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from AmbiEntrance 10/2002 upload
written by David Opdyke
http://www.ambientrance.org/1002/
V/A - Lost and Found (The Foundry/Hypnos - 2002)
Being (and/or being part of) several of these projects, Foundry founder Michael Bentley has outdone his selves (and others) with the arty esoterica recovered in his lost and found department. Splendid!
Drawing from the Foundry's earlier days, disc one: lost (13 tracks/67:49) opens with jaw-dropping beauty floating upon the placid twinkle/drone of rhomb's "above the earth (2002)", just gorgeous in its fragile musical nature. More rhomb tracks explore assorted realms of abstract space, often throbbing with celestial vastness. eM's "edison naps" lingers in mysterious atmospheres created by enigmatic textural grit against shifting haze. Other eM pieces are equally thoughtful-yet-inscrutable.
Achingly gorgeous and intriguingly obtuse, "shoal of stars" simply churns in eM-powered swirls of celestial fluids. Appearing as himself, m. bentley delivers the jangle/clatter/soar of "flora". Fading in from silence, the apiary's "repeat (part three)" (8:41) hovers and wavers, rippling with strange energies and slightly-warped grandeur.
Disc two: found (12 tracks/65:17) features newer works and artists who've joined in after the Foundry/Hypnos alliance. An instrumental version of dean santomieri's "boy beneath the sea: chapter one" opens; soft surf and low guitar thrums put some "mmmmmm" into melancholy. mollusk's solo contribution to the flavorful stew is "barnacle: island", a shifty fogbank of windy/watery/cloudy synth environs. jonathan hughes' "alta" is reviewed here this month, so read about it there.
Another santomieri piece clocks in as the shorty; "Boy beneath the sea: chapter three (instrumental)" (1:10) glistens with xylotones sparkling against a translucent background. The collective sound of seofon + steve roach + not breathing drifts into the ephemeral, ringing void of "lessons in being nothing" which transmutes into various other forms.
Too much more to describe! There's nothing "lost" about lost and found; the discs have been an integral part of my nighttimes most of the month, filling the air with hours of gentle weirdness. An A+ for these captivating finds.
A win/win convergence of the Foundry and Hypnos labels.
This review posted 10.06.02 - AmbiEntrance © 2002-1997 by David J Opdyke