Aucourant Records - Ambient Music, Computer Music, Contemporary Classical, Electronica, Avant-garde

CATALOG > Ginnungagap

Robert Scott Thompson
Ginnungagap
Total Time: 71:19
Record Label: Aucourant Records
Catalog Number: AUREC 9301
UPC: 649783930120
Type: CD
Released: 1993

$11.98

GINNUNGAGAP presents 14 finely crafted tracks of highly innovative music in the contemporary, ambient and ambient/world genres. At over 70 minutes, this disc offers a broad range of music from the serene and gentle ambient flow of Nocturne (for a midnight sun) to the spacey surreal textures of Illuminant to the pulsing polyrhythmic complexity of the title track. Yet, the 14 tracks of this CD cohere and flow together with graceful ease and elegance. GINNUNGAGAP blends several stylistic tendencies together into one musical utterance - new-age, ambient, classical, avant-garde and pop. A tour-de-force of musical technique and innovation.

Aficionados of the ambient, new-age and alternative pop genres will hear the influences of Eno, Bowie, Peter Gabriel and others, but within a context that is both fresh and unique. Influences are also drawn from contemporary classical music, which imbue the disc with an other-worldly quality and a sense of timelessness. Stunning music for the new millennium.

"Ginnungagap is Robert Scott Thompson’s most important CD. An essential CD under the umbrella genre of electronic-ambient. The CD earns a five-star rating. Listeners will enjoy this disc. Deep listeners will embrace it.” - All Music Guide

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Ginnungagap is ambient/world music for fans of the Eno/Bowie/Gabriel world music concepts. It's all here: world, pop, rock, avant-garde, classical, and is unique in its arrangements. The music and performances are first-rate throughout and will strongly appeal to fans of more energetic ambient music, if there is such a thing. This is not my favorite Thompson release, but then again I prefer his more subtle ambient textures. If you prefer your music with more of a bounce and variety, this release may be the one for you.

I was disappointed when I got Ginnungagap and listened to it for the first time. To me, it seemed like a collection of nice sounds arranged in the wrong order. Now, I just finished listening to it for the fourth time and it keeps growing on me. This is a great album, one of my recent favorites! Very different from everything else I've listened to.

I prefer RST's melodic side, the one he shows in Ginnungagap and Aether. Still, my favorite is Air Friction, because it provides a good balance of this melodic side with his (light) ambient side.

Two thumbs up from me too. In case you didn't read a message I posted a while ago, I said back then that I didn't like Ginnungagap at first (a nice collection of sounds arranged in the wrong order, at least that's what I thought). My attitude changed a bit on the second listen and it changed a lot on the third one. That's really a nice album, and very different from everything else I've heard, despite its being similar sometimes to Patrick O'Hearn's music (I don't think RST is going for that, but I could be wrong).

Go ahead. Either try his dark side (Cloud Cover perhaps) if that's what you're into, or his light side, if your taste is similar to mine.

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Ginnungagap is a recording which blends futuristic electronica with world music inflections and classical ambient music techniques. Similar in style to Peter Gabriel, Patrick O'Hearn, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, David Sylvian and Bill Nelson. This recording is perhaps one of Robert Scott Thompson’s best works and is gaining in popularity and garnering critical response, long after its release in 1993.

When recordings cross stylistic boundaries, as Ginnungagap does, it becomes difficult for reviewers to categorize the music. Some listeners have remarked that they have never heard a recording that sounded like this one. High praise for an iconoclastic and individualistic work that brings a new voice to contemporary instrumental electronica.

Fans of Robert Scott Thompson’s other, more recent recordings that do not know Ginnungagap are missing out on a fine album. While this project is not too similar to the ambient/space music Robert Scott Thompson is best known for, Ginnungagap presents melodic and thematic music with a very unique perspective.