Exposé Magazine
(04/01)

ASCENSIONISM
Richard Bone

     Richard Bone produces some of the most unclassifiable, intimate music available today on his own Quirkworks label. While his two albums on Hypnos generally fit into an ambient/electronic category, the Quirkworks titles are much less easy to pigeonhole. Ascensionism is the third release of a trilogy of albums that started with Coxa and Electropica. All three releases have distinct inspirations of their own, with Ascensionism taking its queue from the Kabbalah/Ascension schools and beat poets. The music is instrumental, largely electronic based and rhythmic, with occasional vibrato- effected, electric piano and musical structures inventive in a simple format. Bone's Quirkworks blend so many sounds and influences that they would be hard to separate and qualify, although ambient and jazz influences are two of the most noticeable features. The songs are melodic, catchy and accessible, yet it is the production and warm timbrel qualities of the album that grab the most attention. While some of the musical qualities do not fit comfortably to my tastes, such as the occasionally light, jazzy, lounge feel (found on "Walkin’ With The Dharma Bums," for example), it is the blending of all these philosophical and musical ideas that transcends any single aspect of the music. This is one for those whose tastes know no boundaries. Bone sounds like no one else.

- Mike McLatchey