2.5

Release data:

Dene De Benedictis – Salvaging the Past
CD, Spotted Peccary Music, 2005

This album by ambient musician Dean de Benedictis was composed between 1992 and 2005. The sleeve notes on the concept album state the music is not only a homage to the electronic music of the past, but stretches its meaning to the present.

Well, it offers a long journey of straightforward electronics, of which the opening track “The Tech Atonement…” harkens back to Berliner School music, blended them with various acoustic elements.
In “Chasm Enchantment” some cello complements Dean’s light drifting textural plains, but although the music starts moving again in “Occur”, there’s also a certain feel of emptiness here to be found.

Choir sounds and fierce sequencing are at the core of the high-tech but rather chaotic track “Grid Holy 4”, before some female singing is introduced in the next meandering track.
“Sweltering Gazes…” echoes Roach-like elements at first, before mellotron textures, solo sounds and a slow sequence fade in.

For me, the best track is found at the end with the sedative, dreamy “Memories Echo”, featuring some soft soaring cello at the beginning before running into great expanding space territory.

Although the music as a whole doesn’t sound that consistent, the output acknowledges electronic music from past and present in its own way.

Website: www.surface10.com