AMBIENT EARTH

Released in 1996, "Ambient earth" is American Scott Mosher's first CD album. He is very much a solo artist playing all the instruments on the album and recording and producing the album himself. You could be forgiven therefore for expecting the kind of music created by many budding artists in their own homes, with long drawn out ambient pieces of primarily new age music. Happily, this is not the case here.

Mosher certainly recognises the new age influences in his music, but there are dynamics and energies throughout this album which belie its home brewed connotations. Take the second track "Atlantis rises from the waves" for example. This features loud bursts of fanfare synths and powerful percussion. Before that, the opening "Descent into the inferno" has a trance like feel, with Tangerine Dream like sounds mixing with a solid rhythm.

The diversity of the music is further emphasised by the world music rhythms of "Where the river runs black", and later "Tenochitlan", by which time the album has settled down into a more defined pattern. The overriding sound is that of various synths, leading to inevitable comparisons with Vangelis, Jarre, and the aforementioned Tangs. "The burning sea" is more in the Jean Michel Jarre camp, with a strong rhythm and relatively simple melody. There is though a certain menace to the deep beat of tracks such as this and "Descent into the inferno" which actually bring to mind some of Porcupine Tree's more ambient work.

While the album is entirely instrumental, Mosher does like to use vocal samples to provide choral effects on some tracks. "Spinning binary systems", a Tangerine Dream ("Rubycon") like piece utilises these sounds well. My only minor criticism of this and other tracks, is the rather clumsy fade.

On "Discovery", Mosher combines the choral samples with some fine old fashioned(!) monophonic synth, to create an highly atmospheric piece which is simultaneously contemporary and retro. "Eclipse" features the first real burst of lead guitar, the soloing indicating that Mosher is extremely capable on a diverse range of instruments.

In all, a highly proficient and enjoyable first CD by this talented musician. Do not be put off by the "ambient" title, this is a varied album of dynamic sounds and strong compositions.

This album can be downloaded free from the artist's website (see the link on Scott Mosher's ProgArchives page). If you do download though, do the decent thing and post a review.

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