Fang, Forrest

Artists: Forrest Fang
P: 2023
The Oort Cloud is a vast spherical hull of ice proposed to reside on the outer rim of our solar system. Nothing in this cloud has yet been seen, though it may contain icy objects including comets once close to the sun. This imagined place is the inspiration for ambient musician Forrest Fang’s The Oort Cloud Meditations. While many of Fang’s releases are a hybrid of electronic and acoustic instruments, his latest remains predominantly a free-floating, transparent and gently unfolding electronic space. Using synthesizers to a greater extent than on previous albums, Fang organically transforms their tones into undulating harmonic gestures through ambient treatments and processing. The five far-reaching movements proceed at a relaxed pace; drifting atmospheres ebb and expand gradually, encouraging the mind to wander untethered.
“I created this album over an intense three months,” says Fang. “It started with a simple experiment that continued to evolve and spilled over into new pieces as the results grew more interesting and more sonically complex. I created electronic sounds that revolved around each other semi-randomly with room for harmonies to develop organically from these interactions. I used melodies sparingly, subtly introducing alternate tunings at times to reflect different moods.”
The album opens with “Planetary Hum,” a gently rolling series of tones intended to ground the listener for the auditory meditations to follow. The work’s open-ended textures are at times reminiscent of Brian Eno’s generative soundscapes but more dynamic in nature. The extended “Diaphanes” follows, thematically drawing on the translucence of ice and revealing a surprisingly warm sonic environment. Like the opener, the overall mood is elongated and expansive. Across eighteen otherworldly minutes, the electronic textures glow and flicker suggesting arcs of the sun’s refracted light.
A darker, more mysterious blend of hues appears on “The Lighthouse.” Fragmentary themes quietly appear and recede in the veiled fog like random memories briefly emerging from the subconscious. Long, expanding echoes trail the melodic fragments leaving a large spatial void that ultimately swallows up these ephemeral reverberations. Even so, the fragments cover a considerable distance before finally fading away.
The faint trail from “The Lighthouse” leads us to the calming spaces of “Distant Signals.” Resonating frequencies resembling the sustain and decay of bronze temple bells and gongs drift across the acoustic field in tunings suggesting ancient origins. An unearthly choral sound bed gradually emerges, bringing the listener into an imaginary floating realm of undefined dimension.
Our visit to the Oort Cloud concludes with a return from distant celestial skies to internal spaces in the final piece, “Solus.” A cluster of thick harmonious tones form their own vibrating cloud; it momentarily hangs in the air before receding into silence.

Artists: Forrest Fang
P: 1992
This is an early long form ambient work with some tribal and eastern influences.

Hier the last copy!

Artists: Forrest Fang
P: 2011
Unbound is veteran ambient musician Forrest Fang exploring lush and abstract terrain under the Sans Serif moniker. Using very small - at times microscopic - sounds as source material, Fang utilizes a vocabulary of long shimmering tones that gradually warp, mutate and transform over the course of a piece.
Fang explains, “The Sans Serif project is my tribute to minimalism. For each piece, I have stripped sound down to certain tones and sonic elements that reappear, with variations, on a much larger scale. The processed elements are the ‘clouds’ in each piece’s landscape that gradually shift from one end of the landscape to the other.“
On Unbound, Fang takes the Sans Serif concept one step further by creating a series of extended soundscapes, each with its own distinct personality and mood. The varied atmospheres range from incandescent ("A Silver Season") to dark ("Lost Oracle"). Though rooted in abstraction, at times the music possesses an almost luminous physicality. The pieces on Unbound contribute to an unhurried organic flow that culminates in the multi-textural closer, “Tone In Alium,” a piece loosely inspired by Thomas Tallis’ 16th-Century polyphonic work, “Spem In Alium.”
Unbound is Fang’s 10th solo album, 3rd Projekt release and 2nd release from Sans Serif. Not surprisingly, Sans Serif’s first release, Tones for LaMonte (2008), was a tribute to minimalist composer La Monte Young. Throughout, the subtle psychoacoustics invite headphone listening, but its grand scale may perhaps be best appreciated over speakers.
 

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2012 / 2022
10 years earlier, in 2012, Michael published his first label release on SynGate's newly founded sub-label "Luna", for which the musician and graphic designer also designed the logo. Since then, this album has been one of Michael Brückner's personal favorites among the albums he recorded. The new re-release is now much more than a re-release, in fact completely new tracks were created when the individual pieces were not only remixed but completely reinterpreted by other artists that Michael had invited to this project. The excellent participating artists on ELEVENTH SUN are:
- ZenSugar
- Robert Rich
- Mathias Grassow
- Markus Reuter
- Forrest Fang
- J. Peter Schwalm100
Michael says: "I'm really impressed and happy how the new versions have taken shape through the hands of the immensely talented artists. The double album offers the remix with the artists involved on CD1 and the original album from 2012 on CD2 The album features the remix with the artists involved above.

Artist: Vidna Obamana, Steve Roach,
Erik Wollo u.a.
P: 2015
Best of the Projekt artists from their 2015 releases.