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Interstitial - Temporal Arc - Reviews from Original Release
Temporal Arc was originally released on the Red Antenna label in December 2001. Below are some descriptions and reviews from the original release. Thanks for reading!
Temporal Arc merges the processed pulse rhythms of Berlin and Detroit with atmospheric ambient and beatless minimalism. The title track encompasses all of these elements - drifting from dark atmospheric expansions into tightly compressed drums and back again. Some tracks use the rhythms to tell the story, while others remain entirely beatless. Though there are hints of melody, this is not a melodic album, it relies more on subtle variations in texture and form.
Without much regard for current trends, Temporal Arc beats a path few have the sonic skills to tread. Non-digitally generated sounds rub up against fuzzy atmospheres and blunted, half-speed beats placed with Zen precision, only to bleed over into crackling driftworks spiking warm Rhodes piano phrases. John Koch-Northrup, as Interstitial, cares little about sketching audio stick figures in glitches and clicks - instead, he'd rather compose an orchestra of widescreen cinematic ambience in full tonal-color. Plug into Temporal Arc, and leave your ones and zeros at home.
I received several promos in the mail this afternoon - one of which I am listening to at this very moment; Temporal Arc by one John Koch-Northrup aka Interstitial. By sheer coincidence, just this weekend I was checking out some Interstitial tracks from the free downloads at StaticBeats. Admittedly, I was expecting some form of techno, breaks or IDM. Surprised I was to find beatless ambient instead. With that noted, I had the notion this album might be the perfect thing to accompany me during a nice long bath... The first track of the album 'Frozen' clocks in at just over 15 minutes and is comprised of an ambient almost tribal track with the low thud of a kickdrum and slow backing of rhythmic pulsations.
The track that follows is 'Movement in Glass' which takes it down a couple notches to the more ambient while still adding just a hint of glitch. Half as long maybe and yet twice as trippy.
The third track on the album is best listened with eyes shut and head tilted back. The sounds here introduce you to a world devoid of waves and yet not lacking in ripples. Bones of the Dead is a very fitting title for the track. It isn't dark or morbid but rather serene and peaceful. Almost as if to say - it's alright, there's a better place.
Refraction is a lovely segway to what comes after - a light beat is introduced, repetitive sounds are to be heard, while a deep groove lulls you to a gentle trance. Refraction is very reminiscent of music from the early 90's Rising High era - back with releases such as Chill Out or Die. It is an exquisite example of the true definition of ambient trance.
The fifth track of the album Gnosio is in a word - drone. Pure and simple, without even the subtlest change of pace right up until the track slowly dissapates into the next.
The final and title track of the album slowly introduces a new beat. While still keeping the energy of the previous track, subtle sounds begin to be noticed while the steadily increasing footsteps of a snare weave in and out. When listening to this I'm reminded of Journeyman's 'Mama 6'. I could see this track working very nicely as a soundtrack to a movie like PI.
Temporal Arc is a release that invokes memories of several other albums I rather enjoy - albums like TUU's 'All of our Ancestors', The Third Barramundi Sampler, The Irresistable Force's 'Global Chillage' and even Joey Beltram's ambient excursion 'Aonox'. The album makes the perfect companion for any numbers of tasks - from meditating to bathing, working to being engaged in a creative process, or even just walking, sleeping, thinking, resting or deep in conversation.
Temporal Arc surprised and impresses me greatly. The atmosphere of the album is tightly woven as even the subtlest of sounds are pointedly moved from the foreground to the back, the imagined to the heard. I believe this album would be a real treat to hear composed live!
Standout tracks for me (admittedly all the ones with beats) are: Frozen, Temporal Arc and Refraction. Each one by itself is a small journey but together with the complete album are akin to evoking life, death and rebirth.
The emotion is best described on the Interstitial website: "Between art and technology, ambient and pulse, atmospheric and glitch, piano and noise, jazz and detroit".
Temporal Arc is out now on Red Antenna for the very affordable price of $9. Free Interstitial MP3s can be downloaded from both www.staticbeats.com and www.redantenna.tv
Added: July 30th 2002
Reviewer: Shimone Samuel
Score: 5 out of 5
Bubbling bpms, smoothly flowing on Frozen, the disc’s fifteen minute opening track. Interstitial’s (John Koch-Northrup) Temporal Arc is a heady, debut full-length recording. The blend of beat based ambient textures with low levels of curious noise make for a spincycle approach. Koch-Northrup, who plays piano, trumpet and bass is a multi-instrumentalist with a lot of ideas. On Movement in Glass the quieter side of his programming takes over and reveals a more fully realized sensitivity to the dream-like phrasing of the lock groove. It’s the moments in between that bare a gestural guise of musicality. And so back to the beat, in Refraction, a techno meets new age collision. It’s got some sizzle, layered in processed, postured rhythmics, though it climbs too high, losing its temporal qualities. Gnosio makes up for the missing warmth in the more beat driven tracks here. It’s a film noir-like excursion into mind warping drone. A dark day on planet Earth. On the final title track we encounter over fifteen minutes of lush, dark ambient atmosphere. In its resonance are traces of very minute, skinny beats, much more effective than on the earlier tracks. I hear voices, though I am not possessed!
Under the nom-de-disk of interstitial, John Koch-Northrup processes sounds into gorgeous anomalies. Tracks are occasionally braced by drum-structures, though all operate most effectively as free-flowing currents of tonal mysteries following an unseen temporal arc. 15-minute opener frozen drifts in faint, ever-increasing radiation which is gradually texturized by rhythms of a semi-tribal electronic bent. Rippling organ-like echoes mix with shapelessly sheening soundwaves and steadily pumping percussion, a blend of abstract gauze and regulated thumps. Low, muted chimes are heard beneath the staticy-rough surfaces of reflective movement in glass, a beatless (yet somehow self-rhythmic) excursion into unknown substances.
Spectral beauty spreads across the lingering essences of bones of the dead, another compellingly-realized zone of (drum-free) introspection. Abstruse depths churn below the sputtery downtempo percussion and streaming clouds of refraction (6:15). Sixth and final temporal arc (15:34) spans swirling voids on a trail of sometimes-metered existence; curving trails are adrift in luscious fogbanks, periodically surging forth on active (yet near-skeletal) beatsytems and phantom basswaves. Cool!
Expertly executed, interstitial's billowing nebulae are nicely accented with never-overpowering drumplay, a balancing act which tips toward the abstract... pleasantly so. temporal arc's beat-speckled murk gets an ecstatically enshrouded A.
More info can be gleaned at: www.redantenna.tv and/or www.interstitial.info.
This review posted 05.07.02
Here's what I wrote about it back then:
Temporal Arc merges the processed pulse rhythms of Berlin and Detroit with atmospheric ambient and beatless minimalism. The title track encompasses all of these elements - drifting from dark atmospheric expansions into tightly compressed drums and back again. Some tracks use the rhythms to tell the story, while others remain entirely beatless. Though there are hints of melody, this is not a melodic album, it relies more on subtle variations in texture and form.
And here's the Red Antenna promo text from 2001:
Without much regard for current trends, Temporal Arc beats a path few have the sonic skills to tread. Non-digitally generated sounds rub up against fuzzy atmospheres and blunted, half-speed beats placed with Zen precision, only to bleed over into crackling driftworks spiking warm Rhodes piano phrases. John Koch-Northrup, as Interstitial, cares little about sketching audio stick figures in glitches and clicks - instead, he'd rather compose an orchestra of widescreen cinematic ambience in full tonal-color. Plug into Temporal Arc, and leave your ones and zeros at home.
A review from Shimone Samuel of Staticbeats:
I received several promos in the mail this afternoon - one of which I am listening to at this very moment; Temporal Arc by one John Koch-Northrup aka Interstitial. By sheer coincidence, just this weekend I was checking out some Interstitial tracks from the free downloads at StaticBeats. Admittedly, I was expecting some form of techno, breaks or IDM. Surprised I was to find beatless ambient instead. With that noted, I had the notion this album might be the perfect thing to accompany me during a nice long bath... The first track of the album 'Frozen' clocks in at just over 15 minutes and is comprised of an ambient almost tribal track with the low thud of a kickdrum and slow backing of rhythmic pulsations.
The track that follows is 'Movement in Glass' which takes it down a couple notches to the more ambient while still adding just a hint of glitch. Half as long maybe and yet twice as trippy.
The third track on the album is best listened with eyes shut and head tilted back. The sounds here introduce you to a world devoid of waves and yet not lacking in ripples. Bones of the Dead is a very fitting title for the track. It isn't dark or morbid but rather serene and peaceful. Almost as if to say - it's alright, there's a better place.
Refraction is a lovely segway to what comes after - a light beat is introduced, repetitive sounds are to be heard, while a deep groove lulls you to a gentle trance. Refraction is very reminiscent of music from the early 90's Rising High era - back with releases such as Chill Out or Die. It is an exquisite example of the true definition of ambient trance.
The fifth track of the album Gnosio is in a word - drone. Pure and simple, without even the subtlest change of pace right up until the track slowly dissapates into the next.
The final and title track of the album slowly introduces a new beat. While still keeping the energy of the previous track, subtle sounds begin to be noticed while the steadily increasing footsteps of a snare weave in and out. When listening to this I'm reminded of Journeyman's 'Mama 6'. I could see this track working very nicely as a soundtrack to a movie like PI.
Temporal Arc is a release that invokes memories of several other albums I rather enjoy - albums like TUU's 'All of our Ancestors', The Third Barramundi Sampler, The Irresistable Force's 'Global Chillage' and even Joey Beltram's ambient excursion 'Aonox'. The album makes the perfect companion for any numbers of tasks - from meditating to bathing, working to being engaged in a creative process, or even just walking, sleeping, thinking, resting or deep in conversation.
Temporal Arc surprised and impresses me greatly. The atmosphere of the album is tightly woven as even the subtlest of sounds are pointedly moved from the foreground to the back, the imagined to the heard. I believe this album would be a real treat to hear composed live!
Standout tracks for me (admittedly all the ones with beats) are: Frozen, Temporal Arc and Refraction. Each one by itself is a small journey but together with the complete album are akin to evoking life, death and rebirth.
The emotion is best described on the Interstitial website: "Between art and technology, ambient and pulse, atmospheric and glitch, piano and noise, jazz and detroit".
Temporal Arc is out now on Red Antenna for the very affordable price of $9. Free Interstitial MP3s can be downloaded from both www.staticbeats.com and www.redantenna.tv
Added: July 30th 2002
Reviewer: Shimone Samuel
Score: 5 out of 5
Review by TJ Norris, http://www.tjnorris.net
Bubbling bpms, smoothly flowing on Frozen, the disc’s fifteen minute opening track. Interstitial’s (John Koch-Northrup) Temporal Arc is a heady, debut full-length recording. The blend of beat based ambient textures with low levels of curious noise make for a spincycle approach. Koch-Northrup, who plays piano, trumpet and bass is a multi-instrumentalist with a lot of ideas. On Movement in Glass the quieter side of his programming takes over and reveals a more fully realized sensitivity to the dream-like phrasing of the lock groove. It’s the moments in between that bare a gestural guise of musicality. And so back to the beat, in Refraction, a techno meets new age collision. It’s got some sizzle, layered in processed, postured rhythmics, though it climbs too high, losing its temporal qualities. Gnosio makes up for the missing warmth in the more beat driven tracks here. It’s a film noir-like excursion into mind warping drone. A dark day on planet Earth. On the final title track we encounter over fifteen minutes of lush, dark ambient atmosphere. In its resonance are traces of very minute, skinny beats, much more effective than on the earlier tracks. I hear voices, though I am not possessed!
Review by David J Opdyke, http://www.ambientrance.org
Under the nom-de-disk of interstitial, John Koch-Northrup processes sounds into gorgeous anomalies. Tracks are occasionally braced by drum-structures, though all operate most effectively as free-flowing currents of tonal mysteries following an unseen temporal arc. 15-minute opener frozen drifts in faint, ever-increasing radiation which is gradually texturized by rhythms of a semi-tribal electronic bent. Rippling organ-like echoes mix with shapelessly sheening soundwaves and steadily pumping percussion, a blend of abstract gauze and regulated thumps. Low, muted chimes are heard beneath the staticy-rough surfaces of reflective movement in glass, a beatless (yet somehow self-rhythmic) excursion into unknown substances.
Spectral beauty spreads across the lingering essences of bones of the dead, another compellingly-realized zone of (drum-free) introspection. Abstruse depths churn below the sputtery downtempo percussion and streaming clouds of refraction (6:15). Sixth and final temporal arc (15:34) spans swirling voids on a trail of sometimes-metered existence; curving trails are adrift in luscious fogbanks, periodically surging forth on active (yet near-skeletal) beatsytems and phantom basswaves. Cool!
Expertly executed, interstitial's billowing nebulae are nicely accented with never-overpowering drumplay, a balancing act which tips toward the abstract... pleasantly so. temporal arc's beat-speckled murk gets an ecstatically enshrouded A.
More info can be gleaned at: www.redantenna.tv and/or www.interstitial.info.
This review posted 05.07.02
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