EXERCISE II

Exercise II starts darkly and mysteriously, taking you on a strange, sometimes unsettling journey through sound. Unintelligible whispers surface now and then, like some gargantuan beast.

A02 is like a continuation of A01 with a slightly different lilt to it, a little lighter. Again the structures are big and filled only with sounds of things just being, ones that seem to have an infinite, or at least very lengthy, life cycle.

A03 comes in closer to the top, almost like a celestial gong calling all angels. Their resonance in perfect harmony with the slow but recognisable melodiousness. To end in perfect unison.

A04 is lighter still and it seems further along/up/around, whichever way those angelic planes exist. Aetheric roads less travelled, I think. The sounds and structures are much more readily evident than some of the earlier tracks. Helps make the improvisation a touch more palatable, it being a difficult genre anyway. Lovely, slow, relaxing melody.

A05 retains the pitch and atmosphere and makes me think this could have all been one symphony, without breaks. Strings make a brief appearance that kind of humanise the sound track. Though it does not persist, just some astral winds to add to the ambience. They blow by leaving an eerie melody to pull the track through its dimensions.

A06 returns to the deeper resonances, with a lighter melody over the top, almost like a church organ, as if such an earthly source could reach so high. Or, does even the slightest thought find expression in such an atmosphere?

A07, the final track, builds itself calmly, so far the most low-key beginning. Again, the odd noise linking the higher planes with the more earthly ones. Is this a declaration of our allowable access. A gang of Enochians! However, the plaintive melodies that are woven together carry the floor ultimately.

Overall, I think the tracks could have been a bit longer sometimes. They take you to places that you wouldn't usually traverse, but that's the only sense of discomfort. New territory. Fabio Keiner has done what others are doing, with his own slant on things. Very atmospheric in an airy way, feels like you are in the stratosphere but without being space-like. Meditatively it might work well, could be interesting.