FROM AMBIENTRANCE - WRITTEN BY DAVID J. OPDYKE<BR>
(This review posted November 29, 2000)<BR><BR>

Various Artists: The Archipelago: Islands<BR>
(the archipelago - 2000) <BR><BR>

The Archipelago is an alliance of Various Artists who document their travels from their earthbound locale of San Francisco Bay area to the far-flung Islands of their sonic imaginations. This set of six mini-CDs (about 20 minutes each) is striking in the variety of the destinations chosen by the artists.<BR><BR>

rhomb (a.k.a. Nathan Kreisberg and Michael Bentley of the Foundry) head moonward with the sounds of lunatic marium (of the seas) (13:34) The lunar hills are alive with the sounds of chiming, ruffling and tonal droning as montium (of the mountains) makes obtuse spacemusic.<BR><BR>

Purely computerized music is the focus of csero's pikolifter; a Commodore64 sound editing program was emulated on a PC and the six resulting tracks of bleeps, blips and buzzes could be the melody of a robot's dream... A0-42 (wavT_start) features a scruffy rhythm beneath a fluttering sea of chaotic bloopiness, while F0-33 takes a more-minimal, less-agressive approach, blitting and chiming spaciously. Stuttering static backs spiraling electron strands in 00-08. <BR><BR>

Discs 3 and 4 come from disciples of Ambient Temple of the Imagination; Seofon delivers three pieces in immanent. Churning rhythms and fluttering wisps of sound are imbued with upwardly rising currents in Skyle accompanied by bass impulses. The track segues into freemantic a billowing geyser of beatless sound seemingly as vast, dense and powerful as a cyclone. <BR><BR>

thermal's Span bridges a short-long-short pattern with one-minute "ramps" of more-abstract sound leading onto (then off of) the "main span" (18:55) which is a freewheeling electro-music tour driven by a bouncy e-bass. Light, but very active, beats stir rippling waves and chiming tones on a pleasant little joyride with a few detours from the primary course. <BR><BR>

dean santomieri takes his turn with crude rotation where he creates five surreal soundcollages; disjointedly scritchy nostalgia seeps from "gram mo phone" albeit in wraithlike gusts. santomieri's actual spoken poetry (effectively delivered by julie oxendale) is laced into the fragmented time- and space-slipping backdrop of "ati noko". Assorted splinters of deconstructed sources are tossed into the twitching pile of "ears & whiskers" (2:25). Mixed media snippets make a twisting journey through the unknowable musique concrˇte realms of "peach skin canyon" (4:30). <BR><BR>

eM twists soundwaves into the eight murky contortions of click pop (which is neither as clicky or poppy as the title may lead one to expect). A fragmented little song "circle" mmmmmmm and abuts the slightly tuneful blips of "convoloptic". Softly buzzy, sputtering soundstreams pulse beneath "coded chaos" which reveals hushed singing woven into those now-warbling strands. Slurry "computer" voices melt together in the brief-but-memorable audio-hallucination of "vox attractor" (0:40). <BR><BR>

Go island-hopping with this quite-interesting group project; most of these Various Artists should be familiar to you by now (for shame, if not) and their assorted trips through The Archipelago: Islands explore a range of unusual sonic regions. I say check out the whole 8.5 set (and those little eM-designed CDs and covers are too cute!) <BR><BR>

The Islands website will gIve you more info as well as samples.