Empreintes de l'Ivresse

With a great reverence for his source material, Eric La Casa is one of the most successfull and engaging artists composing from the sounds of the nature. The Digital Narcis label, a rabid supporter of electro-acoustic music with a bevy of new releases waiting in the wings, has released his latest, L'empreinte de l'ivresse. La Casa's work is an effortless unity of earthly elements, largely using site recordings such as water, the wind or even the sounds of civilization, along with the delicate resonance of gongs, chimes and bells, to assemble his elemental landscapes. The sounds he loves have an inherent flow that opens a deep connection with each listener, locking into eternal rythm of life. Chris Rice, Halana #4

Eric La Casa is a former member of Syllyk - but hey who remembers them? In the past few years his work moved towards soundscaping. Un homme avec un microphone : going round with a microphone. Many recordings of the sea, rivers, shores along with gongs, bells and metal. He creates the most atmospheric music - very much like 'real' ambient music. Thomas Koner in a landscape. There isn't much to say about this CD. All four pieces are outstandingely good. Very atmopsheric, very laidback, very natural. Roel Meelkop, Vital week 36 number 190

From the deep ambient quarter, this disc takes field recordings both classic (shoreline, crickets, trains, voices) and contemporary (electric meter, twigs, stones) and weaves a four-part immersion into the dreamworlds where ocean meets earth. Apart from one piece on the Croatian shoreline, with rich gurgling surfbreaks and small, quiet wave washes, recorded in crystaline clarity, most of the disc is not easily recognizable. Rather, La Casa takes us way beneath the surface of things, conjuring a primal darkness from which movement begins. He combines field recordings with recordings of various metal, clay, and wood objects ; the overall effect is of becoming immersed resonances. The interplay between sustained tones and rhythmic, staccato elements dances the edge of unease and the deepest nurturing. Strange stuff, surely not for the literal-minded, but for those with a taste for the underworld, a disc to treasure. Jim Cummings, Earth Ear