Andy Warhol's movie "Empire" consisted of one eight-hour shot of the Empire State Building.  If they ever remake "Empire," Larry Gaab should do the soundtrack.  His 3-CD series "Morphosis," "History all at Once," and "Resurrections" shows that he likes to work on a very large canvas.  This set gives us a monumental, if occasionally sprawling and unfocused, artifice which showcases his considerable talents with a synthesizer.

"Resurrections" opens on an ecstatic note, with the whooshing synthesizer phrases of "Wonders" and "Within Reach."  This is the most melodic CD of the set, in my opinion the most successful.  Gaab has a definite ear for a melody, combined with enough dissonance to keep things from swirling into Yanni-dom.  I enjoyed the Chinese stylings on "Fresh" and the ethereal bells of "Physical States."

"History All At Once" is the darkest and most eerie than its predecessor.  I was reminded of the soundtrack to a David Lynch film.  The pipe organ chords in the opening song "The Rise of Reason" were quite nice, as was the irregular bass line on "Upside" and the Middle Eastern-sounding drone on "History All At Once," probably the strongest track.  This CD felt promising but unfinished: it was as if I was listening to a talented composer's aural first draft, before he had trimmed and edited everything into shape.

The final CD, "Morphosis" gives us many interesting effects: Gaab makes his keyboard sound like an oboe, a xylophone, and a digideroo and all within the space of a few bars.  "No Language" has some haunting chord progressions, while "Multiplications" has an unnerving background chorus of microtonal bleeps.  Overall the music was pleasant, but it didn't creep into my subconscious mind the way the best ambient music will. At its worst, dark Ambient can become Windham Hill in a minor key.  This didn't quite sink to those depths -- Gaab has too much inherent skill to be that boring -- but neither was it as challenging, or interesting, as it could have been.

At its best, Brian Eno's ambient music is like tone poem haiku, as spare as a Japanese landscape drawn with a half-dozen brushstrokes, yet as haunting and evocative.  Gaab never quite reaches those heights.  One problem is that his composition style is less minimalist and more florid than Eno's.  Gaab gives us chords where Eno might use a single note -- or nothing at all.  He also needs to develop as an editor; this 3-CD could have dealt with the same broad themes in an exceptional single CD.  I'd be very interested in hearing Gaab collaborate with a live band, or even with one or two other musicians.  Right now he's good; when he masters structure and silence, he could become great.

RESURRECTIONS

1) Wonders
2) Within Reach
3) Full Love
4) Safari
5) Fresh
6) Recreating Infinity
7) Unlikely Tensions
8) Never Without
9) Angel
10) Physical States
11) Transmutation Complete

HISTORY ALL AT ONCE

1) The Rise of Reason
2) Even Spaces
3) Upside
4) Temporal Suspension
5) New Station
6) Balancing Act
7) History All at Once
8) Cocoons
9) Furtive Vibrations
10) Sweet Adventures

MORPHOSIS

1) Morphosis
2) Relaxed Ambiguities
3) Last Call
4) No Language
5) Takeoffs and Landings
6) Multiplication
7) Aposiopesis
8) Faint Weakness
9) Neutral Map

Morphosis Music Contact: garbanzo@shocking.com