Elemental Journey – Matt Coldrick & Matt Hillier (Absolute Ambient) www.absoluteambient.com

- in contrast to By the Dawn’s Early Light – Harold Budd
(Hannibal/All Saints Records)

Two very different ambient CDs – one old-ish (but re-released), one newer. The term ‘ambient music’ was, as far as I know, first coined by, and attributed to, art-music composer and ex-Roxy Music weirdo, Brian Eno. With a series of albums from the mid-70s he investigated creating sometimes rather eerie and gently de-humanised soundscapes, using innovative recording techniques as well as playing his unique mind-opening inspirational games, which led him on to become one of the world’s most sort after and respected producers (with Bowie, U2, etc.). Much is owed to the great man. And Harold Budd was an early collaborator.

What they got up to with regards narcotics (if anything) is anyone’s guess, but perhaps one of the influential differences between ‘old’ and ‘new’ ambient is the drugs that were fashionable at the time. Early ambient was probably still under the influence of that most mind-bending of substances, LSD, which characteristically took one places far beyond the reaches of the latter-day favourite, ecstasy. When tested on lab rats, ecstasy has been shown to reduce inquisitiveness and encourage repetition (fancy that!) – albeit much more happily! God knows what LSD does to rats: I guess as with humans it depends on the limits of their imagination. So where am I going with this? I guess, on the whole, I find a lot of modern ambient comparatively unimaginative – though sometimes more accessible and less prone to disquieting Man Who Fell to Earth vistas, and certainly a lot less up its own arse. And the reason why I finally got round to reviewing Elemental Journey is because it is by far the most imaginative and encouraging ‘new’ ambient CD I’ve heard. It’s simply bursting with life and great ideas – so much so that I could criticise the two Matt’s for not making more of them! Because modern computer-based recording lends itself to ‘collaging’ ready-formed chunks of material together like building bricks, the virtue of continuously developing and crafting the bricks themselves, like in traditional composition, is often overlooked. Again, I find the two Matts don’t fall foul here, and there is a lovely, flowing, more organic feel to their work. So what of Budd’s By the Dawn's Early Light? Where it wins is in the gravity and vast, sparse stillness of its atmospheres. How is that achieved? By the real sense of human beings playing real instruments together, rather than sending computer files to each other through time and space? The mournful viola and Bill Nelson’s layered, texturally rich but drifting guitar speaks volumes into the void before the dawn’s early light…

Click here for Harold Budd sample audio track...

Elemental Journey – Matt Coldrick & Matt Hillier
Buy now from:	Amazon.co.uk	Amazon.com
By the Dawn’s Early Light – Harold Budd
Buy now from:	Amazon.co.uk	Amazon.com