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from Ear Pollution e-zine (posted 4.22.2002)
written by Mark Teppo
http://www.earpollution.com/
Various Artists - 360° (The Foundry - 2002)
Some records are made for headphones; their journeys can only be truly appreciated when they become the center of your attention. Sometimes I need to be reminded that all the other noise--the cat, the hum of computer systems, the cars driving by on the road outside, the steady chop-chop whir of the clothes dryer in the next room--all these things can (and will) conspire to keep you from properly immersing yourself in the music.
The Berkeley, California, label simply known as The Foundry has been carefully building up a back catalogue of electronic music that can be casually tossed into the ambient, space, glitch, and microsound categories. But those are cheap and tawdry appellations which fail to encompass the distinct pleasure it is to encounter one of their records. At their website, Michael Bentley, chief architect of the Foundry, asks that before one downloads the PDF booklet that accompanies this record, that one simply listens to the work in its entirety. It would follow that I should not act like a out of control orangutan at a fruit stand and ruin things by summarizing the intent and creative movement of the record. I will tell you this, though: 360° is a concept album with 15 varieties of ambient music arranged around a central idea.
It starts (and ends) with Rhomb's "360° Theme," an adventure into (and out of) floating space. Chimes and gongs and distant chords convey a sense of weightlessness that draws you into a sonic bubble filled with the resonating echo of waves against a narrow shore. The tones disappear as the water creaks over your head and you vanish from the edge of this reality. Each track draws you farther into this tale; each movement a variation of the idea of ambient space. eM's "Reflective" stretches you beyond your simple three-dimensional existence and tosses you through quantum dimensional space. Jonathan Hughes offers us his take on the sound of viscous space in his track of the same name. Mat Jarvis (who once upon a time released a couple of records under the name of Gas for the E:mit label) provides "Staars," a track rich with analog melodies and the gentle motion of beats and rhythms like the light caress of a mild spring breeze across open sunflowers. Mark Van Hoen and Seefon provide the scattered static, chopped voices, and distant radio transmissions for "Shrine," a track which pulsates with the intensity of an angry quasar. "Zargosso" by Sketch is the nocturnal soundtrack for a distant storm rolling across the Australian Outback--part location recording, part overheard Aboriginal ritual, part Michael Nyman composed score. In a manner which reminds me of Aube's work with fire as a musical source, Thermal crafts "Embers," a nearly nine minute excursion through regions filled with scattered streams of sound at the upper threshold of human hearing and resounding rumbles which never quite seem to dissipate beneath your feet. At the end is Kim Cascone's experiments with glitch spaces. His "Superfield" sounds like the captured hum of highly charged machinery. Scattered throughout this record are six interpolations, tiny vignettes of sound which transition you from one head space to the next.
360° is a carefully composed and constructed peregrination across an episodic narrative where each waypoint offers you an opportunity for a rich sonic experience. If you don't have a decent pair of headphones, treat yourself. The reward of 360° is found in being able to lose yourself in the musical narrative.