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Fountainhead: Cloud Cover (Aucourant Records - 1998) Robert Scott Thompson is at it again, with a name change, recording on his own Aucourant label as Fountainhead. But that's the only thing different; unlike some of his recent otherwordly works (Frontier, for instance), Cloud Cover is a journey through a much darker place. These clouds seem to bear ill winds and evil deeds within their shapeshifting gray masses, obscuring the light and bringing darkness to the land. |
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Long, sustained piano notes and other processed sounds blur into a spooky Mist where we also sometimes hear unidentifiable, animalistic warbles which echo and fade. The air here is dense and filled with convoluted soundwaves, and a faraway chorus. We're not in Kansas anymore...
Instead, we're on A Sea of Stars, a region known for endless bells echoing in a haze, not to mention hazy echoes of bells, and bellishly hazy echoes. Add a liberal sprinkling of tinkling and an underlying drone, and you'll get the idea. Into the next zone, the more menacing Luna, where tribal beats override the other effects which include long piano notes, primitive horns, electronic haze and tinkling bells. Claustrophobia induces paranoia and the quiet (except for the neverending drumming) passages are scarier than the swirling noisier segments...
For more than 18 minutes, we're immersed in Cloud Cover (18:05), an almost impenetrable fogbank with billowing drones, amorphous shimmers and occasional bell-like accents. The power of the droning rises and falls, and the consistency of the murk varies... beautiful in its own way, but oppressive nonetheless. Waves of what seems to be processed feedback, bell tones, violins, voice and other miscellaneous sounds thickly, and sometimes loudly, float in Drift; that term is often applied to free-form ambience, but usually implying a serene sort of drifting... there is a distinct edginess to this chaotic atmosphere. I wouldn't float here too long without some sort of life preserver. Terra rumbles and lumbers through an alien landscape, to emerge upon some familiar, though altered sounds. A singing female voice is human enough, but her warbling is of no guidance, and the piano notes we hear are distorted, much like our sense of place. With a title like Dimensions of Paradise (3:50), we might expect a breath of relief... but this, too, is a dimension of strangeness. A tropical zone of primitive beats and deep drones which waver like a heat haze. Odd accents include screechingly shrill horns, a disorienting swell and the mechanical patter which ends the track. Breezes blow in with Wind on Water, but a momentary lull only erupts in a rising tribal fury. Mesmerizing like a cobra, and possibly as dangerous, rhythmic poundings and droning accompaniment fascinate and fill with dread. The beats are lighter in Mythos though still jungle-ish. The piano notes and horns are more contemporary, safe, and bright even (despite their tendency to blur shrilly). The clouds are giving way to rays of sun and we genuinely appreciate the blue skies and daylight.
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| I'm not sure that Cloud Cover was meant to be so dark, but for me, Fountainhead's guided tour has been through some murky and downright evil places. I had a great time and look forward to going back again! Despite my goings on about darkness and danger, the disk is very well put together, a most artful exercise in alienation. I rate it at 7.9 |  |