Andrew Thomas – Fearsome Jewel

If there's anything fearsome about Andrew Thomas' FEARSOMe JEWEL, it's probably the beauty overload. He refracts sounds and lets them echo, coaxing out textures and suggestions. Whether with the clicks and throbs and piano tinking on "...2" or the floating bliss of "...4," the ambience is never boring or static. Even as the tracks loop around themselves, like on "...7," there's still a sense of movement, as Thomas works with the piano chords. The long "...9" settles into a state of meditation, while the short closer, "...10" offers a brief glimpse past the veil. A lovely journey.

This album is still fantastic. I remember rooting around in Smallfish one day and they had this on in the background. After about 10 minutes I was hooked. The songs, although ambient are bite sized and easy to absorb even in short bursts. But if listed to in 1 go, the album unfolds into a masterpiece in sonic deconstruction.

This is minimalism seen through the lens of a high-speed camera. Each sounding is a careful and deliberate peak-and-trough construct, fractured by repetitive embellishments, wherein every nuance—organic and near-impressionistic in their character—glimmers and oscillates.

The tracks are closely related; Thomas does not aim to depart from his established syntax. Rather, they are panes of the same window that look out over some alien hinterland.

Devotees of Loscil, Helios and Eno will appreciate the subtleties of this work.

Expanding numberless, warm motions of human heart, "Fearsome Jewel" is like summer breeze that will draw the listener back into the earliest days of childhood, doing it always in a different way - which makes this album one of the best Kompakt releases so far. Strong atmosphere, syncopated and broken textures filled with piano strings, romantic and evocative, reveal the hidden treasure inside this repetitive simplicity. Imagine yourself in a perfect summer afternoon; sitting in the house garden full of different flowers and trees, surrounded by shimmering silence and thanksgiving joy of everything that exists in the universe... And, suddenly, you'll find yourself so happy being alive, being a part of this heavenly celebration of life which cannot be expressed by human words. "Fearsome Jewel" is one of those moments captured in time.