Bill Thompson - and the sky breaks open

 

Bill Thompson

and the sky breaks open

CD  ASH149  Ash International 2024

Two excellent pieces of electronic music blossoming slowly in the space where ambient music meets the art gallery.  American artist-in-London, Bill Thompson is the curator of the long running Mercury Over Maps concert series and has a history of collaboration with the likes of Phil Durrant, Mark Wastell’s THE SEEN, Yoni Silver, Keith Rowe, EXAUDI and Faust.  Here, Thompson puts his Moog guitar improvisatory strategies to work in order to explore new ground – at least new to me - specifically digital and analogue technology-based longform drone possibilities.  If you’re interested in hearing Bill’s less drone-based Moog guitar improvisation, you can also check out another recent release; his album Feine on Scatter Archive.  Those wary of the perceived purposelessness of nu-new age ambient or are suspicious of the austere rigour of some drone works, be assured that and the sky breaks open is a scrupulously rendered work of sublime peace.  Structural artefacts cavil while roiling voltage seeks to erupt from the very surface of Thompson’s guitar pickups.  These results were recorded “…late at night during long solo improvisations…” and were given an extra sheen by the mastering hand of Stephan Mathieu.  Thompson’s intentions are straightforward – “…explorations of the material at hand, the objects on the table…thus met on its own terms in the fulcrum of improvising-composing-performing allowing what emerges to emerge…”

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