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One Thousand Years
by TUU
Waveform Records, 2001 re-release
http://www.waveformhq.com


        The British group “TUU” has been creating its stylish form of ambient for
quite a few years now. Their personnel varies among a pool of players,
including Martin Franklin on percussion, Mykl O’Dempsey on synthesizers, and
Nik Parkin on flute. On this album, Richard Clare plays the winds rather
than Parkin. The TUU style is easily recognizable ­ a notable feat in a
field where much Southeast-Asian-inspired ambient sounds alike. TUU’s
Oriental-melodic line is carried by flutes, sometimes played in long lines
and sometimes electronically looped. The rhythms, usually slow, are provided
by Eastern percussion such as gongs, singing bowls, and temple cymbals, as
well as more international instruments such as hand drums and beautiful,
ringing clay pot drums. Drones and underlying ambient samples are subtly
layered in with synthesizer and electronics. All of this is crisply recorded
with just the right amount of reverb, not the “vast” cavernous echo of some
other well-known ambient artists.

        TUU always stays in a nocturnal, contemplative mood. Sometimes, at the
beginning or end of a piece, single notes on cymbals or drum can sit for
long seconds unaccompanied, as if they were punctuating ancient rituals or
meditation. When the rhythms get going, they would be called “tribal” except
that it would have to be a rather somnolent tribe producing them. TUU doesn’
t rely on massed sound effects or heavy multilayering to get their sound; it
’s a clear, if thin texture, doing more with less. Listening to TUU one gets
images of humid jungle rivers in the night, or lanterns flickering in
Buddhist temples ­ a romantic, warm vision of an ideal Southeast Asia
distilled for quiet after-midnight moments.


Hannah M.G. Shapero, EER-MUSIC.com
12/6/01




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