COLLECTION

SWARM OF DRONES

 Disc one :
  1/  Rhythm & Noise -                           (Humon)                       7.22
        Looms
  2/  Palm Canyon -                              (Redolfi)                     9.07
        Michel Redolfi
  3/  Buoyant on Motionless Deluge -             (Rich)                        6.29
        Robert Rich
  4/  Hamam -                                    (Sabbah)                      4.46
        DJ Cheb i Sabbah
  5/  Shard I -                                  (Roach)                       7.22
        Steve Roach
  6/  Flat Earth -                               (Vidna Obmana)                8.44
        Vidna Obmana
  7/  Calming Sorrow -                           (Alaric)                      4.57
        Insect Funeral
  8/  2000 II -                                  (Fripp)                       7.10
        Robert Fripp
  9/  Soli Deo Gloria -                          (Mattox)                      4.40
        Janis Mattox
  10/ The Ghost Ship (excerpt) -                 (Fibe)                        10.04
        Aloof Proof

 Disc two :
  11/ Move I (Drone Mix) -                       (Bouhalassa)                  7.59
        Ned Bouhalassa
  12/ Below -                                    (Greinke)                     7.06
        Jeff Greinke
  13/ Annul -                                    (Guillette)                   3.34
        X-Ray
  14/ Slow Fall Inward -                         (Harris)                      10.10
        Lull
  15/ Drowning In Aurora -                       (Null,Plotkin)                5.48
        KK Null/James Plotkin
  16/ Melisma -                                  (Sound Traffic Control        1.58
        Iso Ambient Orchestra
  17/ Deliquesce -                               (Humon)                       2.26
        Naut Humon
  18/ Variable State Optical Amplifier           (Lenczycki)                   10.26
        Gregory Lenczcki
  19/ lapsed transfer -                          (Davidson)                    9.23
        Xopher Davidson
  20/ Sound Characters -                         (Archer)                      14.56
        Maryanne Archer

          Disc two, track 14 created at Wall of Silence April 1994
          Disc two, track 14 produced by Mick Harris
(disc two, track 14) Mick Harris : all sounds.

          1995  -  Sombient/Asphodel (USA),  0953  (2CD)

REVIEWS :

With an album like this you can hardly use criticism - you either like the style or you don't. A few years old now, this combines the more traditional Ambient style with the Darker, more up-to-date Isolationist artists, with a few slightly more edgy artists giving contrast. You've got 'em all here - the divine VIDNA OBMANA; always reliable STEVE ROACH and ROBERT RICH, along with old hand ROBERT FRIPP showing the young-uns he still knows how to tint the air with sound without tainting it. From the more recent, darker school you have me old mate MICK HARRIS' LULL, and JIM PLOTKIN combining his talents with those of Mr. K.K. NULL. From the former, Disc One school, I felt the absence of ALIO DIE was perhaps the only thing amiss, from the latter - well, many of the names were unfamiliar to me, but they had picked some of the best, so no problem.Overall their is the feeling of a seamless, calming journey, and it's down to personal choice whether you want to visit places of tranquil colours and light, or darker, more mysterious and unnerving corners. Either way it's a luscious drift-fest, with only the opening tracks on either disc causing any kind of ripples. If you're into this style, this album is a must - you could discover names new and unfamiliar to you who beg to be further explored. Turn out the lights, lay somewhere comfortable and let this wonderful album wash over you. One last curious thing - the second disc starts at no. 11, and your CD player counts up to track 20. How did they do that?

Antony Burnham (courtesy of Metamorphic Journeyman website)

..................................................

Two welcome exceptions to the Dark Ambient tendency for titles to sound better than the product. The relatively lightweight "Twilight Earth" is only inferior (in content and duration) to SOMBIENT's magisterial juggernaut by dint of it's relatively accessible sound.........Step two on any stairway to Ambient heaven should be "Swarm Of Drones". The central panel of a triptych which begun in the spring of last year with the release of "Throne Of Drones", this is top stuff. Ignore the cyber-California bullshit of the liner notes, with their Silicon Valley-Big Sur techie-guru argot, and wallow in the dream-team of talent. Balanced between aesthetics both light (ROBERT RICH, ROBERT FRIPP, VIDNA OBMANA) and dark (JEFF GREINKE, LULL, BOUHALASSA and, astonishingly, STEVE ROACH), it fulfils its forbidding remit of overviewing the genre to a degree that it is worthy of time-capsule inclusion as a definitive statement. OBMANA's full-sailed surges of sound in "Flat Earth" are almost worth the price of the collection alone, but rarer birds like ALOOF PROOF ("Ghost Ship") and INSECT FUNERAL ("Calming Sorrow") score mightily as well. It's encouraging to see a roster of names with greater or lesser New Age pretensions resolutely setting new courses, and to see just how far Detroit Techno / Electronica and its harsh exigencies and lessons have penetrated other genres without compromising their aesthetic sensibilities. "Swarm Of Drones" is an exemplar of how textural and timbral experimentation have at last been hauled aboard the traditional synth bandwagon and put to good use. This is how 'New Age' should have sounded. Only ten years too late, but welcome all the same. Unmissable stuff.

Paul Stump from THE WIRE 143