Category: Ambient
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Bingham String Quartet: Bridge/Scott Piano Quintets
Frank Bridge (1879–1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor, while Cheshire-born Cyril Scott (1879–1970) was a composer, writer, and poet. Bridge was a pacifist and Bridge friends with a Christian Scientist, later becoming interested in metaphysics, and spending many of his latter years living with a clairvoyant. Both the compositions on here — Bridge’s…
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Enya: Dark Sky Island
We struggle with Enya; we like ambient and New Age music, but Enya seems content (who wouldn’t be, given her sales?) to churn out albums that are aimed more at the garden centre than the record store. It’s as diffuse (and about as interesting) as a damp autumn mist. Dark Sky Island is her first…
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Trancescapes: Gaia Sadhana
Trancescapes features singer-songwriter Bill Bourne, who plays blues/rock/acoustic and is a respected muso in Canada, but he’s changed direction for this CD, billed as music for meditation. We assume he meditates and knows what he likes but it’s far from that bland New Age music you get in shops selling crystals and healing rocks, for…
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Aero Flynn: Aero Flynn
Something to do with flying and an alcoholic who swung from chandeliers: we weren’t expecting much from this. In fact — stunning. It’s vying with Mounties and Malpas as our album of the year. Flying swashbuckler Aero Flynn is really Josh Scott, and he’s a mate of Justin Vernon, whose own alias, Bon Iver, is…
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Martin Gore: MG
Depeche Mode fans don’t seem to like this because there are no tunes on it, but we think it’s pretty good. It’s not as good as the Portico album so if you’re a fan of electronica that’s the one to buy first, but it’s not bad, and far from being a vanity project. MG is…
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Land Observations: The Grand Tour
Land Observations, last album Roman Roads IV–XI is one of the Review Corner’s favourite albums. It’s a piece of sonic art (ambient music is too wishy washy a term) in which artist and musician James Brooks tries to convey a sense of place through music. It’s not ambient because most of the songs feature a…
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Shammi: Pithi Cosmic
Pithi is Anglo Indian and has been exposed to lots of different music, from the classical of both countries to hip hop and RnB. As the title suggests, Pithi’s music is aimed at people who want a little peace and calm while they commune with nature, pondering the thought that they don’t actually exist…
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