Elements of Light
- Pantha du Prince
- Band Name: Pantha du Prince
- Record Label: Rough Trade
- Release Date: Jan 15, 2013
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Feb 28, 201380The results are at times brazenly brilliant. [Mar 2013, p.65]
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Feb 11, 201370Aptly an entire side-project, rather than a one-off on the electronic producer’s next album, the idea is fully fleshed into a discovery of solid notes.
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Feb 1, 201390The extroverted, joyful melodies of Photon or the sustained brilliance of Spectral Split seem like brilliant recontextualisations of Weber’s artistic virtues.
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Jan 31, 201370As a whole, Elements Of Light might feature a fair amount of padding, and it might not be quite as original sounding as the idea would suggest (other than the aforementioned Bjork comparison, there are more than a few moments that recall Aphex Twin at his more contemplative), but even so it does offer more than enough to satisfy as a listening experience, rather than just a curiosity.
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Jan 29, 201360It's unclear if Elements of Light represents an evolutionary mark for the producer or a one-off exercise inspired by a summer's day in Oslo, but as an effort at minimalism, it's a modest success at best.
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Jan 24, 201360The fluid blend of tracks makes it more of a single piece than a series of highlights and also-rans. [Feb 2013, p.108]
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Jan 23, 201350The pairing, and subsequent output, of Weber and the Bell Laboratory is expected and mundane.
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Jan 18, 201380Fusing techno with campanology is a bold aim on paper; in practice it's a revelation. [Feb 2013, p.91]
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Jan 17, 201370The musical ideas here will be readily familiar to anyone who has heard Pantha du Prince's work before.
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Jan 17, 201370This five-part suite expertly blurs boundaries between Weber's sequenced beats and the florid, cascading melodies of the carillon (played expertly by Vegar Sandholt).
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Jan 16, 201367Elements of Light ultimately feels like a stop off between Black Noise and whatever Pantha Du Prince has waiting on the horizon.
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Jan 15, 201380'Spectral Split' is the pick, 17 minutes of tropical marimba, but the seamless whole is a joy, locking you in as you float downstream.
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Jan 15, 201380While each movement works on its own, Elements is best experienced in one long pass.
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Jan 15, 201370Weber's creative theoretical and instrumental approach is unique, but the abrasive and connotative tonal qualities of the carillon often overshadow the colourful subtleties of the finer details of his delicate arrangements.
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Jan 15, 201350Elements Of Light is missing momentum and velocity--two things needed to sustain an all-instrumental symphony. Unfortunately, this means the album ends up as pleasant background noise-and not much more.
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Jan 15, 201360Depending on the vantage point, it's either a logical progression or a creative dead end.
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Jan 14, 201370Elements of Light begins and ends contemplatively, letting metallic tones shimmer and sustain.
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Jan 14, 201360The instrument [carillon] affords Weber a chance to expand his hibernal sound in various interesting ways, but ultimately this feels more like a scholarly exercise than a fully realised album.
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Jan 11, 201380Pantha du Prince has gone one further and created a piece of music that soothes and entices even the most impatient of modern ears.
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Jan 10, 201380The melodies' stoicism seems to reflect much of the empty, brutal beauty of modern life.
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Jan 9, 201380Weber masks the scale of the enterprise with typical grace. [Feb 2013, p.77]
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Jan 9, 201380This isn't a record to dip into, but an absorbing, cerebral and often funky trip.
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Jan 9, 201370Here, there's a sense of picking at a strand of inspiration and seeing how it flows toward a form of endgame, albeit one that still prickles with possibility.
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Jan 9, 201380An album based on the carillon, a peal of bells played using a keyboard similar to a church organ, fused with gentle synth phrases, motorik rhythms.