(Dead Angel) This is brilliant -- two guys fiddling around with strings, laptops, effects, and various gadgets, creating deep-drone live improvisations littered with strange noises and highly repetitive cyclotron rhythms. Outer-space sounds abound; this is the music of spinning satellites and space stations, droning expanses of sound and noise designed to fill up the inner or outer spaces, with or without the aid of chemicals. Tracks come and go with a spaced-out flow, appearing to be the work of interstellar drone machines set on repeat -- circling rhythms meet sonorous drones and the result is akin to the soundtrack to an obscure science fiction film. Minimalist electronics help with the sci-fi sound, as bleeps and bloops enliven the sound and buzzing, twitching sounds derived from glitch electronica add bite and texture to the swirling cosmonaut space drift. These are generally lengthy pieces, which allows the drone-o-rific drama to slowly build and expand; you can lose yourself in these pieces, if you allow yourself to be carried away on the cosmic slipstream as the sound coming from the speakers slowly but surely engulfs you. The transformative power of the unending drone is a constant presence throughout the album, and its cosmic debt to krautrock is aided and abetted by the equally constant collection of blips and other futuristic noises. Did I mention this is brilliant? - RKF
(Aiding & Abetting) Experimental noise from the heart of space. Croatan Ensemble makes very little attempt to reach mission control, and that seems to work well. This one is out there, but it will reward the adventurous traveler. - Jon Worley
(Sea of Tranquility) Space lovers should dig this unsettling journey into the deep dark reaches of the universe, as Croatan Ensemble, who are basically the duo of Bill K and Jason P, use everything but the kitchen sink to come up with six spooky improvs that go back to the days of Tangerine Dream's Zeit album. Strings, laptop, electronics, mics, pedals, synths, pipe instruments, and generators, are all listed as the gear that these two manipulated to put Without together, and while some of what you hear on this CD is quite chilling and adventurous, like "concentration camps" and the three-part "the ideology of control", you'll probably be of the opinion that you've heard this sort of thing before from the already mentioned Tangerine Dream or even some of Pink Floyd's earlier, pre-Dark Side of the Moon material. I will say this, if you fancy dark, ominous electronic space music, this is pretty creepy stuff, and sure to evoke some tingling of the hairs on the back of your neck. - Pete Pardo
(Vital Weekly) Croatan Ensemble layer synths and electronics in beautiful droney layers, improvised I think, full of interesting textures and carefully done, and if you like that kind of thing worth a listen, its far more crafted the G.G.- but GG sets out to be un-crafted, so unfair to compare. For me C.E. was just too much like film music, in the inoffensive pejorative sense. neither made this grown man cry.. - Jliat
(Ampersand Etcetera) The final disk in this trilogy of Eh? releases is number 44 - Croatan Ensemble's Without. They are bill k and jason p on strings, laptop, electronics, mics, pedals, synths, pipe instruments and generators.This is another longer album (60+) compiled from various improvised sessions. The album is tripartite, and the structure reflects the music. The world ending in a festival of light and Concentration camps open the disk. These are dense combinations of tones, loops, hissing, buzzing with hidden components that reminded me to some extent of Fripp&Eno in structure and the guitar in Concentration. The World is full bodied, assaultive and slowly changing, while Concentration moves through more changes, pulsing and shimmering guitar dropping to long tones before rebuilding. At this stage I was also reminded of Eno's comments about improvisation also being about knowing when not to play. But then came the three parts of The ideology of control. Here there is a sparser production with more control of elements moving in and out. Domestication has a bit of a beat, pulsing, encroaching deep tones with some accentuations but more minimal, distant metal tones somewhat edgy. It flows straight into Normalisation with rhythmic tapping, scrapes, gentle guitar and an overall brooding mood. Slides into Surveillance, a slow burning buzzy building dark ambient finale. Defacement ends the album, another shift, again more minimal - opening with insistent pulses, voices enter, building to a density similar to the opening tracks, and ending with a siren. Over the length of the whole album there is a good balance between the dense static ambience and the more subtler varied material - which makes the full listening experience an exciting journey. I think that this has been a good year for Eh? as they develop a diverse and diverting roster: satisfyingly unpredictable. - Jeremy Keens
(Kathodik) Bill K. e Jason P. sono il Croatan Ensemble. “Without” è una lunga scivolata dronica fra dark ambient e kraut cosmico. Frutto di diverse sessions improvvisative, “Without” è miscela ad emulsione lenta, che bolle e si aggruma intorno ad un'ipotesi bastarda, che molto deve a certa elettronica crucca (talvolte pallosissima...). Barcamenandosi fra corde e laptop, microfoni e pedali, synth e generatori assortiti, il Croatan Ensemble spiazza, assestando un colpo unico diluito nell'arco di sessanta minuti. Un'immersione a profondità abissali, dove si incontrano strani pesci luminosi ed altri, ben più strani, muniti di denti aguzzi, occhi ciechi e dimensioni spropositate. Il fil rouge, teso dal Croatan, parte idealmente dai Tangerine Dream, passa dalle parti di Eno, e si congiunge con le istanze di Illusion Of Safety, Jliat, Maeror Tri o Voice Of Eye. Emersioni ed inabissamenti, in piena luce o nel buio più assoluto, sempre all'insegna di un sensuale aroma d'intricata propensione rituale. Primitivi ed attuali allo stesso tempo i bagliori e le sgranature al limitar del noise, più effetto della polvere alzata dal movimento che volontà precisa. Una combinazione fra materiale live (le impro originarie), ed editing casalingo, che accentua ed amplifica la rete di segnali sottotraccia presente in ogni brano. Spesso lavoro combinatorio fra toni e loops, hissing e buzzing, che monta e tracima (la potentissima Normalisation). Intrigante, per come riesce ad evitare le angolazioni più cupe e riesce ad offrirsi frontalmente alla piena luce del sole. Perché, al contrario di quel che si potrebbe pensare, questo non è un lavoro che predilige ambientazioni dark. L'eclettico catalogo della Eh? (gemella della Public Eyesore Records) si fregia di un altro prezioso tassello. Inebrianti e furiosi. - Marco Carcasi
