Download and listen to over 20,000 albums, legally. Use BitTorrent or download directly to discover and share new artists. All content is Creative Commons or "Art Libre" licensed.
Ambientology (subtitled Music for Headphones when originally released) is an album of 2 soundscapes featuring little nuances that are best picked up by listening closely over headphones.
What do you call holding one chord for 20 minutes and playing repetitively 3 notes? Some will call it Minimalism, I call it "being lazy". It looks like the artist didn't burden himself too much with thinking of an idea. It sounds pleasant though, but 5 minutes of it would do it. The second part was much more interesting. Like the folks said - listenable, but not brilliant.
Sorry, mate - wasn't overly struck on "Ambientology". Some moments of good chillout, especially on the second part, but the first just seems so rushed. Yeah, "Four Patterns" came about very quickly, but that technique doesn't always pay dividends.
Last but not least, there's "Ambientology". Considering the strong body of work Simon has produced, this is kind-of a weak link in the chain. I think on the other albums I've heard, there's been a certain amount of focus and concept, whereas this album tries to make something out of a particular technique as opposed to something tangible.
Not bad but not brilliant - but for those who follow his music chronologically, this is little more than a blip as he returned to exceptional form with "Skylight".
So that concludes my series of Simon Slator reviews (until the next one). Right... who's next?