Eric Fourman – No Refills

May 13, 2012 • self-released

Music is confusing. Do I like free improvisation, or do I simply like anything noisy and drony? Or could it just be another quality release from Eric Fourman, who seemingly can do no wrong when it comes to ambient. As a one-take recording, I'm definitely impressed with the complexity and cohesiveness of this album.

Like his studio work, No Refills opts for the densely-layered route with lots of different synth sounds and effects all overlapping one another. Being recorded all at once, however, naturally lends a different approach to the composition and buildup; each track starts off fairly simple and grows in on itself as more sounds and loops are added. I think this approach works quite well, allowing the listener to ease in to the music—what starts as a simple melody or drone becomes a wall of sound without anyone noticing.

There is also quite a lot of melody in this album, for an ambient work at least; synths arpeggiate wildly throughout "Use Care", often clashing with each other. It's an interesting approach, although I must admit I like the more minimal approach of Lyrica better as it's a bit "safer". The dissonance that occasionally crops up in "Use Care" and "Dangerous Machinery" works sometimes, but not always. "Pregabalin" doesn't have this problem as much, opting for a much slower droning approach, which to me works a bit better.

The sounds and textures themselves, however, are still excellent. Despite a somewhat narrow population of synth voices there are still plenty of interesting ones. The wavering echoy main line and deep rumbling bass of "Pregabalin" is a particularly awesome combination (it reminds me quite a lot of Blade Runner's music, which is always a good thing—though with those cliché spaceship noises near the end, I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what he was going for).

I won't say it's my favorite release from Fourman yet, but it is definitely some of the best free improv music I've ever heard (I guess ambient / drone / noise stuff works better for it). Definitely recommended, and another reminder that there's so much more of his work to get into; why haven't I done that yet?

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