Richard Sears — Appear to Fade
Ambient jazz pianist Richard Sears is based out of Brooklyn, NY. He has self-released a couple of recordings in recent years. I haven't heard these albums, but it would appear they have a full band line-up, whereas this new recording, Appear to Fade, is a solo ambient affair for piano and electronics, more specifically tape loops. The album's eight tracks average at five minutes in length.
Thankfully less repetitious and simple than Brian Eno's or William Basinski's classic works, Sears' music here retains the Satie-esque tonal palette and considered gentleness of the "Music for Airports" school of ambient. With watery, glistening production taking cues from the likes of Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd, it's a lush recording that benefits from the deep harmonic understanding of its creator. Oddly modulating shoegaze and dream pop chords take us on an aerial journey, each note trailing off in slow motion, with a pleasantly long contrail.
Though this album is ambient, it is not minimal. Instead, Sears does a kind of active performance in which new melodic ideas and notes are introduced constantly throughout the music, without deviating too far from an underlying set of melancholic yet peaceful chords. He is a powerful and fluent improvisor who is able to create memorable and tuneful moments on a whim, and never seems lost. Even within this slower-paced form of music he has chosen here, the playing is at times quite agile, and has a general sense of practiced exactitude.
The 2nd track, "Oceans", have a futuristic, almost generative quality to its strangely meandering chords and semi-dissonant note choices, reminding me of Autechre and albums like "Oversteps", if played with a more organic set of sounds. The gentle percolations of "Flotsam" bring me back to the thought of Harold Budd again. Later in the album, tracks like "Tulev" explore darker, detuned realms. The more experimental music on this album could be compared to mid-20th century classical avant garde, like Anton Webern.
At slightly less than thirty-eight minutes, this album feels overflowing with music, such is the ornate and tuneful improvisatory style. Ambient in its soothing energy, but certainly a recording to give your full attention to. Piano ambient is a genre with a great many releases, and yet this one is vividly distinct for its colorful density of ideas.