[reviews] afe106lcd
brian lavelle: ustrina

I think many of you out there have already knew Brian Lavelle for this or that release, but in case you're absolutely new to his works you've to know that between 1996 and today Lavelle has recorded for labels such as Bake, Diophantine, Freek, Staalplaat, Elsie and Jack, etc.

This drone based long track shows the incredible strength of proportions and the importance of balance, infact this sixtyeight minutes circa suite could be dead boring but ends being absorbing and fascinating instead.

While being a little bit darker than many of the Lavelle's output I've heard so far, it has nothing to do with dark ambient, it's lulling and someway narcoleptic and summed up with a couple of other characteristics it brings to my mind DJ Olive's "sleep" work on Room40, I'm tented to say the two releases are similar and equally as catchy.

From what I've read inside the press sheet this english artist has reshaped some old sounds that probably has been collecting dust inside some rough recording and inside a black corner of Lavelle's mind, but he managed to give it all such a good new definition I'd say this blast from the past has been damn successful.

I can't exactly say which were the exact sound sources/instruments for this recording; waves and layers would suggest some keyboard/old synth sources twisted and renewed for good, but with today's technology it's really hard for me to be one hundred percent sure.

The pictures and the whole layout are great and I think from the front cover to the last page they give the impression of this environment Lavelle wanted to re-create. So the question is if we have to cross or not the bridge we see on the front cover...? By the way, from the dead leaves it's easy to imagine an autumnal landscape, if you add the melancholic atmosphere of this work it's hard to deny that's not a joyful marriage.

[Andrea Ferraris]