There’s not gonna be a lot of background information in this review. In fact, I do not know anything about this release – apart from the simple fact that it is created by Samuel Landry from Montreal, creating his minimal ambient using primitive means and scarce source materials.
This album may already be known to few under its working title Odes and Probes (the tracks had different working titles, too).
It can be downloaded from Bandcamp for any price you care to donate.
Off topic: I find it fairly difficult to “Name my Price” on Bandcamp before I have downloaded an album and listened to it. This is a bit of a problem: how can I determine what I think the album is worth before I have heard it?
Maybe there should also be an option to download any album for free and donate for it afterwards.
The free download could have a somewhat lesser bitrate to encourage returning for the better quality when you like it enough.
Back on Topic:
In his notes, Samuel Landry is quite modest about his release:
“Solely sample based source material, chosen from a bare 3 albums as to excite creativity and minimalistic expression as well as keep a steady texture throughout, more so than harmonic diversity. The source material was then lightly edited and mashed up together in a simplistic collage fashion.”
But, minimalist as it is, he manages to create a fascinating atmosphere, slowly building up in the six tracks ranging from four to over twenty minutes.
Building from a fierce rhythmic loop, Gnascor Encore & Core à Corps is a bit of an exceptional track, but it still fits in nicely between the others that are mostly more stretched out, loop-based ambient drones.
This review made me realize that indeed some background info & where the stuff comes from may be lacking. Since then the bio on last.fm has been updated and the tracks on this album also remastered and i included more stuff in the packaging as well.
Cheers!
You’re right with your suggestions, of course. I’d prefer the second option because I find it a bit hard to judge an album by streaming it from my PC (I usually listen to ambient music at other moments). But the 2nd option would work fine for me.
Thanks
Regarding name your price and previewing the album:
2 options:
1) preview the album on-line at bandcamp and decide how much it is worth before you download it.
2) download, enter a price of zero…then come back later and download a single track or the album, or another album and include your donation then.
Or, you could just pay the standard rate you would pay to get an album from an artist that wasn’t giving you the option of naming your price.
My 2 cents.