Shuttle358

<a href="spotify:artist:6ZHdX5Gv1g9L5pd23gyDfx">Dan Abrams</a> is among a new wave of artists bringing the aesthetic sensibilities of digital technologies to bear upon the styles of environmental space music first explored by the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:7MSUfLeTdDEoZiJPDSBXgi">Brian Eno</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2MBG4orwEeJxMvkd7yOkM3">David Parsons</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5KbIofwaAvbvvkzG2zbmGD">Michael Stearns</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3ux92I3CgfnhgLyYNsXIwZ">Robert Rich</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:6ZHdX5Gv1g9L5pd23gyDfx">Abrams</a> began making music as a teenager on his Apple IIe before getting deeper into the capabilities of software synthesis in the mid-'90s. Although he had no intention of ever releasing his music, <a href="spotify:artist:6ZHdX5Gv1g9L5pd23gyDfx">Abrams</a> sent a demo off to the New York-based 12k after learning about the label through its website. 12k's Taylor Duepree (a designer and musician recording under the names <a href="spotify:artist:2enYGxTGe7ivBhLBOCfWfF">Human Mesh Dance</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:416thFSobYDOCarokXFluq">Prototype 909</a>, among others) quickly added a track of <a href="spotify:artist:6ZHdX5Gv1g9L5pd23gyDfx">Abrams</a> to a limited-release label sampler called .aiff (released in mid-'99), and then issued <a href="spotify:artist:6ZHdX5Gv1g9L5pd23gyDfx">Abrams</a>' Optimal.lp a few months later. (<a href="spotify:artist:6ZHdX5Gv1g9L5pd23gyDfx">Abrams</a>, still a student of product design at Los Angeles' Art Center School of Design when .aiff was released, also designed the compilation's laser-cut mylar, floppy-disc-resembling packaging.) Optimal.lp was quickly lauded for its elegant combination of simple melodic environments with subtly challenging digital experiments, with comparisons to the work of <a href="spotify:artist:7MSUfLeTdDEoZiJPDSBXgi">Eno</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:6YktolrgGPFMwWrmAgf4hu">Global Communication</a> proving as often, and appropriate, as those to <a href="spotify:artist:1Yti3CsDazWVjNMXBHx1Af">Oval</a> or <a href="spotify:artist:5y835stYdAVOoNOq5EBMxz">Ryoji Ikeda</a>. ~ Sean Cooper, Rovi