If you’re a fan of more abstract-oriented ambient, "Lightwaves" by the UK-duo Phil Booth and Jez Creek may be something up your alley. The 61-minute title track filling the release is a lengthy soundscape without a trace of melody, taking the listener into a psychedelic sonic environment where alienating shapes and farscapes come and go without revealing its destination.
This is slow morphing and evolving stuff with occasional some peculiar heavy percussion, twisting, turning and shapeshifting around a core of strange phenomena. Around the 20-minute mark, some Berliner School sequencing and rhythms start to surface without allowing the outcome to fit in some kind of framework.
The weird feeling is emphasized by rather harsh sounding solo-voices and sound effects briefly flying by all the time. At 40 minutes, the peculiar sonic journey becomes even more lively due to faster, more spiced and constantly tweaked sequencing fading in. In the final minutes, things are put to an end with bubbling sounds, strange murmurs and experimental effects.
All in all, some adventurous ears and an open mind are quite essential when one decides to enter the light and dark that makes up "Lightwaves". - © Bert Strolenberg