ASHLEY|STORY: Standing and Falling

Ashley|Story

Standing and Falling

© 2005 Nepenthe Music and Publishing

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Neo-expressionist Dwight Ashley and minimalist Tim Story join creative forces to cut a richly textured, darkly brooding swath through the ambient music genre.

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notes

Recording artists Tim Story and Dwight Ashley are known for creating introspective albums that probe the more shadowy side of the human psyche. But with their latest collaboration, Standing and Falling, the Ashley/Story perspective turns outward, exploring a curious, color-soaked soundscape replete with surprising twists and turns.

Produced over the span of eight years, Standing and Falling evokes a corresponding sense of time and space, like a slow, sonic ride on an otherworldly Orient Express, with scenery that grows more exotic from track to track. Real-world audio textures suggest a sense of place - but Ashley/Story's idiosyncratic electronic orchestration renders that place unlike any we've seen or visited.

Listeners familiar with Story's taut, haunting melodies or Ashley's dark, guitar-soaked drones may be surprised at a distinctly different element on this album: humor. Track titles like "Ohmen," "Chicken Pot Pie," and "The Curve of Spee" give clue to the listener that even the darker tracks on Standing and Falling are punctuated with witty compositional elements that give the album a wryly cheerful character.

Standing and Falling is an inventive collection of electronic tone poems, arguably the most programmatic Ashley/Story effort to date. Artifacts in a sonic curiosity shop... audio postcards from an alternate universe... pictures at an exhibition of subatomic worlds... whatever one sees in the mind's eye, Standing and Falling will take the listener on a richly textured voyage between the ears.

reviews

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  • author: Chris Janisch

    Must admit I was a bit surprised by this one as it is a departure from Lunz. But like all other Story solo and collaborations, he hits the mark. A great collection of ambient noise coupled with just a little humor and as usual great musical ideas. Recommended!!

  • Elegant and idiosyncratic minimalism
    author: Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END

    When Tim Story wanted to know what he was doing in New Orleans, Dwight Ashley replied, "standing and falling". While this tale explains how their third album got its name and illustrates the differences in this duo's orientation toward recreation, the music community will need to compare their works as solo artists in order to shed light on Ashley/Story's ability to produce music beyond the reach of each as individuals. Standing + Falling (69'41") is a continuation in this duo's tradition of making Electronic Music which seeps through the porous boundaries of this genre's sub-categories. The ten tracks, each more of a realization than a composition, wander along the strange and intertwined pathways of a puzzling digital soundscape. Each track begins anew and provides music apart from convention and in defiance of expectation. Great variations in dynamic range are utilized to create a deeper spatial dimension and psychological impact. The quiet and extended reiterative passages address interiority, while elsewhere the album lurches forward with percussive grooves and warped melodies. Standing + Falling has an overtly electronic texture, yet does not feel manufactured. Through its elegant and idiosyncratic minimalism, the album provides the feel of something alive and animated.

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