“Anthology is a great compilation of wonderful melodiuous tracks where Richard Bone digs in the memories of his most accessible works”
1 Waters of Assiyah 5:39
2 In Japa 4:11
3 Outside the Incrimination Field 4:28
4 The Inland Sea 3:55
5 A Column of Glyphs 4:30
6 Vesperia Pt 3 6:46
7 Beginning to Fade 3:53
8 By Any Other Name 5:43
9 Aquaville 5:59
10 Imperial Glide 5:37
11 Amorita Dive 4:48
12 Always Drifting Down 6:07
13 My Pretty Debris 4:15
14 Zumaphile Shift 5:16
15 Father of Pearl 6:26
16 (You Are) Essence of Diamond 6:35
17 Unknown Waters 5:56
18 A Silent Season 5:07
19 Fractal Ashes 3:47
20 47 Youth St 6:33
(DDL /2CD-R 105:21) (V.F.)
(A blend of New Age and eclectic EM)
Spring! Ah...What a good period of the year, and of life, to go after the discovery of this soft and oniric compilation of Richard Bone. Avoiding all labelling to establish himself in a style of the most diversified EM, the American synthesist, who released a good opus of ambient organic music in Serene Lives of Microbes in 2006, opens the vaults of his memoirs in a compilation of his most accessible music tracks. Available in downloadable format (we can also obtain it in a CD-r format), via the platform of the English label AD Music, ANTHOLOGY risks to disappoint those who have waited for an ambient album with abstract colors. Always unpredictable, it's rather from the garden of his introspection that Richard Bone decided to pick 20 fine musical pearls, pulled from his collection of albums on his Quirkworks label. ANTHOLOGY breathes of its 20 bewitching melodies which roam on ambient, even abstracted, structures, on lunar down-tempos and on soft orgasmic jazz which transport our feelings, as time calms their incomprehension. After an intro blown by fluty breezes, Waters of Assiyah lays down a fine structure of jazz/ lounge fusion in the deep of our ears. A delicate melody hangs onto glass arpeggios of which the fight between their echoing, resonant and crystal clear tones stimulates a harmony whispered to our ears with such sweetness that we ask for more.
And, faithful to his very eclectic signature, Richard Bone amazes with this stunning ethnic approach which drums finely on a seductive piano line, drawing so the main lines of an attractive musical rendezvous with a composer who is not afraid of losing his style in a universe of a thousand sound delights. We find these fragrances of jazz which are cradled by soft mid-tempos like Outside the Incrimination Field and its vampiric breezes, the lively Amorita Dive and Zumaphile Shift, whereas 47 Youth St sways the hips languishingly on a suave down-tempo with scents of soft jazz. Good ballads like Aquaville and Always Drifting Down have more tendencies of a lounge and ballads mix. In Japa is an appealing morphic lullaby illuminated by chords of glass which ring in the shade of delicate notes from a crystal piano, weaving a soft ambience of musing and melancholy. A soft pulsation of a bass line shakes the movement of the carillons which float in the breaths of suave seraphic choruses. It's a soft music piece where the ambient mood and the New Age melodies meet with harmony, like on The Inland Sea and its notes of koto which resound in ambient breezes, where sing birds which coo on the undulations of those furtive pulsations weaved in the tones which ring as a somber guitar of solitary cowboy.
We also find in these lunar and meditative settings tracks as A Column of Glyphs, the beautiful and Vangelis-style Vesperia Pt 3, the somber and very pensive My Pretty Debris, and the quiet Unknown Waters which floats on its black breaths and its discreet orchestrations. If A Silent Season sounds distant from the rest of ANTHOLOGY with its lyrical acoustic approach, one would believe to hear Steve Orchard, Beginning to Fade is not outdone with its strange voices which sing on a rhythm as fuzzy as its voices, but livened up by moments of a morphic down-tempo. By Any Other Name follows with a languishing cosmic down-tempo. The melodious approach is embroidered in stars. Imperial Glide is another good cosmic ballad with a tribal and filmic approach which has good orchestration, like the sublime Father of Pearl, boy what a great track! Then comes the very lively and hyper melodious (You Are) Essence of Diamond and African fragrance) as well as Fractal Ashes which is darker on the other hand.
Since the time that we know the magic of David Wright, it would be the time to recognize his talent to unearth composers and musicians who are capable of surfing on his imprints as melodic than melancholic and on his lunar ambiences where the rhythms as the ballads adopt the forms of their fantasies. And it's the entire story behind this nice compilation of Richard Bone. We listen to ANTHOLOGY as to have a surprising complicity with life, and this no matter of its moments. It's soft and dreamy, dark and melancholic, ambient and livened up. In short, all our contrarieties wrapped in a musical texture which answers the ambitious criteria of AD Music. Surprising and very good!
Sylvain Lupari (April 18th, 2013) ***½**
Available at AD Music Shop