(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Fibreforms is a Michigan-based project that plays
instrumental music based on the haunting sound of the African bounkam.
Theirs is ambient world-music a` la
Penguin Cafè Orchestra,
largely improvised according to a cut-up approach, with a penchant for
processed percussions, guitars and found sounds.
Treedrums (Earth Tone, 1996) contains:
Soaring,
Ore Corymb,
Untitled Bright Format,
Amorosa,
Cincture,
Thermals,
Aubade.
The bounkam dominates also the five songs of the
EP Stone (Roomtone, 1997): the
waltzing Gryphons, the
tribal Stone, the minimalistic Kohinoor,
Knest,
Untitled .
In the meantime, the same collective released
Panchroma (Alley Sweeper, 1997) under the moniker Waterwheel.
Then the trio (Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison And Clark Rehberg)
changed name to Kiln, but continued to produce
atmospheric instrumental music with the EP
The Kiln (Roomtone, 1998), a superb keyboards-driven ambient work.
The digital clicks of Kef.graft2, the alien electronica of Neuron,
the ambient soundscapes of Hidden System, Sonor and Cennan,
sound intellectual and complex compared with Fibreforms' aerial maps.
Kiln's album Holo (Roomtone, 1998) contains tracks like
Sienna, Kekker and Squarewave Colorwheel
that acknowledge the influence of harmonically deviant rockers like
Can and of texture-oriented bands like Main.
Breezeplate and Billionwatt belong to another civilization.
A more organic compositional technique characterizes
Kiln's second album Ampday (Thalassa, 2000), whose
Tinsunshine and Learning To Draw sound like mini-concertos
worthy of the most austere albums by
Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd and Penguin Cafe` Orchestra, while the
drones are never mere shoegazing a` la Main and Rapoon.
Thermals (Kiln, 2001) collects unreleased material of a decade.
The mini-album Sunbox (Ghostly Intl, 2004) seemed to explore rhythm
instead of texture.
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