Elements of Light

Elements of Light ultimately feels like a stop off between Black Noise and whatever Pantha Du Prince has waiting on the horizon.

While each movement works on its own, Elements is best experienced in one long pass.

This isn't a record to dip into, but an absorbing, cerebral and often funky trip.

Aptly 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.

Pantha du Prince has gone one further and created a piece of music that soothes and entices even the most impatient of modern ears.

Weber'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.

An 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.

Fusing techno with campanology is a bold aim on paper; in practice it's a revelation. [Feb 2013, p.91]

The extroverted, joyful melodies of Photon or the sustained brilliance of Spectral Split seem like brilliant recontextualisations of Weber’s artistic virtues.

'Spectral Split' is the pick, 17 minutes of tropical marimba, but the seamless whole is a joy, locking you in as you float downstream.

As 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.

The melodies' stoicism seems to reflect much of the empty, brutal beauty of modern life.

Here, 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.

With a warmth uncommonly found in Weber’s work, Elements Of Light emerges as a real triumph.

The musical ideas here will be readily familiar to anyone who has heard Pantha du Prince's work before.

Elements of Light begins and ends contemplatively, letting metallic tones shimmer and sustain.

The results are at times brazenly brilliant. [Mar 2013, p.65]