|
Forrest Fang
Fang describes the new album in these words: "It is my first ambient CD since my 1989 release, "The Wolf At The Ruins," and has been 2 to 3 years in the making. Expect a lot of shifting atmospheres and exotic textures." The best part of Fang's sound constructions are the way they can arouse fascination and maintain it. Never failing to capture a fresh sonic atmosphere to explore, the California-based composer has hit the mark again with Gongland. On "Gongland", Fang produces soundscapes suffused with peace and a sense of floating and drifting beauty that are wondrous to explore. The music of Forrest Fang is a collection of shifting, layered ambient textures and slow, hypnotic layers of sound that gradually consume the senses. He is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has released 7 recordings over the past 17 years for the Ominous Thud and Cuneiform Records labels. Forrest Fang's music succeeds, because it takes chances, avoids intellectual trappings, and possesses a strong sense of identity and cohesiveness. His eclectic music incorporates both Western and non-Western influences as wide-ranging as minimalism and Chinese classical music.The thirteen compositions create an organic shimmering sound like random molecular movement. Absolutely entracing and mood-seducing, this is active ambient music that contains an abundancy of lush, warm sounds that invite, beckon and entice; ...an utterly subline tour of outer and inner space. The album is a collection of simple, uncluttered, unhurried timbres, a by-product of a minimalist sensibility that maintains a balance of quiet intensity throughout the album. The music offers the listener an opportunity to touch the pulse of pure consciousness with non-Western influences such as Indonesian gamelan music. Each place evokes a place, a natural environment, a state of being. The composer is subtle in his use of eclectic resources that span the techno-tribal spectrum. Fang proves the adage that it isn't the equipment that empowers the mind, but the ability and imagination. "Gongland" is a perfect introduction to this talented artist's imagination; an impressive body of work that is far ahead of its time. Review by Ben Kettlewell information: |
 BACK TO REVIEW DIRECTORY |
|
|
On "Gongland', perhaps his best album yet, ...Forrest Fang
moves delicately from slowly throbbing percussive rhythms to
dreamy, floating synthesizer ambiences with finess and
grace. "Gongland" contains amyraid of elements, which drift
slowly and surely into each other, each in their own unique
way, and on close listening, the unique structure of each
compostion becomes apparent.