(2021) Ross Gentry - Prism of Dust  


Review:
Though Ross Gentry‘s Prism of Dust appears on Brad Deschamp’s Polar Seas Recordings, it distances itself from the ambient-styled releases for which the Toronto label has become known. Some degree of repurposing and exhumation was involved in the production process for the album’s ten pieces. Gentry revisited recordings he’d made years ago using a friend’s mellotron and also cast his attention back to pieces written and recorded in 2018 featuring violinist Megan Drollinger and cellist Emmalee Hunnicutt. No fool he, Gentry saw the potential such material offered and proceeded to reshape it using granular synthesis and computer and tape manipulation processes. In updating the recordings and enhancing them with synthesizers, piano, percussive details, and found sounds, Gentry transformed those dormant bits into a terrific collection. Considering that the formal production period for the album extended from January to August 2020, it’s natural that pandemic-related content seeped into the result. But even before awareness of its onset set in, Gentry was presciently drawing thematic inspiration from two modern-day tomes of existential dread, Don Dellilo’s White Noise and Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers, each of which disturbs and disrupts in particular ways. Like many a recording birthed during 2020, Gentry’s likewise generates no small amount of psychic unease. Track titles such as “Nobody Wants to Be Here,” “Cause Not Known,” and “The Carriers” obviously suggest connections to pandemic-related anxieties, whether or not that was Gentry’s intention. And the music? Think gorgeous, transporting standalones opulent in texture and atmosphere. “A Prism” catches the ear in blending synthetic washes with acoustic strings before upping the arresting ante with the addition of a keyboard motif that sounds like it leapfrogged from a ‘70s prog opus onto Gentry’s. Prominently positioned at the forefront, the strings intensify the mood of lamentation coursing through “Nobody Wants to Be Here” until an insistent pulse, mellotron, and aggressive drum machine pattern turn the piece into the most convincing replication of classic Tangerine Dream. Subsequent tracks find Gentry evoking Popul Vuh in its more melancholic form with the plaintive symphonics of “Cause Not Known” and hinting at recovery with peaceful glimmerings of hope in “Resuscitation.” Gentry ends the release on a beautifully mournful note with “Nobody Wants to Leave,” which plays like a requiem for the human losses incurred during the pandemic. However wince-inducing it is to call a certain kind of music cinematic, “The Carriers” engenders imagery so vividly, one can’t help but see Gentry as a prime choice of soundtrack artist for any number of future cable series projects. The listener comes away from Prism of Dust convinced he should consider returning to his archives for another go-round when the material he generated from it on this volume is so compelling. On a final note, that striking cover illustration by Lisa Nance less evokes the spike-covered ball we’ve come to associate with COVID-19 than the kind of heartworm parasite capable of developing within dogs; even so, the entangled entity certainly conveys the idea of sickness and disease effectively.





Track Listing:
1.A Prism 03:17
2.Nobody Wants To Be Here 06:08
3.Cause Not Known 03:54
4.Evacuation 03:37
5.The Carriers 04:34
6.Deviation and Dispersion 03:34
7.Midway 05:18
8.Red and Black 03:45
9.Resuscitation 05:11
10.Nobody Wants To Leave 03:48


Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits