Multimood Records MRC 026

20 artists, nineteen original cuts - this is an exceptionally varied and successful compilation. It opens chaotically with a fourth world run-in by M'lumbo, and than gets bogged down in some industrial-strength abstract noise/sound expeditions. Welcome and beauty relief is offered by Oil in the Eye's "Callipers". After one Gregorio Bardini treats the ears to a dark Romantic flute piece (floating uneasily over a bed of menacing, subaquatic sounds), a nifty segue is pulled off by the "altered clarinet" sound of Tween Deck 2 from Sweden, which rapidly degenerates into something more grating and even more gratifying. A quiet beat provides orientation through a fascinating aural collage. Robert Rich checks in with the grandiloquently-titled "A Flock of Metal Creatures Fleeing the Onslaught of Rust"- the type of completely beatless, subterranean drone that he does so well; but which Michael Winnerholt than succeeds in topping with his track, by moving it above ground and allowing the drone to shimmer. The first CD ends with an unassuming but interesting piece by Hans-Joachim Roedelius and friend, that teases the listener at the outset with a little ethnic flavour, before slowly deconstructing itself into a groaning din and disappearing.

Stephen Fruitman, ambientrance

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