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« on: July 16, 2011, 04:05:39 AM »
Review from Italy (Ondarock):
"During the last decade, quality ambient music has found in the names of Anthony Paul Kerby and Tomas Weiss, two personalities of great depth who have, discreetly, given to this style a remarkable amount of work at the highest level; the first (APK) hidden behind several pseudonyms for his DataObscura label has been active since 2003, and the second (TW) known primarily from his collaborations with Mathias Grassow.
Over the years both followed two separate paths in respect to form, but extremely close in intentions, searching and finding in their music romantic, contemplative, and introverted dimensions, and seeking for understanding in the nature around them. It was almost necessary that a collaboration between both followed. In Distant Shadows the ways of the two musicians converge at the peak of inspiration and what results is certainly something with the allure of a masterpiece.
The title track introduces us to the cold, gloomy, windswept panorama which we will face throughout the album, and which also is expressed by the wonderful photograph of the cover packaging. The quality of sound achieved is impressive, as well as the blending of the two musicians, so that it is impossible to separate Weiss from Kerby. What especially strikes the listener is the visual depth and textures that outlines in the mind a very concrete scenario of leaden skies, heavy clouds and north winds to which we trust the flow of our consciousness.
"Gathering Memories" develops slowly for eleven minutes passing through several moods: one of those fleeting spirals of tenderness and calmness, worthy of the best Harold Budd, are shown before disappearing in a dense foggy blanket through which we barely glimpse a synth that is icy and solemn.
"Eternal Return", on the contrary, proceeds on a drone, a single immovable tapestry, the tension and drama of which are breathtaking.
One may think that our relationship with a severe and hostile nature reaches a point of balance and peaceful coexistence, at least this is what "Everything Can be said", which dissolves in epic Roachian reverberations, makes us believe.
But, once again, it is a momentary illusion, a stage of exploration, because "Deep Time" clears out every trace of pale emotion. So we are swallowed by the cold, we wander without any sense of location, even the laws of gravity are abolished (do we ascend? do we fall?). Only the distant field recordings of "Figures on a dark background" set us free from this ephemeral state. Though nothing is the same as before. In "A final Vision" we turn to view a different landscape, designed by dark drone, in which only emptiness and despair are shown.
Distant Shadows is a long and complex work, with perfections and virtuosities but also deep abysmal suggestions - the result of the power of vision by two mature and passionate musicians."
(Roberto Rizzo, Ondarock - Italy / Translated Version)
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Klaus send me and Mathias as well the master CD for releasing it on our Musical Philosophy label but I rejected it. So at the end we just distributed a few copies.
