M Geddes Gengras

★★★★ Light Pipe ROOM 40. CD/DL

A new ambient classic from Los Angeles.

In the sleevenotes to his 1993 album, Neroli, Brian Eno talked of “music that existed on the cusp between melody and texture… elusive enough to reward attention, but not so strict as to demand it.” That definition applies usefully to this, one of the best ambient albums of recent times. Gengras’s complex discography includes the peachy 2012 collaboration with Sun Araw and Jamaican harmonists The Congos, Icon Give Thank. Light Pipe, though, feels very much his magnum opus: hefty at two and a half hours, but gaseous throughout. Like the work of key antecedents Eno and Wolfgang Voigt, lunar floaters like Chancel (25 minutes) shift in tone depending on your perspective – serene to some moods, unnerving to others. But its microdetailing, with nods to dub and jazz, provides constant surprise; an object lesson in how discreet sound can be utterly immersive.