Avec Laudenum

Stars of the Lid | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 29, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Kranky
• ASIN: B00006LEU8
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,506 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #37 in Music > Indie Music > Dance & DJ > Ambient

Editorial Reviews

Orig. rlsed on Belgium's Sub Rosa label in 2000. Adam Wiltzie & Brian Mc Bride recorded the album via mail & by the time it was done Adam had moved from Austin to Brussels. This is the first time it will be avail. in the US at domestic prices and it mar

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfection, June 24, 2003

By 

Roger Fingas (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Avec Laudenum (Audio CD)

Oh yeah. To me this is unquestionably the best album Stars of the Lid have released so far. Yes, even better than Tired Sounds. As their Website puts it, Avec Laudenum is "pure pass-out material" - unbelievably relaxing. Without, I think, becoming mind-numbingly boring as so many ambient albums can. And I'm an ambient freak!

Style-wise, Avec Laudenum straddles the gap between the guitar-heavy days of The Ballasted Orchestra and the softer, classically-inspired Tired Sounds. Which isn't to say that it lacks guitars, or anything else; it's that the lines blur so much you'll be hard-pressed to tell which sound was made with what. But who cares when it sounds this good!

Incidentally, I think one of the reasons I love this album so much is an old CD-ROM called The Encyclopedia of Space and the Universe. Avec Laudenum is eerily reminscient of that program's background music, so I associate the former with tranquil scenes of spaceflight. Others might not draw that kind of link. Maybe they should, they might enjoy it...

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle down with Stars of the Lid...., December 23, 2002

By 

Paul Jansen "PJs" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Avec Laudenum (Audio CD)

I'm not sure why music like this is so beautiful and amazing to me. Most people now-a-days listen to mainstream music on TV and the radio that makes me sick and laugh at its stupidity. I guess some people could say that listening to Stars of the Lid makes them sick and tired and puts them to sleep but... I respect all musical tastes to a certain degree but I can't seem to stop loving this amazing, ambient music. Their past work is noisier and more droned out but this disc, 'Avec Laudenum' is so amazingly relaxing, pure and rich it just astonishes me with every listen. These are some song synopsis' in chronological order.

THE ATOMIUM (3 prt. suite)
part one : is a slow, french horn beginning followed by a beautiful feeback sort of sound that sweeps into a lovely lulling sound that moves into
part two: which plays for about 10 minutes in this lulling... the lulling begins to silence half way through at about the 5 minute mark and begins to sound very space-like and strange
part three: sort of an explosion into space that Stars of the Lid feed from their zany, beautiful guitars which then totally stops.

DUST BREEDING (1.316)+
A vast vaccum of space and dusty dream textures mixed with an incredible galaxy like feel but so relaxing and so gorgeous. There's absolutely no paranoid feeling in this song it quickly fades to...

I WILL SURROUND YOU
Probably one of Stars of the Lid's best songs. It completely chills and relaxes the mind in sort of a warm, lengthy pattern that picks up and then slowly sleeps at the end which fades...

This is one of SOTL's best discs ever. It was released on the Belgium Sub Rosa label in late 1999 and was rare since now when it was released in the U.S. and Canada on the Kranky Records label (beautiful label-check more for good music.) Buy this CD if you enjoy good music.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I don't believe that I have ever heard the entire CD...., March 6, 2004

By 

Samuel D. Burns (Charleston, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Avec Laudenum (Audio CD)

This is a magical CD. I insert this CD into the player, turn out the lights, go to bed, and then it's morning. I have an extremely stressful life, and this CD helps transport me into some other place. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that I have thousands of CDs, of which I tire easily, but this CD remains in my bedside player for months at a time!

A treasure.