Ashley/Story - A Desperate Serenity Mp3

Tim Story is quite well known for his light ambient piano based music, especially amongst Eno and Roedelius fans. But not so many people know that Tim's passion for music runs a much wider range than that which he has produced himself thus far. Take this collaboration with fellow multi-instrumentalist Dwight Ashley; this is a much more unusual and disquieting release, beyond the ambient, often onto weird and borderline avant-garde realms. Comparable to the German duo Cluster, these musicians have achieved a careful blend of melody, atmosphere and mystery. Melodies are punctuated by shifting webs of sound, backed and often obscured by strange sonic melanges. A lot of conventions are destroyed: why not have a musical box like melody amidst a crying wave of swirling tones topped off by a sombre guitar solo? Yes indeed, why not? How about strangely flanged organ and strings fighting to break out of a jumbled mass of clockwork like percussives! Of course, as I said, this is not all strange, but a well-balanced concoction especially keyed for those with a taste for something different.
From my review in Audion #21, published in May 1992