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review by Dene Bebbington Footfall is the moniker of synthesiser musician John Lewis who has made his music available through mp3.com (including two mp3 based CDs Kinetix and Ecosystems) and Ampcast. Empyrean is his latest album, consisting of seven contemplations on the cosmos that in the words of John are "partially concrete, partially abstract". As you might imagine from that description, this is not your typical ambient or spacemusic album. In fact, it got me thinking of viewing the cosmos not from here on Earth, but from the non-human perspective of alien creatures on another world somewhere out there in the vastness of the galaxy. The artist has gone for longer form compositions, most of the seven tracks are between nine and thirteen minutes long. What strikes the listener about this album is the relative sparseness of the sounds. The overall feel is similar to Ron Berry's music where the focus is on a few important sounds and ways of delivering them, resulting in the music being more "to the point" and not highly textured or layered. The delightful opening track "Viola Nebulae" is a good introduction to Footfall's style. Synth chords and exhalations of nebula gas start the piece as the prelude to a meditation of gong or Tibetan singing bowl sounds dropping into the soundscape. One of my favourite tracks is "Nova Persei" on which synth washes come and go a little like a siren (though sounding less urgent than a siren) and not unlike some of the music on Larry Kucharz's Ambient Blue Washes. These washes play alongside various cosmic whistles, tweets, occasional percolating sequences, and thin metallic synth chords to create a vision of a dramatic but far off celestial event. Is "Response for the Array" a nod to Vangelis? Over the first couple of minutes the quirky effects jumping around like bats flitting here and there reminded me of Vangelis's weird album Beaubourg. The rest of the track consists of sonic winds brushing by, sometimes in a clouded whistle, and in places accompanied by a boingy melody. Empyrean takes some getting used to, it took me several listens to fully appreciate and often left me with the feeling that it can be considered as a contemplation of outer space or the inner space of mind/soul etc. This is music that you have to work at because it's not suited to casual listening, but the rewards are there for the committed listener. |
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