CELER Vinilo y CD

Review: Will Thomas Long's and Danielle Baquet-Long's magnificent album Celer is an alluring fusion of classic ambient and minimalism that comes steeped in a very real sense of romance. It comes with underlying themes of longing, melancholy, and nostalgia and begins with the sound of a train evoking a sense of travel. Throughout the piece, grandiose string loops alternate with various field recordings, creating contrasts between the concrete and abstract, the mundane and the exalted. Despite the epic feel of the string loops, the title, 'Engaged Touches', hints at intimacy. This powerful romanticism characterises much of Celer's work, making this another noteworthy addition to their growing repertoire.

Review: This limited-edition double vinyl version of Celer's recent album won't be around for ever, so if you want one you'd best get moving. Not that "getting moving" is something that Celer himself does a great deal of, you understand: rather, beats-free ambient/drone soundscapes are the Japanese-based American producer's stock-in-trade. In fact, he's released over 100 albums of this stuff over the past 15 years - with many tracks consisting of little more than eight or nine minutes of a single, modulated synth chord and layers of dense atmospherics. One for the insomniacs and flotation tank devotees!