Environment 7 trilogy
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nanio tine
- Hardhead
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:54 am
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
not very taken with the three preview tracks, pretty but very much on the cold minimal side. might try and track down a copy online somewhere before buying tbh.
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
"All this has Happened Before" sounds as much an Amorphous track as it does an FSOL one. "In Solitude we are least alone" really jumps out of the speakers, like it's mastered a little louder. The whole thing has a distinctly different feel to it than Rituals so far, I've got as far as the bonus tracks, less of the recycled sounds from the 90s on this one. Very enjoyable. I agree, "Mangy Burger" is a very unFSOL name! "A Stationary Air Mass" is a great track in my opinion, I'm surprised it's only a bonus track.
I am the eye that looks within
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
A Space of Partial Illumination - Water and birdsong, leading into mellow glitchy ambience with some tape hiss. Incredibly minimal. Not sure there are any real comparison points to previous FSOL tracks. Lovely, although not very direct and a strange choice for one of the streamable tracks on Bandcamp.
If That Were to Occur - Chunky drums, this is immediately reminiscent of the ISDN-leaning sound of Rituals, right down to the haunting ambient textures in the background. Some bitcrushed noises. "Where are you going?"
Intents and Purpose - IDM, slightly acidy, very Humanoid. Once more, the Rituals-style thick background layers bring it a certain sense of ambience, despite the hectic fast beats.
Embodied Cognition - Acoustic guitar, midtempo beats, very melancholic. Like a less epic 'Long Shadows'. Some familiar electronic noises in the background. Beautiful, my favourite track so far. "Something's wrong here..."
Long Green Field - Pemberton collab, from Mind Maps 2. Works really well following the last track. Some field recordings from the opening track present. Again, an odd choice for preview track as it's nothing like the bulk of the album so far.
Temporal Aliasing - Moody ambient intro, suddenly into some frantic breakbeats. Darkest track so far, begins to brighten a little with some melancholic synth pads, making it much airier. Definitely ISDN-reminiscent again. Distorted synths come in and it's all quite intense. Goes into an outro environment of rain, reversed sounds and dramatic, synth strings. Fades to almost silence, for the side-flip, but I think the digital version is technically gapless still, with a minuscule crossfade into...
In Solitude We Are Least Alone (Waltz) - Unsurprisingly the version from Mind Maps 2 and the NFT. Piano and violin from the original, given a more electronic arrangement. Female wordless vocals in the second half. I'm still not sure how I feel about versions of the same track appearing on two different albums, although this is more FSOL and less Amorphous, so I'm immediately more disposed towards it.
Frozen Light - Stuttering breakbeats, really gorgeous synth arpeggios and pads. Beautiful, immediately my favourite track now. Choral sounds. "Wait!"
Informal Horizon - Field recordings from the first track seem to still be present, recurring as a theme throughout the album. Back into IDM territory again here, this reminds me a little of early Locust records, very dark ambient techno. Reminiscent of some of the heavier Calendar Album material.
Ephemeral - Starts with some dark synth pads, but moves into Pemberton piano work around the minute mark. These E7 Pemberton tracks feel much more electronic than the previous Views collabs; this one has pulsing synths and chopped up pianos. Lovely stuff.
All This Has Happened Before - More piano chords, although these don't feel like Pemberton. Deep bass, thudding live drums, electric violin. This one has Gaz written all over it, very heavy proggy Amorphous vibes. This is really great, like a darker and more melancholic take on the Amorphousy material on Environment 6.5. Think there's a sound from 'Hallucination' in there (or something Dead Citiesy), the first '90s sound I've noticed on this album so far. I could honestly listen to an album of this kind of thing. Outro environment of gurgling sounds and hisses.
How Forests Think - Tinny drum machines, hypnotic synth arps, lots of weird noises going on in here. Voicemails! "Helicopter, £450..." An odd choice for the end of the vinyl album, but FSOL album closers have often been unusual.
Mangy Burger - The third Bandcamp preview and another that's a strange choice as it's another fairly minimal piece. Single kick drum, lots of textural sounds, some synth pads, chopped up acoustic guitar note. It's a good atmospheric piece in context of the album, but... let's say it's not exactly single material. Also that title...
A Stationary Air Mass - More ambience, reverberating glitches and hi-hats, slowly a mid-tempo acoustic drum loop and some pensive melodic stuff. EMS sweeps for the first time in a while. Chunky beats bring back that ISDN sound again, with some dubby delay. Noisy synths, some electric guitar noise, then wobbly synth pads and pianos bring in a much brighter, warmer sound. A very strange beast, but definitely a beast.
Exists to Remove Doubt - Track from 47:02 into Mind Maps 2. A hint of 2016-2019 sound here, very bleepy, some crunchy and clicky beats. A brief brighter moment as a breather just before the final track. "Can you hear us? Answer us! Follow my voice..."
Sophies Path - Track for Brian's cat. Synth pads, arps and melodies. Very dramatic, ending the album on an incredibly sad note. This is a much stronger album closer than 'How Forests Think'. Some of the synths here are heavily reminiscent of the more melodic Synthi A material, lovely old analogue sequences. Really beautiful stuff, another highlight. Closing environment of birdsong heavily reminiscent of the very start of the album, bringing things nicely full circle.
On the whole, it's not quite as different from Rituals as I was expecting, stylistically, with a similar mix of chunky breaks, IDM and ambient textures, but the overall mood is somewhat different. It feels less claustrophobic, much airier, if still retaining a certain darkness. There's a nocturnal feel, and the closest I'm getting, atmosphere-wise, is maybe the very first Environments album; for me that always had the feeling of being outdoors, at night, maybe on some alien planet, and that's quite similar here. Stylistically it's obviously very different, but tonally I think the two are comparable.
The main difference from Rituals, I think, is the real lack of the shorter bleepy tracks that were familiar from the E6/6.5 era. That sound feels like it's gradually been phased out, with more emphasis on Humanoid-style hectic IDM and more live sounding drums again.
I have to say, I immediately prefer it to Rituals, which I never quite got into the way some people have. This one is slightly more melodic and spacious sounding, so it's automatically going to be more my kind of thing, but I think it's very slightly more consistent, too, lacking some of the slightly jarring tonal shifts that Rituals had.
Favourite tracks: Embodied Cognition, Temporal Aliasing, All This Has Happened Before.
Least favourite: Exists to Remove Doubt.
If That Were to Occur - Chunky drums, this is immediately reminiscent of the ISDN-leaning sound of Rituals, right down to the haunting ambient textures in the background. Some bitcrushed noises. "Where are you going?"
Intents and Purpose - IDM, slightly acidy, very Humanoid. Once more, the Rituals-style thick background layers bring it a certain sense of ambience, despite the hectic fast beats.
Embodied Cognition - Acoustic guitar, midtempo beats, very melancholic. Like a less epic 'Long Shadows'. Some familiar electronic noises in the background. Beautiful, my favourite track so far. "Something's wrong here..."
Long Green Field - Pemberton collab, from Mind Maps 2. Works really well following the last track. Some field recordings from the opening track present. Again, an odd choice for preview track as it's nothing like the bulk of the album so far.
Temporal Aliasing - Moody ambient intro, suddenly into some frantic breakbeats. Darkest track so far, begins to brighten a little with some melancholic synth pads, making it much airier. Definitely ISDN-reminiscent again. Distorted synths come in and it's all quite intense. Goes into an outro environment of rain, reversed sounds and dramatic, synth strings. Fades to almost silence, for the side-flip, but I think the digital version is technically gapless still, with a minuscule crossfade into...
In Solitude We Are Least Alone (Waltz) - Unsurprisingly the version from Mind Maps 2 and the NFT. Piano and violin from the original, given a more electronic arrangement. Female wordless vocals in the second half. I'm still not sure how I feel about versions of the same track appearing on two different albums, although this is more FSOL and less Amorphous, so I'm immediately more disposed towards it.
Frozen Light - Stuttering breakbeats, really gorgeous synth arpeggios and pads. Beautiful, immediately my favourite track now. Choral sounds. "Wait!"
Informal Horizon - Field recordings from the first track seem to still be present, recurring as a theme throughout the album. Back into IDM territory again here, this reminds me a little of early Locust records, very dark ambient techno. Reminiscent of some of the heavier Calendar Album material.
Ephemeral - Starts with some dark synth pads, but moves into Pemberton piano work around the minute mark. These E7 Pemberton tracks feel much more electronic than the previous Views collabs; this one has pulsing synths and chopped up pianos. Lovely stuff.
All This Has Happened Before - More piano chords, although these don't feel like Pemberton. Deep bass, thudding live drums, electric violin. This one has Gaz written all over it, very heavy proggy Amorphous vibes. This is really great, like a darker and more melancholic take on the Amorphousy material on Environment 6.5. Think there's a sound from 'Hallucination' in there (or something Dead Citiesy), the first '90s sound I've noticed on this album so far. I could honestly listen to an album of this kind of thing. Outro environment of gurgling sounds and hisses.
How Forests Think - Tinny drum machines, hypnotic synth arps, lots of weird noises going on in here. Voicemails! "Helicopter, £450..." An odd choice for the end of the vinyl album, but FSOL album closers have often been unusual.
Mangy Burger - The third Bandcamp preview and another that's a strange choice as it's another fairly minimal piece. Single kick drum, lots of textural sounds, some synth pads, chopped up acoustic guitar note. It's a good atmospheric piece in context of the album, but... let's say it's not exactly single material. Also that title...
A Stationary Air Mass - More ambience, reverberating glitches and hi-hats, slowly a mid-tempo acoustic drum loop and some pensive melodic stuff. EMS sweeps for the first time in a while. Chunky beats bring back that ISDN sound again, with some dubby delay. Noisy synths, some electric guitar noise, then wobbly synth pads and pianos bring in a much brighter, warmer sound. A very strange beast, but definitely a beast.
Exists to Remove Doubt - Track from 47:02 into Mind Maps 2. A hint of 2016-2019 sound here, very bleepy, some crunchy and clicky beats. A brief brighter moment as a breather just before the final track. "Can you hear us? Answer us! Follow my voice..."
Sophies Path - Track for Brian's cat. Synth pads, arps and melodies. Very dramatic, ending the album on an incredibly sad note. This is a much stronger album closer than 'How Forests Think'. Some of the synths here are heavily reminiscent of the more melodic Synthi A material, lovely old analogue sequences. Really beautiful stuff, another highlight. Closing environment of birdsong heavily reminiscent of the very start of the album, bringing things nicely full circle.
On the whole, it's not quite as different from Rituals as I was expecting, stylistically, with a similar mix of chunky breaks, IDM and ambient textures, but the overall mood is somewhat different. It feels less claustrophobic, much airier, if still retaining a certain darkness. There's a nocturnal feel, and the closest I'm getting, atmosphere-wise, is maybe the very first Environments album; for me that always had the feeling of being outdoors, at night, maybe on some alien planet, and that's quite similar here. Stylistically it's obviously very different, but tonally I think the two are comparable.
The main difference from Rituals, I think, is the real lack of the shorter bleepy tracks that were familiar from the E6/6.5 era. That sound feels like it's gradually been phased out, with more emphasis on Humanoid-style hectic IDM and more live sounding drums again.
I have to say, I immediately prefer it to Rituals, which I never quite got into the way some people have. This one is slightly more melodic and spacious sounding, so it's automatically going to be more my kind of thing, but I think it's very slightly more consistent, too, lacking some of the slightly jarring tonal shifts that Rituals had.
Favourite tracks: Embodied Cognition, Temporal Aliasing, All This Has Happened Before.
Least favourite: Exists to Remove Doubt.
Someone on Facebook said similar, and I'd say the preview tracks are baffling choices, the three most minimal and uncharacteristic pieces.nanio tine wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 3:29 pm not very taken with the three preview tracks, pretty but very much on the cold minimal side. might try and track down a copy online somewhere before buying tbh.
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
It makes me think of a cross between The Emptiness of Nothingness and Point of Departure, and further cements the idea that the loop-based instrumental psych stuff is just being channelled into FSOL to allow Amorphous to remain a more song-based rock project. I reckon about half of The Isness would be categorised as FSOL if it was released today.
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
any reviews regarding the vinyl quality?
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nanio tine
- Hardhead
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:54 am
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
ok, I took the dive based on your review and agree that this is a lot better than rituals. its still not a favourite on first play but there are a lot of very good tracks in here. might be my favourite fsol release since environments 6.5.
i think you might have to wait until copies are mailed out and listened to before then, it only went online this afternoon!
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
Yes it's a beautiful track, but is old, it's a longer/updated version of Emota (Bugbeats Remix) from 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPOUifEkT-k
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
Awesome, nice spot! I thought there was a touch of familiarity to it, but my knowledge of the library tracks is still fairly vague. I suppose it could be a new update of the track, although dates have stopped bothering me so much these days - Hollow Earth started life in around 2005 but didn't get released until 2016, so the FSOLDigital era is just a mish-mash of material I think.
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
I ordered the vinyl and noticed the exchange rate is way better than normal so I added a couple other albums I have been meaning to get on vinyl.
Will do the usual and wait to listen when I have it in hand and will read everyone's comments in about 3 weeks from now.
Will do the usual and wait to listen when I have it in hand and will read everyone's comments in about 3 weeks from now.
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
Insta-purchased the vinyl and had a couple of listens through digital so far. Agree with Ross about 'In solitude we are least alone (Waltz)', not sure if i want to see that reworked here, but not a big deal. So far Rituals is just edging this for me at this 'first few listens in' stage, but looking forward to giving this more time as there is some cool sounding stuff to explore.
As an aside it reminded me yet again how much a decent-ish pair of headphones can transform the listening experience - album sounding much better and appealing with that focus compared to my crappy bluetooth speaker!
As an aside it reminded me yet again how much a decent-ish pair of headphones can transform the listening experience - album sounding much better and appealing with that focus compared to my crappy bluetooth speaker!
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
Haha yes, our chancellor crashed the economy a couple of weeks ago so it’s a good time to buy from the UK!
Apparently this was the number one selling CD on the whole of Bandcamp yesterday.
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
Hmm, do I hear some Darshana Frippertronics in the background of Intents and Purpose ?
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
Well done indeed! Feelings of next level ISDN transmission came over me as I listened to 'A Space of Partial Illumination E7.002' proper last night! fuckin' brilliant !!!
Re: A Space of Partial Illumination e7.002 out October 2022
i played e7.001 before my first listen of e7.002, and so far i think it's amazing 
the transition between the last track on e7.001 and a space of partial illumination is fantastic
way more emotional than e.7001 in my opinion. makes me wonder what direction theyll take for e7.003
the transition between the last track on e7.001 and a space of partial illumination is fantastic
way more emotional than e.7001 in my opinion. makes me wonder what direction theyll take for e7.003