| Artist: Vir Unis + James Johnson Album: Perimeter II Label: AtmoWorks |  |
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The ambient/spacemusic capabilities of the synthesizer often work against the notions of "modern technology" in that the resultant music helps us to slow down - possibly even taking us out of reality for an indistinct amount of time. On Perimeter II, Vir Unis and James Johnson have identified with this aesthetic and present three CDs of alternatingly simple and complex vibrating systems of electronic music. The listening experience ranges from "slow time", as thin airy chords yield icy cerebral sonorities - on up to the dynamism of Perimeter II's beat based expressions and its multiple levels of reticulated (and borderline "techno") pulse and rhythm. Vir Unis and James Johnson understand that their audience's mind/body is more in tune with relatives than absolutes, so their music's celestial non-narrative atmosphere leaves plenty of space for the listener's feelings to unfold. The revelation of time flowing outside our own bodies is represented in the motoric repetition of advancing and receding layered rhythms and glittering arpeggiated chords cycling in synchronization with the music's pulse. Still, our internal clock does not tick at an even rate and the interior perception of time is mutable. A few seconds, a minute, an hour... these measurements have little meaning when related to ambient music. Vir Unis and James Johnson are musicians exploring the area between and beyond the spiritual and corporeal. These concepts of time and perception come through in the spectacular simplicity and beauty of their music.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 3 April 2003
Access details about the concert series at: http://www.thegatherings.org | |
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