Written by: Dave Cantrell
Since its arrival into the relative mainstream in the mid-70s thanks (primarily) to Brian Eno’s Discreet series followed quickly on its quiet heels by Music for Airports and the like, the word ‘ambient’ as it’s come to be understood in terms of a musical genre, is something of a catch-all, encompassing over the years artists as diverse as Klaus Schulze, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and Animal Collective among dozens of others. And whereas the work that Pan American’s Mark Nelson and Kramer are producing would reflexively fall under that same widening umbrella, the fact is that what we’re hearing, the care and the breadth of what’s before us, the subtleties of detail that infuse, the sheer structural strength, its haunting emotionality, the term, we feel, is a touch too vague to do it justice, but if indeed it must be applied it would be wise to append the phrase/modifier “actively imaginative” in front of that label. Witness, for instance, the last track to be previewed from the Interior of an Edifice Under the Sea album releasing tomorrow, July 27th, on Shimmy-Disc (that’s the cover up top, link below).
Searching, soothing but lush with a quiet mystery, “Lamenting…” drifts with intent into your listening soul’s bloodstream and proceeds to – gently, mind – swim straight into both your heart and, perhaps more powerfully, into the quieter corner of your mind where it proceeds to project your own subconcious’s version of that mystery, of yearning, of the echo of a wistful heartache from an untold number of years ago on to the walls within. Relatively short by ‘ambient’ standards at just under four-and-a-half minutes, the track nonetheless, with the weight of a slowly unfolding epic, brings to (a however fading) light the contours of our internally lived experience, details of which are left up to the listener to either flesh out or leave barely acknowledged in that musty attic of emotional memory.
That’s a lot, we realize, to lay at the quavering feet of a piece of ambient music but the fact is, if one is going to venture into that gently compelling corner of the music-verse one better be adept enough to not only bring a level of well-crafted musicianship to make it too engaging to ignore but as well bring the bare-but-rare compositional chops to guarantee that it infuses the listener wich such a well-crafted sense of empathy that the impression even just the first listen leaves is pretty much forever lasting. One can only imagine the level of almost uncanny, innate empathy required for two artists to both individually let go of their egos while simultaneously maintaining a creative bond based in trust and understanding. Clearly, as evidenced here, Kramer and Nelson succeeded at that task of letting go while holding stubbornly on to a shared vision beyond what most would dare imagine and the fact the track sounds as ‘effortless’ as it does proves that point with a rather hushed insistence. [order you copy of Interior here or here]
