Soft and Clear By Forrest Smithson

 

Soft and Clear

By

Forrest Smithson

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

I have been a fan of the work of Forrest Smithson for a very long time now; in fact we can go back to the year of the start of this very radio station One World Music Radio in 2013 for our first musical encounter, and his brilliant Dreamtime release. Over a decade later, it is my privilege to get to listen to and review his latest masterwork entitled Soft and Clear; this would be one of the most illuminating and artistic endeavours I have taken on musically for many a year.

As an electronic and ambient musician myself, I have a real appreciation for this release, I have spent most of Monday morning listening to it play on repeat for hours, what a sublime experience! At the Soft Edge of Awareness is where our journey begins, a tender and delicate start eventually morphs into a voyage of a more electronic nature, after all this is long form creation at its very best, and with the opener being well over 15 minutes long we can enjoy, adjust and embrace, this flowing and fluent manifestation with a calmness of perspective.

The following narrative is called The Cloud Gazer, there is a tender change here that occurs, one can feel the shift into a more ethereal and floating composition. The softness of palette is still there, just raised on a bed of high tonal delight, to emphasises the location of the arrangement and the somewhat moving tones that flow from the artists amazing keyboard and synth structures, one has to have a very keen ear when listening to your own music and every second of this specific piece is perfectly choreographed into a work of art that is to ambient music, what Brian Eno was back in the day with releases akin to the album Thursday Afternoon in ‘85.

The album itself is an amazing 5 track masterpiece of a long form extravaganza with offerings like the At the Clear Center of Perception at the very epicentre of its ambient roots, the early chimes, the pristine and clear synths, the darker edges at around the five minutes of this truly spectacular offering is an example of ambient music at its very best, we can partner that up with the most moving of all tracks from the album entitled Dreamstate. A soft and soothing timbre that floats between the inner dimensions of the mind, and appears every so often to remind the listener of their humble and calming journey, this is a smart composition and easily one that Smithson should be proud of.

The concluding offering is called Designers, it is interesting to note that the album started with the natural sound of water and ends the same way; a delicious long form opus of over 10 minutes manifests a graceful conclusion to the release, the electronic energy is up scaled here, but only in as much as is needed. The vibration created and the repeating motifs take nothing away from the soothing textures that had been thus far brought into the reality by the composer and pull back beautifully, in fact toward the latter part of the piece, the eventual coda is widened and the listener can then explore this musical land, this imaginary bay they find themselves in at the very coda of the composition.

Soft and Clear by Forrest Smithson in my view is the artists best work in this specific style since the release of his album Ooti in 2015. The composure of the artist as he manifests a wonderfully beautiful ambient album, with the fluency and smooth approach of a true master is something to be applauded, for me this is a perfect example of top quality electronic and ambient music and anyone who is into this genre like myself should avail themselves of a copy post haste.