Reviews:

Rapoon (Robin Storey) can't claim the same exotic authenticity or fancy antecedents as Jorge Reyes (a Mexican who riffs on Amerindian folklore); but hailing from Gateshead that's hardly surprising, which makes his mammoth The Kirghiz Light project the more laudable. A self-confessed devotee of mantic and shamanistic music (see The Wire 133), it would be easy to dismiss him on hearing his work as a sackcloth holy minimalist churning out drones in his (and our) sleep. But much of The Kirghiz Light would stand comparison with grander and more ambitious crossover music - like that of say, Popul Vuh, notably with the tumbling tablas of "Feathered Skies". Storey's thing is to establish a resonating tone which sounds through the whole piece, used to particularly telling effect on "Evacuate".

The problem with most fourth world music is it's classically Orientalist desire to conjure the fabulous, while the everyday reality of many native cultures is often as mundane as ours or is severely ascetic and lived out in harsh environments. The Kirghiz Light dares to evoke a culture whose nobility and fascination reside in (and whose music evolves out of) arduous struggle and stony faith in an unforgiving land. To that end, this album's austerity is essential, touching and eminently worth hearing.

review by: Paul Stump
this text originally appeared in The Wire magazine (issue # 142)
reproduced by permission
The Wire on-line index

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The ever continuing story of one of the most underrated artists in the field of modern electronic music. This is the latest and phenomenal double CD. The sheer immensity of this 140 min release is breathtaking and beyond description (now there's a great way of getting out of a long review, ho ho!!), I will try and do it full justice next time round. For now it is an intricately constructed, brilliantly played and very cleanly produced set of ambient electronic atmospherics and ethnic percussion with every facet of the musical layers counting as an important element contributing so well to the final offering. Featuring all manner of exotic percussion in a vast universe of electronic and processed settings, the resulting soundscapes are positively jaw-dropping. This is a very important release in a musical style which bears very little similarity to anything else around.

review by Andrew Garibaldi
CD Services, Dundee

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Disc 1

Jerewat - Walking a fine line between exquisite comfort and fear. Simultaneously warm and cold. Far off female vocals and plucked stringed instrument through looping delay. Walking through a beautiful but alien landscape and alternately being entranced by the beauty and afraid of where you are. Singular. Sublime.

The Temple Shakes - Progress. Traveling. Steady rhythm maintained throughout. A landscape moving by slowly.

We Fell Like Rain - Stillness. A moment held. Many looped voices create a fabric that shimmers.

Rubinox - Very quiet percussion and sparse flutes. Gentle rocking motion. A lullaby for someone very far away from anywhere.

Evacuate - Drums delayed tightly into an acoustic motor hum. Far off wind instruments.

Dala - Smooth gliding over terrain. Lo-fi keyboards shimmer and sustain. Dew covered ground. Quiet speed.

Feathered Skies - Similar to Dala, but galloping instead of gliding. 2 drum loops of different lengths create a shifting rhythm.

Ora - Dance. Smaller space.

Meridia Closes - Atmospheric sweeping. Heavy weather. Looped atmospheres. Earthy throb throughout. Overcast. rain. Tuesday.

Jacobs Drum - Percolating percussion. Male voice with heavy delay.Reaching out. Expanding the realm of the senses.

Disc 2

Omnizdum - Shivering, Buzzing start. Settles down to rhythm and far away voices. Alien atmosphere. Isolated.

Saffron Fires - Twin peaks-esque keyboards. Tabla. Eerie.

We Danced Like Sticks - Irritating. Vocal and drum loop drives you up a wall.

Frostling Merge - Steady central rhythm. Delayed exhaustion vocals. Burbling atmospherics. Struggling to surface from sleep.

We Danced Like Water - Strange vocal buzz. Liquidy percussive sounds. No human presence.

A Far Cry - Textured bass pulse. Ghostly voices. Descent.

Into Light - Hypnotic. Burbling sequence and drum machine through heavy tight delays to the point where source in unrecognizable. Very subtle fading of elements in and out. Rapid movement. Smooth. Wind. Sun. Leaving everything behind. Delays fall away to reveal the simple sequence at the heart of it all.

overall impressions

Ghostly. The time just before dawn when the sky begins to lighten. Isolation. Remote places. Sunlight made tangible through sound. Hazy. Smooth and textured at once. Alien. Something touched or felt that lies outside of regular human experience. Very highly recommended.

review by Matt Hoessli
found in the Hyperreal archives

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:The Kirghiz Light:

Middle Eastern loops that, given the right frame of mind can transport me somewhere out east far from here. Given the wrong frame of mind however, I find the tracks are too long and repetitive and think it might have been better to cut it to fit on one disc. Really depends on my mood... sometimes I really like it. I'd recommend a second opinion. {GS}

18 tracks on two 70min discs of flowing ethnic ambience. Middle eastern feel, as suggested by the title. Some great percussive passages in many tracks, with fairly complex loops and rhythms. The :zoviet*france: influence is detectable, although Rapoon is much more high fidelity and misses out the coarseness and industrial noise you could find on a ZF record. {AH}

reviews by Gerald Stevens and AH
the Search for Dark Matter