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Distance | 
| Artist: Marconi Union
Label: All Saints
Category: Music
Buy New: $16.98
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 39221
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 571490
UPC: 031257149020
EAN: 0031257149020
ASIN: B000AY2JPU
Release Date: March 14, 2006
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Sleepless | | • | These European Cities | | • | Through Glass | | • | Buildings and People | | • | Suburb 27 | | • | Inter | | • | A Temporary Life |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
What goes around comes around ambient. That's the message from a third generation of electronica artists who were just leaving the womb when Brian Eno's early works were being diffused in the 1970s. They were barely teens when the Orb rolled forth in the '90s. But new artists like Boards of Canada, the Album Leaf, and Explosions in the Sky are taking those early ambient primers and adding geometries of glitch and dream guitar to the mix, creating a melodic brand of ethereal music with an edge. Marconi Union, a Manchester duo, follow suit on a CD that travels in cinematic melancholy and textural malaise. Their songs build slowly, emerging out of a flattened landscape of static and stillness to attain a quietly triumphal beauty. Percussion is almost subliminal in journeys that pulse more than groove. It sometimes gets ominous, with an ostinato bass growl prowling through a Blade Runner landscape on "Inter." But usually they generate a quiet awe, like the slow build of "Sleepless." Expect to hear tracks from Distance in soundtracks and commercials near you soon. --John Diliberto
Album Description
Marconi Union is a reclusive electronic duo from Manchester, England. Their sound has been described as "a post rock cinematic orchestra." Distance, their first U.S. release, is unique, individual and timeless, fusing acoustic sounds, strings and pianos with electronica, post-rock guitars and even occasional nods towards jazz and dub. Described by the band as "a soundtrack to a film that has not yet been made," listening to Distance evokes the feeling of being driven silently around an unknown city at night, observing the activity and life of the urban sprawl in safety and isolation.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Excellent ambient work January 11, 2008
R. D. Waters (Newton, NC United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
According to the dotca.co.uk Web site, "Distance" was conceived as a sort of soundtrack to a nighttime journey through an urban environment in the safe isolation of an automobile. The music is soft and the arrangements are sparse. The instrumentation is mostly guitar and electronic keyboards, other than the saxophone on the final track "A Temporary Life." The music is built on the typical ambient foundations - repeated loops, washes of sound, and so forth.
The appropriately named opening track "Sleepless" is deceptively gentle, but as you listen more closely you realize that beneath the calm surface there is also a restless, anxious edge to the track. "Distance" strikes a balance between sustaining a mood and employing melodies. A good example of this is "These European Cites." At first it seems to be nothing more than a gentle loop with synthesizer swells, but halfway through a beautiful melody (played on a guitar) is added.
Listening to Distance is pure pleasure. It would be hard to pick a favorite track because the effect of each track is cumulative. As for comparisons (always a risky business), fans of Brian Eno (it's released on his All Saints label) and Harold Budd would probably find Marconi Union enjoyable as well.
Really grew on me August 10, 2007
Jmark2001 (Florida)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I first got this, I dimissed it as minimalist noodling. Now, weeks later, it is one of my favorite selections on my ipod. This grows on you. You can't bring any preconceptions to it and you have to let it work its magic on you. Try it as background when you are driving during rush hour, try it with some good headphones, try it when you want to chill out. This is understated, yes, but put together with skill and intelligence. Very good, quiet ambient pieces.
re: Celestial Melodies Great Work Album June 22, 2007
T. Nguyen
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This album resonates with beauty... the music provides you with a very thought provoking journey. If you want to transcend your current time and place, just put this album on and you will be transported by the delicate yet etheral melodies.. it is an album with tremendous beauty. I cannot recommend a album more, it relaxes me and gives me insight into what I am doing. Absolutely fantastic album to listen to while at work...
The Interpretation of Dreams April 30, 2007
S. E. Vogiatzis (Athens, Greece)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
At the end of the previous century, Brian Eno's genius, expressed through his various ambient works, set an insurmountable barrier for those that they chose to follow his pattern. To put it bluntly, he set a standard that nobody managed even to come near to. (Maybe his brother came close, but he was still lacking Brian's imagination and mood to discover).
All these until Marconi Union and their Distance work. Dreamy atmosphere, almost psychoanalytic, moving in all senses. A perfect link to Eno's Music For Films sequel. A perfect step towards ambient fulfillment.
It is really hopeful that such groups exist and needless to say, we are truly looking forward to their next work.
Energy transfer February 13, 2007
Partial to the Prairie
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
There is an exhange of energy that takes place for me when I listen to Distance. Not only do I experience de-stressing and decompression, there also comes a palpable energy transfer while listening to these selections.
The first step in the transfer is the way Distance draws the toxicity of my day out of me, leaving me pleasantly drained. The second step of the process, then, is how the movement within each track subtly softens and salves the chisel-bitten edges of my consciousness. In the third step, as fresh fluid trickles in, I am refilled and renewed.
After a day of dying little, moment-by-moment deaths, Distance breathes life back into me, slowly, slowly, and almost imperceptibly.
If you have ragged edges, if you have wounds, this can be a balm for you.
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