| Artist: Dan Pound Album: Spherical Released: 21 March 2013 |   |
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A prolific releaser of CDs Dan Pound's evolution as a synthesist has been a public one. The seven studio dreams that make up Spherical (73'43") play at the boundaries of New Age, Tribal, Ambient and Spacemusic. While Pound has obviously absorbed the ideas and concepts proposed by the bigs of these genres, he manages to create something distinctly his own. This originality keeps the listener slightly off balance - in a good way, as this work unfolds in an unexpected direction. Spherical feels fresh and innovative. It does not surprise merely for the sake of being experimental. Pound's synth stories seem wholly new. Never a retrograde trip, Spherical features more than just the tick-tock rhythms of his Berlin School contemporaries. Purring synthesizers and vertiginous metallic sequencer patterns are flanked by tender electronic melodies supporting a thoughtfully plucked acoustic guitar. His reverberant wooden flute playing becomes a somber plaint against digital culture; the solo natural notes buoyed by synthesized breathing drones and warm, sparkling accents. During its sections of primitive quietude Spherical evokes a world of the subconscious. The flight of recurring chord changes lull in their hollow roundness as the deliberately paced pieces contract and expand unexpectedly. Once we have been slowed mentally, the musical arc alights pleasingly to ethereal heights. Throughout Spherical we are in the company of an artist who is constantly seeking out new sounds, forms, levels, and bracing asymmetries. After numerous album releases, Dan Pound is still climbing to his highest peak.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 22 August 2013 | |
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