Carl Weingarten - Living in The Distant Present
Rotoscope | San Francisco, CA | 01/13/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Although there is "Windfalls", a collaboration with Gale Ormiston that
pre-dates this by a couple years, this is Weingarten't first solo
album heretofore available only on cassette, and sets the tone for much
that would come later. Using guitars, slide, synths, loops, delays, and a
lot of processing, he achieves a sound that fuses spacious soundscapes into
melodic form, floating freely across the planes of the subconscious.
Understated melodies float in a sea of loops and cloudlike synth washes,
drifting between poles of sonic bliss. While some comparisons might be made
to Fripp and Eno's pioneering "Evening Star" no doubt an influence, much
of the material on Weingarten's debut is more ambient and a bit less
cyclically repetitive, building more on stratospheric guitar tones fed
through the processor loop, and hence it has a certain driving melodic core
at its very foundation. Yet all this is done without the interference of
any percussive elements. Each of the twelve tracks herein is a concise
statement unto its own, with its own unique mood and direction, and with
the exception of "Dreaming In Colors", typically hold the line at 3-5
minutes each. Fans of soaring ambient guitars and the pioneering
Frippertronic/Fripp and Eno works would do well to check this one out.
Recommended. Peter Thelen"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1