Richard Pinhas - Iceland (1979)

Third solo album from the founder of Heldon, with less focus on the echo-guitar ferocity that he'd brought to the band in favour of icy electronic washes and sequences.  The title suite builds up with an ominous pulse and samples of eerie, garbled speech, before it's interrupted by the machine rhythms of The Last King of Thule, Pt. 1.  The Iceland suite then concludes sans rhythms, letting the strange voices come to the fore over slightly ill-sounding synth.

After a short signal-burst announces the album's second half, Pinhas brings the guitar to the fore for the second part of' 'Thule'.  Layers of that wonderful contemporaneous-with-Fripp sound build up, then suddenly cut out to let the chugging rhythm play out for the final minute.  There's a 'Short Transition' (yep, that's what it's called) of sped-up rhythm before the closing Greenland ties together all the album's elements in a wonderful 9-minute finale.  With its more melodic focus, the track comes across like a relieved arrival at an outpost destination after enduring the harsh elements.

Added to all the CD editions of Iceland is a bonus track well worthy of inclusion and repeat listens.  If I was to listen blind to the 25-minute Wintermusic, my first thought would be that it was some great lost Fripp & Eno track.  A very enjoyable postscript to a highly recommended album.

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