Discrete Carbon

Dwight Ashley | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 22, 2004)
• Original Release Date: 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nepenthe Music and Publishing
• Run Time: 59 minutes
• ASIN: B00026S374
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #496,991 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Eightfold Way

2. It Happened In November

3. Katalepsis

4. I Thought It Was There

5. Three Insects

6. Denial

7. A Colossus Succumbs

8. Eat Me, Drink Me

9. Katalepsis

10. Examined By Tweezers

11. Carbon

Editorial Reviews

A journey into the dark infinity of inner space, Dwight Ashley s premiere solo recording is an aural world rich in paradox and contradiction. Horror and ecstasy cohabit Discrete Carbon s vast electronic landscapes, a tension-filled pairing that yields an unexpected, transcendent beauty. Simultaneously disquieting and cathartic, expansive and intimate, Ashley s arresting compositions move through a dream-sequence of sonic dark alleys and auditory halls of mirrors, to arrive at an eponymous conclusion that offers no salvation. Ashley s rendering of the ambient art form on Discrete Carbon resists clichés at every level. Rejecting the meandering space jams sometimes associated with the genre, Ashley produces compositions that are focused, structured, and coherent. Ashley s experimentalist nature is evident in his instrumentation: source instruments are frequently indistinguishable as such (to wit, the oboe-cum-cello sequence on Katalepsis), rhythmic textures stand in as melody on a number of tracks, and the album is punctuated throughout by textural detail that is at once subtle and sublime. With Discrete Carbon, Dwight Ashley demonstrates himself to be a significant ambient artist in his own right, a persistent visionary whose goal it is to take us into uncharted interior worlds. We may go quietly and serenely or kicking and screaming but he s determined we make the trip.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You need this., February 17, 2005

By 

John Shanahan "Visit hypnagogue.netfirms.com" (Quincy MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discrete Carbon (Audio CD)

(From my site, Hypnagogue Ambient Music Reviews)

In his liner notes, Dwight Ashley explains that he was somewhat reluctant to release the songs on Discrete Carbon to the public because he felt they were personal--"a tension release." Let's all be glad he changed his mind. Discrete Carbon is elegant, challenging, and superbly crafted. Ashley spans a range from soft, melodic pieces to lazy sine-wave drones to harsh, compelling work that even its creator questions "whether it truly qualfie[s] as music."

Case in point: the third track, "Katalepsis." Here Ashley submerges a slow-moving, almost mournful synth melody beneath a wave of unrelenting static. Musically it is a truly relaxing piece, and while the mind and soul recognize that, the nearly intrusive barrage of shifting white noise forces a constant analysis of whether or not it belongs and what it actually adds. It is, without question, effective--as are all of Ashley's sonic choices. Every track has embedded elements that force the listener to take notice, along with subtler nuances that enrich the experience.

Throughout this CD, Ashley artistically intertwines music and non-music in an intoxicating, narcotic blend that commands deeper listening for fuller appreciation. It is dark, moody, and relentless in both its difficult complexity and its shadowy beauty. If you are up to the challenge and can approach composition with an open mind, Discrete Carbon will not disappoint.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars some Erie stuff, March 11, 2005

By 

simpcity - See all my reviews

This review is from: Discrete Carbon (Audio CD)

I recently received two cds by Dwight Ashley, this collection of stuff from 1999 and 2003 and the more recent Four with compositions from 2003/4. Erie, I say, cuz it's from Toledo, Ohio, on the shores of that Lake of same name. Now, place doesn't always count for much, I realize. But, if we are what we eat, then I think we sound like what we hear.

These ambient pieces sound like winter to me. (Course, I received them here in Reno in the midst of an hundred-year snow storm...) Track 3 "katalepsis" shimmers like an ice sculpture in the dark. Track 9 "examined by tweezers" seems a meditation on the modulation of sound passing thru an "empty" medium (the atmosphere perhaps, or maybe one's home as one works with the stereo on in the background).

Musically, I am reminded of the music of Jeff Grienke and of ambient Eno of the Discreet Music period. There is some happy piano music on a hidden track 15 reminding me somewhat of the happy piano music on Aphex Twin's "drukqs." Of the two cds, I think I like Four the best because of its darker edge.