Eric Barnett

Barnett's Self-Produced Album Was Recorded Mixed And Mastered In One Marathon Week In January. Barnett Plays All The Instruments Including Acoustic And Electric Guitars Lap Steel Guitar And Prepared Piano. There Is Also Considerable Manipulation Of The Recorded Sounds To Create Spacious Atmospheric Sound Stages.
The Album Is Broken Into Two Parts The First Having Four Sections The Second Having Three. The First Part Starts With A Single Low Tolling Note And Gradually Builds By The Addition Of One Or Two Notes At A Time A Metaphorical Creation Of The World Out Of A Void.
But Once A World Is Created It Needs Life. In The Second Section Barnett Begins Coalescing The Wide-Flung Laid-Back Sounds Into Coherent Chords And Fragments Of Melody. The First Chord To Break Away From The Drone Which Underlies The Entire First Section Is Quiet But So Significant In Contrast To What Has Come Before It Seems To Be Like The Very Touch Of Life Into What Had Been Inanimate Matter.
The Brief Third Section Brings Full Melodic Arcs Cradling Phrases With The Warm Touch Of Folk Music About Them. The Ambient Atmosphere Still Hovers In The Background But Only As A Backdrop To The Flowering Growth Of Melody In The Foreground.
The Fourth And Final Section Of "Part 1" Is More Experimental Building From The Same Harmonic Basis As The Previous Section But Here Featuring Complex Layers Of Backward-Looped Instruments And Feedback. It Drifts Up On Ecstatic Glimmering Threads Of Feedback And Fades Away.
"Part 2" Opens With A Brief Dark Experimental Soundscape Played On Prepared Piano And Partially Directly On The Strings Of The Instrument Reminiscent Of The Music Of Henry Cowell Of John Cage. This Serves As A Prelude To A Questioning Introspective Guitar Piece Underswept By Dark Washes Of Sound From The Prepared Piano. The Melodic Phrases Haltingly Grope But Get Nowhere As The Prepared Piano's Clinks And Mutters Give A Sonic Picture Of Decay And Disintegration.
In The Final Section Of "Part 2 " The Sounds Further Fragment. All Melodic Phrases And Easy Harmonies Break Down Into A Primordial Soup Of Ambience. Instruments Begin To Twist Out Of Tune And Float Away. Everything Is Finally Reduced Down To Fragments Which Float Away In The Distance.
The Album Is A Beautifully Affecting Sonic Portrait Of The Whole Life-Cycle. Barnett Refreshingly Bridges The Gap Between The Bleakly Ethereal Nordic Soundscapes Of The Icelandic Rock Group Sigur Ros And The Narrative Americana Of Tom Waits. The Recorded Sound Is Generally Quite Gorgeous. The Instruments Are Recorded Closely Which Does Cause Some Extraneous String And Finger Noise But Those Full Rich Sounds Are Placed In Wide-Flung Soundscapes That Stretch As Wide As The Horizon Easily Placing The Listener Within The Music.
Ambient Music Is Not Everyone's Cup Of Tea Featuring As It Does No Lyrics No Driving Beat And Little Melody But For Anyone Looking For A Musical Experience With The Richness Of Dream-Imagery Barnett's Album Will Prove A Delightful Escape From The Mundane World. Visit Barnett's MySpace Page On The Internet For Further Information Www.Myspace.Com/barnetteric read less