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The Ambient Eclipse (Various Artists) (CD, 71:51) Mirage MIR-302, 1997
MIRAGE
Oasis Productions Limited
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Cobourg, ON
Canada K9A 4J7

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After listening to a few ambient recordings and reviewing them, I’ve noticed
one glaring problem with the whole ambient genre.  It’s not that the music
isn’t relaxing – on the contrary, the feeling I have after listening to
The Ambient Eclipse is one that I imagine would be akin to taking a
bath in a pool of Novocain. So as far as having a calming effect of people,
the ambient genre does just fine.  My problem – as a reviewer – with the whole
ambient scene is that all the “music” sounds almost exactly the same (much like
smooth jazz and prog-metal). As a responsible review writer, I’m supposed to
listen to every nook and cranny of every track of every CD that’s sent
to me – but in this case, I can’t even differentiate the 10 tracks.  Oh,
don’t’ get me wrong - I’m COMPLETELY and utterly relaxed after being exposed
to this release, but reviewing ambient music is a bit like reviewing the
color blue.  What do you say about it - “It’s Blue and… err… stuff”?

So it would seem that I’ve got my work cut out for me.

The Ambient Eclipse is a collection of ambient works from various
artists such as Steve Roach, Hiroki Okana, and a few other folks I’ve never
heard of before. The collective objective of this release is apparently to
turn one’s muscles into a substance akin to Jello – and at this, The
Ambient Eclipse succeeds marvelously.  The textures and emotions that
the “music” radiates are truly relaxing, and kudos must be given to the
artists for managing to evoke such feelings in their audiences.  Steve Roach’s
“Slow Rapture” is an especially intoxicating track, managing to be both
soothing and ominous at the same time.  But quite frankly, the CD could’ve
been one long song and I wouldn’t have noticed much of a difference between
tracks.

That brings me to what I feel is this CD’s secondary objective: to prove
that two or three chords – when played at a slow enough tempo – can actually
constitute an 8 minute song.  Although The Ambient Eclipse comes
nowhere near approaching Iron Butterfly territory (there’s no killer drum
solo on this CD), most of the CD’s composers take minimalism to a whole new
level.  Again, as minimalism is apparently a goal of ambient artists, the
performers on this release succeed here as well.  I’m just not terribly sure
how impressed I am that they DO succeed.

Anyway, as far as ambient recordings go, The Ambient Eclipse is
excellent background music to meditate to, or with which to simply relax.
As far as comparing it to other ambient recordings… well, it sounds the same
as all the rest really.  If you’re planning on going out and buying an
ambient release for your collection, you could certainly do much worse than
checking out The Ambient Eclipse.  Of course, you could probably
close your eyes and pick something out of the “Ambient” section completely
at random and find a similar experience.  Such seems to be the nature of the
beast…

- Michael Askounes (michael@gscyclone.com)

EER Editor's note: It is truly illuminating to realize just how very hard it is to describe ambient soundworlds. For some they are like "musical oatmeal" and perhaps bland, featureless experiences. To others, ambient music is an internal soundtrack or creative backdrop -- the means to an end -- relaxation. The Ambient Eclipse for this Editor was fairly representative of the best ambient worlds out there to sample. It doesn't include all the best artists in the genre but many legendary ones are represented in this collection.

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