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James Johnson and Robert Scott Thompson — Forgotten Places
(Zero Music ZM92101, 2001, CD)

Ma Ja Le / James Johnson — Seed
(Hypnos hyp2138, 2001, CD)

by Mike McLatchey, Published 2002-04-01

Forgotten Places Cover artSeed Cover art

James Johnson is one of ambient music’s most prolific collaborators nowadays, and as I write this, a 2 CD set with Vir Unis is also now available. The first of the two CDs in question here, Forgotten Places, sticks close to the melodic piano-augmented ambience of Brian Eno, Harold Budd, and some early A Produce, where delicate piano chords front clouds of ambiance in an overtly melodic mode. There are ten pieces ranging from two to nine minutes, and most feature this misty, melancholy sound which teeters on the fence between the sweet and the ethereal. This is not a vastly experimental album, rather the type of warm, soothing release that will appeal to fans of the more accessible parts of the genre. It’s actually quite a contrast considering the collaborators’ more forward-looking and abstract, independent work.

An example of such is the latest Hypnos release, a collaboration between Johnson and ambient duo Ma Ja Le. While the trio format is fairly common in European electronic music, it is less so in the purely ambient. The difference between Seed and Forgotten Places is quite vast, as Seed experiments with various styles, including the bizarre, glurpy, multi-tonal landscape of abstract electronics, often moving away from noticeable melody in a similar manner to, say, Viridian Sun or Robert Rich. At the more melodic end, such as the 18-minute “Methane Sea,” the music comes close to the ethereality of Jeff Pearce’s guitar music, with the added layering of extra synthesizers, including a few solo lines. And then there is the tribal ambient elements of the collaboration, most often signified by the sound of flute or a solo hand drum rhythm, as on “Outside In” and the second part of “Yaquona.” While “Hibiscus Ceremony” sounds like it could have fit neatly on Forgotten Places, the trio end the CD returning to the deep space droning and shimmering of the beginning. It’s almost as if the CD is a demonstration of various ambient voices, all delivered, definitively and cohesively, undoubtedly a big step in ambition for all the collaborators involved.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 24, 2001 releases

Related artist(s): James Johnson, Robert Scott Thompson

More info
http://robert-scott-thompson.bandcamp.com/album/forgotten-places
http://cosmicguitartronics.bandcamp.com/album/seed

 

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