Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All

Few could have predicted the path James Holdens career would take when he emerged as a progressive trance wunderkind at the end of the 90s. Following Pete Tong-approved hits and remixes for Madonna and Britney Spears, he founded Border Community and helped launch the careers of Nathan Fake and Luke Abbott, then began releasing glitchy experimental techno that alienated his early audience. However, his euphoric, genre-blending mix CDs and Krautrock-influenced albums like 2013s The Inheritors attracted open-minded listeners, and a tour with Thom Yorkes Atoms for Peace moved Holdens focus away from DJing and towards live performance. With subsequent releases like The Animal Spirits, Holden embraced spiritual jazz and Moroccan Gnawa (the original trance music), as well as progressive electronic and new age. Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities, his 2023 full-length, looks back at his formative influences while keeping the spiritual vibe of his later work. Its a lot closer to ambient techno than trance, but its a different category than either, with loose, improvisational structures and modular synths that sprawl over the rhythms. The kick drums, when present, are never the focus of the tracks, but they gently tug the billowing arpeggios along. "In the End Youll Know" is like a more caffeinated Cluster track that does, in fact, come close to trance territory, but still maintains a rawness and spontaneity rarely present in the genre. The pulsating midtempo shuffler "Four Ways Down the Valley" laces its rippling waves with tangy distortion, and "Worlds Collide Mountains Form" is an unexpected prog-folk diversion with rustic violins, meaty bass guitar, and thumping drums. "You Can Never Go Back" features galloping tabla drumming over haunting ambient house melodies (think KLF and early Orb deep cuts) and light breakbeats. Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities is perhaps the furthest-out release in a discography full of inventive, inspired music, and its some of Holdens most exciting and impressive work. ~ Paul Simpson

2017年に自身のバンド=アニマル・スピリッツを率いてクラウトロックに挑んだかと思えば、2018年にはドキュメンタリー映画のサントラを手掛けるなど、〈エレクトロニック・ミュージックの探求者〉を地で行くジェイムズ・ホールデン。ソロとしては4作目となる本作でもフィールド・レコーディングを取り入れた牧歌的な仕上がりのエレクトロニカ"Common Land"や予測不能な展開が続く"Contains Multitude"など、さまざまなアプローチを駆使して聴き手を驚かせてくる。同時期にリリースされたネイサン・フェイクの作品と比較して聴いてみるのも一興だ。彼の〈ボーダー〉を越える旅路はまだまだ続いていく。
bounce (C)野村有正