REVIEWS reviews...... sounds...... pictures...... words...... links...... info from AmbiEntrance e-zine written by Stephen Fruitman The Foundry - an overview The Foundry is a new and particularly interesting label out of Berkeley, CA., the brainchild of Michael Bentley, himself an accomplished and multifacetted composer, as these records reveal. Each of the four CDs thus far released are exquisitely packaged in dark, glossy cardboard sleeves, and sealed with a label identifying the release, artist, and tracks; artwork which brings to mind that which graced the covers of Brian Eno's classic Obscure series. The listener must break the seals to gain access to the music, but rather than ruin the aesthetic effect, it adds to it - one recalls the books of yore, whose pages one had to cut with a paper knife as one read. The first release, by eM (Michael Bentley himself) and entitled Djinnestablishes a beachhead on the shores of unconquered sonic territories. Here we enter the realm of electronic minimalism explored by the Finnish artist Mika Vainio under his various pseudonyms. These are "songs from under the floorboards", as Howard Devoto once sang, where through the fissures in our normal audio range, a shadowier world insinuates itself upon us. At times, a full-fledged assault is launched, as in the death-throes of a strangled guitar on the track Moorish Heroes of the Spanish Main. At others times, the static glitches of Oval and the subterranean moans of Alio Die or Robert Rich are heard in turn. If these sounds filter into the listener's consciousness through the cracks in the floor, the music on Eclectronica, the second in the eries, groans like the wheezy pipe-organ music echoing from behind the radiator in David Lynch's Eraserhead (a movie whose aural and visual aesthetic has had an undeniable influence on the ambient genre). Here, the listener has the chance to meet both new minimal compositions and classical pieces by Schubert and Edvard Grieg in a new context. This is a compilation featuring contributions by N. Kreisberg, Melec and Michael Bentley (a pair of tracks are also borrowed from other Foundry releases). As compilations go, this one can easily withstand comparisons with some of the best em:t releases, while displaying a sound and vision all its own. Third in the series is the most successful. Descent, by The Apiary (the ubiquitous Bentley again) is a long ambient piece commissioned to accompany an installation. The dialogue between visual and audio artists is allowed to develop on the CD itself, as texture is laid upon texture and new full-rounded forms emerge out of the initial sketches. Echoes of Gavin Bryars, Eno and Harold Budd can be heard reverberating, though in the compositional idea rather than in the actual musical result. A restrained yet deeply textured minor ambient masterpiece. Just out is the fourth in the series, Hidden Topographies by Rhomb, and the circle closes within itself. The beachhead from Djinn having now been secured, the troops spread out over the land and begin mapping its hidden topographical secrets, but much more discreetly than on the first release. As far as investigations of nearly-imperceptible sonic landscapes are concerned, I must admit that I find it rather unengaging, with the delightful exception of the sixth track, Ice Fields, featuring a simple music-box melody played over a murmur of glacial enormity. However, for those inclined toward the releases of a label like Ash or artists like Morphogenesis and Social Interiors, this is a territory they should definitely explore. On the strength of these four CDs released in just over a year&laqno;s time, The Foundry label has quickly established itself as a label worth keeping a very close eye on. This can be done by checking out its website regularly (http://www.foundrysite.com). Stephen Fruitman   Mote Mote is the latest offering from quality electronica label The Foundry. Proposed as "a kind of Foundry collaboration", the proceedings are dominated by the efforts, both combined and solo, of artists eM and Rhomb. Perhaps the finest collaboration appears as early as the second track, "The Bridge", a haunting drone piece featuring the violin of Susan Worland. Generally atmospheric and calm with slight touches of digital edginess, the overall impression is very organic, as evident on "Subaqua", or in the warm bass of "Reverie". "Occluded Forms" suggests Eno-like late-seventies ambience, while the simple melody of "In the Drift" is irresistable. Rhomb´s "Islands of Sleep" introduces a percussive element which is almost rousing in its context. Mote is a quiet album, a place of sonic repose created by artists restlessly seeking out new niches of suggestive sounds. Taken altogether, one of the most diverse Foundry releases while at the same time being one of the most consisent in tone and vision.