Third in the Environments series from The Future Sound Of London, and it is exactly as patient as that implies. 18 tracks that move like slow weather across a cold city. You get field recording rustle, a lot of piano that sounds like it was recorded in the next room, and the kind of synthesis that has been ringing at the edges for thirty years now. Nothing here is in a hurry. "The Empty Land" sits on a single chord for what feels like a long time before something shifts. "Heart Sick Chord" earns its name. The album is quiet, but not soft. There is a grainy texture to everything, a kind of deliberate imperfection that keeps the ambient parts from floating away into nothing. Some of these short pieces feel like fragments rather than songs, sketches for something that might have been bigger or maybe was always meant to stay this size. If you have been following the Environments series you know what you are in for. If you haven't, this is probably the most reflective of the three. Brian Eno's Discreet Music listeners will find familiar ground, though the FSOL version is less serene and more like listening to a building hum at night. The vinyl is out and has the right kind of surface noise for the material.
