I worry about the damndest things, but whenever I listen to the genius that is the music of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, I often wonder who is in the creative pipeline that will carry forward into the next generation what these two have spent their careers building. Fripp, he of prog-rock King Crimson fame, never rested on his proverbial laurels and has matured into some marvelously robust ambient work of considerable depth. Then there is Brian Eno. Is it possible to be too cool for Roxy Music? No it is not, but Eno left that band anyway and forged an equally excellent body of delicate ambient music that serves as the current standard. Sometimes the planets align, and these two will team up and give birth to the giant ambient shoulders upon which future artists will stand. But who are those artists? Certainly not the ones I hear when I use Fripp and/or Eno as keywords to stream ambient music. Such are the thoughts that drive me to distraction.
Which brings me to a crappy little airport hotel in Cologne, Germany. My flight home was cancelled due to technical issues I didn’t care to understand or ponder, but the airline was paying for the room, and there was a copy of The Financial Times in the lobby. My non-smoking room smelled like smoke, which was all the excuse I needed to light up, and I flipped through the paper and came upon a record review. In a business magazine loaded with stock price tables. And a glowing review it was, of a new ambient album by Noveller. As I read I downloaded Fantastic Planet from iTunes and listened from start to finish, as I am again as I write.
Noveller is Sarah Lipstate, an artist of considerable talent who is unquestionable aware that she is standing on the shoulders of giants, and her music sounds like she enjoys the view. “Into the Dunes” starts the disc and is so reminiscent of Eno’s best that right there in the nether regions of Cologne’s airport complex I dared believe ambient music has a future. A bright one.
Noveller’s music is not without some muscle of the Fripp techno guitar variety, as evidenced on “Sisters.” “Rubicon” is a lovely hearkening to the early work of Tangerine Dream, and my only complaint with “Pulse Point” is that it wasn’t lengthened into a longer thought of some 20 minutes. My favorite song on the disc, though, is “In February,” a lovely, ruminating weave of musical textures that provide proof there is more to come from this young lady that will be exciting.
Throughout the work, Fantastic Planet maintains a hypnotic tension that captures the ear and holds it. It’s good to know there is promise that ambient music has an intelligent, complex future, and that future is Noveller. I’m ready for more.
Note: For more on Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, read my posts Fripp & Eno, dated January 13, 2013, and Brian Eno – Discreet Music, dated August 19, 2012.
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