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Sphere Rex "For Electronics and Piano" CD (ltd. 500) MV-III 1. Do Not Forget to Put on Your Silk Hat before Swimming [mp3: fragment] 2. Lenin is Still Asleep 3. Why No Plasma TV in this Forest? [mp3: fragment] 4. It's been Raining... Just Like Any Other Day 5. Sphere in a Triangle [mp3: fragment] total length: 41:39 release date: November 02, 2009 price: €10 |
Muzyka Voln in cooperation with the Moscow label Monopoly Records and the Voronezh label Shadowplay Records presents the solo album of one of Cyclotimia members - Sphere Rex.
The word "ambient" came into the musical culture after the same-name solo album of Brian Eno, a member of the British art rock band Roxy Music. Legend has it that the musician was in the hospital and had nothing to do but to listen to the noises behind the window, and so he noticed a certain structure and musicality which he later started to imitate with the use of tapes and musical instruments.
Of course Eno wasn't the one who discovered this music style first, as before him the ideas of "background music" were developed by the French composer Erik Satie, and the concept of "the art of noises" was stated by the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo. However it was Eno who recorded in the 70s a series of albums with compositions which, so to say, laid the foundation of all contemporary ambient music in its boundless variety: from inelaborate "new age" to club "chill out" to harsh and experimental "dark/drone ambient".
Sphere Rex plays ambient in this uncommon for today traditional vein, combining minimalism and "background"-style of electronic music a la Brian Eno and piano improvisations based on proto-ambient ideas of Erik Satie. This music is able to calm down and lull to sleep like alpha-wave rhythms or paint weird images guided by the surreal titles of compositions in one's imagination. For the goals of complete authenticity only analogue devices were used in recordings, as well as tube preamps and compressors from 60s-70s.
Reviews
Three Russian labels united to release the solo album by the member of rather well-known Russian project Cyclotimia. For CD For Electronics And Piano besides pseudonym Sphere Rex he use analogue sound equipment of 60s - 70s and creates 5 long-lasting abstract compositions - synthesis of background electronics and modest matt piano improvisations. Such deliberate "analogueness" is planned to emphasize moving to ambient sounding of the time of its conception as musical style... In this connection, they emphasize its belonging to the traditional Eno's ambient. In press-release label write about "background music" in the album - and they really don't lie. I would say that all electronics on this disc, besides its archaism, is rather simple and predictable, no revelations and unexpected discoveries. Though it sounds the way it must sound, I should say, very enveloping. The musician obviously knew what he was doing. He didn't discover America before eyes of Columbus-melomane, but he did so, that his music can cover bare walls with pleasant, furry nap and obscure clear mind. It can envelope a listener with several layers of soft sound cloth. And if it is that what you want to get while listening to ambient, then release For Electronics And Piano must be interesting to you.
The solo album by Cyclotimia member Sphere Rex opts for an overall brooding ambiance in its settings, with a darker undercurrent offset by the bright glimmer of electronics and piano overtop. There's lots of activity in play-the electronic elements in particular are restless-so the material is never static. Yet with dynamic contrasts kept to a minimum, For Electronics and Piano settles comfortably into an even-keeled state of lulling ambient drift for its forty-two minutes. It's old-school ambient, by the way, with Sphere Rex using analogue devices, tube pre-amps, and compressors from the '60s-'70s in the name of authenticity. During 'Do Not Forget to Put on Your Silk Hat Before Swimming' and 'Sphere in a Triangle,' tiny electronic flourishes and piano noodling intertwine. The quiet sweep of waves, or perhaps wind blowing through the trees, echoes throughout 'Lenin is Still Asleep' alongside a sleepy percussion pattern. That old-school feel is also reinforced by the presence of a simple drum machine beat in 'Why No Plasma TV in This Forest?' In keeping with its title, 'It's Been Raining... Just Like Any Other Day' is downcast but also the most affecting of the five pieces. After an opening juxtaposition of squiggly electronics and sombre piano chords, the piano tinkles threaten to fade away into nothingness, until a soft, ghostly wail appears. There's a nice display of tension, too, in the way Sphere Rex slows the tempo until the piano playing reaches a state of near-stillness. Here and elsewhere, Sphere Rex creates his own particular brand of 'discreet music' in drawing upon the ideas and legacies of Brian Eno and Erik Satie.
[...] FOR ELECTRONICS AND PIANO contains five tracks that I could file under ambient minimalism, even if this definition would be reductive. The fact is that Sphere Rex approached the recordings with a straight conceptual idea in its mind. Focusing the sound on piano and analogue devices (with the purpose of keeping the original sound idea, tube preamps and compressors from the 60s and 70s have been used) the tracks have been recorded combining minimal ambient electronic sounds (following the path that Brian Eno explored) and piano improvisations based on the proto-ambient ideas of Erik Satie. The final result is quiet and destabilizing at the same time, because while little melodic piano parts "fluctuate" here and there, waves of electronic bleeps create a little more experimental ambience.
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