Label: Irdial Discs – 56 ird aev 3 Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album Country: UK Released: 1 Feb 1996 Genre: Electronic Style: Experimental, Ambient
Strange and searching electronic cult classic from Anthony Manning on the iconic Irdial Discs label.Spread across two discs, 1996 LP Chromium Nebula sees eight untitled compositions from Manning each around the 10 minute mark, all with their own oblique mystery and sense of otherness.Its beatless, atmospheric music in its purist form - fathomless electronic soundscapes constructed through warm overlapping tones and stretched-out elliptical rhythms shifting between undertones of melancholy, wonder and intrigue.Manning’s minimalistic yet complex compositional structures often feel formless, much like that amorphous nebula referenced in the title, which transcends the lazy ‘ambient music’ tag often attached to the work. Certain lilting, melancholic moments certainly recall AFX’s SAW II (who famously described manning as being ‘too weird’), whilst other bits recall the synthetic minimalism of Romanian composer Costing Miereanu on Poly-Art Records.A rightly celebrated moment of experimental genius adjacent to the UK techno sprawl.. (NM/VG+)
Tracklist A1 Chromium Nebulae I 8:25 A2 Chromium Nebulae II 10:19 B1 Chromium Nebulae VIII 10:40 B2 Chromium Nebulae III 10:25 C1 Chromium Nebulae IV 10:20 C2 Chromium Nebulae V 13:07 D1 Chromium Nebulae VI 10:27 D2 Chromium Nebulae VII 7:21
