Various Artists - Death Ambient (15 tracks) +Album Reviews

Dark and unusual - an unnerving adventure in modern sound

John Beam | Phillipsburg, NJ USA | 11/11/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fred Frith, along with admirable support from his cohorts on this release, has produced a recording that manages to push forward the boundaries of modern music, just a bit, and along an unusual edge. The listener feels immersed in a small, almost hallucinogenic soundscape where subtleties abound and the direction that the music takes is completely unpredictable. Definately for fans of the unusual and adventurous."

Music for your darkest dreams.

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 04/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is strange in that it is so dark and evil sounding, yet very beautiful all at once. Sonically, the album is slow, ever-changing atmospheric (not exactly ambient, necessarily) improvisations where it is difficult to discern which sounds come from which instruments. The range and diversity of sound is surprising, but then again this group is made up of some of the prime innovators on their respective instruments: it is all Fred Frith (guitar), Kato Hideki (bass), and Ikue Mori (drum machines). And of course they are all master improvisers. The reason it works so well is because the improvisations are so chastely intuitive and natural but these three collectively understand what kind of music they are endeavoring to create. It kind of evokes Naked City's _Absinthe_ but this is more twistedly playful and enchanting. But make no mistake, it's very dark and evil sounding (but you must realize that it is nonetheless beautiful and absorbing). The music ranges from very abstract (the layers of stifling feedback on "Flash") to downright pretty and mysterious (the avant-oriental sounding "Imperial Thorn"). Both this and Death Ambient's follow up, _Synaesthesia_, are definitely recommended. I wouldn't want to be without either one, but I guess if you held a gun to my head I would pick this one. In terms of performances, recording, and musical quality, this is a deserving five stars."

Improv Wonder!

Carl Johnson | Detroit, MI United States | 07/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have noticed that no reviewer gave this five stars. I disagree. This is very dark percussive music with the three supurb musicians, coming at the time wheree ambient and ambient dance music was peeking! This is not Dance music or even ambient. The peices are atonal and the structure is loose, but it is NOT a fantic mayhem of misguided noise. Death Ambient has two records and this is the better of the two. If you are familiar with Fred Frith's (Henry Cow, etc) work, particularly in the nineties, this was an experiment that is out-there-somewhere, but not gone arye. If you decide that you might want to buy this record, please understand what it is and is not. Excellent avaunt-gaurd, atonal spin!"

...give Mori the credit, tho'

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 01/31/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well, yeah, sure, Fred Frith is the "name" here, relatively speaking, and indeed gets some very strange sounds out of his guitar (while still creating somethin' very MUSICAL, very much coherent and of a piece with what Kato Hideki and Ikue Mori do) but the sonic landscapes on this disc probably owe more to the weirdly textural, tingly drum machine manipulations of NY's Mori (formerly of DNA, with Arto Lindsay, like). Plus it's a "death" project, via th' nomenclature, thus creating some affinity with her Death Praxis stuff with Tenko, also on Tzadik (also worth checking out). Personally, I find their second disc a bit more "evolved" (perfected, like); but I heard it first and I'm as much a duck as anyone, so maybe that's just me. This music (in any case) is dark, beautiful, subtly noisy, strange, at times unsettling, and generally satisfying to know about and lay entranced to. I don't play it that often, tho', and if you think you might only need ONE of the two Death Ambient projects, get the other one. But do get one of them; if you're interested enough to be reading the reviews, they're probably worth your while. A very well named project, btw."

Excellent musicians, but mediocre music. 2.5 Stars

Steward Willons | Illinois | 07/09/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As a fan of the NYC downtown style (i.e. anyone who puts out CDs on Tzadik) and a fan of the dark ambient style, this CD ought to be a winning combination. The trouble is, I don't think it works as either dark ambient or NYC avant garde material. I'm not sure if the individual tracks are composed, improvised, or something in between, but they lack the interest that I usually find in this sort of project. There isn't a whole lot going on in terms of form, so I'm guessing they're improvising with a specific sound set and probably a few thematic ideas.

The biggest issue is that, while Ikue Mori, Fred Frith, and Kato Hideki are all great musicians and composers, when you compare this music with other dark ambient fixtures such as Lustmord, the music sounds almost naive. Judging by the name they have chosen, I think it's safe to say that the goal is a brooding darkness with a lurking threat of violence. There are so many artists working in this style making much creepier, much more evocative music.

Interestingly, I enjoyed Death Ambient's subsequent releases more than this. Other than a broader sonic palate, I'm not sure why they seem to work better. Regardless, I would recommend starting with either "Drunken Forest" or "Synaesthesia" first. Perhaps they're more focused, or perhaps they at least reflect the current state of dark ambient music more than the first album did.

I know a few people who like this CD a little more than I do, but since I'm writing the review, I can't really recommend it - even to fans of Mori, Frith, or Hideki. There are better places to hear their work."

Search - Various Artists :: Death Ambient

CD Details

Similar CDs

Similarly Requested CDs

CD Reviews

	Various Artists Death Ambient Genres: Dance & Electronic, Jazz, Special Interest, Pop, Rock Track Listings (15) - Disc #1 Prophecy Imperial Thorn Hedgetrimmer Alchemy Heart Set Rain Broken Blue Loquat Tree White Eye Coyote Got Away A Dead Staphylococcus Looks Like a Skull Heart Set Loading and Running Flash Ways Out
? Larger Image