The Equatorial Stars

32 years after their Vanguard album NO PUSSYFOOTING Robert Fripp and Brian Eno came together in 2004 to compose and perform seven new sounscapes on THE EQUATORIAL STARS. Produced by Brian Eno, this album, whose textures and atmospheres from the heart of each track, subtly changing, allowing space for Fripp's guitar solos and sounds to emerge from the center, give Fripp & Eno the opportunity to redefine an area of music they helped launch into the mainstream in the first place.

So much truly boring ambient music has been made since Brian Eno coined the phrase in the mid 1970s that it's sometimes hard to remember this can truly be a vibrant music that's, you know, musical. And while there are some clicky and smeared sounds courtesy of Mr. Eno that can only result from modern computer software, this album is a return to 1975's lush, pastoral and excellent Evening Star. The duo pick up where they left off on this aptly titled collection of blessed-out drone exercises. Fans of modern ambient music, like the stuff that Kranky label releases, might wish that there was a little more "envelope pushing." However, if you view ambient music on the same level as any other genre (say, bluegrass) then this album is akin to hearing that genre's originators (say, Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley) jamming quietly on a back porch while the sun sets. And it's hard to find fault with that, or this here fine, deliberately unassuming work. --Mike McGonigal