e|i magazine - A Review by David Cotner
(05/05)

TALES FROM THE INCANTINA
Richard Bone

Dave Henderson, writing in his seminal article "Wild Planet!" in the May 7, 1983 issue of UK music newspaper Sounds, said this: "RICHARD BONE: American experimentalist who features on the "Eurock" compilation of American music. Following this more avant-garde performance his subsequent releases, through Survival Records in this country, have shown a more commercial side of his performances. His new LP features an array of electronic pop music and is called Brave Tales." Time has been exceedingly kind to ambient musicians in making their drives toward inner reflection through outer space, with keyboards becoming cheaper/featuring more sounds/growing more advanced. So too has modern film composing smiled upon the fortunes of ambient musicians; conversely, much like the oil pan in a car's engine, all the shit tends to drift down to the bottom and settle in the sump-hence "smooth jazz," 21st-century pornography backbeats and the kind of aesthetic weightlessness that's closer to drowned men than uplifted souls. In spirit similar to Jorge Reye's work with the ethnic acid of ambience containing native instruments, Tales From the Incantina materializes as perfect headphone music, soothing tones whispering from one ear to the other and back again. "Inspired by the spiritual philosophies of the ancient Toltec people," the synth melodies gently wander through the headspace offered, though not without wistfulness or sense of loss. Recently, astronomers discovered a cloud of frozen sugar--glycoaldehyde--at the center of our galaxy. This is the sound of that cloud.

Reviewed by David Cotner