Review Summary: The music of Brin Coleman apperas simple, sometimes even average, but the loops have remarkable depth.
Coleman is known best for its range of live performances, including Twilight Sessions, ambient live series and the Mostly Ambient Radio Sessions and the reputation is somewhat well deserved. Some of the performances seem quite too familiar to be considered "improvised" and sometime Coleman loses focus and starts experimenting on albums that should have been harvested for a longer time. But when Bing Satellites are at it finest, the performances are served warm with fresh homemade feelings crafted with well-placed melodies.
Visiting the Soothing Images series was certanly an experience worth taking notice, but one that i never quite felt the hope to repeat, not only because Coleman left the proyect hanging for seven years, but he went to produce some confusing concepts envolving electronic music and New Age vibes... Soothing Images 48-49 is, in fact, just a mood. A mood we all feel for a while when autumn leaves fall and we smell the scent of wet soil in the morning.
I started to look forward to meet an Ambient band that could bring me back to some of the warmest feelings i can relate to: Autumn and spiritual meditation. I began to get tired of the "New Age" label being permanently crowned in search of those words. I stumbled upon average albums that not only did not evoke any deep feeling, but served as a pretext to be published in a video of more than 8 hours. Loops that were average at best. But then i found Soothing Images. This is an album of peaceful ambient music using a virtual double tape loop system that brings back the reflection of warm and intimate moods.
Although I would like to be a bit egoistic and keep the experience of this album for myself, I think the time has come to share this experience on Sputnik. Not only was I surprised to find no trace of Bing Satellites, but I also felt the regret of the great responsibility that involved introducing this band. I had to fulfill the almost titanic task of adding each album. But when i read the words of Coleman about this series:
"I play a few quiet, sparse notes on guitar or piano or whatever seems appropriate at that moment.
These notes feed into a long, slowly decaying loop.
Once I hear the first note I played repeat in that loop, I stop playing.
This first loop feeds into a second shorter loop.
As the first loop repeats and decays, it continues to feed into the second shorter loop.
The original notes start to layer and interact in ways that could not have been predicted."
The phrase "clean and tidy" pops in my mind.
Even though Bing Satellites continued to demonstrate some level of confusion and experimentation in their performances, I am sure that this experience that Coleman made me snetir was executed perfectly, and deserves your recognition for it. At least temporarily.
