If you’re one of those grumbling types, stop bemoaning the current state of Ambience, at least long enough to listen to Robert Scott Thompson’s newest. If there were an Ambient Content Review Board, Frontier would have been released with a big label reading, “100% Pure”.
With more than 72 minutes of sonic travel to destinations unknowable, this is a disc that truly has a vast and evolving sense of place… Thompson builds his world with analog and digital synths, acoustic compilers, digital signal processing, electric guitar and electric cello. The liner notes do admit to influence by Eno, Fripp and Roach, but this is Thompson’s take on classic ambience, resynthesized through his own able touch.
I’ve developed a special affinity for this disc, as I’ve been quite overworked lately, and Frontier has been a perfect, non-intrusive accompaniment, allowing me to concentrate on work, yet feel “at home” in its dreamily meandering environment. It’s pointless to try to describe such abstract sounds, but that’s never stopped me before… Tiny warblings give way to steamy gusts in Cloud Fragments, our point of departure, which soon expands into a more spacious realm. Lumina’s region is occupied by occasional chimes, deep drones and distant whisps of unknown origin. A faraway hum grows louder and synth strings weave shimmering veils which flutter and flow across the title track, a more-than-eight-minute-long exploration. Light and dark shift across each other’s path. Perhaps the title is just evocative to me, but A Magma of Interiors does seem somehow subterranean, with random clunks and clatters to add a bit of further mystery to the already dense haze, which quietly recedes. The radiant atmosphere which leads to Submerged flares then sputters intermittently, eventually flattening out into the distance, shimmering quietly. Fragile Light shines on a fuzzy keyboard tune of some sort as it wanders back and forth; airy sonic tendrils seems to swirl up and around it. A quiet, burbling segue leads into Visage Spectral, a darker zone, a not-quite-empty void. Once inside though, soft tones blossom in welcome, only to be overshadowed by a pulsating murkiness. Whisper Out of Time phases into existence in an electric haze. Slow vibraphonic effects and distantly passing electrons ooze here. The intriguingly titled Nine Chains to the Moon features layers of droning synths decorated with little tinkles, but only for a mere 3:33. Nirhoda is a nice exercise of dark, yet light, soundwaves; it’s a favorite segment of mine. The softly reverberating ripples of the beautiful Nightfall are, despite its pre-dark namesake, perhaps the warmest and brightest point on this journey. Our ending point, Bricolage is different in that some of the instrumentation is relatively identifiable… the bamboo-like drumming and slow, hollow bodied guitar notes are easy picks. A few other not-so-evident sound sources play around in this final track, the only with any percussion per se. Frontier is highly recommended; it’s ambient music the way it was meant to be. At low attention levels, it can color your surroundings with ethereal, alien glows and shadows…or when allowed, it can suck you through unreality’s vortex into a total, immersive listening environment. I’m hoisting Both Thumbs for this otherworldly excursion. To learn more about Professor Robert Scott Thompson, check his Aucourant website.
— Ambientrance
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