After breaking away from the group he helped to found, former Zoviet France member Robin Storey has spent the last two decades amassing an intimidatingly large discography under his ethno-ambient centred solo project Rapoon. Indeed, a quick glance at Discogs lists more than 60 albums released under this alias, on a brace of different labels including Beta-Lactam and Soleilmoon. This latest album on Alrealon ‘Cultural Forgeries’ represents just one of five albums to be released by Rapoon during 2014 alone, which gives you good indication as to Storey’s feverishly prolific work rate. In this case though, he’s attempted to craft a comparatively ‘unplugged’ album, with the 17 tracks collected here being built primarily around acoustic instrumental performances, though subtle traces of electronic processing still remain.
A veritable kitchen sink’s worth of different instruments from all sorts of geographic backgrounds make an appearance here, ranging from bodhran, banjos and Chinese flutes, through to pocket trumpets and bamboo flutes, and while it’s occasionally tempting to class some of these tracks as filmic ethnic pastiches, the emotional resonances feel more sincere than that. Whatever the case, there’s certainly an extremely broad range of cultural reference points being covered here. After ‘Donnez Moi Une Cigarette’ opens proceedings with a wander through solo echo-treated jazz trumpet and background reverb that calls to mind one of Miles Davis’ more gnarled experiments with delay, ‘Banjo Arabiata’ manages to live up to its title as a lone banjo plucks out a forlorn Middle Eastern-tinged arrangement that feels as ominous as it does delicate.
Elsewhere, ‘Slender…In Clouds’ evokes a spectral wander through the US Deep South as lazy blues guitar bends ring out over an ebbing backdrop of ambient tones in what’s easily one of this album’s most cinematic moments, before ‘Some Distance’ conjures up the atmosphere of a corroboree, as growling didjeridoos build into a wall of resonating tones against the distant flicker of percussion and field recorded noise. While there’s a lot to take in during a single dose here, ‘Cultural Forgeries’ is well worth your time.
