Keith Berry: Viable Systems 3
VSM Theory
Keith Berry is but one of a vast number of artists whose work falls into the ambient category; he is also not the only one operating in the field of generative music. Such a state of affairs would therefore seem to make it all the more difficult for the London-based composer to distinguish his work from that of his peers, yet Berry nevertheless succeeds in doing so, the third installment in his Viable Systems series compelling evidence to support the contention. More than anything the thing that accomplishes that has to do with timbre, the specific sound character he gives to his productions. Berry's is individualized enough that it's readily identifiable as his, at least to listeners sufficiently acquainted with the ambient genre and its primary practitioners.
The sound Berry presents in these atmospheric settings (fourteen on the CD, fifteen digital) is abrasion-free and sonorous; complementary to that is the material's tranquil, soothing tone. The tracks, which range from two to ten minutes in duration, are polished in production terms, suggestively titled (e.g., “Transmitter Towers”), and encourage a restful, meditative response in the listener. Generally speaking, the music is neither sombre nor oppressive but instead harmonious and spiritually nourishing, such qualities amplified by the bright multi-hued display on the package's panels.
As stated, it's timbre that is one of the recording's most striking aspects and something for which Berry has developed acute sensitivity in his many years as a sound artist. Consider, for example, the arresting woodwind-like element that appears alongside drifting textures and piano accents in “Dominant Curve,” or the entrancing flute-like tones that give “Shakkei” its defining character. As much as the recording emphasizes brightness, it's not without a brooding episode or two. “Autumn Landscape With Mist,” for instance, assembles timbres suggestive of mellotron, tenor sax, piano, and vibraphone into a sober elegy.
It's next to impossible to not cite Eno as a natural antecedent for Berry's material when stirring evocations like “Vivisystem 39169020” and “Yellow-Red-Blue” could pass for missing tracks from 1978's Music For Films; that's especially so when their defining features include warbling synths, gauzy atmospheres, and auras of stillness and mystery. There's no shame in an ambient artist being influenced by Eno, however: no one would castigate a contemporary classical composer if a work showed signs of a Beethoven or Debussy influence, and the same could be said of artists working in any tradition, musical or otherwise. Taken on its own terms, Berry's recording offers state-of-the-art ambient splendour.December 2020