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This is the third volume of The Music Fellowship's Triptych Series. I have enjoyed the previous two version (New Found Land and Crickets and Fireflies, respectively) rather a lot, so i was excited to see a new version. The first Triptych was drone rock, lightly ambient, but with a nice steady beat. The second was psychedelic space rock, all crazy beats and odd rhythms. This edition, well, it's ambient, light, droning. It is the quietest of the three. It's still good though.
So, three bands, each splitting the hour worth of music here into one 20 minute segment of their own. Let's examine the input of each of the bands.
The first act up is 1 Mile North, which is a two piece band consisting of Jon Hills on guitar and Mark Bajuk on synths. They make what is pretty much the type of music you would expect an ambient project consisting of guitar and synthesizer to make: long, hazy songs that drone and wander along, with guitar chords occasionally floating to the top. They also do one of the standout tracks on this record, a tune called Silence the Deaf. This song starts with a deep synth rumbling and then is built up slowly with lazy synth washes, light drumming, and echoing guitar. The guitar pulses and ebbs above the synth and drums in a very relaxing fashion. Truly a lovely song.
Colophon is the next act, and they are a side project of the band Tarentel, specifically this is the solo work of that band's Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. I am not all that familiar with Tarantel, but i enjoy the work that Cantu-Ledesma does here. His three pieces are very minimal electronica. The songs are less songs in a traditional sense than they are bare skeletons constructed out of a scattering of loops and scratchy beats. In the context of this collection, the three pieces work well, although none of them really stand out to me. I don't think i would go out of my way to track down a Colophon releases, but the three songs here work well with the rest of the triptych.
Finally we have The Wind-Up Bird, which is primarily the laptoptronica project of one Joe Grimm. His songs aren't named so much as described. For example, my favorite Wind-Up Bird piece here is called Violin and Trumpet. Sure enough, this is a nice tune built out of layers of those two instruments. I happen to like both of those instruments, and so this song works really well for me. Grimm creates a nice drone out of violin, and then layers some lovely trumpet loops overtop. It's a nice effect, and the layered violin and echoing trumpet naturally remind of a hypothetical meeting between two of my favorite musicians, Warren Ellis of The Dirty Three and Andy Diagram of Spaceheads. Although i suspect an actual collaboration between the two would be chaotically awe-inspiring, i still think that Grimm does a good job of simulating it here. I don't know if that was intention or not, but it still really works.
Overall, this is another fine addition to the Triptych Series. If you have enjoyed the other volumes, i recommend you give this one a chance. And of course, if you are a fan of ambient music, this is an excellent sampler to pick up. I know that i will be looking for more from these acts.
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