Fleury Steiner, Ben

Artist: Ben Fleury-Steiner
P: 2006 / 2008
LTD 300   
This CD from 2005 offers 60 minutes of lightly coarse ambience.
Combining shrill sounds with vaporous resonance, this music ventures just beyond the normal background aspect exemplified by most ambient compositions. While the tonalities never reach any degree of harshness, they are generally more piercing that conventional ambience. Mixed with fragile atmospheric swells, these grittier sounds are sedated, made more sympathetic. This union produces a curious temperance that is refreshing.
Mechanical grindings swim in a pool of shimmering clouds. Sparkling chords coexist with twilight drones. Bass gurgles penetrate swaying notes that vibrate with a peculiar luminosity. Playful diodes sigh in tandem with lavish textural spreads. While normal ambient compositions take their time slowly evolving into a substantial presence, these tunes get right to the point, then embellish on their themes with engaging variations.
With the exception of one twelve minute piece, the tracks average about five minutes in duration, suiting their compressed directness. This longer track pursues an unhurried path in the same mode, blending celestial passages with demonstrative punctuations in a manner that transcends time and space, resulting in an entertaining excursion into nebulous realms of slightly edgy disposition.

This release was mastered by ambient pioneer, Robert Rich.

Matt Howarth / Sonic Curiosity