ephre imprint

volans 2 and RNCPS reviewed in vital weekly 783

jonathan read - volans 2
RNCPS - III

in vital weekly 740 i reviewed the first disc by jonathan read from south eastern australia. he produces music with heavily processed field recordings. i assumed back then, due to the lack of any information that this was all done in the world of computers. not much news under the sun, though nice music anyway. in very much the same field of music, being drone/field recordings/ambient is where we find his second release ‘volans 2’, with only minor differences. things seem here to be a bit more ambient, with long stretched out sounds making the whole thing - four tracks in total - very spacious, like the starship enterprise moving through space. even when I thought this was all utterly relaxing music - i did get some work done - its again very much old hat. think eno’s apollo and everything that happened in that field after that.

four tracks are also on the release by RNCPS, a duo of label boss nigel samways and daniel dickel. their music is influenced by 1970 and early 80s sci-fi films and comics, which i think can be heard in their music. even it possess some of that same quality of jonathan read’s disc - long sustaining meandering synth tones, although more of fleet of space ships than one lost phone booth - there is more happening here. snippets of voices (including those from adult movies) are used, extra-terrestrial sounds, and more clear field recordings. on top of that there is also an occasional rhythm to be detected. this makes this quite a strange release. the atmospheric bits are the majority here, but it never leaps fully in ambient land, but moves back and forth between that and some more abstract electronic music. over sixty minutes is perhaps a bit long for such a release, but i must admit i never had the idea that things were too long, which I guess is a good thing. unfocused at times, but strangely captivating. (fdw)

original webpage here: vital weekly 783