Customer Reviews

Kirghiz Light

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wouldn't consider of Rapoon's (=Robin Storey) music as strictly ambient at least in the way Eno, Roach or vidna Obmana define ambient through their work. Maybe that's because of the strong presence of tribal/ethnic (of arabic aesthetics mostly) elements.Storey doesn't deny his Zoviet France "roots" but you won't find any harsh or industrial elements in Rapoon's music.

The Kirghiz Light is beautifuly hypnotic, mysterious, and insidiously compelling. In some tracks female far cries intermingle so well with the music you begin to doubt if the vocals are real or if you just imagine them as a logical expansion of keyboards. In some others you doubt if the rumble you hear is from the cd or is it the beating of your heart. I have left myself under the effect of the Kirghiz Light many times, always getting the feeling of being in the middle of the desert, under the intense heat of the sun, under the resurgent sound that surrounds me. The music is beautifully monotonous and unearthly.After listening to both of the cds you get a feeling of looseness and narcosis. You should expect few mediocre moments/passes (not a surprise for a 150min album) but they do not affect the overall concept which maybe is Rapoon's best work...

I wanted to find an appropriate album for my review number 66. This is my favorite album by Rapoon, the project of an extremely prolific experimental recording artist, Robin Storey. Robin was one of the founding members of Zoviet France and created many albums within that band between 1980 and 1992. His first music released under the name Rapoon and titled Dream Circle came to life in 1992. His 23rd album (19th as Rapoon but there were some side projects as well) Dark Rivers was released in 2009. Robin has figured it out, and is as fluent in creating noise as a bunch of 10 year olds playing together at recess at the school playground near my house. I find a lot of his music perhaps not as involved, creative, bizarre and breathtaking as some of my favorite albums by Zoviet France, but very moody and spooky and relaxing nevertheless.

Kirghiz Light is a double album released in 1995. Its music makes you feel at times like you were dropped near some tribal fireside of either prehistoric or alien creatures and some of the noises come from them and some could be created by your fear. Those spirits have not noticed you yet and you don't want them to... Around track number 4 things are calming down quite a bit and then they are starting building up again. Track number 7 is a beautiful atmospheric piece where the noise is placed against the ambient background which could have been created by Brian Eno. Track number 8 and 10 have even a melody thrown against that noisy background. Again, it almost feels like someone somewhere inside of our music was listening to some. Second album starts in a little bit more industrial way. It is very mellow industrial and I guess the thing I like about this album is its mellow character. Track number 2 has another beautiful ambient background the noise is played against. This ambience reminds me of some of the early Tangerine Dream albums from the 1970s. Just skip track number 3 if it annoys you. Track number 4 is called Kirghiz Light and it is my favorite track of the album. I like to play it on repeat 1 sometimes for a couple of hours. You might want to start listening to Rapoon with this track... If you like this music you should also look into Main, another band which had released a few interesting albums in the 1990s, with Hz and Hydra-Calm being the most interesting to me. This track Kirghiz Light is ambient rather than experimental and I have a feeling that Brian Eno would have been proud of it if he had happened to develop that...mood. The rest of the album is very nice and some of the best music on it... Last track number 8 stands out and almost feels removed from Tangerine Dreams' Ricochet. I can bet Robin and I used to listen to the same music in the 1970s.

I got this CD from a friend and became instantly addicted. The best was hearing it while sleeping in my car in Joshua Tree.