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review by Bill Binkelman Following the example (either coincidentally or on purpose) of Steve Roach, who did much the same thing with his On This Planet release, New Zealand's Rudy Adrian re-recorded the music from his recent concert tour of the US and has released these tracks as the album Concerts in the USA. Aiding the listener in assimilating this as "live" music are the liner note annotation of where the particular tracks (there are seven) were initially played (locations include Portland Oregon, Arches National Park in Utah, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). The resulting album is less rhythmic-driven than some of Adrian's other releases, being more textural and drifting instead, something that I think Adrian does just as well as his sequencer-laced beatfests. That is not to say that rhythms are absent from this CD. But to my ears, the emphasis is on either the more spacy side of the artist's keyboard work or the more subdued use of rhythms and the more evocative approach of his previous efforts. Opening with the short wordless vocal-enhanced "Japanese Garden" (less than five minutes long) the album soon moves into more familiar neo-Berlin soundscapes, both spacy and rhythm-dominated. "Donner Pass" is forlorn yet dramatic as it evolves from an ambient opening into a sunshower of twinkling bells and sequenced pulses and builds into a classic slice of neo-Berlin with the requisite Adrian twist. The chattering beats give way to an undercurrent of flowing synths in "Rock and Junipers," a step back into drifting spacescapes, enhanced with plaintive wooden flute and Geodesium-like wood drum/kalimba samples (circa that artist's overlooked album, Anasazi). "Rail Corridor" is my personal fave on the album, opening with subdued but insistent pulsing sequenced synth beats amid whistling keyboards (evoking comparisons to my preferred Tangerine Dream era, that being the Risky Business soundtrack time period). As the piece unwinds into the next track, "Island of the Pirates," it once again settles into a sedate and floating mood, amidst washes of keyboards, bell tones and overtone chants. The album ends with what may be Adrian's most minimal piece ever recorded, "Turquoise" (location-wise, it is annotated as "Dunedin, New Zealand"). Arrhythmic upper-register bells twinkle while serene keyboards gracefully caress the song, building only slightly in pace as the track progresses. It's a classic slice of spot-on perfect spacemusic, the melodic elements floating almost effortlessly, creating a spaciousness that brings this excellent album to a fitting close. Over time, Rudy Adrian has revealed himself to be one of the brightest stars on the EM horizon. Concerts in the USA offers what would appear to be proof that hearing him live is just as magical as listening to one of his CDs. Per the liner notes, Adrian went to exacting detail to recreate the sound of a live concert. In that case, I'm sorry I didn't hear him when he graced our shores. Seldom does a Germanic-EM artist so expertly and artistically blend the rhythmic with the drifting side of that genre. I have long maintained that Rudy Adrian was under-appreciated. I hope that this album will finally reverse that trend and give this artist his due. Highly recommended - especially to those who normally find Berlin school music too frenetic, as this CD is more laid-back than the typical sampling from that genre. |
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