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Released in 1994, Expo One is unusually modern in sound, perhaps because it sounds as though it could have been composed at any time during the last thirty years. Within the record, one can hear the faded shades of both Brian Eno's and William Basinski's eighties work, the blissed out textures of the Bristol and shoegaze scenes of the nineties, avant drone work from several decades of experimental musicians, and the familiar tones of today's ambient artists.
In fact, it's difficult to determine a definite sense of time or place about the four tracks included on the album. Sonically, no aural Carbon-14 dating is possible. "The Search," twelve minutes of vapor drawings and brassy tonalities, the muted sound of a foggy landscape, would easily fit upon any modern ambient release by modern hands—remarkably, the track is at least fourteen years old. "The Virus" is much more difficult to pin down, a marching dirge of ghostly Zoviet France processor-feedback circa Shadow, Thief of the Sun—punishing over twelve minutes, but strangely psychoactive. This is followed by "Exit Stencil," an interlude that returns to "The Search" for a few brief moments of dramatically drowned classical exploration. Finally, the epic twenty minute "Below Arch of Color Universe" soothes gently, presaging many a breathing synthesizer work, Windy & Carl, Stars of the Lid, entire swathes of several ambient music labels' catalogs.
Perhaps the most startling fact about Expo One is its obscurity. One might blame this tragedy on poor distribution, especially in the days before the internet, when photocopied catalogs and poorly stocked record stores were the only sources upon one could rely. It seems criminal that a record so ahead of its time, and yet curiously timeless, should have been ignored. Unquestionably, had the internet and MP3 revolution existed in 1994, more ambient-listeners would have had this remarkable record in their collections alongside the best of Eno, O Yuki Conjugate, Rapoon, Vidna Obmana, and others.
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