review

Exclaim magazine

With hands across the ocean, free folk CD-R label guru Brad Rose (The North Sea) reaches out from Tulsa, OK to London-based trio Rameses III for the formation of this transatlantic ambient quartet. The album is essentially two longish pieces, each ith a particular flow. "Death Of The Ankou" has a spiral stillness that hovers at slowly shifting altitudes, carried on bowed strings and bamboo woodwinds. The motion of more a product of iridescence and timbra nuance than progress along a measure. Like watching a ship in a bay through a late afternoon heat haze, distances are difficult to judge. "Night Blossoms Written In Sanskrit" is more directed in its drift, with a shimmer of acoustic guitar carrying the first half of the piece, then the massed tones gain their own momentum, eventually evolving into a large chorus of voices, human and musical together. A slight Eastern tint colours both pieces but never dominates the sound. The album is rounded out with a remix done by Type label boss Xela. This is a approached in a Coles Notes manner, with the individual elements given plainer exposure then reintegrated and bound with minimal third party evidence. A well mixed nightcap


Eric Hill
2006/08/00


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