JAMES BERNARD 黑胶唱片和CD

Review:  As part of Trunk Records' Soundtracks reissues series, comes the vinyl debut of James Bernard's OST for 'The Devil Rides Out', a rather corny yet no less enjoyable gothic horror classic film from the late 60s. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film centres on the macabre antics of an underground group of Satanists. Fittingly, the soundtrack is immediate, full of tribal drumming and stern, expressionistic string zaps; its pieces have titles like 'Orgy Of Evil' and 'Hidden Sacrifice'. You were warned.

Review: California's James Bernard is a much-loved regular on this label as well as being a veteran of the wider ambient scene who has been hard at it for more than three decades. His latest outing on Past Inside The Present with Anthene (aka Brad Deschamps of Toronto) is Soft Octaves, an album that finds them crafting a series of sounds using electric six-string bass. It has a huge range from the deepest depths to the wispiest of highs and each of the tracks here was recorded in one single take. The results are spellbinding indeed and the range of the bass's sonic ability is astonishing as it sounds at times like a cello, at others woodwind and is always intriguing.

Review: Anyone who's cast even the most casual eye over their ever expanding catalogue will have realised that one thing Past Inside The Present do best is bring artists together for unexpected and inspired collaborations. Departing in Descent is the first collaboration between James Bernard and Bvdub but their creative conversation effectively started as far back as 1994 when the latter bought Bernard's Atmospherics album in 1994 when it was "mistakenly stocked" in his local house music store. He says it was and remains his favourite ambient album, so when the pair found themselves crossing paths for one night in LA years later, a collaboration was the only logical conclusion. The results are more organic and friendly on the ear than some ambient offerings, with real instrumentation meshed with walls of woozy synths and delays, but no less fantastical and ambitious for it.

Review: Back in February, the prolific Past Inside The Present label boss Zake hooked up with Marc Ertel, James Bernard, and From Overseas at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis for a very intimate live show in a historic Gothic Chapel. A vast array of instruments were used including a Fender Telecaster, Meris Mercury 7, Eurorack modular synthesizer, Stingray bass guitar and literally tens more tools and toys and the resulting eight tunes of absorbing ambient are all presented here. It is another mystic and mystifying release from this label that reaches sublime new emotional highs.