Daniel Lanois’s sixth solo recording, Flesh And Machine, is an ambient album and a departure from what he has been creating as a soloist in the last 25 years. He’s going back to those early years in the 1980s when he was Brian Eno’s protégé and worked along the artist on two of his seminal albums, Ambient 4: On Land (1982) and Apollo: Atmospheres And Soundtracks (1983). According to the press release, Lanois “spent countless hours processing an array of source sounds – steel and electric guitar, piano and human voice to create the sound palette that is Flesh and Machine.” Flesh And Machine’s soundscapes take many sonic turns evoking different feelings throughout the album. Each track is carefully crafted to encompass a specific visual narrative that in many cases expands beyond the title of the song, similar to the reading of an abstract expressionist painting. For the last half of the album, Lanois engages his compositions with a more melodic structure making them accessible and even more pop oriented. Flesh And Machine is a noteworthy experimental debut from a legendary artist that continues to expand his musical legacy.

RIYL: Brian Eno, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Fripp, Philip Glass, & Christian Marclay.

NO WORDS, NO FCC’s.
Recommended Tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11

1. (1:30) Rocco – Intro track with slow piano, few notes + humming distorted vocals.
2. (3:35) *The End – Extensive drumming, fragments of distorted sounds of guitar and synthesizers appear and disappear. Dense.
3. (3:52) ***Sioux Lookout – The Epilogue from the previous track surrounded by an extensive array of manipulated vocal sounds.
4. (2:51) Tamboura Jah – Noises here and there. Quiet track. Almost transparent.
5. (3:04) Two Bushas – Ambient 101. Space in all directions.
6. (3:51) **Space Love – Ambient elements coming from two different sources. Calm and palpitating.
7. (2:38) ***Iceland – A cross between a composition with pop origins and an experimental studio exercise. Haunting. My favorite on the album.
8. (1:57) *My First Love – Pop music in the air. Pleasant.
9. (3:09) **Opera – Craig Leon’s influence here. The most rhythmic of all the tracks on the album. Beautiful use of repetitive sounds.
10. (4:21) Aquatic – Ambient 101. Guitar sounds are the base of this composition.
11. (5:30) *Forest City – Quiet, atmospheric, and almost invisible. Dream state.