Forrest Fang
The Sleepwalker's Ocean
The Sleepwalkers Ocean, Forrest Fangs first 2-CD studio album, is a hypnotic deep-ambient ex- ploration of the fantastical and elusive realm of the subconscious. Fang gave free reign to his intuitive and instinctual side on this release, allowing the sonic landscape to drift into his interior world of elusive and impressionistic thoughts and images. "To me," Fang says, "the ocean is not only a symbol of emptiness and space, but also one of unknown depth and mystery. It is much like a dream that seems so real and vast yet is formless because it originates in the mind. For this release, I took a more open-ended approach, allowing in more spontaneous sonic accidents and textures, especially on my first long-form piece, An Alternate Ocean (The Salton Sea). The layered soundscape of my ocean, populated with these accidental characters, ebbs and flows in a vast imaginary sonambulent space." The albums centerpiece, "The Sleepwalkers Ocean", is a six-part ambient suite which travels from primal intensity to radiant placidity-moving through rain clouds, a thickened bog, a nocturnal ferry and a luminescent band of light. In this universe, a gamelan shares space with the familiar sounds of a mellotron, and a virtual Geiger counter shares space with an angelic organ. The first disc concludes with the contemplative and bell-like soundscapes of "Driftwood" and "Not forgotten." The 54-minute piece "An Alternate Ocean (The Salton Sea)" on Disc 2 offers an alternative view of the imaginary ocean suggested in the title track. The "ocean" is more sustained and celestial than its cousin with an inward focus and a hint of Asian influence that brings the album to a state of quiet repose. For Fang, this extended piece "gave me the chance to realize my virtual world on a larger and more organic scale."