Daniel Pemberton & Charles Uzzell Edwards: Enhanced Environments Daniel Pemberton & Charles Uzzell Edwards: Enhanced Environments (Subversal Records - 1999) It'a apparently taken awhile for these tracks to surface (they were recorded by Daniel Pemberton & Charles Uzzell Edwards in 1996) making this a living example of "better late than never". The six (mostly) beatless excursions of Enhanced Environments make for 66.5 minutes of intriguing listening, ranging from icy musical components, to sonic experimentation, to long-form found sounds. High, organ-like tones slowly dance in (and a few yearning words conclude) a brief introductory piece There's Life (0:54) which merges into the more-than-15-minute-long Personal Organzither where glassily beautiful soundstructures are built within a radiant, sometimes gritty, haze. This introspective journey is just a gorgeous audioexperience. Noisier Telephony is irradiated with pulsations, bleeps, rumbles, assorted phone-tones and many unidentifiable sound sources, all of which are swirled together in an expanding tableau of audioexperimentation. Slowly unfolding, Last of the Ocatagons proceeds through uncertain surroundings with a sense of the exploratory... moody bass notes, organic surges, crystalline bells and wayward strands of energy all make appearances on this powerful mind-trek. The warm harp-like stirrings, sporadic rhythms and muted piano tones which open Walking on Water soon break away to be replaced by spoken words (about tear gas canisters), an ominous drone and other disturbing, isolating effects. A series of panoramic ear-scenes come from A Mile Away (22:54); odd slowing-down musical tones give way to a lengthy recording of humming traffic and occasional street talk. Some ten minutes later slight cymbal taps and eerie synth ripples are introduced to the urban ambiance. In another five, a rat-a-tat drumstick rhythm and murky organ/voice episodes become discernible beneath the continually evolving citylife. With Enhanced Environments, Daniel Pemberton & Charles Uzzell Edwards certainly deliver a variety of sounds. I can't imagine anyone not being captivated by Personal Organzither or Last of the Ocatagons, while the noisier tracks won't appeal to everyone and the street scenes may seem overlong. Overall though, this 8.4 collab is certainly worth looking into... which you can do at the Subversal Records website. This review posted April 29, 2000 AmbiEntrance © 2000-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).