Pop Ambient 2004

They Say...

Review by Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

By the time Pop Ambient 2003 had been out long enough to take effect, Kompakt had secured a lasting grip on the kind of beatless, blissful ambience that followed a lineage from Brian Eno to Wolfgang Voigt. Even though a substantial quantity of the tracks featured in the series have come from other labels, they've always been most at home with like-minded Kompakt-proper productions, especially given the fact that Voigt is one of the individuals responsible for the existence and operation of the label. More obviously, Voigt has also been a frequent contributor to the series, notching six appearances -- under three separate aliases -- across the first four volumes. And four years in, no other label or compilation has come close to challenging Kompakt in this ever-shrinking field. Despite a blaring weakness on Pop Ambient 2004, the label still has the belt, showing no signs of relinquishing it. The nagging issue is that two tracks are plucked straight from Andrew Thomas' Fearsome Jewel, released two months prior on the same label; up until now, Kompakt had never issued the same track on two separate CDs, obviously out of respect to those who detest owning titles with overlapping material. This puzzling padding leaves only seven new tracks, the majority of which thankfully rate with the best of the series thus far. The opening and closing tracks are the biggest drawing points, and they both happen to feature use of heavily treated acoustic guitars. Klimek opens with "Standing on the Beach (Gun in My Hand Mix)," referencing the Cure only in title. Not much different from the two tracks from his 2002 12", it too is based on floating, reverberant notes that are drawn out for several seconds and lapped over one another, along with distant piano vamps and subtle drones. Donnacha Costello's closing "To Thee This Night (I Will No Requiem Raise)" is less reliant on space and more reliant on delicate guitar notes, in turn resulting in a lovely ambient folk epic. The remainder -- from Voigt (as All), Jorg Burger (as Triola), Markus Guentner, Ulf Lohmann, and newcomer Tetsuo Sakae (as Pass Into Silence) -- ranges from decent to stultifying, making this another pleasurable (if thin) addition to the series.