In Light Of that Learnt Later

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It is easy to forget, in the midst of all the dense, multi textured yet brilliantly emotive electronic music being created at the moment by the likes of Manitoba, Minatour Shock and Clue to Kalo, that simple, uncluttered sounds often breed the greatest beauty. This is a sentiment clearly not lost on Londoners Adrian Corker and Paul Conboy, who, to belie a wildly eclectic and prolific back catalogue (soundtracks, remixes of seminal acts such as Azymuth and Can, multi-media collaborations; they've certainly kept busy), have made In Light of That Learnt Later, an instrumental record that exudes beatific clarity and calm.

The key motif used to garner this sense of all-consuming peace is a beautifully basic acoustic guitar line, one of which adorns almost every track to add warm, intimate musicality to low key percussion patterns and subtle programming/overdub touches, occasionally embellished by understated melodica ('in the dust and haze') and trumpet ('from the hip').

No mesmeric Pro-Tools panache on display here, then, and why should there be? In Light of That Learnt Later manages to sound wonderfully wise without resorting to being too clever, a skill some of the glitch-head whippersnappers on the block would do well to master. By turns evocative, plaintive and just plain lovely, at 43 minutes long it doesn't outstay its welcome either. Anything else? Oh: the title would suggest that Corker and Conboy made this music with the benefit of hindsight, which is like this record: unlikely to change anything, but a wonderful thing nonetheless.