom
moans channeled by Honey Owens in Valet's “Tuesday Partly Sunny”
epitomize the collection's spacey character. Similarly, Rhenne Molly
Miles' narcoleptic voice echoes across the deep sea synthesizer glissandi
of partner Paul Dickow in Smoke & Mirrors' “Ocean,”
and Adam Forkner works up hazy mushroom shimmer in the White Rainbow
piece “See and The Field Feels.” The curdling tempo in Mudboy's
“Study for a Sleep Album-2nd Movement” is so slow, the song's
beats and electronic lines act like a sleep-inducing pharmaceutical.
Stylistic contrasts emerge elsewhere: Chris Herbert's atmospheric dub
workout “Whips & Jingles” sounds like Vladislav Delay's
Entain revisited; Nudge's “Dayrise” offers beatific ambient
realized with assistance from Brian Foote, Marc Hellner, and Rolan Vega;
Sawako indulges in intimate sound sculpting using toy-like sounds in
“Nst”; and trains agitatedly clatter through the gaseous
industrial vapors of WZT Hearts' “Discuss Winter.” The compilation
gets a welcome injection of rhythm via Radovan Scasascia's AM/PM and
Simon Pyke's Freeform projects. In AM/PM's tech-house track “Even
as We Here,” waves of steely shimmer drift into view amidst subtly
acidic bass lines and dub interjections, while Freeform's “Ante
Meridian” offers an exercise in squirrelly electronic techno-funk.
Seventeen tracks is a lot to digest so come prepared for a multi-scenic
trip.
VALET - “Tuesday Partly Sunny”
STRATEGY - MUsic for Lamping Strategy has released some great Techno records on labels such as ORAC an Dreck, with subtly ornate approach to 4/4 rythms. Music for Lamping, however, finds Strategy, aka Paul Dickow, doing without beats altogether. It's a of extremely reductionist Ambient tracks, largely consisting of airy synth drones and crackles of distortion and rain showers. While similarly minimalist post-Techno records, such as Keith Fullerton Whitman's fantastic Playthroughs, achieve a grandeur and gravitas through their hulking, unhurried momentum, Strategy is content to let his Ambient tracks sway gently in the breeze, their minor fluctuations only emphasizing their fundamental stillness. The lack of movement and narrative makes Music for Lamping a frequently impenetrable listen, with the uniformity of tnes throughout almost encouraging your mind to wander so far away from the music that it disappears altogether. Perhaps this would be pleasant background sound for post-club mornings-indeed, Dickow has said that these tracks were originally intended for such sessions-but in other contexts the album is a step too far into nothingness. Together with E*Rock, Dickow curates the Ambient Not Ambient [sic], featuring a large number of electronica and avant rock artists from his native Portland along with the likes of London's AM/PM and Lucky Dragons from Los Angeles. The indecision of the album's title is appropriate; while these tracks are too busy and beat-focused to be 'true' Ambient, there's certainly a familial resemblance to the latter in the album's foggy drifts and drones. While the compilation's focus on the indistinct and underrated sometimes make it a little dreary, there's enough good stuff here to make you want to investigate further; which is, after all, the main aim of such showcases. AM/PM's broken down, spluttering Techno is as immersive as ever, while the flicker-frame beauty of Lucky Dragons and WZT Hearts achieves the tranquility of Ambient music through babbling, pointillist rhythms. -Simon Hampson
Ambient Not Not mbient The 'Ambient Not Ambient' compilation features a whole wealth of contributions
coming from composers, producers and electronic musicians alike and
serves as the reminder that computer-generated music as such never really
grounded. It just got a bit smelly. As Audio Dregs's first release in
a long time, this seventeen track album is an almost flawless illustration
of the state of things in the, still minor, county of Electronica. 'Ambient
Not Ambient' provides some sort of a sweet revenge. Whilst The Barbican
Centre may well stage Laurie Anderson during the Summer season, at the
very same time, interest in electronic music and composition seems to
be waning. E*Rock and Eric Johnson's efforts notwithstanding, the Audio
Dregs label maintains the foothold that it is known for. -Maarten Schiethart
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