The ambient music of Ancient Machines — the eighteenth album from veteran Bay Area electronic musician and multi-instrumentalist Forrest Fang — embraces an arc of mysteriously complex moods and emotions. Fang’s latest work reflects both his Western influences as a classical violinist and his Eastern influences as a player of Javanese gamelan and other Asian instruments. The pieces are imaginary narratives that gradually reveal themselves, incorporating the sounds of both electronic and acoustic instruments.
On his latest Projekt release, Fang found inspiration reflecting on one of his early influences minimalist classical composers. “During the early 80s,” notes Fang, “I was fascinated with the trance-like effect of pieces like Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach and Terry Riley’s improvisational Persian Surgery Dervishes. For this album, I use the repetition of minimalism as a point of departure. However, what follows in the pieces is a hybrid ambient style that invites interaction between Western and non-Western instruments that are not ordinarily used together in a way that I hope conveys my love of sound in its many manifestations and permutations.”
Released Early December 2019 by Projekt.
Track Listing:
01. Ancient Machines [5:46]
02. The Celestial Diver (I. Winds of Betelgeuse) [6:38]
03. The Celestial Diver (II. Shooting Star) 6:22]
04. The Celestial Diver (III. Traceries) [5:45]
05. In Air, it seems [5:04]
06. Firefly Run
07. Smoke Rings [4:47]
08. A Recursive Tale [5:45]
09. The Other Earth [9:59]
10. Zone One [8:09]
11. Night Swans [6:54]
English