Drifts $1.87

About Drifts

"Really nice. Reminds me of what I wish Terry Riley were doing today."

-THOM BRENNAN, Ambient artist extraodinaire

"Ben Fleury-Steiner’s release “Drifts” is a fantastic combination of dreamlike ambience paired with melodic phrases and repeated samples. While many electronic artists have a tendancy to focus on one style, Fleury-Steiner is willing to take chances and pair different sound sources in a very successful and effective way. The mood is set with opener “Sundial” where percolating synths and a collection of looping patterns blend beautifully together. “Flicker” follows, a piece where analog pulses and pads give a sense of breathing and life, creating an organic feeling that immediately connects with the listener. “Descriptives” incorporates minimal percussive elements amidst a framework of flowing pads. It works to great effect, maintaining the floating calm of the ambient ideal, but again adding a human element to the track. Very nice. The four part “Dreams” suite follows, with the first segment “Somnium Scipionis” presenting a constantly shifting landscape of sounds and forms. Up next is “Veritable Splendor” with a lush and beautiful latticework of sweeping and floating sounds that dance around the soundfield, shifting around and through each other. “The Dust That Lies Between” follows a similar vein, adding short analog phrases that repeat throughout the course of the track. “Absens in Remota” completes the suite, a long form piece that incorporates thematic ideals from the earlier songs in the cycle and bringing them all together. It’s very nice work, a lovely example of conceptual ambience. Track eight, “Cicada”, uses higher pitched tones and backwards looping to distinguish itself from the previous tracks. It’s nicely done, and while stylistically it differs from previous tracks on the disc, it still maintains a thematic consistency that works well. “Track nine, “Tensile” features a buzzing lead line that plays overtop a low drone based background. “Heal” follows, a calm and meditative ambient track where tones weave and loop around each other. “Home” closes the disc with bubbling tones taking on a percussive role for a collection of samples and tones, creating a very interesting example of locational ambience. “Drifts” is a disc that captures the imagination and inspires the senses. It’s a fantastic synthesis of sounds and styles, and a wonderful example of how differing sounds can be brought together to create something fresh and exciting. A wonderful piece of work!

-RIK MACLEAN, PING THINGS

"Though favoring the kind of broad sweeps that only irising analog filters so triumphantly utter, Fleury-Steiner is careful to avoid the kind of artful banality that has stifled the creative impetus of, say, the last decade of Vangelis’ output. Not for “ambiance” only, these sumptuous Drifts are too playfully captivating for casual ingestion."

-DARREN BERGSTEIN e/i #7, winter/spring 2006

"This CD from 2005 offers 60 minutes of lightly coarse ambience. Combining shrill sounds with vaporous resonance, this music ventures just beyond the normal background aspect exemplified by most ambient compositions. While the tonalities never reach any degree of harshness, they are generally more piercing that conventional ambience. Mixed with fragile atmospheric swells, these grittier sounds are sedated, made more sympathetic. This union produces a curious temperance that is refreshing. Mechanical grindings swim in a pool of shimmering clouds. Sparkling chords coexist with twilight drones. Bass gurgles penetrate swaying notes that vibrate with a peculiar luminosity. Playful diodes sigh in tandem with lavish textural spreads. While normal ambient compositions take their time slowly evolving into a substantial presence, these tunes get right to the point, then embellish on their themes with engaging variations. With the exception of one twelve minute piece, the tracks average about five minutes in duration, suiting their compressed directness. This longer track pursues an unhurried path in the same mode, blending celestial passages with demonstrative punctuations in a manner that transcends time and space, resulting in an entertaining excursion into nebulous realms of slightly edgy disposition. This release was mastered by ambient pioneer, Robert Rich."

-MATT HOWARTH, SONIC CURIOSITY

"Fleury-Steiner manages to work within a genre that seems to turn out new material as regularly as breathing, yet Drifts has an individual sound, a personality of its own - whilst ideal as aural ambiance it certainly doesn't sink blandly into the background, the structures are too engaging to ignore, too attractive to dismiss."

-PAUL JURY, Morpheus Music

"A good variety of all things ambient and electronic to be had here, blended in a unique way rather than just copying those who have gone before."

-PHIL DERBY Electroambientspace