RICHARD A. INGRAM
Happy Hour
WHITEBOX011
White Box Recordings 2011
04 Tracks. 52mins30secs

Boomkat: CD

A year on from the release of his impressive solo debut, Consolamentum, Manchester-based musician Richard A. Ingram returns with another slab of implacably sombre cinematic electronic music. Released once again on the excellent White Box, Happy Hour is a particularly bleak and oppressive affair, with which Ingram continues to explore intricate textural soundscapes and arrange them into a powerful soundtrack.

Articulated around four lengthy tracks, ranging from ten-and-a-half to fifteen minutes, each with their own intense tone and mood, Happy Hour is at once extremely disturbing and deeply haunting. Continue Reading »

RICHARD A. INGRAM
Consolamentum
WHITEBOX005
White Box Recordings 2010
06 Tracks. 46mins25secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD

A member of prog-metal outfit Oceansize, where he operates under the sobriquet of Gambler, and with whom his released three albums and a number of EPs since 2000, Richard A. Ingram investigates a very different series of soundscapes with his debut album, Consolamentum, released on White Box. Claiming influences as varied as Erik Satie, Jasper TX, Machinefabriek, Ben Frost or Tape, Ingram weaves here a series of dark and complex soundscapes, created from fragments of piano, guitars and tapes.

The album and track titles refer to the history of the Cathars, a religious sect active during the eleventh, twelfth and thirteen centuries, essentially in the south of France, yet this is not in essence a religious work or a concept album in any shape or form, although the particular mood of the record, and its increasingly sombre tone, could find echo in the persecution of the members of the sect and their eventual massacre. Continue Reading »