Global Communication
76:14

"76:14" is one of those rare events that can be called a worthy heir to the environmental and conceptual lessons of Brian Eno. This should prompt reflection on the miracle that emerged from the minds of Tom Middleton and the recently resurged Mark Pritchard (present Harmonic 313?), both great producers and already authors of other excellent albums created together (notably the release under the aka Jedy Knights), but for one reason or another, often unjustly forgotten.

Let's start by saying that in the brief but very generous ambient-techno phenomenon of the early nineties, the albums that stand out are countless, the mind-blowing trips even more so, but only about a dozen can rise from the status of 'great album', 'masterpiece', 'capolavoro', and similar, to directly reach that of 'indispensable', 'a world apart', extrasensory experience; -space-sonic-psycho-visual places that are not well identifiable, areas accessible only through them. "76:14" fully belongs to this category, not an album like many others, but rather a concrete example of what has just been said. Significant in this regard is the very absence of track titles, which refer to their duration (just like the title of the work itself, which is the total time), a well-defined choice, also illustrated in the notes, that invites the listener to give their subjective meaning to them, free to interpret the contents and landscapes as they wish, obviously helped a lot by the hyper-mental atmospheres that accompany all these seventy-six minutes, atmospheres that stimulate the psyche more than the body or the auditory system (practically one of the clearest examples of the concept of 'mental dance' coined at the time by Aphex Twin, with whom incidentally Tom collaborated before he fully went solo). A concept in some ways akin to the eno-ian philosophy of non-listening, to which we are in any case very close also from a musical point of view, with long 'discreet' backdrops appearing as part of life itself. And just like with "Discreet Music" or "Music for Airports," every time you play this album, the magic that comes out is always the same, and, equally importantly, it never becomes mere background noise as such, or worse, boring (otherwise known as a chore). And this is what differentiates a .great. Ambient album from an ambient album.

"76:14" is not just concepts, abstraction, philosophies. It is first and foremost an incredibly human, fragile, wonderful album, dreamlike stages made of minimal melodic brush strokes, tiptoed I would dare say, dense organic substrates with analog machines programmed in such a way that the sound is warm and enveloping, unfolding gentle vibrations and goosebump-inducing waves. Let's say that if the famous "Substrata" by Biosphere is considered the 'coldest' album in the ambient landscape, "76:14" is without a doubt the warmest, warm in the true sense of the word and not just due to the characteristic sound of old analog synths. The voluminous synthetic textures, arrangements, and production were really ahead of their time, with all that background of imperceptible direct takes, micro-rhythms, and arrhythmic noises that years later became a central pivot for great artists such as Gas, Vladislav Delay, Chartier, or various glitch and microsound artisans as a form of 'ambience' or 'background' rather than as an overlay or sound error, so one cannot help but mention the avant-gardes of digital minimalism, the world of sonic-art, installations, the so-called microwave, and the proposals of labels such as Line, Entr'acte, Trente Oiseaux.

Undoubtedly indebted also to the deeper Tangerine Dream, to whom they also dedicate a monumental cover (of "Love On A Real Train," here in a very trip-worthy three-dimensional suite with obsessive beats and synthetic sweeps that emulate the classic 'Gilmourish' slides) in "76.14" Mark & Tom essentially guide us on a journey, a seventy-six-minute and fourteen-second journey where every attempt at physical or literary description seems more than ever out of place. Citing what are the most memorable landscapes, one cannot help but imagine the paradisiacal "14:31" where a repetitive pendulum serves as rhythm above the entire Orb-like sample of 'found sounds' (wind, waves, airplanes) and a majestic ethereal choir that then dives into the flow of humble peaceful riffs and sinuous bass lines; the breaths, tribalism, and distant chords enriching "9:25", the rarefied lands of "4:14", the orchestrations of "4:02" and the 'global communication' of "0:54" with a sentence repeated in 9 different languages (even a clunky Italian) ["the global communication, the emotional expression transmitted through global sound"] vaguely recalling the epic and mysterious introduction of "Chill Out" (KLF) and all that distant and fearsome world, fantastic and serene at the same time.

76:13 is the peace of senses, even before being a great masterpiece of electronic music. Indispensable in any respectable collection.