Experimental Audio Research - Mesmerised (2020/1994)

Around 1994 some of the foremost sonic explorers of that time, including Kevin Shields (MBV), Kevin Martin (The Bug, Techno Animal), AMM's Eddie Prévost and Spacemen 3's Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember united on acronymous Experimental Audio Research project aka E.A.R. In doing so, group organizer Pete Kember intended on opening a space where high and lowbrow approaches could be consolidated, where the ideas of Cage, Stockhausen, Varese, and Cardew were considerately plundered as much as those of Kraftwerk, Eno or Meek, creating a furrow between traditional and contemporary music. Inside this bubble the group continued on the vectors set by Spacemen, using live recording techniques and studio processing with an improvised spirit to capture something highly esoteric and ethereal. First track 'D.M.T Symphony (Overture To An Inhabited Zone)' is the dedicated to the connoisseur's substance, submerging, not wading, themselves in vast polychromatic scapes evolving with supernatural patterning to sound like Vangelis scoring Deckard's unreleased trip scene. 'Mesmerise 4901' follows this theme into deeper realms, eventually introducing cosmic guitars from Shields to the layers of synth, before morphing into Uilleann pipes for 'California Nocturne' and finishing in a blissful haze of 'Guitar Feedback Manipulation'. In the history of modern ambient music, these tracks were a major milestone.