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Pete Namlook / Peter Prochir | Possible Gardens

CD, Fax

Tekst: Matthijs de Jonge

Publicatiedatum: 15 juli 2000

Raise your hands everyone who thinks that the words "Ambient" and "The Orb" are synonymous. Good. You are all very, very mistaken. True hardcore ambient (now there's some nice terminology for you) has as much in common with "little fluffy clouds" and cotton candy as it has with grindcore or deathmetal. In fact, when the mainstream music press discovered this haunting, atmospheric music a few years back, they found it necessary to create a new name for it: remember the short-lived "illbient" hype, boys and girls? One of the most important "true" ambient labels is Fax recordings from Germany. Fax recordings is the brainchild of a man called Pete Namlook, who also wrote a rather curious Ambient cookbook, which is a good read if you're ever having trouble deciding what you're going to have for dinner tonight. When he's not in the kitchen, he engages in musical collaborations with (it seems) everyone who crosses his path. This leads to an output that is wildly diverse in scope, spanning everything from neo-Kraut nostalgia to kitschy loungejazz. On this particular offering, "Possible gardens", Namlook teams up with Peter Prochir to create some of the strongest atmosphere pieces you've heard in quite a while. The eponymous opening track boasts a superbly haunting melody on a warm, sensuous bed of subdued haziness. On "Breeding machine", the second track, airy throbs and machinelike pulses carefully build up tension before a deliciously sequenced buzzsaw lead kicks in. Unfortunately, Namlook and Prochir find it necessary to unleash a veritable barrage of uninspired loungekitsch on you straight afterwards, but when you've managed to live through that (the skip function on your cd-player should help) you'll be treated to "Memory lagoon", a track consisting of restrained synthesizer klang that brings to mind the early industrial music of the late 70's/early 80's and which suddenly gives way to a beautifully minimalist science-fiction soundtrack.
Overall, the tone on this album is quite a dark one, rather melancholic, even. You won't find yourself in blissed-out heaven picking pretty pink flowers among myriads of little fluffy clouds, but if you're in need of ear candy for those downer moments, "Possible Gardens" just might be what you're looking for.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/pete-namlook-peter-prochir/possible-gardens/573/
Meer Pete Namlook / Peter Prochir op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/pete-namlook-peter-prochir