Disco Gecko
Andrew Heath has been releasing low-key ambient works for the last seven or eight years, first coming to prominence collaborating with Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Although Roedelius is a good indication of what you may expect from Andrew’s work, I would say that it is even lower key, making a lot of use of found sounds and field recordings to make up the tranquil and at times pastoral soundscapes. A couple of the tracks clock in at around a quarter of an hour, and that sort of pace allows all sorts of things to unfold, often with the backdrop of some unusual rhythmic device.
Opener “Flow State” is one of the long ones, and against the steady tick of an electric fence, the track slowly unwinds with the warm glow of a summer’s day. Anyone who has
walked through a field as an electric fence is pulsing will know how much that sound is evocative of lonesome country walks, and piano notes are injected to interrupt the reverie of the found sounds. It drifts in no real direction, meandering slowly, and it is unclear as to what may come next. The piano acts as some sort of link back to reality and the recognisable sounds ebbing and flowing against the droning backdrop. This would be perfect headphone music, I am sure.
Evenfall is a rather hushed and magical collection that takes a few unexpected turns with the addition of
Lydia Kenny‘s saxophone on “The Still Of Evenfall”. The sax adds an elegance to the proceedings, the elegance of a swan in flight, circling over Richmond Park, searching for a spot to land. It all
unfurls at a natural pace and allows the found sounds to be fully appreciated. A touch of lap steel and the crackle of fire change the ambience on “Artefact”, while on “Feldspar”, the tinkle of frozen rushes accompany a few sparse piano notes. They beautifully evoke an autumnal walk along a frozen canal, emblazoned with those diffuse colours that only autumn can bring, bird song drifting in and out of earshot.
Final track “The Garden Reveals Itself” allows the album to drift out with the words of Romanian poet Maria Stadnicka accompanied by the merest, most gentle of backings and to leave us resting in some clover-filled, sun-dappled field, rejuvenated but a little woozy.
-Mr Olivetti-
Andrew Heath has been releasing low-key ambient works for the last seven or eight years, first coming to prominence collaborating with Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Although Roedelius is a good indication of what you may expect from Andrew’s work, I would say that it is even lower key, making a lot of use of found sounds and field recordings to make up the tranquil and at times pastoral soundscapes. A couple of the tracks clock in at around a quarter of an hour, and that sort of pace allows all sorts of things to unfold, often with the backdrop of some unusual rhythmic device.
