Seofon - Zero Point: Lessons in being nothing

Zero Point: lessons in being nothing showcases some of the great talents in electronic music today, and finds them participating in a unique form of collaboration. With Ambient Temple of Imagination (ATOI) tracks as the inspiration and source material, Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, and Seofon opened a circle of recycling (a process developed by Vidna Obmana and Asmus Tietchens to go deeper than simple remixing). Stephen Kent, Robert Rich, Not Breathing, and Thermal were brought into the circle as the project progressed. Entirely new pieces were created using a variety of methods and collaborative trajectories with Seofon (a member of Ambient Temple of Imagination) serving as a center-point: coordinating the project, making his own recycling contributions, and integrating the finished tracks into a hypnotic tapestry. The resulting music has traveled a long way from its origins, the original material barely recognizable in the new pieces. This is the sound of space folding, of thoughts and dreams flittering through the leaves of the World Tree.

(press release by The Foundry)


Zero Point showcases some of the brightest talents in electronic music and finds them participating in a unique form of collaboration. With Ambient Temple of Imagination (ATOI) tracks as the inspiration and source material, Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, and Seofon began the project by recycling and remixing the ATOI source tracks; Stephen Kent, Robert Rich, Thermal, and Not Breathing were brought into the project as it progressed. After most of the collaborative work was completed, Seofon, a member of ATOI, mixed the tracks, compiled them, and rolled them into a complete and whole sonic tapestry; Zero Point was the final product. This is a fantastic recording, and while this is a remix recording for all intents and purposes, one can hardly hear the original source material in the individual works themselves. At the same time, though, this isn't by any stretch of the imagination a typical remix recording — it's quite atypical, in fact. One of the things that's really unique about this recording is the complete integration of the Brian Eno-influenced school of ambient music and the more beat-oriented dance style, almost trance ambient. Zero Point is a fantastic recording and one that listeners should definitely look into. The production is excellent, the compositions are excellent, and the sound overall is warm and regenerative.

(review by Matt Borghi for the All-Music Guide)


Zero Point: Lessons In Being Nothing is a re-working (or re-examination) of tracks first realized by the artist known as The Ambient Temple of Imagination, now on this effort known as Seofon. The orginal source material (the album Planetary House Nation) was re-mixed, re-ordered, re-processed, re-cycled, added to, subtracted from and produced into a deeper, more expansive work which blurs the borders between ambient-ethno and tribal-world. This epic aural excursion features the sounds and manipulations of Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana and Seofon with fellow collaborators Stephen Kent, Robert Rich, Not Breathing and Thermal. But trying to discern the individuals on this album will be as difficult as noticing when a new track begins; the talents and contributions on Zero Point combine perfectly to form "one from many".

(review by Chuck van Zyl for Star's End Radio)


Seofon - Zero Point

Part remix album, part collaborative release, and part compilation, Zero Point features San Francisco's Seofon digging through the back-catalogue of sibling trance-ambient projects Ambient Temple Of Imagination and Mystery School (both of which he is a member) and reworking the material with the help of an all-star cast of electronic musicians that includes Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Stephen Kent, Not Breathing and Thermal. While each of the eight tracks is credited specifically to one or more of the participating artists, the entire set has been seamlessly linked by Seofon, resulting in a 70 minute journey that ebbs and flows from classic Eno-style ambience to more beat-driven and ethno-flavored soundscapes.

(review by Greg Clow for Grooves Magazine #9)


Seofon is a member of Ambient Temple of Imagination, a Bay Area ensemble that has explored the limits and possibilities of the ritual of sound and the ambient (or chill) rooms. "Zero Point: Lessons in Being Nothing," the initial Hypnos/Foundry release, is a collaboration with Seofon as the coordinator. The collaborators are Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Stephen Kent, Thermal (an ATOI contributor), and Not Breathing. This CD is based on recycling material from ATOI's CD's. Vidna Obmana and Asmus Tietchens invented recycling, a recording process that goes deeper than simple remixing. More often than not, the result bears little or no resemblance to the original material. Each participant played a key role in the collaboration. Seofon was the center point. He coordinated the project and contributed new material and recycling. Vidna Obmana brought the recycling process and contributed his special touch. Steve Roach translated ATOI live tracks into his own soundworlds. Robert Rich added his electro-organic harmonics. Stephen Kent revived his spontaneous didg discourse. Thermal and Not Breathing cast a new light on unexplored territories. This is a special CD! I listened to and reviewed this disc right after reviewing Steve's "Core." I am blown away by the power within these musical passages. It is the direct result of the integration of Steve's spirit, Dirk's visions, Robert's foresight, Stephen's sensitivity and the unfamiliar - yet essential - newness of light from Thermal and Not Breathing. But I digress and I do not want to take away from Seofon's monumental achievement. In accepting the contributions of others, he realized that the totality would be greater than the sum of the parts. He allowed them to carry him to the perpendicular universe. In surrendering, Seofon achieved victory. By freely giving away artistic control, he achieved the ultimate integrity. This CD is a true holistic integration of the highest order!

(review by Jim Brenholts for Ambient Visions)

SEOFON: Zero Point: Lessons in Being Nothing (CD on the Foundry)

On this 70 minute CD from 2001, Seofon (aka the Ambient Temple of Imagination) is joined by Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Stephan Kent, Robert Rich, Not Breathing, and Thermal. These "collaborations" consist of taking material from ATOI's "Planetary House Nation" CD and recycling those themes and sonic motifs, filtering them through the collaborators own styles and musical sensibilities.

The results of these displaced intersections are thoroughly ambient and distinctly engaging, molded in the styles of each collaborator. A significant difference between the normal moods of these collaborators and the tracks featured on this CD involve the spaciness of these musical remixes. Normally, these collaborators are known for the earthiness of their ambient compositions, while here their music is infused with cosmic airs, subjecting geological atmospherics to the rigid effects of vacuum and interstellar radiation.

Overall, languid electronics predominate, peppered with distant tribal rhythms and drifting clouds of tonal hiss. There are also hints of machinery laboring to maintain endless function utilized as a mechanical rhythm track behind certain soundscapes.

(review by Matt Howarth for Sonic Curiosities)


Seofon
Zero Point
CD / 8 tracks / 69.44 mins

Must admit that I simply don't understand the concept behind this one. Even though the booklet is in English I haven't the slightest idea what it is on about or who Seofon is or if indeed it is really a person. I might have been a little the wiser if I had visited the web address given but quite frankly I didn't have the time and if music has to be explained to me in order for me to enjoy it, it's not the sort of thing that will bother my CD player more than once.

As with another CD I have just reviewed however, also with mumbo jumbo text, the music is in fact not at all bad. This is hardly surprising when the people performing on it are a "who's who" of ambient music. Vidna Obmana appears on five of the eight tracks, Steve Roach on four. Robert Rich and Stephen Kent also appear. 'Seofon' is only credited on three tracks! Basically if you like Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana you should like this. 'Splendors' begins with waves of white noise, just a little metallic percussion in the background. Dark drones start up then some brighter pads join them. In the third minute a rhythmic loop enters sounding like a cross between a train and tribal rhythms. It becomes more strident chugging along nicely before starting to fade away into atmospherics a couple of minutes from the end. 'The Gift' is very short, lasting barely two minutes with some rather strange looped percussion sounding like a mild industrial track with some almost growling effects in the background. 'Collecting the Spirits' has a dark ominous feel, rhythm being provided by some odd sort of maraca sound. There is also what could be a growling didgeridoo which gives a hint of menace. Things develop nicely each element increasing in intensity only flowing back to atmospherics in the last two minutes.

'Science of Success' is a very intriguing collage of backward sounds and windy pads. A rhythm enters and gets into a rather good head nodding groove. It wouldn't have been out of place on one of Ian Boddy's more recent albums actually. There's also a really good electric guitar (I think) which soars over the top like a wailing spectre- superb stuff. 'Mystery of Freewill' calms things down somewhat in that it is a peaceful floater with some very nice almost vocal sounding pads. It then goes through a watery cavernous section with a very nice melodic motif. 'Rev. 20:13 teknos (the seeding)' is the longest track at over 18 minutes. Again it makes use of rather windy pads but with dark undercurrents. Percussion is used here and there, just adding a little colour to all the float, then some faint American Indian type chanting can just be heard in the background. It then becomes somewhat complex- a bit like hearing an orchestra tuning up. Strangely it is quite hypnotic, gradually starting on a very long fade to the finish.

The first half of 'Lessons in being Nothing' is mainly bell tones but then a percussive loop comes in, gradually developing but never becoming too strident. We finish with the title track, a rather complex though relaxing tapestry of disparate sounds. Eventually some sort of structure is created through a loop (more of the maraca type sounds I think) which remains rather low in the mix disappearing entirely with a couple of minutes to go leaving us in a very pleasant state of float to finish.

(review by DL for Synth Music Direct)


Various Artists - "Zero Point"

"Zero Point" is a multi-collaborative project with vidnaObmana, Seofon, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Stephen Kent, Thermal, [and] Not Breathing.... Pulsing and penetrating sounds are at the center of this music, while spacey elements abound.

(review by Backroads Music)


Seofon - Zero Point.
(The Foundry fou.11, CD, 2001)

Being a fan of ATOI, I had been looking forward to hearing the source recycled by Vidna, Roach, Rich, et al... I was not disappointed! Amazingly deep and intriguing, these songs manage to keep the original "feeling" of what ATOI did while adding new layers. A true ambient CD! The notes in the PDF file downloaded from the Foundry site provided a fascinating addition (especially Richard Sun).

(review by DJ Monolith on the Hyperreal ambient list)


Seofon - "Zero Point"
(The Foundry fou.11, CD, 2001)

Seofon is a man shrouded in mystery. The Foundry's website says only that he's a Bay area recent college graduate, and little else. Whoever he is, he has friends in high places, because this CD is a veritable who's who of ambient music, including Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, Stephen Kent and others. It is a truly synergistic work, using Vidna Obmana's recycling technique, which is taking source material from each musician and completely reworking it so that it bears little resemblance to the original recording. Each piece primarily features one or two of the musicians. From highly rhythmic pieces to shimmering echoes of formless sound, the disc ebbs and flows perfectly from one track to the next. It truly stands as a singular, gorgeous work. Though each track is discernible from the others, the way they seamlessly go together is admirable. There is a very natural progression to it. I've raved and yet said little if anything about any individual track, but that's because I find all of it fantastic and breathtaking. Indispensable listening. Check out the website for bonus mp3 tracks and downloadable credits with more detail than that already included in the attractive CD booklet.

(review by Phil Derby for Exposé Magazine)


Seofon: Zero Point: Lessons in being nothing
(the Foundry - 2001)

Zero Point: Lessons in being nothing is a lesson in the benefits of communal recycling...

Beginning with some of his Ambient Temple of Imagination Planetary House Nation tracks, Seofon joins fellow recyclers Vidna Obmana and Steve Roach in reworking the sounds therein... as if that weren't enough, several of those tracks were then re-recycled in collaboration with Robert Rich, Thermal, Stephen Kent and Not Breathing.

From a gorgeous shapeshifting mistiness, trainlike percolations slowly approach as splendors evolves from its former life. With the brooding resonance of a faraway industrial zone, the gift (2:05) drones mysteriously, accented by faintly insectile chitters. Buzzing with the energies of Kent's didgeridoo sounds, Collecting the Spirits churns insistently before fading into distant vapors.

Tribaltronic beats patter steadfastly through the hazy veils and electric wails of the Seofon/Rich redux, science of success. Of course, Roach is the driving force behind rev. 20:13 teknos (the seeding) (18:04), the track that expands like a humongous western skyscape; occasional chanting voices are heard deep inside the sweltering gaseousness which becomes brassier in its later incarnations.

Densely ringing space envelops lessons in being nothing, which grows louder and is injected with a clunky mechanical pattern. Passed from Roach/Obmana to Thermal/Seofon, zero point concludes the collection with its beautifully cloudy swirls conglomerated around and concealing some inner core of unseen goings on.

Being familiar with the original ATOI tracks makes for some interesting before-and-after comparisons, but such familiarity isn't necessary to enjoy these considerably more ambient re-dos. In the making of Zero Point: Lessons in being nothing, Seofon has enlisted help from some of the finest experimentalists and jointly achieved lovely abstractions.

(rated 8.7/10 -- review by David Opdyke for Ambientrance)


SEOFON "Zero Point" (The Foundry) cd

For "Zero Point," San Francisco ambient technician Seofon has remixed (um, excuse me his term is "recycled") Ambient Temple of Imagination's "Mystery School" and has brought in the talents of Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Stephen Kent, Robert Rich, Not Breathing, and Thermal (whew!). With the best intentions of New Age harmony and sonic accomodation, "Zero Point" has become a monochromatic indigo-blue blur of deep synth washes and occasional ethnic percussion, sounding like a computer generated simulation of Eno's "Music For Airports."

(review by Aquarius Records)


"Zero Point" from Seofon is a very interesting collaborative piece of work from very talented composers. The result is an ambient journey through mysterious atmospheres that evoke oceanic and foggy soundscapes with a ritualistic feel arising from the tribal percussions.

(review by Jean-Francois Fecteau for Le Vestibule)

SEOFON - ZERO POINT (CD by The Foundry)

Hypnos is a known label for their ambient music in all its forms and The Foundry approaches ambient from a more experimental angle. The two labels now joined forces and unlashes four new productions which crosses these boubdaries, of course if ever they existed.

The first one is by Seofon in collaboration with Vidna Obmana and Steve Roach. The source material on this CD were recordings by Ambient Temple Of Imagination/Mystery School, which were processed by the three. After that stage, the results went to another group of recyclers, this being Stephen Kent, Thermal, Robert Rich and Not Breathing. It takes the simple remix away and is replaced by a more complex form of recycling (and the blurb acknowledges this to Vidna Obmana's work with Asmus Tietchens, which is not entirely true however). Looking at these names, it might be no difficult to guess what this sounds like. Deep washes of synths, sound synthesizes and processing, coupled occassionally with pseudo ethnic percussion. Not really hypnotic for me, but pleasent music while reading the newspaper on a cloudy sunday morning.

(review by Franz de Waard for Vital)

Seofon (with Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Stephen Kent, Robert Rich, Not Breathing, Thermal): Zero Point: lessons in being nothing.
The Foundry/Hypnos Fou.11
http://www.foundrysite.com

Seofon was/is a member of ATOI - the Ambient Temple of Imagination (v2.02) - and on this release takes tracks from their last album 'Planetary House Nation' and 'recycles' them (a term used by Obmana and Tiechens) through various artists in a remix chain: sometimes only a single remixer, at others 2 or 3. As usual the originals are not familiar to me, so I will take it on its own terms, although the general feel I got from the ATOI compilation is of sweeping ambient techno. To save confusion I will refer only to the retitled track, and ignore the various hands at play as I am unfamiliar (I must admit) with each one's work to be able to quantify what they have brought to the project: the result is the object under scrutiny.
The mood and method of the album is set in motion by 'Splendours' where an extended opening of quiet sussurus and long voicey tones provide an awakening to the long central section. Here a beat starts to develop, taking a couple of minutes to work its way to the foreground, and a spacey driven section takes over. And then the final three minutes is a dubby devolution to the drifting ambience. Seofon has editied the album into a seamless whole, with up to 20 seconds of overlapping, so we move straight into 'The gift' a industrialish rhythm with shakers setting up a breathing rhythm. Brief but intense. A chittering and tonal opening to 'Collecting the spirit', underscored by a King Crimson mellotron sound, shifts into a lovely extended dialogue between synth tones and the didgeridoo.
Growth and evolution in 'Science of success' as choppy rhythm cycles, tones and sqrls intertwine, eventually joined by a complex tabla percussion and a restrained but forceful electric guitar and swirling synths. Deeply ambient, 'Mystery of freewill' shifts from washes, tones water and voices beautifully layered to a simpler clattering percussive second half with deep tones which take the fade. The strangely named 'Rev. 20:13 teknos (the seeding)' (thinking about it, probably a reference the the Book of Revelations) is a wonderful extended trip, travelling on a sea of long tonal waves (deep, string, rumbling) which is joined for short periods by various ethnic percussion and chant, then guitar and didgeridoo, then sliding into swelling metaltones (almost sitar) to a forceful end.
The two title tracks close the album. 'Lessons in being nothing' is a meditation on a hollow modulated ringing tone and temple bells, low chants suggesting Tibet, rising to a subdued rhythm before returning to the drones, while 'Zero point' is a big dramatic conclusion. Held organ tones, interference sqrls and a resonant gong or shaken metal sheet that returns in waves are the main elements, with other tones and a light beat working their way in, but it builds to a powerful dense sound wall, eases back for a while, and then into a long tonal fade. These two in particular suggest the spiritual element of the music. On the whole it does resemble my other experiences with ATOI, but there seems to be drone elements here (reflecting Obmana and Rich), which adds a further dimension. Whoever is responsible for what, it is a forceful and complex tribal/ambient/dub album which marks an excellent first step in the expansion of The Foundry.

(review by Jeremy Keens for Ampersand Etcetera, Volume 2001.15)

Just received Zero Point today, listened to its entirety today on trip to family members place. Incredible stuff, really cool atmospheric, tribal, ambient, spacey, you name it , sure is there... I was actually surprised, thought it would be good, but not this good... This is a must for all you ambient buffs, as well as the styles mentioned above.... Two words , GET IT....

(review by Mike Valant on Hypnos forum)


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