: foundry indices : reviews : sounds : : : news : pictures : words : : : the foundry : hypnos REVIEWS from e|i [Issue 2 - Autumn 2003] http://www.ei-mag.com/ eM Outward (The Foundry) Ben Swire Equilibrium (The Foundry) Michael Bentley's label The Foundry has been forging some mighty fine electronic nuggets for nigh on six years now, the anvil sounds of which have largely fallen on deaf ears (or, at least ears unaware). Time then to track down the first two EPs off The Foundry/Hypnos assembly line. Bentley's own eM moniker blasts Outward from the distant cries of ancient quasars via three tracks of interstellar ambience so disturbingly deepblack it makes Kubrick's monolith look positively grey. Going even where Eno has not gone before, these foreboding pieces work as odes to spatial vacuums, rife with the same latent forces that govern a cosmos of desolate largesse. Maintaining Equilibrium, Ben Swire focuses on terrain decidedly bound to the ground, albeit implanted with billowing electronic whorls and insistent throbs; he's more inclined to marvel at the light than curse the darkness. Yet like Bentley, Swire relies on a well-understood sense of drama and variegated coloration, the sadness of things brought to the surface as his melancholic synths crest on "Departure." More, if you will. (Darren Bergstein)