REVIEWS-Volumes I and II

Chuck van Zyl/Star's End

Maybe it was her tenure as a singer songwriter that provided Janet Robbins with the ability to express complex emotional themes in the few succinct musical moments available through the conventional venues of commercial radio and nightclub touring. The audience for these showcases expect their entertainment to be administered in easy to swallow portions of three to four minutes each.

Carrying the Bag of Hearts - Interpreting the Birth of Stars Vol. I (22'58") is her, somewhat brief, three song EP. While each track may seem fleeting when compared to other more sprawling works within the Contemporary Instrumental genre, Robbins' works effectively build and transmit their emotional content in the span of just a few minutes. It's through this tight compositional structure that the music remains engaging even after repeated listenings. Carrying the Bag of Hearts came about as Robbins found herself at a point in life where conventional musical ideas and concepts were unable to communicate or convey to others her inner life.

Produced in a well-equipped electronic music studio, this EP is the result of an artist's encounter with music technology. Showing restraint, Robbins avoids cluttering up her pieces with unnecessary layers of sound to realize three deep and spacious works of electronic music. The opener, "At the Heart of a Spiral Galaxy" (8'42"), with its staggered arpeggios, strident rhythms and shifting details, is cinematic in scope. "Voluntary Exile" (5'42") wanders through an indistinct ambient terrain until the scene sharpens into a lyrical piano study. And finally, "In the Beginning" (8'37") is a floating sound collage that churns and rolls in all directions in a slow restless drift. Melodic and musical when it needs to be... still and atmospheric everywhere else, Carrying the Bag of Hearts presents three multi-faceted jewels from the recesses of Robbins' being.

J-Sin/Smother.net

Apparently this is a volume series with the intent on releasing a few tracks every few months. There are three songs on the beginning of the volume collection and you're going to crave for those "few months" to come quicker. Almost like a movie score more than anything else, these three songs showcase how emotional soundscape and ambient music can truly be. Some might throw this next to New Age but I dare them to take a keener listen -there's majesty in those floating and soaring harmonies and light rhythms.

Bill Binkelman/Wind and Wire

This EP (twenty-three minutes long) may hold the record for longest CD title! The music is composed by Janet Robbins who employs all manner of electronics (and some acoustic instruments) to craft unusual, yet for the most part, accessible ambient music. There are three tracks on the EP. "At The Heart Of A Spiral Galaxy (M51's Close Encounter)" opens the CD with some "pure" spacemusic, sounding sometimes as if it was actually recorded radio telescope noise from M51 itself (and maybe there is some of that in there). However, there are also times when the music approaches the same deep space feeling of artists like eM. In addition, there are sampled hand drums, retro keyboards (even a mellotron!), twinkling bell tones, as well some contemporary laptop and glitch touches. All of these (and more) coalesce or break off on their own during the track's eight-and-a-half minutes. This probably could not be appreciated as background music, as it's more interesting to don headphones and immerse yourself in the ebb and flow of drama (sometimes the music crosses over into a slightly aggressive mood and then settles back into more floating spacemusic territory).

"Voluntary Exile" is serene and calming by comparison to the first song. On this track, Robbins integrates acoustic instruments (piano and strings) with the layers of electronics and keyboards. The mood is still somewhat dark, although the use of piano lightens things up considerably (when piano takes center stage, the electronics are relegated to being more of a background effect). When strings are introduced, I'm tempted to state that this has almost a classical music sound, especially when solo cello winds its way into the mix. Things take an abrupt right turn later and become more abstract, ending with the piano going off on its own, solo, and veering over into subtle dissonant minimalism.

"The Beginning" returns to the same territory as the opening song, this time taking on an air of subtle desolation, maybe even despair, as the opening tones carry a whiff of sadness. A warm swelling drone builds up and actually lightens the mood, if you can believe that of a drone! Whirring textures and vague hints of SF/spacy noises can be heard deep in the mix, and once again I would draw comparison to eM's all the stars burning bright. There is a spaciousness to this piece; this is what you might listen to after you are awakened from cryo-sleep and find yourself adrift somewhere in Orion's belt.

I'm encouraged that Janet Robbins is making music in a subgenre that is typically overrun with men. I hope the short length of the release doesn't hurt its acceptance, because Carrying the Bag of Hearts... is a brave attempt to craft spacemusic/ambient music that is unusual and unique but doesn't alienate people through overt experimentalism. There is plenty of musicality at work here and I recommend the EP if you want to hear someone who strikes out in new ambient directions.

Paul Jury/Morpheus Music UK

Lush electronic instrumentals ranging from beat-driven structure to formless, moody ambience. Janet Robbins presents here a powerful cinematic sound exploring twinkling arpeggio cycles, brooding panoramic synths and evocative rhythmic arrangements. The range of sounds on the album is broad, programmed with deft sensitivity and full of feeling. Where the beats are at their most solid, sweeping pads and frequent rhythmic fragmentations soften and deepen the sound. When percussion is absent and the music drifts in amorphous space, compelling expectancy hangs on almost every tone. At times dramatic and exotic, at others magical and intimate - Janet Robbins masterfully makes good use of varying intensity, special effects and thematic development to fill her compositions with passion and colour.

The mood sprawls across a considerable spectrum - but always with an underlying air of charmed mystery. From heaving shadows to sparkling moonlight Carrying The Bag of Hearts Interpreting the Birth of Stars Vol II fills the air with a sense of the exotic - fairy tale atmospheres from beautiful places, vivid dreams of light and darkness.

This is a three track EP with two pieces of around six minutes each and the opener at almost thirteen. Sadly I don't possess volume one of this series in progress - but if this volume is anything to go by, something monumental is underway here. A solo album from an artist that explores more deeply than most - no self conscious effort to sound like someone else, no simple playing with or combining easily found sounds - Carrying the Bag ... is an amazingly well developed composition musically, with a depth lacking in so much of today's output. Janet desribes her music "a little bit lo-fi, sci-fi ... a music encounter with reverie, dissolution, noise and symphony."

This CD might well appeal to fans of Delerium, Amethystium and other such exotic soundscapers as well as ambient fans that like plenty of structure and musical progression. You really should listen to this one of you like atmospheric flights of fantasy.

J-Sin/Smother.net

Beginning with a surprisingly darkly painted soundscape and bassy percussion, this second volume of Janet Robbins' instrumental series is a riveting and compelling look deep inside the spaced out world of ambient music. Truly emotional with an almost out-of-body experience laminated throughout, "Carrying the Bag..." is a true foray into dank atmospheric ambient world not properly heard since some of The Orb's best work. Recorded in Woodstock, New York before her move to North Carolina this is no hippie affair. Thumbs way up on this one.