Fluidity & Structure

This is simply an outstanding album and unusually innovative soundwise. I have come across a similar style with musicians around Brian Eno and Harold Budd. Bob Holroyd's album, though, is even more interesting. He is using 'sampling' very well - that is he gathers sounds from all over the world. Some are from Africa: mbira, hand drums. He then uses those sounds in bits and pieces to create a sound pattern with a steady rhythm. This enlarges the spectrum of sounds we usually hear on records and that feels necessary after hearing the same old synthesizer sound blankets for over 20 years. Bob Holroyd's album is just very versatile and professional. You will find all kinds of styles on it. Some tracks are quite spacious, some are minimal music with slowly varying rhythmical patterns, some feel like soundtracks for a thriller, some are beautiful drumming tracks. When he uses the title Descent Into Darkness for one track, he means it and you can hear it. Cries From The Rooftop - For A Free Tibet uses a beautiful sample of a Japanese shaku-hachi flute. Some passages are very lyrical and beautiful. There is something crisp and clear about this album, a rare quality I have heard with musicians like Georg Deuter.
Richard Beaumont . Kindred Spirit Vol 3 No 3 . January/February 1995


In the current flood of ambient music releases there are a few gems that shine through. They are usually the CDs that are not produced specifically for the post club space cake market, but are well-crafted pieces of music that work as well as when you're not off your trolley without a paddle. One such release is the obscure Fluidity & Structure. It is recorded, produced, marketed and most probably paid for by one Bob Holroyd. It is filled with twelve delicate, fresh tracks that draw inspiration from 'modern classical' composers like Reich and Glass more than the obvious 70s hippies. It's a soothing spacious rather than spacey, journey through some lovely soundscapes with noises from all over ranging from Kalimbas and African drums to snatches of those Deep Forest pygmies. Yes, it works as a post club chill but it's much more than that.
CM . DJ Magazine  9/10


Just for the sake of argument let us assume that there are essentially two forms of World Music - traditional roots music captured in situ, or occasionally, in the sterile atmosphere of a recording studio, or contemporary music with its roots firmly in a recognizable tradition. However, anyone who adheres to the belief of a living tradition must also allow for a third category - music inspired by ethnic music, performed by artists outside their own cultures.
Such is the ambition and motivation of the entrepreneurial Mr Holroyd who, it may be said with some truth, could be the Peter Gabriel of the Indie World Music. The difference between the ingenious Mr Holroyd and the Gov'nor himself is largely one of public recognition, as Bob struggles to bring his glorious ambient-soundscapes to the attention of an apathetic or indifferent musicbiz, while Peter Gabriel only has to cough to bring the media flocking to his side.
The 12 tracks on this CD were apparently inspired by his recent travels in Africa and Asia, which served as a soundtrack to an exhibition of his art first staged in September last year.
As might be expected the music compliments the imagery but works just as well without it. These are lush, richly evocative keyboard soundmaps with minimalist shading a la Philip Glass and Brian Eno. Forget roots-fusion, this is where the meeting of cultures begins.
John P Fulton . World Music


IMPORTANT IMPORT

Some obscure recordings are worth hunting for; F&S is one of them. I first heard this intoxicating blend of world-space music at a local Tower Records store, then began noticing reviews of it in cutting edge mags like Fad, Alternative Press, Hypno and Puncture; seems that other music critics feel that the heretofore unknown, British Holroyd is a genius too! Imagine if Steve Roach, Michael Pluznick, Kevin Braheny and Matthew Momfort of Ancient Future had a child; now visualize that wunderkind painting a dazzling soundscape that mixes the baking heat of Africa's Serengeti Plain with a steamy impenetrable Asian jungle. Now, place this richly textured scene in the Pleiades! Unusual, yes, but also fresh and inviting: the dozen instrumentals ranging from spacious and soothing to crisp and invigorating, but each and every one is a masterpiece of mood, texture, and Light. By the time this column sees print, Holroyd's music should be available through your local distributor; if not, demand that they find it and get you an in-store play copy!
New Age Retailer . January/February 1995 . USA


Many musicians are finding inspiration in the traditional music of Africa and Asia. The "closer to earth" feel of these musical styles gives us a sense of reassurance that not all has become cold and mechanical, regardless of the fact that it is usually being recreated by sampling keyboards.
Bob Holroyd's Fluidity & Structure is the score for an art exhibition. Within its layered sounds can be clearly heard the rhythms of the forest and the voices of those who live there. The first portion of African Drug is a gradually intensifying percussion arrangement: a sampled or synthetic gamelan, African thumb pianos, finger bells, congas and talking drums. The piece conclude with sampled chants. Of Things Lost And Found could easily be an ECM recording, with guest guitarist Craig Joiner sounding especially like Terje Rypdal or early Steve Tibbetts.
Other pieces are more experimental. The title track is very minimal, featuring a keyboard marimba, much like the percussive works of Steve Reich or Mikel Rouse. Descent Into Darkness is haunting: synthetic drones, dull tapping and sampled sounds create a sense of anxiety, a fearful anticipation of things to come.
A few songs do border on the saccharine, and may be seen as too sweet for some listeners (although probably not sweet enough for die-hard new-age fans). These songs are few and may easily be programmed out on your CD player.
Michael C Mahan . Alternative Press . USA


Here we have a great recording, a work of originality and at the same time an example of reinvented old sounds and compositional ideas. A dozen tracks that, in spite of offering anything new, are well worth getting enthusiastic about. Fluidity & Structure was born as accompaniment to an exhibition. The title itself shows the endless possibilities of the multiethnic and multicultural synthesis that has brought us, of late, many new music masterpieces. Sweet and dreamy sounds (In An Angel's Footsteps) begin the show, leading to darkest Africa and the visions inducted by a magic mushroom (African Drug), underpinned by trance-flavored percussion and a circular, shamanistic electronic pattern of rare power. The chords of a piano, forgotten by Wim Mertens on a rainy beach, blow our wings winsomely (Rosebud), then the flight takes us almost over Tim Story's house (Still). In ecstasy we fall then (Of Things Lost And Found) amidst guitar spires stolen from Saiz and Brook. And again, Robert Rich and Forrest Fang almost touch us in On The Forest Floor, a tear-jerker made of timeless, magnetic lullaby that, God knows why, makes me think of the wonderful Pygmy songs, soaked as it is with poetry and moods of faraway lands. Tim Story makes a comeback in the fragile Ice And Sand, an intimate and delicate moment of airy electronics. It's time for a prayer for a free Tibet (Cries From The Rooftop). By now I'm spaced out. Holroyd then takes it upon himself to bring me back or, to be precise, to take me straight to the earth's insides with the dark sounds of Descent Into Darkness, a track that seems born out of the combined minds of Jeff Greinke, Jorge Reyes and Jon Hassell! A weak Tex Mex episode Ry Cooder-styled (Across The Border) brings me back to reality, just before closing in style of Brian Eno and Harold Budd, with a celebratory piece of ambient music for piano and floating electronics (Dreamscape), classic and luminous. Among the many shamens of technology that guide us through the world of sounds, let's welcome Bob Holroyd, an absolute unknown who promises to open many new doors.

Gianluigi Gasparetti
Deep Listenings
Italy


Film and Audio/Visual music seems be becoming an ever more popular genre for Electronic Music. Bob Holroyd certainly seems to be no stranger to this area, having won awards and with thirteen library CDs available. This Fluidity & Structure CD is the musical half of an A/V concept which blends each track with a corresponding visual work. The midi controlled show is currently doing the rounds at various venues, and I recommend you look out for it.
Visuals aside, the music stands up well on its own. Pulsing sequenced EM this is not, instead it's more a carefully constructed set of tonal images and rhythms whose inspiration comes from travels in Africa and Asia. Tracks such as AFRICAN DRUG and the title track are therefore suitable ethnic and, for want of a better word, minimalistic but nevertheless successful. The more traditional style of synth/piano EM can be found on the album, with Rosebud, Still, Ice And Sand and Dreamscape amply demonstrating Bob's skills. However, it's on tracks such as On The Forest Floor where the listener begins to realise that here we have rather more than then your average atmospheric EM album. Synth strings, excellent piano and strange vocal samples combine to create an experience which, had it been produced by some of the more well known purveyors of ambient synth, would have had EM luminaries slobbering all over their adjectives in an attempt to heap praise on their idols.
If you're looking for evocative EM, or something a bit different, then there are a few tracks on this album which fit the bill with ease and I recommend that you try them out.
Zenith