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review by Bill Binkelman The next time you hear someone say "No one is recording great spacemusic anymore!" just refer 'em to this album. Settling Density is a recording that spacemusic or floating ambient fans would be proud to claim as one of their own. Brooks Rongstad, who records as Exuviae, has fashioned a sublime recording that instantly evokes images of cruising past star clusters, exploring the backwaters of the cosmos, or even just pushing to the limit's of Earth's atmopshere, to the point that blue skies go black and stars twinkle into view. The eight tracks on on this CD are almost luxurious in how they bathe the listener in washes and waves of billowy electronic bliss. You will have to excuse my gushing, but I just returned from a late evening walk while listening to this on my CD player and I almost could feel my feet leaving the ground. From the opening track, "Aquaphoria," which intermixes subtle liquidy background textures underneath the ebbing and flowing synth washes, to the gentle strains of "Through sheets of mist," which features Constance Demby-esque (circa Novus Magnificat) keyboard work, to the minimalism of "Without a host" and its bell-like reverberations that eventually incorporate soaring and dramatic synth washes, to the album's closing track, "Still so far," and its delicate echoed space guitar (a la Jeff Pearce) played against an assortment of alien (but not too) noise effects all the while building to a wall-of-sound conclusion, every song on Settling Density is like a piece of a near-perfect puzzle. There are mere hints of darker shadings here and there, such as the opening to "Forever and a day," which begins with some minor key drones, but soon enough starts to shape-shift into warm spacemusic, as lush synth chords chase away the shadows. "Inside voices" also starts things off with some slightly foreboding elements (what sounds like deeply echoed sighing or distorted chants), but again the "lighter" elements prevail. "The wall of sleep" also has its dark moments at the outset, although the music is sparse enough that it's closer to catching a fleeting glimpse of the unknown. In addition, this track showcases Rongstad's "guitar manipulation," a musical texture that adds depth and color to the song. Over time, listening to this CD will help "solve" the aforementioned puzzle, as the parts become a whole. In this case, the whole is an immensely satisfying soundscape of slowly shifting ambient and spacemusic that should remind you of artists as diverse as Steve Roach, the aforementioned Ms. Demby, Jonn Serrie, and Chuck (Liquid Mind) Wild. That's esteemed company, granted, Rongstad (with the release of Settling Density) can take his place among these artists. Whether one characterizes this album as ambient music or spacemusic, there should be little argument that the most descriptive term for this is recording is simply "Fantastic!" Highly recommended! |
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