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[microsound] The Ambient Review: Ambient Red Washes



The Ambient Review:  Ambient Red Washes

Larry Kucharz and his International Audiochrome label have worked on the
periphery of electronic music for many years. A quick look at his website reveals
release after release of varied electronic texture-driven works, as well as
forays into music with techno and IDM characteristics. Kucharz is prolific--in
the time it has taken me to review Ambient Blue Washes, the Ambient Red Washes
album has been released. It's thus appropriate that I should review both
titles at once, as the material on each release compliments the other quite well.

Both Ambient Blue Washes and Ambient Red Washes are studies in color through
sound. These compositions can be taken as sonic Mark Rothko paintings; pure
washes of ambient drift.  .....

Ambient Red Washes, on the other hand, commands the attention from the first
few seconds of play. The concept is the same, but with Red Washes I find the
pieces to be more vibrant and emotional. "Red Wash no. 2" opens the album with
a computer-choral piece, emotionally charged, bittersweet and romantic at
once. The Ambient Red Washes here are subtle (in keeping with its predecessor),
with interlocking "voices" always within the listener's grasp. "Red Wash no. 4"
is similarly constructed but with an underlying "tech bleep" (that matches the
corresponding track two from Ambient Blue Washes to some degree). The "Red
Washes" on Ambient Red Washes are combined with tracks from 1993 which are in a
similar style. Track three, "1993 no. 10," is a number of soft overlaid
drones. The â1993â tracks often resemble a number of parallel lines; continuing on
toward the vanishing point, some lines reaching that far into the distance,
others ceasing before then. The pieces on Ambient Red Washes are often like
slices of infinite music, as if they had been excerpted from some eternally
iterating musical program. The sonic palette does not shift remarkably on Red Washes
, instead maintaining a sense of variations on similar themes. While this
lends a flavor of sameness on all of the tracks, I found the elements to be
pleasing, relaxing, and often breathtaking. There is some clinical coldness present
in Ambient Blue Washes that made the tracks appear fairly sterile--this
sterility is not present on Ambient Red Washes, making for an always interesting
listen. Both albums clock in at over seventy minutes, but Red Washes has a
lightness to it that belies its length, something that the more ponderously vague
Blue Washes tends to suffer from: the tracks are more forgettable on the latter,
even if they are sonically more adventurous. I find Ambient Red Washes to be
extremely listenable. Iâve played it frequently during a wide variety of
activities; sleep, reading, staring out my office windows. It's ambient in the most
powerful sense: music for your own personal environments.

Larry Kucharz has crafted some of the most intellectually stimulating recent
ambient works I've had the pleasure to hear. For the neophyte, I unreservedly
recommend going for Ambient Red Washes first. Its perfumed tones are
intoxicating, sacrificing none of the conceptual imagery intended by the artist. Blue
Washes is less pleasing to these ears, ringing as more of a concept that sounds
better on "canvas" than it does during real life execution. Like the best of
abstract art, Kucharz's two recent sets of ambient âwashesâ leave the
interpretation to the listener.

Visit Kucharz's appropriately minimalist site.

Brian Bieniowski/The Ambient Review
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze6zk8a/theambientreview/

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available from BACKROADS MUSIC          toll free (800) 767-4748
email: backroad@xxxxxxxx             website: backroadsmusic.com
also available: all ambient and techno CDâs of Larry Kucharz
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For Ambientrance Interview with Larry Kucharz goto:
http://www.spiderbytes.com/ambientrance/intkucharz.htm
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