Mem1: +1

All dressed up with artwork from Svarte Greiner's Erik Skodvin, this album from Mem1 and friends looks as good as it sounds. The central Mem1 duo (Mark and Laura Cetilia) team up with a roster of microsound luminaroes for this release, working with Steve Roden, Frank Bretschneider and Jan Jelinek among others. Jelinek is up first, helping cast Mem1's electronics and cello in an understatedly abstract gloss. The piece flows across the stereo field with a warmth and major-key serenity that brings together artificial timbres, filtered bowed strings and what sounds like a variety of nocturnal environmental recordings. Next, Ido Govrin assists with some gorgeous slowcore drones, while Area C limbers up for five minutes of immersive, dusky field recording and submerged electronic sustain. Taking a different angle, Rs-232 conspires on a bass assault, humming ominously into Frank Bretschneider's typically rhythmic contribution, imposing a welcome rigidity to Mem1's weightless sonic environments. Particularly given that this is a compilation of sorts, there's an uncommonly high standard sustained right to the death, and arguably the most dynamic track of the bunch (with assistance from Steve Roden) closes the album in fine style. Highly recommended.

– Boomkat (2009)