Douglas Benford – Beauty Reports

An early work from sound artist Douglas Benford, Beauty Reports is a collection of extended electronic improvisations influenced by the pioneering ambient music of Brian Eno, specifically Ambient 4: On Land. Lightly melodic and textural, the tracks are composed minimally using field recordings, digital keyboard (probably Yamaha DX7), and loads of reverb. “Report Four” introduces some light electronic percussion into the mix, which shifts the mood just slightly into a quiet pleasantly meditative realm. Benford: “In the mid-1980s I found myself torn between a slightly embarrassing aspiring art pop career and experimenting with ambient music… Beauty Reports was striving to be total textural, almost like a contrived field recording, years before the concept of a chill out.”

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