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Artist: A Produce Albums:
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Opening with the sound of a bell-like tone and a soft drone, A Produce's first solo CD in five years, Smile on the Void, represents the return of one of the true pioneers and "envelope-pushers" on the ambient musical scene. When the sensuous tribal rhythms, subtle yet not subdued, enter the first (title) track, I couldn't help but smile and think to myself, "Yeah - A Produce is back!" Reminding me of his best work from such important albums as Land of a Thousand Trances and Inscape and Landscape, Smile on the Void may be the artist's most refined, complex, and mature (although I detest using that word!) recording to date. As he has done at times in the past, the ambient artist does not work alone. He is joined by stellar talents: Dean de Benedictus, Ruben Garcia, and Scott Fraser. All of these musicians contribute significantly to the album, even though they only appear sporadically throughout the CD. The tribal underpinnings of the first track are accentuated by liquid/fluid sounding "organic percussives" (per the liner notes). The "theme" of the CD itself is the sleep cycle, portrayed in sound/music. So, the CD starts off with insomnia and restlessness and progresses through other stages, such as sleeping, dreaming and awakening. Since A Produce characterizes his music as "trance" music, not ambient, there are percussive elements peppered throughout Smile on the Voice. But they are so well-integrated into the natural flow of the ambient and spacemusic textures that unless you are diametrically opposed to any rhythms at all, I happen to think the fluid nature of the beats will, as A Produce himself writes in the liner notes, "...evoke(s) a seduction of the listener, gradually drawing them in." The second song, "Night Curve" begins with a low drone and darker noir-like noise effects. However, rather than being truly disturbing, there is a vague sense of, if not comfort, at least safety. This is not so much nightmare music as it sonically represents the passage into that first phase of sleep where dreaming has not begun but consciousness has fled. Smile on the Void is a fantastic musical depiction of sleep, representing various moods and permutations that we, as humans, go through on the way to alpha-stage slumber. As the cut winds down, a swirling drone and a drawn-out bell tone waft lazily through the air. Way too cool! This is drone music by a true master of the genre. Damn, this is fine! Engineering throughout the disc is exemplary, as it always is on Hypnos recordings (and also was on all of A Produce's Trance Port CDs as well). And, by the gods, the cover is finally something different from Hypnos (thank goodness!).The smoky orange/gold cloud-like wisps combine with the minimal lettering to create one of the better cover graphics I've seen this year! The third cut, "The Big Sleep," marries spacemusic washes and drones with low (I mean LOW) rumblings and strange bassy percussive sounds. The music undulates with a gentle yet insistent rhythm and the vague tribal/trance elements impart a small amount of primal energy to the cut. The washes ebb and flow in intensity as the song progresses through its almost nine minutes (song length on the CD varies from 5:47 to a tick over twelve minutes). The addition of lush synth strings mutates this piece into something almost soothing, despite the presence of the rumbling undercurrents. "Visions" again begins with ambient drones and vague noise effects. and slowly weaves a ambient web of electronic swirls. This new layering of drones, washes, with the more "industrial" elements, as well the very creative integrating of rhythms, is what induces me to say that Smile on the Void represents the pinnacle of A Produce's recording career (so far). He has always been self-assured, making music that is both unique and daring and yet never pointlessly avant garde or hopelessly self-absorbed. Smile on the Void reflects the development of his previous talents as they are refined and honed as well the introduction of even more interesting and original textures. "Inner Sanctum" must be the musical equivalent of deep alpha-state restfulness. Gentle and pulsing notes from an electric piano create a serene, yet not numbingly so, pillow of sound. The electric piano is credited, in the liner notes, to both the artist himself and fellow ambient musician Ruben Garcia. Whoever it is, he/they sound(s) great! This cut stands side by side with the best from minimalist geniuses like James Johnson and Stephen Philips. Coming as it does at track number 5, it signals the midpoint of the album from an aesthetic perspective. Spacy textures, like fleeting dream-thoughts, cruise into and out of the arrhythmic melodic notes, adding even more peacefulness to this already quiet and restful cut. The last two pieces on the album, "I Wake Up Dreaming" and "Spirit Room," veer Smile on the Void into totally different territory. The former opens with rhythmic keyboards, buzz-saw drones, and those wonderful A Produce organic flute-synths of his. This song more than any other may remind long-time fans of his previous albums, especially Land of a Thousand Trances (one of my fave recordings of all-time, by the way). The music has a certain heat and an energy as it drives forward, propelled by the rhythms and soaring electric guitar (or what sounds like it, as if played by someone like Jon Durant). Yet, despite all this, the cut most resembles spacemusic, albeit of the cruising variety. This song should just about send Robert Rich fans to the moon. It's easily the equal of Rich's best work from his ethno/tribal/ambient recordings, or at least to my ears it is The last cut, "Spirit Room," on which A Produce is joined by Scott Fraser on guitar and Dean de Benedictus on lead synth, brings Smile on the Void to a wonderful conclusion. Opening with hushed synth flutes and drones, the song soon moves in a midtempo-paced trance/tribal rhythmic direction by the introduction of an assortment of hand percussion elements. Flutes and washes coarse throughout the song like a river of smoke. Representing, as I think it does, the awakening after a night of slumber, the cut has an affirming glow to it. Even when the drones are in a minor key the overall effect of the music is one of a positive emotional sensation. As the song hits just past the mid-point, electric guitar licks, tasteful but still stinging, bring even more energy and liveliness to the music. I'm sure there are some ambient purists who will cringe at the guitar, but some people just don't know the beauty of variety in their music, I guess. I think adding this element to the song, alongside the propulsive rhythms and smooth synth washes, is a great idea. Again, as it's meant to do, it signals the end of a night of sleep and the beginning of a new day, so to speak. Sure, it's a bit risky for an ambient musician to actually bring the intensity of an album UP as it concludes (the overwhelming majority of ambient/spacemusic recordings I've heard do the opposite, i.e. they fade and wind down). And, truthfully, in the last minute or so, "Spirit Room" does subside as it nears the finish of the song. But, by making the last song the most "active," A Produce put his money where his mouth his, so to speak. After all, you wouldn't wake up to softer music than you sleep to, would you? Smile on the Void should land on just about any critic's (whose worth a tinker's damn, as my dear departed mother would say) "Best Ambient Albums of 2001" list. I've always belived that A Produce was under-appreciated. With this album (and kudos to Mike Griffin, head Hypnos honcho, for releasing this puppy), I don't see how anyone can deny this musician his rightful place alongside the greats of the genre. If Smile on the Void does not merit his a place in the ambient/spacemusic "Hall of Fame," than by the gods, nothing will! My highest recommendation - with ease!
On their joint collaboration, Altara, ambient pioneer A Produce and Hypnos label head (and sometimes artist) M(ike) Griffin head straight for the outer rim of the galaxy and the inner sanctum of the human psyche. The five cuts that make up this album are more like passing shadows and evening fog banks than music, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. The occasional lack of even a melodic drone does not hinder the impact of this music. However, it does necessitate two things. One, you need to either play Altara fairly loudly, or you must listen to it in the almost complete absence of background or foreground noise. The subtleties of this recording are its heart and soul. A shimmering synth here, a brush stroke of timbre there, and a vague sense of desolation and isolation permeate this album. Normal descriptions of this music are, in a way, pointless. There were probably any number of "reprocessing and treatments" that M Griffin (per liner notes) applied to A Produce's synths and samples. Suffice it to say that the music on cuts like the opening "Overground" is very deep formless ambient and/or semi-dark spacemusic. Bell-like reverberations, lower register synths, and vague undertones come and go. "Altara" begins with an almost palpable humming sound, like the muted vibration from a plasma or ion drive engine on a starship, filtered through the massive bulkhead that separates the drive system from the crew's quarters. Higher toned sounds pulse with a cyber-organic lifeblood. Sometimes the pulse grows loud and even drones with a electrical/mechanical energy, as if the machinery was being driven to an overload. But despite this description of Altara, I would not use the word "noir" to describe the music. This is not dark ambient, per se . Yes, it has the essence of darkness (a la deep space) and even brings to mind the feel of shadows. But the emotional context is more ambiguous than that. Ultimately, the mood is one of unending questioning and even puzzlement. It's the musical equivalent of an insatiable desire to explore beyond the normal boundaries of everyday life. Yet, the CD it is also not pointlessly pretentious. In fact, by being so overtly minimal, A Produce and Griffin avoid any sense of "aren't we cool" that could easily creep into a recording that stresses mood and nuance over melody or structure. Even on the vaguely rhythmic "Diffusion" (which sounds the most like an A Produce solo cut to my ears), the presence of the deep bell-like tone seems to reinforce the floating nature of the song, instead of detracting from it. This song also has more of a foreground presence to it as well. The last cut on the album is the over thirty-minute long "You Send Me the Message." Trying to encapsulate descriptive comments about a song this long into a cohesive critical statement is tortuous and somewhat silly. No song (at least very few) that is stretched out to this degree can completely avoid sounding too long, after a fashion. But if you consider that a song like "You Send..." is an auditory example of McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message" than the astute listener can overlay a transparency on the drones, hums, washes and noises resulting in a philosophical statement. In fact, Altara is probably less about what the music actually is than it is about what the music conjures up as both active visualization and as metaphor. In its drawn out patient undulations, "You Send..." is an interpretation of how communication is not always direct or even indirect. Some communication occurs as part of a psychic or emotional undercurrent. These messages are usually muted, vague and yet drive us toward goals and purposes anyway. Not everyone will hear these heady concepts in Altara (and I could be completely off-base on my analysis). Certainly the idea that a CD is less concerned with structure and melody is nothing new. That this type of ambient music is at times beautiful and chilling is also nothing new. However, Altara ultimately satisfies both the cerebral and the emotional in a unique way. It purposely avoids dark ambient clichés and, if not strikingly original, its execution is so artfully realized that it transcends its superficial limitations and succeeds by being an excellent exploration of minimalist ambient music. While I did not "enjoy" Altara in the same way I do the work of ambient artists like James Johnson, Stephen Philips or newcomer Matt Borghi, I do admire its bold direction and its vision. Recommended for fans of very deep spacemusic and minimalist ambient. |
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