Periphery
Album |
Chillout music that also rewards closer attention.
Black Moth Super Rainbow fans might need to recalibrate their expectations for the solo debut by keyboardist The Seven Fields of Aphelion: far from her band's trademark electro-psychedelia, Periphery is a beatless, vocal-free exercise in exquisite piano and synthesizer instrumentals. TSFOA (known as Maureen Boyle to those with a distaste for whimsical nomenclature) shows no interest in formless drones or new age noodling: the album's 12 concise, melodic tracks marry Erik Satie's odd but enticing piano melodies to the wide-open sonic spaces of Brian Eno's early experiments in ambient music, layering acoustic and electronic keyboards into a dynamic whole. It works perfectly well as a headphones-on chillout album, but closer attention reveals a number of clever and genuinely memorable tunes, such as the yearning "Michigan Icarus" and the hypnotic "Mountain Mary," which features a needling, theremin-like synthesizer melody over a haunting, cyclical piano part.
BUY: 
| Michigan Icarus | |
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