Third full-length CD (and sixth overall official release) for the excellent solo project by Derrick Stembridge, handler and owner of Chicago-mail from the same Labile Records. Described as “a suitcase full of life + sounds, the experience of skipping stones across the waves of sound”, the new work environment best summarizes the tone of “Truth” (2006) and electronics more rich and varied tradition of following ” fällt “(2007), embracing influences and downtempo IDM wide-ranging scheme to rebuild without pre accomplice excellent work on the quality of the melodies and the depth of sounds chosen, enhanced by a truly excellent production. Certain vowels disappear sporadic raids of the past, while the rhythmic impact is most significant, reveal just how unwieldy and episodes full of changes – including rhythmic, with great delays – such as “Phonetic Reversal” and “August”, but the ability to Derrick goes beyond the mere construction of evocative soundscapes, capturing the various moods quite naturally, as in melancholic and darkeggiante “Rorschach”. The tracks flow smoothly and the work grows in intensity: the harmonious and kindly sumptuous “Broken Orchestra” reveals a compositional approach that guides and layers sounds like a conductor directs the musicians, where “Existence” is the more muscular side of Drifting In Silence, jitters between IDM and a groove that creeps under the skin. In the more than 10 minutes of “Tremer” the American artist reiterates his great talents as an arranger and sound manipulator, giving a pearl modular environment with great sophistication, including piano notes extremely rarefied but meaningful way, with “Fixer” the comeback groove, but the refined sounds and wonderful variations within each track are the real edge over our own, able to breathe due to the thickness at all times. Rounding out the work of the excellent environmental tones of the title track, another example of exquisite modulation of ethereal sounds and sparse. “Lifesounds” is undoubtedly the album of maturity for the American composer, and with it – and the attention of the finest palates – you clip the place it deserves in the elite sought more emotional and electronics.
- Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi
[Darkroom Magazine - Lifesounds Review]
From the title and the press release that came with the CD, I was expecting new age music suitable for a strictly platonic massage. What I got was a soundtrack for an epic sci-fi film that’s yet to be made—the synth-soaked grandeur of Blade Runner meets the big-beat swagger of The Fifth Element. Unlike a lot of “ambient” albums, it simply never gets boring. Synthesist and composer Derrick Stembridge is a master of his craft, and Lifesounds is way hipper than anyone intended. – Stephen Fortner
Sonic ambience. Industrial clashes. Instrumental grooves. Dreamy shoegazing. Droning beats. Lifesounds, the fifth album from experimental composer Derrick Stembridge, is a unification of genres all orchestrated into dark, heavy electronica. The project, named Drifting in Silence, is perhaps most accurately labeled with Stembridge’s own description – post-ambience. And for the first time, Stembridge has included vocals on several songs, vocorded to a healthy degree that only compliments those ambient, industrial grooves. With all these elements present listeners will experience a distinct feeling of movement, a kind of soaring through dreamscapes, hence the name Drifting in Silence. It’s not often we see a classically trained artist exploring territories claimed by the most avant-garde, but when we do the degree of polish is outstanding. Lifesounds is interesting, and it marks new territory for the genres. Fans of ambience and industrial electronica will appreciate.
— Robin Cripe
[Reviews and the Rest: Lifesounds Review]
Incorporating a wide range of genres (post-industrial, shoegaze, drone, experimental, IDM) and exceeding at each with a careful balance, Drifting In Silence unleashes what may very well be the quintessential life sounds the title depicts. This being the fourth proper album, DIS have matured since Fallto (2009) with the amalgamation of more live instruments and layers upon layers of peculiar sound bytes dripping from the canvass.
Derrick Stembridge, the force behind DIS has described his view of genre-mixing; “The goal is to create an environment where all of these types of music can live together (like stones skipping across waves of sound). That’s why I went down the path of genre mixing.” This analogy couldn’t be any closer to the truth as Lifesounds creates more of a visual platform for the listener to absorb; the ambient moments pulling you in just as chiseled beats begin to take shape. It’s all quite inspiring as DIS takes you from one end of the spectrum to the other, gradually.
With that in mind, it takes a few listens to properly digest this full length due to its scope of sound; there are even a few moments of obstruction as one particular style keeps you locked in just as another is introduced. Descriptive audio chapters are prevalent on Lifesounds reading like a novel advancing from one short story to the next. Time shifts and drifts silently, almost transparently, as atmospheric undertones glide alongside their percussive counterparts. Raw, sheer power is expelled in unison with more tranquil and emotional mind benders; cold beats are coated with warm melodies and time just slips away as this long-player presents the finest moments from a melting pot of genres that clearly encapsulates sound, vision, art and life. Lifesounds is all the above, meshed with all that resides below the surface.
[Igloo Magazine Lifesounds Review]
