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Birmingham Post and Mail |
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Local label puts ambient music back on the map.
Sometimes words are not enough to do justice to music. This astonishing CD is the fruit of an international partnership between Midlands label H/S Recordings and Dutch ambient artist Matthew Florianz.
Ambient's had a bit of a rough ride since its heyday at the turn of the 1990s when it was seen as a panacea for clubbed to death space cadets.
The days of marrying astronaut samples with dub beats are long gone, thank goodness.
Florianz makes truly immersive sound art which owes everything to the European tradition of early Tangerine Dream and the pure aesthetics of Brian Eno at his most abstract. GrijsGebied's icy soundscapes exist purely to transport you to another state of mind.
The first time I heard this album, I fell asleep.
In a 68 minute narcotic flow, GrijsGfile:///e:/matthewflorianz.com/__website_v2/www/grijsgebied_reviews.htmlebied avoids all the ambient clichés - there are no drums, no bleatings of sheep and not a note is wasted. Although divided into eight tracks, the album works as one piece, a journey through whatever landscape the music invokes.
The key to the consistency is the simple equipment Florianz uses - in his case a box of tones, manufactured by Korg. Deep editing and sound manipulation gives him access to timbres that are unique.
The second technique, and perhaps the most crucial, is Florianz's skill as an arranger and engineer. What initially sounds as quite an abstract drift reveals itself, on closer inspection, as a great skill in keeping all the elements in check. If one theme is in danger of becoming too prominent it is folded back into the mix to morph into new shapes and a new direction.
It's no exaggeration to say that this is a hugely important album in the annals of electronica and if you're at all interested in the genre, you simply must hear it. It's available directly from the label's website for a tenner (www.hsrecordings.co.uk). Trust me, it's a classic.
Rating: (5 stars out of 5) | Andrew Cowen
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