School Of Ambience: Press

School Of Ambience - Beyond The Sonic Sunshine CD Review

The latest CD from Ian Price under his "School Of Ambience" banner is a highly original piece of work. It probably falls into the "Experimental Electronica" genre but I found that from the moment you put the CD on you were drawn into sitting back and just listening to the whole album.

The opening track "Artic Rising" comes in at approximately 10 minutes yet keeps you interested because of the clever use of sounds and effects. The track is very eirie and is an ideal track to open the CD. Track 2 "Burning Star" has the stamp of Harold Budd/John Foxx with its piano section and makes good use of bell sounds, Haunting choirs and industrial sounds.

Track 3 "Discovering Indigo" is again Foxx influenced moreso from his "Cathederal Oceans" project. Its a very mysterious track with some good vocal effects. The rythm section towards the end works brilliantly and evolves the track into a completely different direction. "Through Trees" is again influenced by John Foxx with its synthy backdrop and piano, it's a track that would sit perfectly on John's album "The Garden". "Crossing The Divide, the 5th track is driven by middle eastern arabesque sounds and rhythm.

Track 6 "I Am A Visitor" (Great track title) is a very clever track with offset male/female vocal narration over a synth led track with a hint of special effect sounds - The whole thing knits together very well. Ian returns to the middle eastern sounds with a heavy rhythm track on track 7 "East Of Tadla-Azilal, it is probably the weakest track on the CD but the arrangement and use of sounds is excellent.

Track 8 "Echo Falls" is very atmospheric with superb use of sounds and effects. The title track "Beyond The Sonic Sunshine" is excellent with clever use of reversed drum & percussion sounds. A minimal rhythm over a mild industrial soundscape works very well. Track 10 sees a welcome return to a John Foxx inspired track called "Escape To Indigo". I love the piano on this track with choir sounds and a hint of ryhthm here and there. This is probably my favourite track.

After all that you get the bonus of an extended version of the track "I Am A Visitor"!

To sum up I think that this is without doubt a very original selection of songs unlike what you would have heard before and I think it is a very clever masterpiece which will take you on a variety of journey's. It's a CD Ian should be very proud of. I can only recommend you take the opportunity to grab a copy of this CD.