Ambient Compilation

A half dozen foreboding ambient recordings best heard far in advance of bedtime comprise the compilation Where Stalks the Sandman (Noh Poetry). This is sound etiolating as it unfolds. “Pythagorean Sea II,” by the esteemed Kim Cascone, is a composite of threadbare palimpsests, myriad layers that somehow never threaten to intrude into the foreground. Monocaine’s “Ars Moriendi,” which is gaunt and spirit-shaking, makes Cascone’s contribution sound extravagant by comparison. Steven Wilson’s “A Grapefruit in the World of Park” is built from a slim sample from guitarist Robert Fripp, and it has the lilting quality of Fripp’s collaborations with Brian Eno, though it augments that melodiousness with dramatic gaps of silence. Also included are tracks by Karen Anderson, Don Falcone and Praxis, the latter a distended remix by Peter Weatherbee.