Phobos - Live on Earth (Live at Awakenings)

3.5

Release data:

Phobos – Live on Earth (Live at Awakenings)
CD-R/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2012

This is my first encounter with the music of Phobos, aka UK-composer David Thompson. He previously had been creating music using his own name in the general melodic sequencer-based style in the ‘90’s. After 2000 he took a break from making music, but decided to return in 2009 as Phobos, an ambient project inspired by the deep works of Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Stephen Philips and Oophoi.

“Live on Earth” contains the 50-minute ambient immersive set (divided in seven seamlessly merged parts) played in an improvised fashion at the Awakenings concert in November 2011.

Based on a set of basic drone pads, the slow morphing and non-rhythmic music starts out with sounds of a steady heart beat, then leading the listener into the vast regions of outer space with drifting, gently evolving but always immersive soundscape textures.
Despite some occasional darker twists and turns, there’s no menacing nor scary feel to Thompson’s quiet, carefully layered and rather minimal offerings. I personally though would have left out both the announcement and applause at the end to this recording, as they just don’t feel right here.

All in all, “Live on Earth” is a well-executed and properly rendered cosmic music release. When one buys the physical product, you’re also entitled to immediate download the digital files of the release.

Website: phobos.bandcamp.com

You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Phobos artist page