Staff Reviews

Ben Frost - A U R O R A

Review by Philip Bloomfield

At its highpoint it sounds like the end of music: every sound possible compressed and played back at once, simultaneously completely out of control yet meticulously arranged.»

Buy now from:

The Australian born, Iceland-based producer and composer is perhaps best known for his very tense take on ambient, turning the often peaceful genre threatening and even violent (see 2009's 'By The Throat' for a pertinent example). After releasing a handful of records for Room40 and Bedroom Community (and writing an opera), Frost returns to Mute for the release of 'Aurora', which a press release says is "starved of all the adornments of its predecessor... a defiant new world of fiercely synthetic shapes and galactic interference, pummelling skins and pure metals," without the embellishment of live string instruments and piano that he's used in the past. The LP was mixed with the help of Bedroom Community's Valgeir Sigurosson.
description from www.roughtrade.com