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DENT, LOREN - Anthropology Vol. 1

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Infraction INFX 034 Release Year: 2009 Note: another newcomer on the never disappointing Infraction-label; beautiful orchestral ambience, uplifting & spacious light-drones Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.50 More Info "It's as if Dent had returned, irrevocably altered, from an ambitious and expansive field trip through nothing less than the history of digital and analogue ambience to splice his findings with the DNA of late-modernist classical. Loren Dent's intent is no radical re-think of genre; his bent is more recontextual, a fine tension between the vectors of New Music, minimalism, ambient, post-rock and space music. It's a trajectory traversing considerable terrain. Opener, 'Introduction - Dreams and Concrete,' for example, moves from Feldman to Niblock, before picking up on Pärt, in the transition to 'This Thing We Enjoy,' where the borders of melancholia are skirted, and a quiet glow is flirted with, before abandoning itself to a swooping digi-orchestralism and fibrillating fizz closer to the Kranky oeuvre of Tim Hecker and Christopher Bissonnette on 'Another Rural Fantasy' and 'Winter During Wartime.' The parade of references is by way of a rough guide, but the music of Anthropology is more maximalist in its articulation, more sweeping in its scale than all the aforementioned, with great gushes of tonalism surging through the soundfield. And those influences are dissolved, becoming trace elements in a blend of welling and swollen symphonics wrestling with pop ambient pointillism, all couched by Dent in his own tones." [A. Lockett] "BEHOLD! An offering from the ambient gods of Infraction. Dust off thine finest goblet, pour from your favorite bottle, remove thy clothes and be pure. Get back to nature and absorb the wonder of pure ambient beauty and message from the heavens that is Loren Dent's 'Anthropology Vol.1'. From the moment I hit play and shiver at the beauty of the intro I realize I'm destined to experience a journey into myself and the wonder of life. The tones here are profoundly uplifting (although there are some darker moments of uncertainty) and moving in a way I am simply unable to articulate. Sadly I'm no "Ambient Shakespeare" but I will say that this is like a soundtrack to life itself, one of joy, love, fear, pain, loss, grieving, euphoria and one which transcends time. Emotions that are integral to the human spirit, despite the age/time in which it exists, be it a modern or an ancient world. This stuff is deep, DEEP material. At one point I was almost reduced to tears, as I felt like I was the only living thing on the planet and felt very lonely... Man the power of music, the sound of those strings. Loren Dent is an extremely gifted artist to the point where it almost feels like there has been a divine hand in the creation of his sound world. His wondrous layers of sound are rich and constantly evolving, always emotional and hypnotic. His tools are both analogue and digital and his use of both is a joy to behold. For any ambient music lover that may have been disillusioned lately and possibly feels that the genre has been reduced to mere simple drones, then I'm fairly sure this will restore their faith in the genre. This deserves a prestigious place in the hearts and minds of all music lovers. To reference particular tracks, for me would be a pointless exercise as this really serves as a complete work..." [Norman Records]