Pete Namlook
Air I + II
(Instinct, 1994)
If you have faint memories of reputable producers mourning the loss of Pete Namlook a couple years back but you found his discography much too daunting to dive into, this is the place to start. Available as a long-out-of-print double pack (and sold separately digitally here and here), the first two entries in Namlook’s Air series also happen to feature some of his most powerful ambient pieces. The first volume easily veers from a beat-less beginning and lots of queasy life support loops to a techno-tinged race against time and a euphoric climax (“Lost in Passion”) that cobbles together samples from the rest of the record.
Its follow-up is even more abstract, stringing together 11 untitled chapters in a zero gravity journey aptly dubbed “Traveling Without Moving: The Trip.” Pleasant in parts and downright disturbing in others, the whole package lives up to that loose tagline, imagining an ever-elusive search for meaning in the interzone Namlook never quite left.
http://youtu.be/QWdQXAJ9h5Y
http://youtu.be/BceGHeeIhoM
http://youtu.be/8aoEQRACSgc
http://youtu.be/iY9REk1FFrs
