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Mathias Grassow, "Ambience"
Some drones have a spark—a life between the waves of sound that act as a portal to another dimension—others are merely lazy ways of making an album, flat and dull slabs of sound. This reissue of Ambience belongs to the former group of drones: it glitters and shines like the lightning that graces the artwork.
Divine Frequency
The title is a bit of a misnomer. Yes the music is ambient but it’snot something that should be played as ambience. The music here needsthe attention of the listener. Its subtleties were lost on theoccasions I was listening to it passively. When I had it on in thebackground it wasn’t that interesting. When I sat down with a cup oftea and gave it my full attention the music opened up fully. Grassowmakes very spacious compositions. I mean spacious in both a sense ofbeing without boundaries and a celestial feeling. “Siddharta” is a slowand detailed piece that sounds like astronomy. It appears infinite andblank at first but Grassow dragged me closer towards the stars and thecomets to revel in the detail. This feeling of vastness may seem atodds with Grassow’s statement in the sleeve notes saying that Ambience is an “inner document of [his] self.” Though, like the great astral artists (Sun Ra and Coil), Grassow manages to link up endless space with the much more intimate setting of the mind. “(Famine Road To) Port” is the most intimate sounding track and it is almost transcendent, it doesn’t quite evoke the same feelings of immensity as the rest of the album.
However there are times when I find the album hard going. It’s a lotto take in sometimes, especially with the longer tracks. Once I stoppedpaying attention, the music became slightly dull. By the time thesecond last track (called “The Old Park”) comes on, I am weary. Ambience requires an all or nothing involvement by the listener. Sometimes I’d have to turn it off and come back to it. This isn’t a negative criticism; the music is so dense that I can only fully appreciate it in smaller doses. It’s like a book of poetry, it’s impossible to take in the meaning and the language of all the poems by reading them all in one sitting.
Ambience is a very interesting album but it requires a lot of work to recognize the value of Grassow’s work. This is not an album that should be thrown onto an mp3 player for the walk to work. This is an album that should be played on an adequate stereo at the appropriate volume.
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