Best known as an ambient music pioneer, and producer of Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind and (with Brian Eno) U2’s the Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree, Daniel Lanois is a master of musical textures. His conjuror’s skills with atmospheric sound are most apparent in his solo work. The latest in a series of albums including 1989’s Acadie and 2003’s Shine, Flesh and Machine uses mostly just pianos, pedal steel, drums and cymbals to create detailed instrumentals in which the instruments that made them are almost unrecognisable. Sioux Lookout contains what sound like wild animal cries but are actually made by a guitar; Opera hurtles along on drummer Brain Blade’s hyperactive Four Tet/Burial-type beats. Together, the 11 tracks create a rollercoaster journey into sound that covers a lot of territory between The End’s explosive, fret-melting cacophony and Aquatic’s hushed wintry stillness. At times sublime, at others sinister, the music captures the feel of an untamed landscape where natural beauty lurks within, and menace approaches.
