The mistake most of us make about ambient music is that it’s overridingly mellow and meant to soothe, that with all said and done there’s not really all that much going on. Your correspondent himself once subscribed to this belief even as the certainty nagged at him that, given the level of talent involved in that ever-broadening gyre of enigmatic sound and meditative composition  – I mean just hearing Einstein on the Beach at the age of 23, while not strictly an ambient recording as currently defined, was enough to open my ears to the, shall we say, more esoteric possibilities – it had much much more going for it than initially meets the ear. Now, naturally, back in yonder day, a drop or two of liquid acid would have significantly enhanced the path to acceptance but that would almost be cheating (almost; I emphasize ‘almost’) in that it amounts to something of a shortcut. I mean, even elevator music sounds better – one presumes, of course – on acid. The breaking of a dropped glass can sound amazing under those circumstances so it’s understandable that some skepticism would accompany that approach. Nonetheless, there is a thread worth following here, … Continue reading STEREO EMBERS VIDEO PREMIERE – “Ascension” from the New Kramer/Laraaji Ambient Album ‘Baptismal,’ Released Today on Shimmy-Disc