Death Ambient - Synæsthesia (1999)

When you consider the players that make up Death Ambient, it is not surprising that they manage to put out such interesting music. Guitar innovator Fred Frith, the amazing bassist Kato Hideki, and legendary percussionist Ikue Mori combine efforts to issue a sound that is often called ambient noise, but has more texture and complexity than almost any other music under that label. As talented as Frith and Hideki are, Mori is the true creative core of this band's sound, emitting a myriad of sounds from her drum machines -- delicate bells, chimes, and rattles as well as aggressive, metallic groans and flutters. Frith and Hideki also show great range, grinding through walls of guitar sound, then stepping back and leaving notes on the open spaces of songs like drops in a pool of water. The result is a sound which sometimes sounds nightmarish, but more often evokes beauty and terror at the same time. This record is a fine follow-up to Death Ambient's debut album, and takes the music of this trio a step further into the realm of the mind. © Stacia Proefrock