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from Ampersand Etcetera 2002_05 (4.22.2002) written by Jeremy Keens
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html & jeremy@pretentious.net
Various Artists - 360 degrees: a foundry project [Fou.15] The Foundry/Hypnos
The latest Foundry(/Hypnos) disk takes as its theme a story by Michael Bentley: a project which stalled (see the on-site PDF), but saw a new life following the Archipelago set, when Bentley invited a range of local musicians to choose a chapter and create a soundtrack to it. A theme by Rhomb, written when the story was first conceived, opens and closes the album, and the individual tracks are linked by interpolations that create a seamless continuity. Extracts from the story are present as liner notes, but there is no spoken narration.
A solar wind, or waves, that end in a rumble thunder runs through Rhomb's theme over which synth chords loom, analogue ringing notes slowly build a melody, and provide a stately, dramatic opening, with gongs suggesting a hint of the orient. A gentle space ambient from eM, 'Reflective' has drifting high tones, a deeper base and calls that echo and burr, light loops supporting our free fall. An underlying tone that rises and falls stepwise supports the ratchets knocks and bloops of Jonathon Hughes' 'Viscous space'. A hollow crackling and a slow tonal synth build over the computer noises, which are joined by rhythmic motors and radio sqwals to build quite a head of steam. 'Staars' (by High Skies) is the most predictable track, something of a TD-influence with tuned percussion, long note melody, light percussion and a sample that sounds like an astronaut relay, but is nonetheless enjoyable and works well in this context.
In 'Shrine' Mark van Hoen and Seofon process vocals into layers and snatches looped to form both the melody and part of the rhythm, the rest coming from a variety dits and pops, with a swirling moving high ringing sound completing the mood, sliding into a dubby section before a clattery fade. 'Zargasso' suggest the Sargasso Sea to me, with big drifting wash tones containing a hint of voices, noises and tones in fading wave-echoes and an undercurrent of droning white noises. There are suggestions of rhythm which become a slow beat, with a dub-bass and then a jazz trio in there. The rhythm speeds up over bubbling, drops and wooshes fade.
Swizzly high tones, bubbling radio noise and a big machine hum form the basis for Thermal's 'Embers', weaving around each other, developing and changing, joined by chitters and dits that echo while a throb builds, and finally computer chatter over the long fade. Strange radio transmissions are captured in 'Superfield', rapidly corpuscular to begin with then joined by layers of bloops, after which metallic rolls crackles and rumbles all come together in this dramatic piece from Kim Cascone. Which echoes into the '360 theme redux' where chords and notes from the first erupt, distant and hollow, the wind increasing, and joined by ticking taps and buzzing, into a final thunder rumble. Not forgetting the 6 interpolations by eM, 30 second minatures of rumble dits scrathes buzzing and bubbles that anonymously glue the tracks together.
This is not a compilation, but a collection of specifically written tracks to fit the themes and developments of Bentley's story, with an overall sound reflecting the space element. The result is an impressive album which coheres while allowing stylistic diversity, and also presents some great individual contributions. Another excellent product from The Foundry.
[see also Jeremy's comments on our first releases here, and on our chapbooks here, and on Seofon's Zero Point here]