paul bradley (ambient)

As described by his own site, "Paul Bradley is a composer from the UK who captures recordings from numerous sources and transforms them into rich, drifting, sonorous music. Exploring the different details of these sounds, the resulting music is often far removed from its original source but still retains a natural sense and human feel."

I've not listened to enough of him yet to know if this is totally true or not, but I did listen to a few...and I highly recommend them. I've listened to Notes from the Past - Sketches from Dust, Sophia Drifts and Confluence (with Colin Potter of NWW fame).

Notes from the Past/Sketches from Dust and Sophia Drifts both have a very, very relaxing sense to them. Fluid ambient motion pulls you in, but some how drifts in and out of your conscience. I found myself randomly catching sections of sound that I loved, and ten minutes later realizing I had not paid any attention to it in a while. I like that about ambient...I enjoy being able to float in and out - how it can be background music while working, or foreground when you want to relax. Out of the two, Sophia Drifts has to be my favorite of his works so far.

Confluence was a bit darker, more experimental - which I'm sure is obvious when adding Colin Potter to the mix. I will properly review this double CD in a future post.

Visit his site to find out more about his work. I hopefully will familiarize myself with more of his work in the near future.