Press

AV: Tell me about your own musical history to start things off. When did you start playing and composing music and did you have any idea of where the road was going to lead when you started out back then?

BFS: I had noodled with various instruments my whole life, but it wasn't until the early 90s that I even considered composing. At that time, I had moved in with two classical music composers who were doing PhDs at Boston University and got exposed to the world of John Cage, Harry Partch, Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, and the other amazing American minimalist composers. Like so many other artists in the ambient genre, that stuff just completely opened me up to an entirely new way of listening to and thinking about music. And then when I heard Eno I was, of course, hooked.

AV: When did you discover ambient music and how much of an impact did that make on your own compositions?

BFS: Well, I had heard Tangerine Dream way back, as one of my relatives had one of their records. But at the time, in all honesty, it didn't grab me at all. I have deep respect for the Berlin school, but I am just not that interested in listening to that stuff these days, although, admittedly, I still love to listen to Rubicon now and again. Similarly, I'm also a big sucker for Vangelis, especially the Blade Runner soundtrack. In any event, back to my own listening trajectory, Tietchens led me to Vidna Obmana who led me to Robert Rich and Steve Roach. But in terms of the biggest influences on my current approach, I'd have to say Oophoi, Alio Die and Thom Brennan. Both Gianluigi Gasparetti (Oophoi) and Steffano Musso (Alio Die) are, to my ears, ambient geniuses. The long sustaining drones and natural sources they weave together to create this engrossingly thick organic textural music, sounds, to my ears, so unforced and beautiful. Listening to their works, reminds me when making my own music not to think too hard. It sounds cliché, but their work reveals how less truly can be more. On the more explicitly synth-based end of things, I am just captivated by Thom Brennan's music. His appreciation of space, very subtle rhythmic changes, and his use of building choral elements are captivating. I literally feel warm inside when I listen to a record like Brennan’s Shimmer. He has definitely had a big influence on my latest cd, Drifts, which is by far the most, for a lack of a better word, “floaty,” ambient music I've ever composed. Finally, in terms of sound design, I have to mention Robert Rich. Robert did a wonderful job mastering Drifts. And what really impressed me about working with him was how giving he is with his time. I mean he had this awful hand injury just prior to beginning work on Drifts, but he dove right into the music. And once the mastering was completed, I got to talk to Robert for a couple of hours on the phone. The guy is a true mensch and very, very supportive. I consider him a mentor, for sure.

AV: Tell me about some of the CD's you released as an artist before GOS and what it was like for you as an artist trying to get your music out into the public arena?

BFS: I actually never released anything before GOS. All of the stuff was just tapes that I made for myself. I was experimenting a lot, especially during my trip to Nepal in the late 90s. There, I was recording Sherpa voices, sounds of wind and crunching debris underfoot. As odd as it sounds, just listening to that stuff in my tent was quite comforting, it gave me a healthy dose of the ordinary. And that's probably why there was a lot of field recorded stuff and samples on the trilogy of discs. . . . To the Reach the Other Shore, Chroma, and Drones for Bosal, that I first released on the label: It was all very therapeutic. Indeed, at the time of the trip, I had just completed a doctorate in sociology, so things were very much in flux. I guess the sound of footsteps was quite helpful for, no pun intended, keeping my feet on the ground.

AV: How much different was it for you as an artist to shift gears, so to speak, and become the person behind the business end of the label? Do you enjoy the business end of things as much as you enjoy creating and recording your own music?

BFS: With GOS the business stuff has been totally minimized. As a non-profit label, every cent made is poured back into the label to release more music. The artists get complimentary copies of their recordings, of course, but I probably lose several hundred dollars a year. I do this as a labor of love. And as a full time unviersity professor with a decent salary, I can do the label as a kind of hobby, although I think that GOS bleeds into all aspects of my life and is far more than a hobby. That is to say, it's an incredibly important part of my life that I cherish. Of course, if I could, I would do it full time, but, alas, homelessness is not something I aspire to. Plus, I love writing books and teaching too much to let all that go.

AV: Is GOS pretty much you or do you have those who help you with the business end of things?

BFS: I manage the non-profit and have begun to master some of our forthcoming releases. I will continue to use a portion of our sales to pay professional graphic designers like Matt Borghi and Jason Sloan from Slobor Media and the painter/multi-media artist, gl0tch, to do the artwork and packaging. I love the work these folks do, and I’m always excited to see what they come up with.

AV: Having come at this from the perspective of being an artist first how did you want to run things differently with GOS that would be more sensitive to the needs of the artists who would end up putting out their music on your label?

BFS: First and foremost, our mission is to release the most evocative drone musics from around the world. But, from time to time, we will also release much more experimental works (i.e., musics in the tradition of ZOVIET FRANCE) and synth-based stuff (i.e., Thom Brennan). The overriding objective is to represent a deep appreciation for the mysterious and always changing inertia of life itself. And, I also might reiterate, as a non-profit committed to releasing artists' works as first priority, those who purchase gos releases are, indeed, directly facilitating the ability of the label to keep releasing more music! So thanks for any and all support!

AV: How do the artists who have put out their music on GOS end up on your label? Did you go out and sell yourself and your label to them or did they just migrate over to you?

BFS: A bit of both, although, as the label has developed its identity, I have focused more on invitation-only. I want to create a set roster of artists who can continually release many works on GOS. The series thing was a fun way to start, but I like the idea of the label being a home for artists to grow and develop together. I think the label will become more interesting in this way.

AV: Who have been some of the artists who have released on GOS and what kind of relationship do you have with them as a label owner? Do you feel like you can speak more to their needs having been in the same place as they were?

BFS: Oh totally. In fact, many of the folks who have released stuff on GOS have their own labels. For example, Stephen Philips (Dark Duck Records) was one of the first to release something on GOS (GOS#5 Placid Repose currently out of print) and he has been doing this for nearly two decades. And Gianluigi Garparetti, the artist known as Oophoi and operator of the prolific Italian label Umbra Records, just released a wonderful disc, Signals from the Great Beyond, on GOS. At the same time, we have released works by newer artists like dark ambient provocateur Netherworld (GOS 10 Six Impending Clouds).

AV: So what unexpected challenges have cropped up since you opened your doors and put out your first release? Anything bad enough that gave you pause as to why you set out to do this in the first place?

BFS: Never. But I have learned that I cannot do everything by myself. I’m simply too busy with professional commitments, so I no longer do all the packaging of discs in-house, but, instead, use an outside vendor to handle it.

AV: On the other side of the coin what have been some of the unexpected triumphs you have experienced since this venture got under way?

BFS: It’s surprisingly all good. But I am very pleased that we have 30 people who have joined our group list. That might not be a lot, but these are truly committed members of the GOS community. In all honesty, I was blown away that one person joined our Yahoo Group!

AV: As a state of the union address how would you rate GOS as a business entity to date? Are you satisfied with what you have been able to accomplish so far?

BFS: I’m really satisfied. For the future, I’d like to play music out live more. There will be GOS discs released in early 2006 by Aidan Baker and Alan Bloor (aka Pholde) two members of a great community of ambient and experimental musicians called The Ambient Ping based in Montreal. I am hoping to conspire with them soon. And I also have plans to release works by two artists, Mikronesia and William Fields, from my neck of the woods (Wilmington, Delaware), so I hope we might develop a more public profile for GOS around here. I’d love to see GOS turn into something like The Ambient Ping; a regular series of live performances to compliment the steady flow of new releases.

AV: Looking ahead for GOS what would you like to do with your label in the years ahead that you are not currently doing?

BFS: In addition to building a performance community, I want to keep growing the listener base and to keep releasing great music from as many artists from around the world as possible. I look at my friend, Daniel Crokaert, who runs the Belgian based label, Mystery Sea, and I’m just amazed at the global scope of that label. He has released very drone-centered music by artists from literally all over the planet. GOS has done releases from Italy, Croatia (Na-Koja-Abad), and the U.S. But I’d like to keep expanding things in the coming years. There must be some killer Luxemborgian drone musicians out there! Are you reading this? Send me some music to listen to.

AV: How will technology affect you in the coming years as far as distribution goes? Will we always have a piece of shiny plastic in our hands to play with or will that be replaced someday with a digital facsimile of the music?

BFS: As far as I’m concerned, GOS will always release discs. I am too much of a collector myself to stop releasing material packages with high quality artwork. We will probably offer digital downloads of all releases as an option in the future, but we will never altogether stop releasing “shiny plastic.”

AV: Any closing comments you'd like to make about GOS that I did not cover with the rest of the questions?

BFS: Yes, I think that Gears of Sand represents a new generation of DIY independent ambient labels. That is to say, labels run by people who are totally obsessed with the music above ALL else. We are a community who love and respect the ambient genre, but, above all else, we want this music to be made and shared. To that end, I think a new ethos—very much like the punk rock ideology—is what drives us. We are not in this to make money, but to ensure that the music can be heard by anybody who wants to hear it. There are a terrific many of creative artists out there who shouldn’t have to be kept on the side-lines for years waiting for their music to be released. I mean, I look at a label like Slobor Media, and these guys are totally DIY, yet they release some of the most beautifully packaged, high-class music imaginable. In fact, I’d like to end by listing just a few of these labels (and their web addresses) that I think reinforce this point and I would consider to be representative of this new DIY ambient generation:

MYSTERY SEA www.mysterysea.net
SLOBOR MEDIA www.slobormedia.com
DATABLOEM/DATAOBSCURA www.databloem.com
LOTUSPIKE www.lotuspike.com
UMBRA www.deeplistenings.it
SKEANDHU www.sheandhu.net
IMAGINEER www.imagineer.com
DRONE www.dronerecords.de
THE AMBIENT PING www.theambientping.com
DISSONANCE www.dissonancerecords.net
DARKDUCK www.darkduck.net

AV: Thanks Ben for chatting with me about your label and what you are up to. I wish you much success in the years to come and I hope that Gears of Sand is able to continue being a source of great music.

The tones and echoes on Arden electronic composer William Fields’ Timbre play like a dream: shimmering and lucid, rising and falling, spurts and gaps cascading effortlessly over a wordless soundscape of human imagination. An alternate reality seems to jockey for position with a physical one. Even when something is familiar—“Seaglass,” for instance, which recalls Radiohead’s “Treefingers” and the end bits on Kid A—a dissonant undercurrent manages to work its way in and take over.

Was it planned this way? Yes and no. “I don’t really come up with ideas for pieces ahead of time,” says the 28-year-old Fields. “Usually I just sit down and see what comes out. But with this album, I tried to keep a guiding aesthetic in mind all along. Lately I’ve been interested in electronic music that doesn’t sound electronic or mechanistic. I wanted to create something that was organic, earthy.”

Timbre, released in May, is Fields’ homage to nature: the distinct sound colors produced by acoustic instruments; the wonderment of trees, soil, water, and clouds. Not that it’s apparent. Most of the record’s 10 compositions were constructed through multiple generations of layering and processing, with each layer tweaked, panned, or added to, using computer software programs. Once a piece felt complete, it went through another round of processing and layering before final editing.

The results allow Timbre to feel warm (the cave-drips of “Floatingpoint”), bright (the almost-sunny “Brechia (Erosion)”), and insular (“Coretone”’s barely-there fuzziness), all within the context of a larger theme. Pieces segue into each other without a beginning, middle or end. When the final blips of “Coda” fade out, it takes a moment to realize the album is over.

Fields, who has spent half his life creating electronic music, seems inspired by the control he has over his work.

“You can take a sound, time-stretch it to four times its original length, and suddenly place it in a large cathedral space,” he says. “You can artificially cut the reverb tail and make it echo out while decreasing the pitch and increasing the distortion, then reverse the whole thing and chop it up into thousands of tiny fragments. Combine this power with traditional aspects of composition, and the possibilities are very exciting, I think.”

"Channelling Yeats (the imagistic track titles) and surrealism (the cover art's Magritte-inflected portraiture) through sensibilities as informed by Dada as data, Fleury-Steiner's mesmerizing ambient work flourishes over the eight lengthy tracks that comprise As A Means Through Which I Can Speak, tossing preconceived genre affiliations in the proverbial trash. This is, for lack of a better phrase, “anti-drone.” Though the components of the drone are apparent, Fleury-Steiner seems more intent on establishing distinct environments in sound, the results being far too febrile to simply become one with the surrounding woodwork. Numerous influences poke out their heads for a look (Mark Isham's early playful synth experiments circa Vapor Drawings, the melancholy chord-sweeps of Steve Roach and Oophoi), but they don't hinder the music's progress or grand scope. Fundamentally, this is evocative stuff in the best sense, great ringing droughts of sonic wash that reveal tonalities within tonalities, high-frequency drones that shimmer and vibrate like jeweled curtains that reflect piercing sunlight. A record of contradicting emotions, denoting both introspection and excitation, pat “drone” music this is not, and the fact that it confounds any such glib categorical baggage makes it even more compelling, and quite shelf-worthy."

-DARREN BERGSTEIN, e/i

"As a means...is a really a nice album. Beautiful minimalism that runs through its entirety, cleverly avoiding melodies while maintaining a most effective atmosphere."

-DIRK SERRIES, (AKA Fear Falls Burning, vidna Obmana)

"The three essentials of the English language are: Purity, Perspicuity and Precision."—Joseph Devlin
Ben Fleury-Steiner runs the non-profit record label Gears of Sand. Gears of Sand uses a straightforward and admirable plan. The label releases ambient and Zoviet-France-esque experimental artists in limited edition CD-Rs, featuring solid artwork. Its roster of artists is impressive, and each GoS recoding I have heard has been a worthwhile experience. Dr. Fleury-Steiner's own work, As a Means Through Which I Can Speak, presents eight pieces which explore the furrowed yet rich field of melodic drone. Recorded between August 2005 and September 2006, the work contains atmospheric pieces which seek to approximate a "journey of discovery." As a Means Through Which I Can Speak opens with "Distance is an Accomplishment of the World (Part One)," a strong piece which uses a mildly ethereal melody and spaces between sounds to achieve a pleasing effect. "As a Means through which I Can Speak (Part One)," the next piece, achieves a resonance I found very satisfying. These two pieces are perhaps the strongest on the CD.

Fleury-Steiner's work is neither synth-happy nor so minimal as to be a mere soundscape for pondering. He instead achieves a balanced sound which, in the main, satisfies both the electronic pioneer and the person who, as I do, enjoys hearing melodic themes elegantly expressed in drone. The decision to break two of the tracks into parts is a wise one. I could easily imagine this release being broken down further from eight pieces into twelve or sixteen. I think this is because what I value in this work is its sense of a crisp moment—a sense that is subserved by shorter pieces. The pieces on this release are not equally effective. The pieces that have a melodic theme embedded effectively in the drones please my ears far more than the pieces which merely achieve a particular drone-riff and settle in for the duration. The release has a solid sense of production values, and the mastering by William Fields is effective.

I've admired Gears of Sand since I acquired one of its initial releases. Its releases consistently illustrate how small labels can do things that large labels are no longer capable of doing. As a Means Through Which I Can Speak provides a rich array of interesting pieces—uneven perhaps, but never unentertaining. Even the least pieces are a solid listen, and the best pieces are sublime. Ambient music, like the English language in the old Joseph Devlin saw, may be about "purity," "perspicuity" and "precision," yet Fleury-Steiner reminds us that ambient music is also about lingering questions, half-dreamt notions, and everyday-ecstatic encounters. As a Means Through Which I Can Speak eschews dronastic bombast and elven song titles in search of a kind of off-kilter yet lovely sonic poetry. It is a meditation without chant, and a question-less evocation of mystery. I'm glad I listened to this mode of speaking.

Available from Gears of Sand.

Review by gurdonark, The Ambient Review



Ben Fleury-Steiner’s release “Drifts” is a fantastic combination of dreamlike ambience paired with melodic phrases and repeated samples. While many electronic artists have a tendancy to focus on one style, Fleury-Steiner is willing to take chances and pair different sound sources in a very successful and effective way. The mood is set with opener “Sundial” where percolating synths and a collection of looping patterns blend beautifully together. “Flicker” follows, a piece where analog pulses and pads give a sense of breathing and life, creating an organic feeling that immediately connects with the listener. “Descriptives” incorporates minimal percussive elements amidst a framework of flowing pads. It works to great effect, maintaining the floating calm of the ambient ideal, but again adding a human element to the track. Very nice. The four part “Dreams” suite follows, with the first segment “Somnium Scipionis” presenting a constantly shifting landscape of sounds and forms. Up next is “Veritable Splendor” with a lush and beautiful latticework of sweeping and floating sounds that dance around the soundfield, shifting around and through each other. “The Dust That Lies Between” follows a similar vein, adding short analog phrases that repeat throughout the course of the track. “Absens in Remota” completes the suite, a long form piece that incorporates thematic ideals from the earlier songs in the cycle and bringing them all together. It’s very nice work, a lovely example of conceptual ambience. Track eight, “Cicada”, uses higher pitched tones and backwards looping to distinguish itself from the previous tracks. It’s nicely done, and while stylistically it differs from previous tracks on the disc, it still maintains a thematic consistency that works well. “Track nine, “Tensile” features a buzzing lead line that plays overtop a low drone based background. “Heal” follows, a calm and meditative ambient track where tones weave and loop around each other. “Home” closes the disc with bubbling tones taking on a percussive role for a collection of samples and tones, creating a very interesting example of locational ambience. “Drifts” is a disc that captures the imagination and inspires the senses. It’s a fantastic synthesis of sounds and styles, and a wonderful example of how differing sounds can be brought together to create something fresh and exciting. A wonderful piece of work!

-RIK MACLEAN, PING THINGS

"Drifts is really nice. Reminds me of what I wish Terry Riley were doing today."

-THOM BRENNAN, Raingarden Music

"Though favoring the kind of broad sweeps that only irising analog filters so triumphantly utter, on Drifts Fleury-Steiner is careful to avoid the kind of artful banality that has stifled the creative impetus of, say, the last decade of Vangelis’ output. Not for “ambiance” only, these sumptuous Drifts are too playfully captivating for casual ingestion."

-DARREN BERGSTEIN e/i #7, winter/spring 2006

"Fleury-Steiner manages to work within a genre that seems to turn out new material as regularly as breathing, yet Drifts has an individual sound, a personality of its own - whilst ideal as aural ambiance it certainly doesn't sink blandly into the background, the structures are too engaging to ignore, too attractive to dismiss."

-PAUL JURY, Morpheus Music

"Mastered by ambient guru Robert Rich, Drifts begins with bright crystal tones on “Sundial,” cascading in rapid-fire manner and bringing forth images of Phillip Glass and the like. On “Flicker” the shimmers are gone, replaced by softly pinging synths and a subtle distant background rhythm. It bounces along at a moderate pace at first, then is content to mostly float softly. “Descriptives” gets a bit more into the glitchy quirky nature I’ve come to expect from Fleury-Steiner, little pulses slightly clipped at the ends. Tracks 4 through 7 each have their own name, but are part of a single work called “Dreams.” “Somnium Scipionis” swirls about as a shuffling stuttering bass line moves things along. It fades out quickly, replaced by the glassy smooth sounds of “Veritatis Splendor.” There is a layered effect as one sound fades in, crests, fades out, then is replaced by another, like moving outward in concentric circles and back in again. “The Dust that Lies Between” has little electronic blips and bleeps blended in with the shimmering synths. Toward the end, a cool pulsing sound sweeps in and out. A more breathy pulse begins “Absens in remota,” which reminds me of a passage from Global Communication’s classic album 76:14. Like much of the rest of Drifts, this passage has a metallic quality to the floes of sound. “Cicada” is more rhythmic, with a synthetic cicada sound appearing on occasion. Rhythm is an unusual affair throughout, often hidden in the distant background. “Tensile” is largely formed around a buzzing undercurrent, an edgy bit of electronica. A grungy rough-hewn groove forms the foundation of “Home,” surrounded by more abstract quirkiness that continues to the end. A good variety of all things ambient and electronic to be had here, blended in a unique way rather than just copying those who have gone before."

-PHIL DERBY Electroambientspace

"Drifts is an assortment (there is some variety here, but not too much, which in this case is a good thing) of EM and ambient soundscapes, some of them kinetic and energizing and others more laidback and textural, even soothing at times. While there is some retro-styled goodness, e.g. the opening “Sundial” which bloops and bleeps along merrily in playful fashion, there are also contemporary leanings on the CD. This is no mere “good old days” nostalgia trip. “Flicker” crackles with a combination of old-time synth washes and analog pulses as well as modern era electronic energy, and eventually unwinds into serene ebbing and flowing washes of synthesizer bliss. “Descriptives” takes a modern approach with its scratch effects and pulsing EM noises and effects, but interjects melodic elements (e.g. some sweet synth strings) evoking a hybrid of L. Gaab and Todd Fletcher. The album’s magnum opus is the four-part “Dreams” which is comprised of “Somnium Sciopionis” (pulsating energetic electronic surges of tones and effects), “Veritatis Splendor” (somber and elegiac confluences of moody synths and assorted electronic noises and permutations), “The Dust that Lies Between” (accessible percolating EM that meshes spacy retro effects with contemporary layers of reverberating tones and accessible yet decidedly SF-type noises) and “Absens in remota” (cycling down into something more subdued and captivatingly pretty without miring in quasi-new age cliché). Towards the end of Drifts, Fleury-Steiner serenades us to “Heal” with serene washes of chorale keyboards which are occasionally interrupted by subtle but not distracting intrusions of overt EM effects. “Home” concludes the recording and is one of the more contemporary electronica-laced pieces on the album. Throbbing noises, strange but comforting chorale samples and gently insistent rhythms yield to overt ethereal vocals amidst a background of semi-glitch effects and discharges of electrostatic energy, albeit in such a subdued way as to merge seamlessly with the heavenly vocals. While Robert Rich’s mastering doubtless impacted on how this all sounds, the credit really belongs to Fleury-Steiner himself, who infuses a solid dose of originality and imagination without ever descending into the pit of self-absorbed experimental mumbo-jumbo. With the only misstep being the overly mechanistic “Tensile” (too much whirring and buzzing for my taste), Drifts is a fascinating juxtaposition of the warm and fuzzy side of EM (including nods to retro nostalgia) with a contemporary slant of crafting accompanying soundscapes as backdrops for the analog-keyboard driven excursions. Headphones should be de rigeur for dedicated listening. I give the album a “highly recommended” as a brave and yet easy to assimilate recording which seldom follows the normal path but still goes down relatively easy on the first listen."

-BILL BINKELMAN, WIND AND WIRE

"Drifts offers 60 minutes of lightly coarse ambience. Combining shrill sounds with vaporous resonance, this music ventures just beyond the normal background aspect exemplified by most ambient compositions. While the tonalities never reach any degree of harshness, they are generally more piercing that conventional ambience. Mixed with fragile atmospheric swells, these grittier sounds are sedated, made more sympathetic. This union produces a curious temperance that is refreshing. Mechanical grindings swim in a pool of shimmering clouds. Sparkling chords coexist with twilight drones. Bass gurgles penetrate swaying notes that vibrate with a peculiar luminosity. Playful diodes sigh in tandem with lavish textural spreads. While normal ambient compositions take their time slowly evolving into a substantial presence, these tunes get right to the point, then embellish on their themes with engaging variations. With the exception of one twelve minute piece, the tracks average about five minutes in duration, suiting their compressed directness. This longer track pursues an unhurried path in the same mode, blending celestial passages with demonstrative punctuations in a manner that transcends time and space, resulting in an entertaining excursion into nebulous realms of slightly edgy disposition. This release was mastered by ambient pioneer, Robert Rich."

-MATT HOWARTH, SONIC CURIOSITY

"Whereas Ben’s release …To Reach the other Shore is soft and soothing, Chroma is decidedly eerie and unsettling. Dark sounds swirl around echoing voices on “Threadborn in My Eye.” Things turn even more melancholic and foreboding on “An Unspoken Domesticity.” The music is as delicate throughout Chroma as it is ascetic. It plays like the soundtrack to a chilling low-key psychological thriller. Even the more delicate selections like “Moths in a Cube” have a certain uneasiness about them, beautiful though they are. “Paper of Cells” has lightly churning water and loads of atmospheric synth textures emerging from the misty fog. Odd samples toward the end are fascinatingly disturbing, or disturbingly fascinating. Experimentation abounds, as on the brief abstract “Static Quickens to a Flicker.” Water returns on “In Circumstance of Weather,” though low rumbling drones are the main sound. If you like dark organic works by Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Steven Philips, Lustmord and others, you will feel right at home. The “lightest” track is the closer, “A Period Without Words,” but even this merely raises you perhaps halfway up the Marianas Trench, still a long way from the surface. Chroma is certain enjoyment for the adventurous."

-PHIL DERBY Electroambientspace

"With this release, Fleury-Steiner continues to generate soothing tuneage that drifts high overhead. The ethereal electronic textures are mingled with softly mechanical buzzings and almost subliminal whirs, evoking a remote machine presence creeping up on the audience. The deviations from track to track are very subtle, usually found within the faint embellishments that surface and sink throughout the elongated refined droning. Sparsely dressed tuneage such as this leaves little room for the mind to focus on any part of the music, existing primarily as a minimal backdrop for whatever the listener chooses to do while playing the CD."

-MATT HOWARTH, SONIC CURIOSITY

"Fans of understated abstract experimental pieces from labels such as Hypnos and The Foundry, would do well to consider investing in releases on the fascinating Gears Of Sand label. Even the packaging is unique, completely clear jewel cases with no conventional booklet; just a jewel embedded in the upper left corner near the spine, and a half-sheet of clear plastic for the front cover art and title. Other credits are etched directly on the back of the jewel case. Ingenious packaging, ingenious music. This particular disc is quiet and subtle. The sound palette is rich and adventurous despite the minimal nature of it. The 10-minute opener “Red Moon Shoes” seems a dead ringer for Geir Jenssen’s work as Biosphere, as ambient drones are fused with soft pulses and occasional odd mechanical sounds. “Glocio” is also quiet and relatively formless, although distant bells do appear. Regular beats and melodies are not to be found, and some pieces are so subtle as to be nearly silent at times, as on “…To Whisper 1,000 Shimmering Births,” although babies can be heard crying in the distant background. Each track seems to go nowhere and yet everywhere, and each is different than the next, such as the fascinating “Tzippor,” which sounds a bit like crickets and someone trampling leaves, but the sound is too regular, too mechanized to be that exactly. Moody with lots of intrigue, …To Reach the other Shore is a great time."

-PHIL DERBY Electroambientspace

"Sparseness is keynote here, with drifting tonalities vibrating ever so slightly in a field of equally sedate electronics. Embellishments of minimal proportion occur, but rarely manifesting enough change to attract attention. The flow is even and determined, devoted to lulling the audience with an extreme dose of unwavering calm. Many of the tracks embody a softly growling astral void, with incidental sounds punctuating the solitude with subtle reminders of earthly presence (like doors opening and closing, or the chiming of distant church bells, or environmental crickets). The strict ambience displays periodic hints of pulsating variance, just enough to maintain motion, but not enough to jar the listener from their state of meditation."

-MATT HOWARTH, SONIC CURIOSITY



Laptopper William Fields has only two prior releases to his credit, but third time must be a charm, because Timbre is a markedly assured piece of work, reflective of the glitch but not enslaved to it. Point of fact: Fields is not only obsessed with timbre (and texture) but revels in it, exploring a wide world of sounds as his fingers do the walkin’ across the keyboard (or the mousepad, as it were). Fields considers himself a composer, and this is what separates him from a myriad of individuals getting up close and personal with their software. Sounds appear to be consciously placed rather than slathered on haphazardly; they fibrillate, glide, pulse delicately or suddenly buzz brightly, a horde of sonic fireflies peppering the night air. “Brechia (Erosion)” is particularly engrossing and recalls at moments some of Taylor Deupree’s “abrasive” works, though the tonal colors illuminating the pop-py fields suggest melodic tendencies that too often fail to arise in the genre. Contrasts abound throughout, categorical divides are bridged, clichés abandoned—take note of the sparkling chime-like notes that imbue “Seaglass,” which are just plain beautiful, echoing out from burrs of runout groove noise, or the lush machine hums of “Hivernal” as they surge amongst the sampled fauna of an autumnal forest. Timbre is a worthwhile follow-up to his previous Branches, and in execution parts of it is leagues ahead of some better-known colleagues’ work; I look forward to further Fields recordings with much interest.

-Darren Bergstein, e|i Magazine

"Glitchy synthetic soundscaping giving the impression of crafted arbitrary sound. Timbre is carried along on peculiar rhythms sounding like braids of randomness, desultory waves, oceanic swells of tone. Soft harmonic pads undulate among bright sound effects, blips and flickers, crackles and disturbances. Field mangles and twists notes and noise into patterns that range from restful and sleepy to pieces that appear only incidentally musical. There are passages of low volume with fluctuations on the edge of hearing, muted drones and subtle harmonies, then there are deep basses anchoring some tracks in tuneful, attractive, lulling sonance. Little on this CD seems to have escaped heavy processing - Fields snipping, echoing, eroding, degenerating original sound sources into a distinctive sonic fabric all his own. The mood is predominantly one of warm cerebral serenity, although rhythmic at times, still quite floatational, drifting and weightless. There are haunting moments, ethereal and hypnotic where ghostly themes hang among static turbulence. A wistfulness waxes and wanes in pace with the rise and fall of the more melodic aspects - harmony lonely and light among atonal scatterings and interference. Timbre has also a very contemporary feel giving a sense of technological ephemera diverted unto the purpose of artistic abstraction. Introspective, ambient and crystalline, William Fields has produced a unique sound that transcends its digital origins - emotive and compelling. Ten tracks in all, with intriguing titles - 'fwoado', 'seaglass', 'hivernal'. Fields is no new-comer to this field, having a string of releases under his belt. He has been writing music and experimenting with sound since 1993, his work covering a wide range stylistically, but always warm and melodic. Timbre comes to us via Gears Of Sand a non-profit independent electronic / electro-acoustic label based just outside of Philadelphia. Timbre will appeal to ambient fans that enjoy plenty of movement in their music and a somewhat spectral melancholy tone. If you enjoed Mikronesia form GOS - this CD might well suit you. Not worlds away from the more ambient end of the output from Virtual's Elve or Ishvara."

-Paul Jury, Morpheus Music

"William Fields "Timbre" An epic work of glitch genius from William Fields on the Gears of Sand label. Ben Fleury-Steiner's Gears of Sand label has put out some truly wonderful music over the last year or two, with discs from some very bright stars in the electronic/ambient scene. With the release of "Timbre" by William Fields GofS have released what may be the standard for all other the label's releases to come, a powerful and emotive example of drone-y glitch based ambience that stands as some of the best work I've heard in the genre. "Indra" opens the disc with a number of oscilating tones that give way to an ordered electronic cacophony. It's a beautiful thing and as you listen you can hear the development of shape and form, the growth of structure and reason. It's an excellent introduction to the ideas and concepts behind the disc and it serves as an excellent place for the disc to start. "Fwoado" follows, resplendant with bursts of sound and snatches of melody and structure. I very much appreciate the way things start to become clear in this track, the way that a sense of reason emerges from the soundfield. Quite engaging. Track three, "Nama (B)", skews the listener's sense of order by placing gravelly abstract sounds upfront in the mix with clear tone and fidelity, while a collection of distorted phrases plays in the background, just processed enough to make it difficult to identify or relate to them. It's a clever approach that works surprisingly well. By contrast, "Floating Point" builds on the blending of sounds from "Nama (B)", using similar sound sources but instead mixes them more equal footing. It succeeds in making the track more familiar to the listener, more in keeping with the way we're used to listening to music. As an experiment in perceived musicality the two tracks are certainly a very interesting and engaging study of our perceptions of the way music should sound. "Brechia (Erosion)" takes on a more accessible sound with pleasing chiming tones. "Coretone" is a lovely minimal track, with static and oscilating drones combining to create a very effective soundscape. "Seaglass" incorporates a variety of fragile sounds that create a ringing bowl effect overtop a slight melody with very impressive results. "Doux" is a very soft piece, a track suggesting a womblike security and safety to it. There is a feeling of guaziness about the track, a sense of warmth that I found most appealing. It's a lovely track and a true testimony to Fields' work that he can create such an emotionally resonating piece with so few and so disparate elements. A truly wonderful track that particularly stands out on this disc. "Hivernal" pairs distorted drone work with field recordings of rain resulting in a truly fascinating example of locational ambience. The track creates a very real and true environment, but through the distortions of the drones, one can't help but feel a certain alienation from that landscape, a feeling of it being somehow isolated and separate from reality. The disc closes with the track "Coda", which begins with a simple growing drone that eventually dissolves into a series of melodies and phrases that mix together and weave through eachother in a way that sums up the entire melodic element of the disc. It's a very nice summation of ideas, and a lovely way to close the disc, leaving the listener with a feeling of completion and satisfaction. With the release of "Timbre", William Fields has captured the imagination, creating a fluid landscape where sounds and our perceptions of them are considered in new and exciting ways. Congratulations to Fields on a fine new disc and to Gears of Sand who continue to release some of the most interesting and intriguing work available."

-rik maklean, ping things

"US label Gears Of Sand presents us with a steady stream of releases on the CDR format, but they love a professional package, making them look like the real thing. The other fine thing is that dig up artists I never heard of, and William Fields is one of them. Born in 1977, playing music since 1993 in various styles. He produced work as Asoka, before turning to his christian name, releasing music on such tbtmo, Hippocamp, and Audiobulb Records. All of which I am afraid was unheard in these headquarters. On 'Timbre' (which in lexicon terms mean: the combination of qualities of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds of the same pitch and volume), he offers ten tracks that show a distinct love of ambient glitch music. How he does it, I don't know, but I suspect all the usual ingredients are there: field recordings, max processing, guitars, computer manipulation. All the usual references are there, from Fennesz to Stephan Mathieu, from Taylor Deupree to Sogar (or perhaps 85% of everything on 12K), which makes this nothing never heard before. Not that's of any relevance, since Fields does a fine job. Each of the tracks are produced well, show variation in approaching the sounds and is just a very nice, pleasant CD. Which is sometimes just as fine to hear. "

-Franz de Waard, Vital Weekly

"The tones and echoes on Arden electronic composer William Fields’ Timbre play like a dream: shimmering and lucid, rising and falling, spurts and gaps cascading effortlessly over a wordless soundscape of human imagination. An alternate reality seems to jockey for position with a physical one. Even when something is familiar—“Seaglass,” for instance, which recalls Radiohead’s “Treefingers” and the end bits on Kid A—a dissonant undercurrent manages to work its way in and take over. ”

-Mike Pollock, Out & About Magazine



Aidan Baker may be a “guitarist” in the sense of the currently-fashionable vogue shared by other “guitarists” (Oren Ambarchi, Fennesz, etc.), inasmuch as he uses the guitar as a springboard for sonic exploration rather than what its creators intended it for. A veritable sprite bandying about the prickly undergrowth, Baker’s released music under a number of different guises (ARC, Nadja) across a menu of labels (Piehead, Mystery Sea, Public Eyesore, Infraction, S’agita, Drone, Arcolepsy) in a dizzying array of styles, crunching data, noise, abstraction and repetition mercilessly. He’s certainly skilled enough to fool those listening to Pendulum, his GoS debut, into thinking his tailored works are realized with anything other than doubled and redoubled electric guitar. However, it’s unwise to question the magician and his sleight of hand, so suspend your disbelief for the disc’s duration and Pendulum proffers handsome rewards. Though blended into one long filmic dreamscape, five tracks chart alternately buzzing squalls of static, ominous trilling chords that recall some of the moodier atmospheres of Morricone’s soundtrack for The Thing, muzzled feedback, arcing sustain that scans the stereofield like the binoculars of a covert operative, and Frippian bursts of electrical charges that quash any possibility this music might be labeled “ambient.” The odd mastering issue does on occasion interfere (an occupational hazard of the CDR media, perhaps?); pops here and there upset the aural apple cart and temporarily spoil the moment, although the music tends to readily absorb such intrusions into its own serrated physiology. Yet, experiencing the unguitar-like sandpapery pulsations that occur halfway into “Everywhere” makes it easy to forgive a few oversights, and goes some way to reinforce Baker’s hard-earned cred.

-Darren Bergstein, e|i Magazine

"This release from 2005 offers 53 minutes of guitar manipulations. All sounds here were produced live on electric guitar, then doubled and the doubling reversed. The result is a dose of haunting and edgy ambience. Do not expect lightning licks or searing riffs in this music. Feedback and effects are littered throughout the generally long sonic structures. Pulsations vibrate with expanding disposition. Sustains become folded and crooked, resulting in twisted drones that are quite unearthly. Atmospheric clouds roil with strange sonic expressions, evoking distant marshlands cluttered with rusting hulks of discarded machinery. Moody textures are created that glisten with brooding mien, sinking under the skin to saturate your muscles with an electric calm that has every chance of suddenly erupting into manic energy. But the sedation remains passive. Spikes constitute mild warblings amid the seething growl, adequate enough to mark deviations from the steadfast buzz, but hardly strong enough to jar the audience from their stark mesmerization. Overall, this tuneage blends industrial demeanor with ambient serenity, generating a standing wave twitch whose vibrations remain external."

-MATT HOWARTH, SONIC CURIOSITY

"Baker does here whatever he does best: creating thoughtful, improvised atmospheric music. The continous moving forward and backward of sound (hence the title), the rumble of percussive like elements and the constant feeding of the sounds through various sound effects makes this into a fine, yet not always surprising, release. "

-Franz de Waard, Vital Weekly

"Another fantastic release from Aidan Baker, who when he's not making beautiful sounds on his own also spends time making beautiful sounds in the groups Nadja and Arc. Soundmaking and creating music has to be as compelling and interesting for the maker as it is for the listener, especially when it's improvised music. Often the process is as important as the resulting sounds, even if the listener has no idea what is involved. But often as a listener, it's pretty exciting to know just how the sounds were created. For Pendulum, Baker recorded an electric guitar in a single take, doubled it, and then reversed the double. That probably makes more sense to you guitar / tech nerds out there, but it is cool to think about the path the sounds here took from the guitar to our ears. Listening to this, it's difficult to pick out actual guitars, although they do surface here and there. Instead Pendulum is a smeared soundscape of blurry sounds. A wide open expanse of slowly moving tonal colors, drifting by one another, occasionally mixing together, forming new colors. Muted and understated, a twilit soundscape of churning low end and glistening high end, mixing together and forming all sorts of subtle sonic shadings. Subtlely melodic, a gorgeous deep droning drift, another one of those records destined to find a permanent home in the late night listening pile. So gorgeous."

-http://www.aquariusrecords.org/


"Italian artist Oöphoi is known for taking minimal ambience to a new level, and his penchant for doing so continues with this release, the first of three planned CDs dedicated to crop circles. An extremely limited release of only 100 copies, this is well worth seeking out if you can get a hold of one, if you appreciate his minimalist style, which is along the lines of contemporaries like Mathias Grassow and Klaus Wiese. “Kolenhaar” has a single drone reverberating throughout, such that the brain seems to create small mutations in the sound as you listen – are they real or imagined? A few little whooshes and other sounds weave in and out as it goes. If you prefer more activity in your music, this might be like watching paint dry – but if like me you enjoy occasionally tripping out to this sort of thing, this really fills the bill. “Lightwaves” goes deeper into the darkness, the drone seeming to be part musical tone and part wind, somehow spliced together into a unique sound. It sounds and feels like journeying into a vortex. The changes are more pronounced here, but over a long period of time. “Geometry” is quieter and more abstract, the subtlest number yet on an album full of subtleties. “Sculpting the Fields” is similar in tone and timbre to “Lightwaves,” exploring other dark crevasses that it may have overlooked. Signals from the Great Beyond is serious ambient music for the purist, first class all the way".

-Phil Derby, Electroambient Space

".... Signals from the Great Beyond is not a meditation piece about how to contact alien beings in one's hops field. Oöphoi's work instead evocatively creates imagery for untold, but hinted at, exciting tales. It is a soundtrack for a movie never to be made, although it is not written as soundtrack music. It writes a wordless poem, using both melody and a kind of pleasant noise. The work is comprised of four tracks. The first track, “Kolenhaar,” combines an array of subtle sounds and pitches, invading the senses insidiously but pleasantly with waves of effective sound. As with many ambient artists, the old boundaries between “dark” and “light” ambient are of no real use in evaluating this work. Oöphoi borrows from traditional western melodic structures, but does not hesitate to deviate into unique sounds and aural experiences. Oöphoi is in this respect an artist of sound rather than of “music,” and, in my thinking, more of an ambient artist than a songwriter. The thing that makes his work so enchanting is that he seems to marry sound and story. He does not have a literal plot to spring upon the reader—and the song titles are, if anything, misleading. Rather, each piece has a sense of introduced sound, with the intention of creating a gauzy, half-remembered sense of familiarity. The concept of ambient music as “dream-like” is frankly far too narrow and confining. Oöphoi does not speak to the listener's dreams, but instead engages the listener's active attention in a search for alternative lines of inquiry. But the inquiry leads to hidden pathways, and quiet, affirming alleyways. The second piece, “Lightwaves,” and the third piece “Geometry,” differ from the first piece in that they have an almost elegiac sense of ritual and ceremony. Sounds and instrumental “voices” appear in the work in vignette form, as well as in shimmering waves. Silence is used to emphasize that the listener is being shown the potential of music as a spiritual vehicle. But no mantras are shared, no divinities sermonized—we are left only with the sensation of sound, washing, defining, explaining, and yet remaining ineffable. I thought of funeral dirges, of eastern meditation bells, and of European urban-jazz landscapes, yet the work is not derivative of any of those things. Oöphoi's gift is evocation, a non-linear storytelling not bound by the “plot” of his song titles. The fourth piece, “Sculpting the Fields,” adopts a sonic device which gives me pause. Silence is an important component of many ambient works, and effective use of silence benefits the first three pieces of Signals from the Great Beyond. Yet, in “Sculpting the Fields,” a good bit of the piece of punctuated by extended silence and extended introduction and exit of barely heard sound. While I applaud the experimental reach of the work, the brass ring remains elusive. To my ears, “Sculpting the Fields” loses its way in its extended silence conceit. This is the only real flaw in the album from my point of view. I long for the day when ambient artists don't name their songs “Sculpting the Fields.” I believe that Oöphoi, an Italian musician named Gianluigi Gasparetti, might have found similar prompts from the “great beyond” of the dust before a coming rain, or the feel of a warm hand in his on a frozen morning. But I recognize that each artist must choose his or her own muse and amusements. Yet, I caution that if the story is too oft-told in the song titles, it can obscure the story in the music itself. I recommend Signals from the Great Beyond as a wonderful piece of ambient music. It asks all the right questions—and it wisely fails to answer most of them. The questions are posited without words. The music speaks volumes. I congratulate both Oöphoi and Gears of Sand on this fine work..."

-gurdonark, The Ambient Review

"From a rising American label that refines Oophoi's subtle sound into four tracks and 59 minutes of wide open, meditative synth and singing bowls to produce an utterly intoxicating journey into reverberating, multi-layered, and extended dronescapes in wonder of the crop circle phenomenon."

-Lloyd Barde, Backroads Music

"Signals From The Great Beyond" is the first in a series of three albums by Gianluigi Gasparetti, the man behind Oöphoi, a name well-known in the ambient scene. The theme of the album trio being crop circles, an atmosphere of mystery and a dark, almost ritualistic tone are set throughout the four tracks, lasting approximately sixty minutes. The first track, "Kolenhaar" seems to be the lightest and brightest composition to be found in the album, since despite the melancholic tone it conveys, the subtle variations of the pitches and sounds give it a much more lively feel. In contrast to that come the next two tracks, "Lightwaves" and "Geometry", which while still retaining some differences, feel more as part of a second "chapter" in the album, the variations of the first track giving place to a slower, almost ominous pace and tone that constantly lowers itself to great emotional effect, as it carries the listener along in soundscapes resembling warped dreams, silent and lonely, and perhaps more disconcerting in their silence and anticipation than the horrors of the real nightmares that seem to lurk about, biding their time. And that is just what the final track, "Sculpting The Fields", is; an extended moment of calm, yet filled with the mystery and dread of the unknown that lies just beyond reach, ending in a silence that leaves the listener waiting for what is to follow......and us waiting for the next release so that we can continue this journey of emotions. Wonderfully arranged and executed, "Signals From The Great Beyond" makes for an excellent listening, just as long as it is done with you alone and in the dark."

-George Mouratidis, Connexion Bizarre [8/10]

"His creations as forbidding as his moniker, Netherworld works drones the color of pitch, expunged from the Lovecraftian depths of bottomless cosmic sinkholes. Six Impending Clouds reveals a distinct malevolence that’s palpable throughout; synths paint the sky in gradating hues of black, drones heave like the breathing of a formless, other-dimensional hulk, tones flair briefly in the ether before suddenly expiring or retreating timidly back into the darkness. It’s all kind of unnerving stuff, a soundtrack fit to accompany night tremors after reading too much Stephen King or Clive Barker, true “dark ambient” that’s something of a bastard cousin to Steve Roach’s The Magnificent Void or Darkest Before Dawn. Despite the surface density, this isn’t an oppressive music nor does it sludge on like the doomcore melt of Boris or any of a dozen Norwegian death-metal drone clones; rather, it is isolationist music of an arresting nature that fairly subsumes you into its vortex. It might lack the storied consideration of Lull, or the tempered consideration of Lustmord, but the emotional schema at play won’t make any less an impact. Careful with that ax, Eugene."

-Darren Bergstein, e|i Magazine

"I guess it's an appropriate day to write about Alessandro Tedeschi's project: it was snowing heavily when I received his discs, and it's snowing now as well... "Six Impending Clouds", on Ben Fleury Steiner's Gears of Sand, is Netherworld's most recent release, following some excellent releases on Umbra Records which I'll partly review later. The minimal and well designed layout, by Slo Bor Media, matches well the six untitled tracks of the album. Tedeschi uses synths, voice, field recordings and gong to weave abysmal soundscapes which reminded me of Lull (circa "Cold Summer") or early Koener - dark and abysmal but with a sort of intimate and trance-inducing atmosphere that many dark ambient projects lack. "Isolationism" may be an out of date term, but it perfectly fits this music. Track 2 tries some melody, and in the fourth one the gong adds an extra feel of menace, but in general the pieces just match the "impending clouds" definition, being based on misty, slowly evolving drones."

-Eugenio Maggi, Chain D.L.K.

"A Netherworld release will always be welcome in my cd player. Some of you should already be familiar with this project, based on the two existing reviews on Heathen Harvest, The review of the double album "Eternal Frost / Firmament in Obscurity" last year, and my review of "Lost" earlier this year. Glacial Ambient is something so minimal and obscure that for those who do "get" it, they find a comfort and longing in its cerulean harmonies that other musical outputs simply shrug aside. Most of Netherworld's artwork and thesis' are dedicated to weather effects, albeit Snow, Rain, Clouds... Six Impending Clouds is as promisingly dark and dreary as its foreboding title. The first of the "Clouds" is a menacing outlook. It could almost be Death Industrial, it takes the drone effect of artists such as Raison D'être, and interlocks them with distant yearning, and sounds that resemble a chorus of Monks in the background, chanting. Dark Shadows are lifted towards the end, and the use of very infrequent, very doomy drum work adds a very nice texture to the track. Now, quite like the majority of cloud formations, this album is slow to find its feet, but when it does, it really comes into its own. The Third track for example reintroduces the minimalist and solitary excursions that the earlier releases offered with such a poignant breath. Fortunately, Alessandro has decided to really enforce the darkness in the title, and this album is covered with gloomy and dispossessing aural excretions. Just because you like one Netherworld album does not mean you will like the others, such is the vibrant nature of the maturity and diversity that is presented to us. I don't think Six Impending Clouds is as good as "Lost" for example, as Lost appealed so much more to me - it had Arctic suggestions, Female chants, Icy seductions and an overall feeling of utter coldness that it just wouldn't be matched. This is a nod to the Cold Meat style productions more than anything - the Icy feel is still here, but much more subdued and incoherent. Value for money predominates though, and with six tracks at nearly eighty minutes, everyone will find something to write about here. Like track five for example. My lips are staying firmly sealed. So, "Six Impending Clouds". Does it float and dominate the landscape like a Cumulonimbus, or does it drop and hang its weary head like a Nimbostratus?" You tell me.

-T300 (Nick), Heathen Harvest www.heathenharvest.com

"Ben Fleury Steiner's dark ambient project Paradin comes back shortly after the excellent "Flesh of Caverns" disc on Mystery Sea, and continuing the oceanic theme this work is "a tribute to the ancient deep-sea parasites, their engorged hosts, and the haunting songs of the ocean's darkest depths". Played with synths, singing bowls, bowed metal and treated guitar, "Coma Digenean" is consistently more physical and upfront than the previous release, which was more based on spacious guitar-generated drones. On the contrary, in these five movements, assembled in one 50-minute track, everything is metallic and seething, with many skillfully blent layers of sound, and a dazing effect on the listener. While I'm not exactly a fan of recognizable synth sounds in ambient music, Paradin's use of them is original and varied; moreover, the atmosphere is dark and menacing, and I would easily recommend this disc to fans of post-industrial drones and power electronics rather than, say, to aficionados of Steve Roach."

-Eugenio Maggi, Chain D.L.K.

"Earlier this year I had my first encounter with the music of Paradin, aka Ben Fleury-Steiner from the USA. He released 'Flesh Of Caverns' on Mystery Sea (see Vital Weekly 472), which means you have to find him the areas of deep and dark ambient music. His previous releases I never heard. Paradin uses synths, singing bowls, bowed metal and treated guitar here on 'Coma Digenean', a single piece that consists of five different parts and sees a continuation of the previous Mystery Sea work. However it should be noted that Paradin doesn't play very strict ambient music, but is rather interested in creating a large atmospheric cloud of sound; this is something in which more happens than just one single drone, but various sounds move around each-other, all creating this atmosphere. In that sense there is more happening here than on an average ambient album, and that the sound is more up there and present. Spooky and mysterious music that certainly has a cinematographic quality. Very nice ambient music that makes a bit of difference from the rest."

-Vital Weekly

"A relatively new CDR imprint already displaying class and ambition in its packaging, eschewing homemade or Xeroxed covers for excellent art housed in a jewel case. Ben Fleury-Steiner is Paradin and he creates dark ambient that will render you (pleasantly) seasick. After a CDR release on the like-minded Mystery Sea label, Fleury-Steiner introduces his own curiously baptized imprint. Coma Digenean reaches down into deep and dark places the likes of which used to be explored by the likes of Lustmord. It is a single fifty-minute piece, though it often fades out, as if it were a sea creature of some gigantic proportion regularly reimmersing itself into underwater ravines and grottos and dredging up new sounds to join the constant, underlying drone and swell. Created with synthesizers, treated guitars, bowed metal and singing bowls, at times you´d swear you hear the see-sawing and underwater creaking of long forgotten, sunken frigates. Coma Digenean is a thing of dark and foreboding beauty."

-Stephen Fruitman, Sonomu

"Ben Fleury-Steiner has a nice series of releases under his belt, most of them on his own Gears of Sand label (which has recently released works by Oophoi and Netherworld as well). This cdr on Mystery Sea, a label Fleury-Steiner has been a long-time and enthusiastic supporter of, marks his debut with the Paradin alias, and the shift has a logical reason in the music it features. While using as a starting point some of the sources (effected guitars and synths) and techniques of the previous releases, "Flesh of Caverns" generally wanders into darker and even more abstract atmospheres. The drones are reduced to minimal glassy frequencies, but the skillfull job at layering and mixing prevents them from becoming too static. The three lengthy tracks rather embody the typical Mystery Sea kind of ambient music, with slowly (geologically slowly, I'd say) unfolding, but always immersive soundscapes. Particles of more recognizable sounds (as the electronic pulses in the first track, or the aggressive synth hammering at the end of the last one) are recognizable here and there, but they rapidly vanish underwater, into the oceanic whole. The title is definitely appropriate as well, evoking a fusion of organic and mineral qualities which could well define these three immersions. As Fleury-Steiner's forthcoming new work, mastered by Robert Rich, has been announced as more rhythmical and theme-oriented, I hope he keeps on producing this kind of nocturnal drones as Paradin."

-Eugenio Maggi, CHAIN D.L.K.

"Does the term "space music" still mean anything nowadays? Listening to this heap of shadows by Ben Fleury-Steiner, here hiding behind the Paradin moniker for the first time, maybe there's still a glimmer of hope for the "architects of black holes", as Flesh of Caverns' gaseous currents expand to fill every cranny of the listening space, its enigmatic cascades of drones resonating in reverberant gorges to constitute a pleasing alternative to silence (even if the massive overtones sometimes drift dangerously and inevitably towards the land of Dark Ambient's Old Master - yes, Lustmord - more or less finished today but I still rate Heresy and The Place Where The Black Stars Hang as great records). The somewhat more active closing track "Deep Sea Soil Dredging: A Calcareous Ooze" is an aural picture of frozen, wide-eyed faces trapped under ice desperately trying to attract attention to be delivered from their eternal stillness, ultimately abandoning the attempt when the sun disappears once and for all."

-Massimo Ricci, PARIS TRANSATLANTIC



"Glitchy ethereal ambience - beatless in places, carried by programmed percussion in others. The album opens with twinkling electronics and reversed notes all crackling with jumping static as if the signal has met with interference. There are effects like distorted little Chinese gongs, voices swirling and echoing as if captured from a broken radio broadcast, montaged cuts and snips of sound, there are softer tonal washes below - wistful and meandering. On the third track an electro-groove is introduced, light and graceful - stronger rhythms carry track four 'Del Rio' where a pumping synthetic bass drives reverberating chimes and some strongly effected spoken voices. Mikronesia use a number of repeated loops to ghostly effect - indeed there are some hauntingly beautiful passages especially toward the end of the album where synthetic strains gently intertwine, wavering somewhat unsteadily as half-remembered speech flickers in and out of earshot."

-Paul Jury, Morpheus Music

"Gears of Sand is one of the more professional CDR labels. Nice design, full color label artwork, printed on the CDR and great music . . . a nice release of melodic ambient music that is throughout these eight pieces rhythmic oriented in a sort of tribal/pseudo ethnic way, a bit like a more mechanical Rapoon, with mumbling voices here and there, chilly synths and all other fine ingredients for solid atmospheric music . . . The music doesn't grab one and force you to pay full attention, but perhaps that's not the idea of Mikronesia. In another life, this would be a more adventurous ambient house thing, reminding me of Meridian Dream (but I might be the only one to remember). It's pleasant to listen to while doing whatever you do; not too demanding music."

-Franz de Waard, Vital Weekly

"Tissue Paper Ghosts finds composer/producer/laptopper McDermott stepping into his role as solo sonic seducer for a meditative drone-scape adventure based around the psychic remains of a car crash. Though slowly enveloping melodies make the softly clanging "Untitled Love" and the blip-filled "Arms Bent" gorgeous and sedative, woeful winds and menacing crickets aren't far behind, infiltrating unsettled tracks like "Slow Bleeding" and the swooshy, buzzy "Happy Birthday, Goodbye." Overall though, the tender TPG —much in league with say, the instrumental side of Bowie's Heroes —is a cleverly quiet joy that doesn't let you rest in peace."

-A.D. Amorosi , Philadelphia City Paper. 3/20/2006

"Recording a concept album based on the musical interpretation of dying in a car crash certainly sounds morbid. One would expect a lot of dire, depressing and dark soundscapes. Thankfully, Mikronesia (aka Michael McDermott) realizes that beauty can be found in death, not just sadness and pain. Tissue Paper Ghosts is a fascinating amalgam of assorted forays into electronica, glitch, minimalism, noise, and ambient soundworlds that encompasses a variety of moods and motifs, but beneath it all beats the heart (an ironic use of words, that) of a human being and indeed one who is adept at expressing emotions in uncommon ways. From first hearing the first sound clips on the Gears of Sand website to my repeated playings of the album once it arrived, I was held spellbound by the way in which McDermott weaves so much feeling into music which, if described technically and analytically, would seem anything but warm and inviting. “Slow Bleeding” opens the CD amidst fuzzy noises, a wailing siren, scratchy radio interference, and a general sensation of disorientation, aided by the distorted barely heard voices of people in the background. No doubt meant to convey the moments immediately after the horrific car crash, the listener gets the sensation that one is somehow dimly aware of the impending end but is casually observing it and is no longer very concerned about holding on to the last vestiges of life. The overlapping chattering of bare voices at the end leads to the first occurrence of “melody” on the CD, that being “Untitled Love,” which blends funereal organ drones with slightly-off kilter reverberating tones. The organ's inherent warmth and comfort counterbalances the skittering tones so that the disturbing effects of the latter are smoothed out by the enveloping washes. Later on, the piece becomes more abstract with snatches of repeated melodic refrains at the periphery and the appearance of ethereal female voices amidst a backdrop of scratching effects. We cross into the heart of the recording with “Arms bent (The Detached and Lazy Feeling of Bliss)” a spot-on blending of glitch ambience with elements of collage (owing to the use of spoken word female vocals deep in the mix) that somehow sounds “cheery” without veering away from the mood of the CD (this is, still, an album about death). Percolating bouncy beats erupt after a bit and the assorted happenings in the song all gel together to form a delicious “whole.” However, McDermott doesn't sit still and continues to introduce other factors into the mix throughout the song, including some noisier stuff which some may find out of place but which I thought fit right in. “Del Rio” reminded me of the electronica/chill-out music heard on Mr. Soon's places in arizona CD (on psychosomatic records), anchored by a mellow bass beat and peppered with an assortment of tones and notes ping-ponging around the soundfield. “Long Walk Up 611” removes the upbeat nature of the two previous cuts and returns the album to a more thoughtful and somber theater of operations with sampled hand percussion (tabla, perhaps), several weird electronic effects, distorted sung vocals and straight-up spoken words, but once again it's all anchored by a warm organ-like drone. This track is a bit hard to get ahold of, so it's best to let it simply wash over you. Two more short cuts (the more appealing of them being “Softly Coil” which offers a blend of beats, shimmering reverberating synths, and underlying washes/drones) serve as precursors to the closing track, which also is a fitting conclusion thematically. “Remember/Home” is a nearly eleven-minute ode to serene ethereal ambient textures (bordering on warm spacemusic, a la Braheny or Demby at her least ostentatious). After the drama of what has come before, it's easy to perceive this as the ultimate acceptance of life's release and the fond memory of one's past life. Interestingly (and to his credit), McDermott avoids the use of clichés that one typically hears in “angelic” music without sacrificing an overall feeling of well-being and, well, “love.” The gradual folding in of both retro EM elements and a subtle rhythmic effect deep in the mix introduce even more originality and McDermott always seems to be adding and subtracting another noise or musical factor as the cut slowly and patiently unwinds towards its end. As with any recording that is hard to describe in a literal sense, I don't know that my review of Tissue Paper Ghosts does the actual album justice. Not because I'm claiming it's some earth-shattering manifesto of ambient music, although, it's absolutely unique, though. And I know that I personally like it – a lot! I find the myriad ways in which the artist deconstructs the notion of dying and reassembles it into ambient music (which, while not always accessible by some standards, is never off-putting like a lot of experimental or avant garde music is) invites the listener to dig deep and tap into a well-spring of emotion. Maybe you won't have the same reaction I did to the CD. The music on the album is not always “likable” but considering the artist's intention and/or inspiration, it would be weird if it was. I highly recommend it, but be prepared to stick with it, especially past the first two tracks."

-Bill Binkelman, Producer and Host "Wind and Wire" KFAI-FM, Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN

"This CD from 2005 offers 41 minutes of edgy ambience. Harsh sounds are harnessed and forced into the subservient service of ambient structure. Grinding diodes croon with suppressed vigor, resulting in a form of subjugated sedation that is hardly conducive for meditation, but exhibits pacifying demeanor nonetheless. Looping voices are mangled and utilized with ethereal effect. Pinging keyboard notes punctuate an electronic fog that hums and breathes with melancholic influence. When coherent chords finally appear, they are swiftly swamped by a seething pool of chaotic vocal consistency. Beats and chugging electronics hint at a melody that seems to gradually consume itself. There is no overall quality to this music other than unpredictable expression. Far from unpleasant, the tunes possess a strange attraction that turns its own eccentricity on itself until an engaging charm is generated out of these unconventional aspects. Mikronesia display a versatility with converting chaos into order while retaining an edge of discord that exudes its own appeal."

-Matt Howarth, Sonic Curiosity

Mikronesia describes his Tissue Paper Ghosts as “a concept record about a group of people dying in a car crash,” the album’s focus being “the story of their ghosts making peace with themselves and the people of their lives.” Weighty concept, for sure—not exactly ambience for the masses. Nevertheless, Mikronesia is a clever fellow, and even if the basic premise doesn’t quite evolve in a tangible sense, only those with the most calloused of ears would be hard-pressed to not get lost in the disc’s gelatinous rhythmic tics and ectoplasmic argot. Track titles reveal a poetic flair—“Arms Bent (The Detached and Lazy Feeling of Bliss),” “Long Walk Up 611,” “Softly Coil”)—thankfully not left isolated in an amorphous drift of software waste. The aforementioned “Long Walk” seems more like a glimpse into purgatory rather than salvation; disembodied voices warble and fuss across biting winds of distortion, smeared tablas, muted anti-beats and otherworldly, respirating drones. “Softly Coil” is the polar opposite, almost serene in tone, replete with more oddly percolating noises amidst curtains of sparkling electronics. Closing with the near Eno-esque spaceshine of “Remember/Home,” Tissue Paper Ghosts is one of GoS’ best, and is a satisfying listening experience regardless of its funereal underpinnings.

-Darren Bergstein, e|i Magazine



"Melodic beat-driven synthesiser music. Synthetic Block delivers multi-layered synth pads, sequences and leads laid out in careful arrangements that put emphasis on the development of tunes and themes above focussing on the clever effects or hazy atmospheres favoured by many of his contemporaries. Jonathan Block uses the term 'progressive ambient music' to describe his sound - his compositions here being uncomplicated with a regularity of structure, interest value often built up by developing one pattern into another, the mood shifting, steadily morphing. Clearly defined sounds overlaid upon one another are the order of the day; these include mellotron-type flute voices and sweeping drones that soften the sharp edges of many of the other programmed patches. Dynamic themes with a positive vibe - the clean synthetic approach suggesting a spaciness at times, more mechanical at others. There are passages of beatless drones and ambient planes notably at the introduction to 'Orbits' the album's central piece. Here rhythmic sequences gradually open up, cycle into beats and then run through no less than five distinct sections. Synthetic Block has a number of releases in the back-catalogue as a result of over 20 years of music making. Escape Velocity is released on Gears Of Sand Records and can be purchased directly from the website or via CD Baby. The album has a traditional electronic music feel to it - influence by the old school of synthesiser pioneers. Most tracks are mid-length with 'Third Force' running up to eleven minutes twenty seven and 'Orbits' topping twenty six minutes. Escape Velocity will appeal to synthesiser fans that enjoy solid structures and plenty of rhythmic accompaniment. If you like the sounds of DiN or perhaps Zero One then this might be a CD for you to check out."

-Paul Jury, Morpheus Music

"Escape Velocity (63'26") by Synthetic Block presents six tracks of Prog-Rock influenced Spacemusic. While this album's plot is familiar, the execution is lively, detailed and clever. Lyrical synth lines recall a time when Contemporary Electronic Music was pre-occupied with melody rather than texture and performers strove for a clean sound and hands-on control. The arrangements on Escape Velocity are linear and elaborate enough to continually engage the listener (without all the bluster of Block's explicit influences). However, with classic Mellotron sounds, manipulated acoustic samples, pulsing electronic percussion and vintage synthesizer voicings, the instrumentation becomes quite luxurious. The overall effect is a spacious elegance in which Block confidently produces a gravity defying mixture of cosmic pastorale and post-Art Rock electronics."

- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 11 May 2006