|
Few musicians reach as high as Forrest Fang does. Our restless traveler presents the double CD The Sleepwalker's Ocean - his exercise in imaginative and formal invention. Fang's charismatic musical vision is arrived at through the accumulation of experiences and encounters with an intriguing range of acoustic and electronic instruments. The Sleepwalker's Ocean portrays the unifying effect of these multiple influences. An intriguing sonic palette helps make it as stimulating to the ear as it is to the mind. Each track uniquely glows with a self-generated light, and easily activates our mental mechanics. The audible carrier of contemplative messages, this compositional style originates from a more intuitive and personal process. As time withdraws the music unfurls like a gorgeous dream. Fang's impressionistic work is multi-layered, beautiful and serene, and encourages non-conscious thought. Alternately, the power pieces rouse the listener into Fang's own dream of percussion and patterns - as he plays to the front edge of the listener's senses. Beyond these sections our sense of time seems to stretch. Beneath cavernous reverberations, ghostly traces of sound writhe in shadowland interludes. The second disc in this set presents a work composed in an expanded minimalistic style. The continuously lulling long-form piece gently drifts through more Ambient realms. This quieter, sustaining experiment takes its time developing its idea, an interesting contrast to disc one's title track - which creates something greater than the sum of its six connected tracks. The effect is impressive. In a great structure of thought Forrest Fang has conjured an idealized world of sound where Spacemusic, World Music, New Age and the Avant-Garde all share a common spirit, and sound connects everything.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 29 May 2016 |
