Although ‘outsiders’ may think otherwise, ‘ambient’ music knows a lot of different musical variations. Referring to ambient music as one single genre is a bit like using ‘world music’ as a genre definition for all kinds of different ethnic music.
In fact, ‘ambient music’ is a rather undefinable collection of sub-genres. It ranges from deep-listening drones via eno-esque generative music to dance music and dub-techno, from acoustic improv to post-classical string ensembles, from 70’s cosmic psychedelica to new age tribal music.
The Near is Ending” starts with a deep droney track, but then continues to combine some different kinds of electronic music to a surprisingly well-balanced album.
There are deep techno beats (BVDub style), glitchy electronics (Raster-Noton style), soundscapes from a beautifully crafted sound palette, and even a few perfectly fitting vocal samples on some of the tracks (like on ‘Redemptoris’ below).
The variation and the creativity of this album will not only appeal to ambient-electronic music listeners, but could also surprise others beyond that field.
Íf they can find it, of course, because I don’t think Looped Exodus (Gerard Labeur, from Amsterdam) is a very familiar name, and this album is “100% Homemade”, so not available through classic distribution channels.
But luckily there’s Bandcamp, and apart from that a lot of Looped Exodus music can be found on (and downloaded from) his Soundcloud page, too!
Some parts of “The Near is Ending” have been previously released on two EP’s (‘Near’ and ‘Ending’), but the album contains different (‘ambient’) versions and some bonus tracks.
Looped Exodus – Redemptoris