Green House Music - Reviews: Exuviae - Echoes In The Emptiness

Exuviae - Echoes In The Emptiness

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Ambient Visions - Dene Bebbington (c) 2001

"Someone who casually heard a snippet from this CD may be forgiven for wondering if it's just a continuous tone. Lying somewhere between spacemusic and ambient this is actually a marvellous album comprising five tracks averaging around fifteen minutes each. Think of The Drift Inside by Vir Unis and you'll have a hint of the style.

What all the tracks have in common is a flowing or drifting structure based around a core sound texture. Throughout a track continually subtle changes to the music take one on an entrancing droning journey. Because the music on this album is so subtle in its delivery and form you need to listen attentively to get a full appreciation rather than having it playing whilst doing something else.

My favourite track is Silencia, this in my opinion is nothing short of superb. Listening to this is like travelling through some kind of a long tunnel. A recurring, almost plaintive, sound is heard over a fantastic drone which changes subtly, but never strays too far. I find this to be a great piece to play when I just want to lie back, switch off my busy mind, and lose myself in music for a little while.

The only other piece by Exuviae that I've heard so far is Blankets of Quiet on the compilation CD Convergent Evolution. On the basis of that and Echoes in the Emptiness I'm looking forward to hearing future work from this artist.

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Ambient Visions - Jim Brenholts (c) 2000

"Echoes in the Emptiness" is a larger than life minimalist soundscape. Exuviae is the second artist signed to Green House Music. (Vir Unis was the first.) This dense soundscape is filled with bright layers of melodic synth sequences and airy ambience. The disc is a homage to silence and the glory of nothingness. This CD is great for solo meditation and contemplation. This essential debut from an essential newcomer represents the next logical and emotional step in the progression of silent music.

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Infinity Press - David Basteri (c) 2000

Minimalistic and kind of droning trance/ambient work, likening work don by Richard D James of Aphex Twin if he was to say, um...take one too many valium or xanax. Five songs that really sound like one big everlasting slow beat with some light-handed electronic tinkering thrown in here or there for posterity's sake. Remarkable? Yes. Ambitious? No, not really. While I appreciate the cohesiveness of the work as a whole, it's a bit slow and lacks any big surprises. But then I got to thinking (smell the smoke) maybe that's the point. I mean it is called echoes in the emptiness, and yeah, sometimes when I'm alone with my thoughts, and I go too deep and reconcile everything that's in my head and come full circle my mind's voice really does kinda echo in the emptiness I created. That can be a good thing. That's pretty much what Exuviae does to me. They create a lava-lamp-like curtain of sound that ebbs and flows in and out of your psyche so much that pretty soon the "music" begins to assimilate itself with whichever task you might have at hand. It could be the background music of your dreams, or a subtle brain tickler. Use this CD when you are really stoned...really alone...really busy...really all of the above. Echoes in the Emptiness is a perfect example of using music as a tool in your daily physical and mental life. Good luck.

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Ujamaa's Ambient Experience - Eric Prindle (c) 2000

I find that overtly "outer-space," planetarium-esque motifs have become a big turn-off for me, but there are times when I can look past this, and I'm happy to say that Echoes in the Emptiness is an example. Most of the planetarium type stuff is on the first track, "Awaken Within," and even there, it's bearable because it's part of a larger picture. It's actually very interesting, because much of this album sounds like an unusual cross between the subterranean and the expansive. Those silvery, wide-open-spacey sounds are countered in many places by some fairly intimate drones. The different moods play off each other, working their ways in and out of the sound of the moment. Exuviae's contribution to Green House Music's introductory compliation, Convergent Evolution, was one of the more impressive tracks on that album, and Echoes in the Emptiness doesn't disappoint. As with much (but not all) of the music in this genre, there's more beneath the surface than immediately meets the ears.

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The Organization of Sound - Matt Borghi (c) 2000

This is a fantastic, fantastic recording. It's very rare for me to become so captivated by a recording that I had to put down my pad and paper and concentrate on listening. This is one such recording. This slowly evolving sonic masterpiece takes the listener through a seventy-three minute contemplative journey. Echoes In the Emptiness is one of those perfect recordings that doesn't let composition get in the way of great music. This recording is ambience in the truest sense of the word, reminiscent of Eno, but with the clarity and dynamic available in today's recording technology. There are some things in this recording that remind of James Johnson's Hypnos release Entering Twilight. Both recordings have that same holistic vibe that brings about a sense of well-being and serene, momentary existential understanding. With Echoes in Emptiness, Exuviae weaves a thoughtful and imaginative harmonic tapestry, a recording that is as aurally pleasing as it is regenerative. A great recording from Exuviae and Green House Music. A must purchase!

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AmbiEntrance - David Opdyke (c) 2000

The echoes in the emptiness are fairly longform exercises in rich, flowing tonal drones (all five tracks are between 13 and 16 minutes in length). Originating from Green House Music, Exuviae is the nom-de-ambient of label co-founder, Brooks Rongstad.

As demonstrated on the recent Convergent Evolution compilation, Exuviae has the power of supernatural audiofloatation, using this special talent for the forces of Goodness.

Like a molten stream of sonic lava, dense chords ooze from awaken within (13:04); their slowly churning paths meander through phases which sound more symphonic, then more choral, then more airy. Barely perceptible accents seem to hover in the surrounding mists, before all shifts into the quiet. Lighter silencia (16:06) simply floats on rising currents. Slow-motion gusts swirl soundcolors into hypnotic patterns while faint belltones twinkle like daytime stars. One arrives at otherplace via the gathering mists which drift from its entryway; perhaps even quieter than its predecessor, this piece basks in gently frothing atmospheres of the most gaseous nature, glowing with incandescence.

Indistinct murmers are hear through the veils of lightness; amongst the shimmers and swells, textural glints decorate the sweeping streamers. With just a hint of darkness, the edgier murk of right as rain creeps into earshot. Fear not though... the clouds begin to lift, allowing stratospheric radiance to beam down on the organ-ic tones which wash below.

Using synthesis, treatments and extremely processed guitar and shakuhachi, Exuviae simply radiates warm ambient waves. echoes in the emptiness will fill any void of silence with luxuriously shapeless soundwaves, highly recommended for listeners patient enough for such prolonged evolutions. An 8.9 for supremely uplifting levitations.

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Star's End - Chuck van Zyl (c) 2000

As do painters utilize geometry to communicate space, so musicians use the drone. On "Echoes In The Emptiness", Exuviae removes all self from the pieces to realize a truely ambient sound design. Relying almost exclusively on harmony, timbre and atmosphere, Exuviae creates music that is somewhat static in nature and with any great changes having to do with the listener's perception of time and place. With no beginning, middle or ending the listener may enter at any given point and still properly experience a piece. Like observing the play of sunlight on water, the seeming chaos of subatomic particles or the turbulant great red spot of Jupiter, "Echoes In The Emptiness" never grows tiresome. With each listening a new element of music and self may be discerned.

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Wind and Wire - Bill Binkelman (c) 2000

From local (Minneapolis) Green House Music, the new label on the ambient/space music scene, comes still another excellent recording. Exuviae’s Echoes in the Emptiness is one of the top floating ambient releases of the year - easily! Encompassing moods from vaguely dark to serene and peaceful, the album impressed me with its slowly evolving clouds of sound that filled my living room with a sense of deep space and drifting through the night sky.

The person behind Exuviae is Brooks Rongstad. Playing synths, guitar (heavily processed), shakuhachi (again, it appears to be processed) and treatments, the music on the five cuts on Echoes in the Emptiness are all long (averaging about fifteen minutes each) patient journeys through shimmering and expansive electronic soundscapes. "awaken within" starts things off with some drama, as the combined musical elements "mini-crescendo" in a pattern of ebbs and flows, anchored by the shimmering undercurrent of synths in the background. The music on Echoes...is formless, lacking rhythm or structure, but it is beautiful and is not just chords and washes. It took until the third listening before the subtle patterns began to emerge. I advise you to listen to this when your house is as silent as possible (I myself first came to appreciate it around midnight one night while, incongruous as it may sound, I was folding the laundry!).

"silencia" is lighter in feel - almost along the lines of Jeff Pearce’s latest release, To The Shores of Heaven, at times. There is a texture that is like a drawn out (I mean, REALLY drawn out) train whistle going through its Doppler effect. You’ll recognize what I mean, I think, when you hear it. Again, the song carries more dramatic "oomph" than most floating, low key ambient/space music. Without resorting to loud passages or pulsating rhythms, Brooks has brought a muted sense of grandeur or awe to the music.

"otherplace" is definitely space music in the purest sense (although, truthfully, this CD blurs the distinctions between the two second-cousin genres as thoroughly as anyone has ever done before). This song is way up the "shimmer" scale, with high end washes of synths fading in and out as a low end drone anchors the background. Brooks’ music is less "warm" (i.e., traditionally melodic) than classic Serrie and, since the artist operates without rhythm and in long duration cuts, I can’t compare this recording to Meg Bowles’ work either. The formless yet always fluid music evokes a mostly neutral (i.e. not elated and not frightened either) emotional response, but overall the vibe is more about awe and mystery than foreboding.

"lightness," the fourth song contains what sounds like the aforementioned processed shakuhachi flute, along with heavily-echoed spoken word recitation (I didn’t try to make out the words, but the narration doesn’t last long), and later more heavily distorted vocalizations (but this is treated more as part of the music than anything else - in fact, I didn’t even notice it as vocals the first time I listened to the album!). This is serene yet also somber music, at times.

The album ends with the most beautiful selection, "right as rain" which begins with irregular twinkling synth notes, coming to light in the deep space sky, one by one. Graceful and gentle washes of synths bring a deep sense of resignation and resolve to the song, as the piece winds down by spiraling into a slow dissolve, as if the night was being slowly erased by a deeper, yet comforting, blackness.

Echoes in the Emptiness is an apt title for this great ambient/space music debut. The textures and formless music that snakes through the album is music borne on the solar winds, but sent way out into deepest space. Brooks is an expert painter of floating sonic landscapes, by releasing this CD (along with Vir Unis’ superb The Drift Inside) Green House Music instantly catapults themselves into the forefront of superior ambient and space music labels. Highly recommended.

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CD Services - Andy Garibaldi (c) 2000

The most beautiful space music album for years when it comes to long flowing tracks of warm rich synth textures that envelop you in a cocoon of spellbinding music as you are transported to places in the far reaches of the universe. None of it is too dark or drone oriented on the one hand, or too light and sweet on the other. This is music that gets it just right, both in terms of its soundscpes, its dynamics, its variation and its sheer overall quality of enjoyment. It's music that drifts over you and yet is serious listening at the same time, as the layers unfold and the overwhelming beauty of the music surrounds you. Played loud in the middle of a desert, I bet this would be as close as you get to heaven itself - a truly remarkable mind-blowing slice of cosmic synth music that is, and always will be, totally timeless.

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SMD Magazine - Phil Derby (c) 2000

Exuviae was featured on the recent 'Convergent Evolution' ambient compilation, and this CD shows that he can definitely put together a full disc's worth of beautiful, soothing tones. Though melody is absent, the music is strikingly peaceful and elegant. The entire album slowly shifts and drifts, as bright silvery overtones blend with lush, deep undertones. Discernible instruments are hard to pick out, the credits listing guitar, shakuhachi, and "synthesis and treatments." The music swirls like the beautiful cover art, floating like liquid glass. Each track is about 15 minutes long, and each patiently, deliberately explores a specific sonic place for us to lose ourselves in. Points of reference are difficult, though the longer, spacious works of Steve Roach come to mind. 'Awaken Within' reminds me of a lesser-known but great CD, Sonic Bloom's Entropica Prolifica. It starts with a simple drone, but layers of soft sounds slowly develop over the top. By the end, it still has a remnant of its beginnings, but it fully blossoms into a complex sonic organism. On the other hand, 'Silencia' is content to swirl around, as if in place. Changing little, the subtle yet abundant layers allow for an ever-changing attentive listening experience, or to simply enjoy as excellent background music. 'Otherplace' is somewhere between the first two, developing more slowly than 'Awaken Within,' but somewhat more definitely that 'Silencia.' Music this formless is difficult to describe on paper, but suffice to say if you enjoy ambience without melody, complete with the feeling of floating endlessly, then you will thoroughly enjoy 'Echoes in the Emptiness.'

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EER Music - Hannah M.G. Shapero (c) 2000

The Latin word “Exuviae” means either “spoils taken from the defeated enemy” or, more commonly, “shed skin or shell” such as a snake would leave when molting. The artist behind the Latin name is Brooks Rongstad, one of the founders of Greenhouse Music. This small label specializes in very esoteric electronic ambient music, which by its nature will only reach an exclusive audience. Well, I’m one of that audience, and I’ve liked just about everything that Greenhouse has released. This album is no exception.

“Exuviae” creates shimmering swirls of electronic drones and sustained notes, all of them in well-chosen, rather modal harmonic groupings. There is no beat or percussion; notes phase in and out of hearing with a slow, even glacial dignity, sometimes with soft accents of twinkling high bell-like sounds. At times a piece will slowly grow in density and volume to a wide field of layered sound, only to sink back into obscurity. There is indeed an icy quality to the music on this album, a good accompaniment to a freezing winter night. Yet it isn’t emotionally cold; its mood is more like the “sense of wonder” that I cherish, secretly, as being the finest and rarest of emotions. If the winter stars could sing, this would be what they would sound like.

Because there is no rhythm to any of these pieces, the floating wave-patterns become hypnotic after a while. If you are doing work that demands alertness, don’t listen to this. Exuviae will put you into a trance. It’s a beautiful trance, though, as if you were attending a ceremony in a cathedral made of clear ice.

A graphics note: I could barely read the titles and other text on the CD cover. This is a common problem on Greenhouse albums. Their music may be esoteric, but I wish their type design wasn’t so obscure.

HMGS rating: 8 out of 10

Hannah M.G. Shapero, EER-MUSIC.com

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