Markus Reuter The Longest in Terms of Being

I've listened to this album a few times now and its really starting to grow on me. As time goes on I'm becoming increasingly choosy with 'ambient' music in all its guises. This album is quite dark and melancholy but it is also highly descriptive. Its best point however is the sounds chosen and how they are combined. It really held my attention and created rather vivid pictures in my mind.

The titles are rather good as well. Take the opener for instance 'The Abolition of Death'. We keep shifting between different drones, the movement from one to the next itself causes a curious melody. The drones range from the dark bass variety to those which are quite bright in nature. It's like at one moment being on the surface of the sea, waves crashing over you then the next being dragged down to the depths. 'A Clue to Reality' uses similar sounds to the previous track but its much sparser with chords hanging in the air and fading to nothing. There seems to be plenty of space which in turn makes things seem rather cold. In some ways this album could be thought of as being cosmic but to me its more to do with exploring the space within us rather than the cosmos. 'Read Aloud in Cold Blood' takes drone after drone which increase in intensity and then fade to nothing. The drones overlap each other, seemingly more being added all the time so the sound gets increasingly dense. We drift straight into 'Further Clues to Reality'. Its somewhat calmer with subliminal melodic touches. Drones of all areas of the spectrum slowly drift over one another - I found the effect rather spiritual though I don't know why.

'Demonstration with the Enemy'. allows loads of space for each sound or combination of sounds to slowly decay. It's another cold track because of the sounds used being quite metallic. 'Confirmation' is my favourite in that it uses some great organ sounds though not played in the usual way for such an instrument. Its another example of chords being played, being left to slowly decay whilst other chords are layered over the top. The sound gradually changes as each chord drifts over each other and rises or decreases in intensity. To me the pictures created are of hearing the organ from outside the church, maybe the graveyard. 'The Fear of Final Falling' is a very short number, lasting less than two minutes consisting of mainly siren type drones. It acts more like an introduction to 'The Increase of Faith' which drifts on from it. This time we move into rather ethereal realms as the environment created seems to have a gentle vocal quality to it. This is one of the warmer sounding tracks on the album, very pleasant indeed.