Timeless By Drifting In Silence

 

Timeless

By

Drifting In Silence

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

It had been some 4 years since I last heard from Drifting in Silence, the release Away was an awesome electronic ambient experience, but here we are again in 2023, about to embark upon another voyage of plenty with composer Derrick Stembridge and the great news is that Timeless, the latest offering from the artist, is simply a wonderland of ambient moods and manifestations.

The opening piece is Clocks; here the artist leads us in with a careful attention to detail, within its initial energies, this took me back to the early 80s and Laraaji with his Ambient 3 Day of Radiance release, the progression of this track indeed moved ever forward, like the unrelenting tick and tock of the clock, and in doing so created a fluent ambient soundscape around us to thoroughly enjoy.

I Wish You Were Here, is a wonderful slice of dark ambience, one that now filtered in through the windows of my mind, like the dust drifting across sun beams on an early May afternoon, the synth work here was sublime and had such depth to it, this is what I would love to have playing on a walk around a modern art gallery, the whole composition itself is so vast and so expansive, that one could easily get lost within its realms.

As we move ever deeper into this classy dimension of top quality ambient music, we come across a track entitled IV XV MMXXII, this as an ambient artist myself stunned me, the depth once again was sublime, but the very start of the track seemed to come from such a distance, and then once its arrival had been achieved, the artist then created a textured and layered composition unlike anything I have heard before, this is without doubt an electronic ambient soundscape at its very best, and such wonderful inspiration for me personally.

The important factor for me in this next piece was the delicacy of the opening segment; As You Drift Away contains a soothing narrative, almost meditative at times. The build and progression carried the repeating motif on synths with it, but please listen to that progression and its constant construction, this is one of the finest examples you will hear today, it’s like something has just come close to you, past by you, and then simply floated away, only to pull back again, almost tide like in energy.

So we arrive at the title track, and this just also happens to be the penultimate offering of the album, and of course called Timeless. The softness of the synths here was incredibly impressive; the ability to move from that softness and manifest a soundscape so vast was equally impressive, there seemed to be so much going on within the weave of the arrangement as well, a little ethereal essence, a slow swirling manifestation of serenity, a masterful construction indeed.

Dreamcatcher is our last doorway of ambience, and something to drift along with; the extensive and substantial volume of this composition was incredibly extraordinary, this for me represented an entire realm where time was simply non-existent, almost like music for the void. There can be no doubt that Stembridge as Drifting in Silence, has brought to our attention a standard of electronic ambient music that we can all both enjoy, and simply float within its oceans of tranquillity with.

Timeless by Drifting In Silence is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best ambient based albums I have heard for some years, if you like to get lost within dimensions of vibration and sound, then this album is most certainly for you. Timeless by Drifting In Silence is a project that gifts us a glimpse into the infinite, it’s an album that manifests a portal to a jurisdiction of tone and timbre that has never been felt before, this is ambient music at its ultimate apex.