简介
by Brian OlewnickWhen attempting to describe the music of the British improvisatory group AMM, it's difficult not to fall into comparisons with a landscape. But it is also impossible not to mention the temporal aspect, so perhaps you can think of a slow camera pan over a seemingly nondescript landscape, sometimes rural, sometimes urban. "Seemingly," because on close examination a wealth of sonic beauty is unveiled. As on other recordings by this configuration of the group, the emphasis is placed largely on extremely subtle, quiet investigations of their instruments. Drummer Eddie Prevost spends much time bowing his cymbals and gongs while guitarist/electronicist Keith Rowe elicits ultra-delicate feedback moans and sighs. John Tilbury comments in a fashion that may strike some as surprisingly melodic, injecting beautiful fragments reminiscent of Morton Feldman. At a point during the sixth section, while a lovely interplay is occurring between Prevost's chimes and some boisterous, low rumblings from the piano, Rowe tunes in some arbitrary voices from a shortwave radio, and somehow it sounds entirely appropriate as if in that slow pan across a stream bed, one came across an old fishing pole. The empathy achieved by these musicians and their utter lack of self-consciousness and ego has rarely been more beautifully documented.
