Kudos to Blue Hell not only for creating an immersive set of ambient music that mixes vapor trails of synthesizer and a constant sense of moistness, perhaps source from field recordings — but also for thinking of a broader audience than the work might seem to address. The piece is titled “Prayer Machine,” and in full form it is a nearly two-hour sprawl of sound. With its dank contours and dark tonal content, it comprises the audio equivalent of a very long bath after a very long day. But Blue Hell has also created a “radio edit” of the work, a five-minute excerpt, suitable for casual listening, and for easier passing around (MP3). The track is notable for its loose structure, and its ability to maintain its sense of lull for such an extended period of time. The format, the radio edit, should be a wake-up call in the ambient/netlabel community as a means to make difficult music — which is to say in this case, long-form music, music whose scope and breadth makes particular demands on the listener’s patience — more approachable.
Track originally posted at ethereallive.wordpress.com.
First: act quickly, as this 