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review by Dene Bebbington Not to be confused with The Circular Ruins, Circular is the Norwegian duo Bjarte Andreassen and Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik. This is their third and most recent album, the title Glass Darkly is a reference to a passage in the Bible about our limited ability to see things as they really are. As this is the first time one of their albums has come my way, I can't comment on how it compares to their previous work; what I can say is that it's a bit of a mishmash comprising seventeen short tracks (all come in at under five minutes) in a variety of styles. Glass Darkly is a veritable collection of ambient vignettes ranging from deliciously melodic or rhythmic to playfully experimental (but thankfully not too weird) music. Interestingly, the shortness of the pieces is both a strength and weakness; a strength because the artists get to explore the essence of a sound picture without dragging it out too long, and a weakness because it makes the album feel rather disjointed. Some of the best tracks are also the most commercial sounding. A good example is the opener "Clay". This opens with metallic percussion and builds up to include a beat and chilled-out grooves. In contrast, some of the more experimental pieces are almost filmic. "Spook" is aptly titled and one could imagine it being used in the soundtrack for a science fiction film set on a strange planet due to the quirky alien sounding effects. For me, the occasional laid back piece worked best, particularly "Divine Thing" which has a relaxed melody over slow moving effects that have a kind of heavenly quality. Without a doubt there are several enjoyable ambient pieces on the kaleidoscopic Glass Darkly, and for that I can recommend it. Personally, though, I'm not keen on the experimental styles which I think could have been left out; perhaps that wouldn't fit in the artist's vision but it would probably give the album a wider appeal. |
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