Like a good painting, the best ambient compositions manage to forge a balance between the sharpness of individual details and the feel of the overall picture. But unlike painting, however, the overall in music is not a final image but a development in time, its duration and ever-changing paths. I listened several times to Brad E. Rose's Annular Silhouettes without ever being able to tell exactly where things began, and where they ended – except for the actual start and end of the single track of this beautiful release – and even less, how things changed from one point to the next. 

This smoothing out of sonic space through the unfolding of time is a remarkable feat, and Rose's swells open like the expanse of a sky, enveloping and all-consuming, but somehow comforting, too. It reminded me of the idea of double infinity that Pascal theorized centuries ago, where through the microscope, it became abundantly clear that the world was both infinitely big, and, simultaneously, infinitely small. This is not to say that Rose's work is a scientific proof – far from it – rather, that the careful manipulation of synthesizer sweeps can engender an awareness of sound's unique version of these two infinities.

In the field of warm, ambient composition, Rose's temporal attenuation is not unlike those of Stars of the Lid, though Annular Silhouettes refrains from the usual swells that characterize other atmospheric works. The idea of the silhouette that adorns the title of Rose's long-take composition is telling in many respects, as it points to the outline of a form, its shape as opposed to its content. This notion of a contour reveals the implicit generosity of this piece, allowing listeners to fill in what is merely hinted at, without directing us toward any single destination. I was struck by the degree to which I felt a potent force driving somewhere, moving, as it were, though miraculously free of a clear point of orientation. This is how I spent time listening, but it is also how music spends time, creates it, disposes of it, too.

Like the armchair of the bourgeoisie to which art may have been directed – maybe still is? – ambient pioneers wished for a soundtrack devoted to distracted attention, existing in a space as background, soundtracks devoid of melodrama and action. With Rose, we can measure a clear, discernible distance from this original idea, for it is precisely in paying attention to Annular Silhouettes that we are released from the desire to differentiate between what is near to us, and what has been there all along. Very highly recommended for fans of ambient music in all its glorious double infinities. To check it out, head here