Waters Edge

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Sic - it's 'Waters' with no apostrophe. Not perhaps 'the edge of the water', then, but 'water', plural, huge expanses of it, endless, bottomless, deep blue oceans... the kind of thought you find yourself having during this breathy, space-filled, dreamy, meandering long cool swim of a record. (There again, it could just be a typo.)

Rothko's raw material has been manipulated and put together by Yokota to make four diaphanous, shimmering pieces of music that stay with you like the after effect of a dream, something you can hardly remember yet affects the way you feel entirely. The press release hints at Erik Satie and Ry Cooder, but the whole thing is actually more reminiscent of Eno (the Discreet stuff in particular) - swells of sound that that gather and disperse with the barest hint of form like banks of cloud.

The title track, with its empty room piano (a speeded up Morton Feldman, the pace of which is still, however, glacial) is very Harold Budd while the guitar on 'Lit By Moonlight' sounds more like BJ Cole's dips into ambience backed by Labradford. The piece is underpinned by very a gentle, insistent pulse which builds into a slightly bolder rhythm. It sounds sound like looking at a painting (by Mark Rothko, of course) feels. 'Distant Sounds of Summer' is the most Eno-like, ripples of guitar drenched in endless echo calling to mind the Apollo record, leaving you pleasantly drowning in inexplicably blue-coloured sound. Another reference point would be some of Vini Reilly's Durutti Column stuff. 'Sentiero' has a few clanging sounds, pots and pans hanging on a washing line in a gentle breeze, a lazy never-ending afternoon in some far off exotic country.

This is a record that should only increase the reputations of both of its under-rated makers, but given that it's apparently only going to be available on 12' vinyl, it sadly probably won't. A record like this should be available everywhere in a shimmering crystal box, wrapped in fine, delicate silk.

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