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Three years ago I wrote on Woob 1194 emphasising (what I believed at that time) its transcendent (“cold”) character. (See comment below).

Now, after 36 months of further listening, I am less sure. Given the wealth packed into 1194, I’ll restrict my comments to On Earth.

It is a very warm, but it is not naïve. It is not "serious", more it is filled with irony and even disappointment. (The musical equivalent of Chekhov?)

The austere Gregorian beginning soon gives way (from 10:30) to a child’s steam-train revelry. We are no longer in the safety of thick-walled Church, but at the dizzy dawn of modernity, the rise of the steam-powered machine that would wipe away old feelings, older ways of living, old gods. The addition of weird bird calls (and the return of the chanting) as the train progresses only plunges us further into this wonderful fantasy world. We are drunk on the possibilities opened up to us.

But then, at 23:33: a shock; a breakdown. Stop.

The void is filled with a desire for some kind of ill-defined (Eastern) fulfilment. As if the East has no war. We are trainsick. Sick of the poisonous fruits of modernity: idealism, violence, technology, subjugation of nature. The end of On Earth, is like the end of the 20th Century: a state of fluidity and paralysis.

30:20: all we hear is the distant roar of war; in the East, again. ▪

Damn...
I bought this many years ago for 15 dollars or so.
I can't believe how much its going on ebay nowadays.
I think this had been my very first em:t purchase as well.
Had no idea wat i was in for when i bought it...brilliant.
Is there a such thing as Epic ambient?
hey anyone wants to chat about about other em:t /ambient/techno
jay4u80@yahoo.com ▪

Hi Dan, We just had to postpone our remastering session, oh well its been ten years, whats another couple of weeks? Life just keeps getting in the way. Patience is a virtue.... After that I have to decide on the all important packaging. It might have to be either very minimal or luxurious, we'll see!

Richard Shepherd ▪

Cyril I've already ranted about the old artists now owning their own copyright to their original em:t albums elsewhere (can anyone find that and type a link after this?) If you can wait, there will in the new year be a digitally remastered special edition of the qubism 2294 album. (Remastered by John Crossley, my original producer, arranger and dubmaster on the project). This will have the original album with all tracks full length and not mixed into each other plus a 2nd CD of unreleased outakes and alternate studio takes from the same period as the album 94-95( so I'll still call it the 10th anniversary edition despite missing 2004 for release) the only question is packaging and distribution but initially it will be available from me only.
Happy New Year in advance......
Richard Qubism Shepherd
PS. Rocking the box right now, a new(?) collaboration between The Orb and Meat Beat Manifesto, Battersea Shield. It came in a lovely round metal tin, absolutely top package! ▪

Hi Cyril, Since the past releases are extremely hard to get hold of I can sort of sympathise with the need to copy past em:t releases, although I certainly don't condone it. (Try contacting the artists directly). But offering to copy 0003 & 0004 on the em:t.cc site is a little cheeky and shows a lack of respect for the muscians and label who have put a lot of hard work into releasing music for you to enjoy! ▪

Hey, joe beuys, poke around the site a bit more, and you can often find the answers. In this case (I learned this here a while back) the sample you're asking about is from 'Ashik Kerib,' by Russian director Sergei Paradjanov. ▪

i wonder if this (great work, by the way) was in any way inspired or influenced by brian eno -- besides eno's being an originator of 'ambient' music. look at the titles: "on earth" -- "on land" is the title of an eno album, which has a track called "unfamiliar wind" -- "strange air"? both albums feature recorded birdsong and other animal noises. (the type of noise on "emperor," along with the deep bass, has a similar eerie feel as eno's sounds.)

in his liner notes to "ambient 4/on land" eno writes about spatially locating sounds "out of earshot" -- woob certainly does something like this (n.b. i'm not suggesting any aping, merely influence). there is some spoken text audible near the middle of "on earth" [around 15:50] that is so distant, blurry and awash with echoes that it's barely intelligible but clearly recognizable as speech. i think i hear "...i said i will go with you.... don't know what to do... simply have to..." it keeps going for about 2 minutes.

i'm trying to figure out what that melody in "on earth" is, the one played on a plucked-string instrument. it's very familiar to me, though i've never seen that georgian film that has been referenced in these forums. also, i have an untested suspicion that the high, thin vocals throughout the beginning and near-end of that track are a modified form of the lower, slower male vocal sample heard at the very end.

happy cycling... ▪

Best turn on since buying klf chill out from a second hand shop back in 1988 looking for my first rave CD and getting seriously whacked out by .v.strange sounds! woob 'rocks' - traveling ethnological field recordings pulsating pleasures for the future, where to now? 'suzuki keiichi maybe'. .. "the books" ... dont know any suggestions? keep getting my CD collection ripped off! its a problem with living in glasgow, really need to track this one down again . . still dreaming about it, any suggestions?
pleasure if you let me know - wearethemany@hotmail.com ▪

Actually I started my Em:t collection with woob², and then bought 1194.
I know that the "guys" live in Antarctica, and I guess that is the reason why I feel like being there when listening to 1194 :)!
I'm looking to find others woobish stuff on the internet, but this is not that easy...
cheers :)
PF ▪

Hi Pierre-F. Yes, it's fantastic, isn't it. It's my no.1 em:t, as well. Woob1194 was my first em:t purchase. I would hazard to say this is probaly the best em:t release ever!

By the way, those "guys" you see on the cover, live on Antarctica. You can even hear them on the last track. D:storted , of course. ▪

certainly one of my top five. And probably the first of all them.
This is a brilliant record, made up with beautiful but sometimes oppressing atmosphere. Each time I listen to it, I'm somewhere else... In Antarctica, for instance.
Definitely the best in my heart, and for a while...
Pierre-François ▪

Woob1194 is a serious person's ambient music choice. Not since Eno allowed his machines to create Ambient 1 has an artist produced a sound taperstry so cool and distant. Woob1194 is the musical equivalent of Duchamp's urinal or Spinoza's indifferent god. Despite, or perhaps because of, the samples of singing and screaming, the patterns (such as 'on earth' and 'odonna') unfold majestically in a aural universe quite independent of and unrelated to human experience. Woob1194 belongs to the Classicist tradition of aesthetics that seeks out the sublime, in all its wonder and horror. ▪

If you want to here music that defies to be categorized then Woob is way to go. Upon initial listening of Paul Frankland's acclaimed debut, woob 1194, a tabla beat whisks you away on the 32 minute odyssey, on earth, a fusion of dub, hip-hop grooves, traditional trance, middle-eastern music, ambient bliss, and field recordings. A span of influences which justifies the song's title. Along the journey you encounter all sorts of wildlife, you actually feel like you are engulfed by the jungle or where ever Frankland envisioned. Despite the daunting task of infusion so manyelements on one song, somehow Frankland is able to guide us effortlessly with a very soothing, evocave, and enlightening composition.

odonna is another amazing track which again transports us to another distant corner of the world. A tribal beat anchors this song as the angelic chorus and synths-washes blare alongside, very uplifting and somber at the same time. Some timely voice-overs add flair throughout the song.

The third track is a short but pleasant surprise. Thinking you landed in the middle of a newspaper printing plant, the serenade-like amoeba emerges and swoons the hopeless romantic in all of us. Immediately, I thought of the meatball and spaghetti scene in Disney's Lady and the Tramp.

Frankland composes a varied and strong piece for the albums fourth track wuub. wuub is nine minutes of violins, child-like African cantation, dub, synth-washes, and some drone.

strange air is a rather fitting name for the next trek. More disjointed and abstract in his delivery, Frankland creates an unnerving, eerie soundscape that plays out as cerebral cinema. Long synth-drones, B-movie thriller dialogue and gushing voice treatment help create an air of psychotica. This song happened to be remixed for Instinct's Plug In & Turn On 2 compilation but renamed Pluto for some reason.

Next, a deep heavy drone is interrupted by the sounds of penguins calling out across the sparse and lonely tundra track emperor. Very minimal, Star Trekish at times, animals abound, no beat at all, the album just sleeps into its end.

This is an amazing record overall, a must for any fan of electronica. Released in 1994, Paul Frankland composes the most refined, subtle and innovative examples of the interface between electronics and live instruments that flowered in the post-rave ambient environment of the 1990's.

Woob's 1194 album can be compared to many of celebrated FAX releases for it sophistication and rich and diverse use of worldly themes. If you happen to see this on eBay I'm sure it will fetch a high price, but for the winning bidder, you are guaranteed over 70 minutes of satisfaction. A+ ▪

Strangely enough, the white plastic part of this one's digipak was actually black. Bizarre, and quite striking. did they want to do something different with this one, or were they still playing with ideas for their presentation? Interesting... =] ▪