: foundry indices : reviews : sounds : : : news : pictures : words : : : the foundry : hypnos REVIEWS Jonathan Hughes/Various Artists "Fluidities" (The Foundry, 2004) 2 CDs, 11 + 11 trakcs, 66.44 + 66.44 mins written by Phil Derby Posted in Electroambient Space ezine 1/2005 Note the track listing above - same number of tracks on both discs, same running time. Coincidence? Hardly. Fluidities is a rare though not totally unheard of concept: compose separate pieces of music designed to be played together. Each track has a running time of 6:04 (actually, the first and last tracks are 2 seconds longer and shorter, respectively), with the intent that you can combine each set of 11 tracks in a virtually infinite set of possibilities. The plus side is the disc allows you to experiment in many ways; the downside is that the choices seem overwhelming, and they don't always work. For example, Saul Stokes' "Summer" is abstract buzzes and bleeps, and M. Bentley's "April" is soft solo piano, so together they sound about like you might expect if you combine two songs at random, like a bit of noise. Most of the tracks are perfectly listenable on their own, if a little threadbare at times. There tend to be two main varieties of ambience - those with buzzes, clicks, pops and other indefinable noises, and those that are very sparse and quiet. Many of the contributors are relative unknowns, with names like High Skies, ATOI, and Susanne Brokesch. One surprising exception is the presence of Ian Boddy. His "Suburbia" track is a cool bubbly experiment, featuring synths that sound like chirping birds mixed with metallic drones. Eventually it becomes dark and churning. Great stuff. Fluidities offers many possibilities.