Smooch Rec. 
Andrew Douglas Rothbard : Abandoned Meander (US,2006)***°
Basically a song orientated album, Andrew worked three years on this album, adding layer on layer, all with dynamic studio effects, until a wall of sound evolutions were created with certain intensity.
This is the first solo release of VSS, Slaves and Pleasure Forever’s keyboard and bass player. To Andrew’s voice are added vibrating tensions. The music is as if one sits inside an ever moving lightning carousel, where the arrangements mostly overload the acoustic guitars motors.
This is the first of a series of five planned albums (with themes of thesis, antithesis, synthesis, parenthesis and paralysis). This part, ‘Thesis’, according to Andrew, “manifests chaos protected by the Goddess Eris, who stands for the Yin (earth/earth) related hexagram in the I Tjing, Venus, and the High Priestess in the Tarot”, a reference which does not help enough to understand the idea behind music, except when we could hear how the antithesis is interpreted against it, first (the 'anthithesis' album will be released in 2007). I can only say the musical fundament on this release has tons of spinning movements. With an ever present drift of effects, sounds, melody and echoing spins, the song themselves are inner calm, surrounded by lots of energy.
Audio : "A Beginning", "Abandoned Meander" (or here), "Bull In The Dell" (or here or here), "Highuponlone" (or here), "Dardevle", "Paraxute"(or here), "Indigo", "Golden Calf", "Widowalk", "Lucien", "Rabbit Hole" (or here), "Tempeste"(or here), "Emerald Tendrils"
