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FARFIELD. Beginning to Freeze.

New album from Nick Webb (FARFIELD), this is a collection of previously un-released film tunes from 1994-2001. From the symphonic to to the quirky to the downright scary! An Emusic release.

1. Beginning To Freeze
2. Red Isotopes
3. Last Drive
4. City In Flames
5. I Hear You Fade
6. Narcotic Shade
7. Beginning To Melt
8. Neon
9. Looming Low
10. Vapour Trail
11. Metal Hits

On silver branded FARFIELD CD-R

FARFIELD. Beginning To Freeze. Emusic.Com

In the complex world of ambient music, only the serious listener takes any notice of these unusual textures. This is despite the fact that many have heard an abundance of this style. Advertisements and background scores for holiday and educational programmes are riddled with excerpts and so perhaps people should take more than a brief passing interest. Any thoughts of consigning albums such as this one to the musical dustbin of history are indeed behind the times. The eleven tracks all have a great feel and some are very majestic in their outlook including the stunning title track and opener. I adore Red Isotopes, with its icy persona and ultimate desolation providing some of the most evocative music you're likely to hear this side of the millennium. In contrast Narcotic Shade is much more up-tempo with a beat and a very haunting melody line. Beginning To Melt lasts for less than a couple of min. and so doesn't fall into the assumed category of long drawn out laborious pieces and has a guitar feel to it. Neon is pure brilliance with great bass notations, perfect understated piano playing and sympathetic percussion - I could so easily just listen to this one track. The 11 tracks were written between 1994 and 2001 and most have not been previously released. The only exceptions are a couple of tracks for compilations. I have difficulty in accepting that most of his music has been hidden away from public view as though the standard is not high enough. If this is his worst, then his best must be exceptional. I have already mentioned the title track, which is stunning and so is the rest of the album. Order it now! (Brooky)

Above review from Modern Dance Magazine

FARFIELD. Beginning to Freeze. Emusic.com

Buzzing up from the depths on bonethrobbing currents, Beginning To Freeze mesmerizes with the interplay of twisting rays of sonic ions, overhead sheens and sparse textural activities. Very cool! Similarly (albeit loosely) constructed, though of lighter materials, Red Isotopes (6:05) surges and swirls with equally captivating results; neosymphonic jet trails stream through the stratosphere and darker tones lurk moodily beneath. Tasteful beatronics are applied to the shimmery, glimmery floes of Last Drive. Against the rumbling backdrop of a City In Flames, delicate piano phrases mingle with scritchy disturbances; the piece isn't as dark as I Hear You Fade though, which seems to be a sad memory transmitted over a forgotten channel of some static-infested radio. Reverberating e-piano notes ring and drift above Beginning To Melt (1:47) skewing off into irradiated glares. Some of the middle pieces slip into a fidgety/squidgety mode which I find less appealing, though some interesting moments occur there as well. The gauzey curlicues of Vapour Trail return to the more amorphous goings-on, here accented by occasional cymbal hits. Drummiest-yet Metal Hits closes the show with echoey tones popped by steady percussion, then slurring into dreamlike ripples of existence. 11 short-ish pieces equal only 42-minutes, but 42 minutes of such intriguing shape-shifting material beats 78 minutes of mediocre stuff any day... Downloadable from emusic.com, learn more about Beginning to Freeze at the Farfield website. B+

Above Review from Ambientrance, May 2002

FARFIELD. The edges of everything. FARCD01.

The Edges of Everything is a deep and dark soundscape from Farfield, nee Nick Webb. He uses all manner of electronics to mold and manipulate this set. The atmospheric ambience is dense. The eerie samples take it over the edge. This disc is hard to describe and easy to like. The synth riffs are catchy; the samples are interesting; the orchestral passages are dreamy. But the emotional response is somewhere out in left field. there is a response. It is just not overt. The darkness is not scary. The orchestration is not pastoral. The soundscape is not ambiguous. It is ambivalent. This is a masterful sound design. Nick has created a soundscape that goes both ways. That is a rare response!

Reviewed by Jim Brenholts, author of "Tracks Across the Universe: A Chronology of Ambient and Electronic Music" January 2002.
FIELD. Dust d Glass. FARCD03.

Nick Webb records under the pseudonym Farfield. "Dust and Glass," his second release, is a true minimalist gem! This is dark experimental minimalism in the Hypnos vein. There are no subtleties here. It is scary ambience, worthy of any Halloween sound design. Nick gathered some strange and exotic - even erotic - samples from around the U.K. (He even has a recording of seven hot air balloon burners. Wow!) The samples form the base of the soundscape. Nick layers his synths and drones on top of the samples. He also layers the samples on top of the synths and drones. The wall of sound is constantly building itself and collapsing into itself. It is reminiscent of a Frippertronics loop. But this is an original artistic triumph! There are similarities to many, derivatives of none. The experimental and manipulated sounds top the project. Nick has not had much, if any, exposure in the U.S.A. This CD promises to change that.

Reviewed by Jim Brenholts, author of "Tracks Across the Universe: A Chronology of Ambient and Electronic Music" November 2001

"Strange, alluring sounds are emanating from the U.K.... from Glastonbury to be more precise... from FARFIELD's Nick Webb to actually pinpoint the source of these lovely sonic enigmas. Simultaneously relax and explore 'the edges of everything', a sublime merger of airy abstraction and hushed tonality. Great stuff! Light tones and softly gritty textures drift through 'exploding snowdunes' which seem to be a hive of continual organic activity....."

"Gorgeously understated instrumental presences are merged with the subdued textures and half-heard entities which float in from 'the edges of everything'. A rightfully earned 9.2 [out of 10] of appreciation for opening my ears to some new ambient variations from a previously unheard source... "

Ambientrance magazine review, September 2000

"This is the first ambient album I've heard in a long time that seems to return to something of the simplicity of Brian Eno's Another Green World and Discrete Music. It is a CD to put on in the early hours of the morning when the world is quiet and still; its quality of gentle insistence invariably gets you focusing inside the texture to tease out the progress of a particular sound or instrument."

Nigel Morgan, Diffusion Magazine, March 2000

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