Vectors

Album review

Better known as a member of Loop, Main , and Godflesh, Robert Hampson here reveals himself as a composer of tape music. Vectors, his first release for the English experimental ambient label Touch, consists of three long electro-acoustic pieces, two of which have been commissioned by the famous electronic music laboratory Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and premiered on their "Acousmonium" (a multi-channel sound spatialization device), while the other was commissioned by Vibrö for a performance inside a planetarium. Take all these elements into account -- the commissioners, the contexts of the premieres, the title of the album -- and you will grasp that this music is about space and movement within space, all the music consisting of sparse, near-silent sound fields populated by fleeting sonic bodies. The best of the three works is "Umbra," a dark and shimmering piece in which isolated sounds play hide and seek. "Ahead -- Only the Stars" features bleeps of astronaut radio transmissions (dialogues excised), which gives the music a retro-futuristic feel, but some artistic choices, like abrupt cuts and odd non sequiturs, are debatable and mar the listening experience. "Dans le Lointain" (In the Distance), despite using the "traditional" techniques of early tape music, is the track sounding the most contemporary, or at least the closest to the digital ambient electronica scene. It is a fine piece of work, reminiscent of Biosphere's starker works, but in terms of beauty and refined aesthetics, "Umbra" is the track that stands out.
© François Couture /TiVo