The name Lawrence English is a new one for me, despite his concerts with David Toop, Ami Yoshida, Oren Ambarchi, Marina Rosenfeld, and many more. English also produced albums for Tujiko Noriko and The Rational Academy. On ‘Happiness Will Befall’, English plays guitar, computer and some additional instrumentation (electronics, cassettes and turntables). There are some elements of field recordings in here (like a metro passing), but the prime instruments are guitar and computer. Lawrence English plays ambient music written with the big A – slowly shifting patterns played on the guitar, occasional notes being strummed an sustained until they die out beyond the threshold of hearing. At times I was reminded of Oren Ambarchi’s work in this area, but the work of English is just a little bit more electronic (even when one doesn’t have the idea of hearing computer processes), it’s still a highly organic flow of ambient music. Pastoral music with modern means and ancient, wooden stringed boxes.
FdW