Bebo Baldan featuring Steve James – Eb-0 (from « Guerilla »)
From Bebo Baldan featuring Steve James – Vapor Frames 86/91
Released on Divergo, 1991, Italy

As a « new-age-ethereal-ambient » enthusiast, you must be aware that there is a thin line between the ambient side of music and its nemesis, the « lounge » side of music. In other words, there is a fragile border between what sophisticated tastemakers would call the « good taste » and the « bad taste »… and Bebo Baldan blithely crossed the border more than once during his musical career.

Hopefully, his debut album (or is it his second ? For he released an other album, the same year, on the highly respected Belgian label Sub Rosa) is on the right side of the fence, and even far from it.

Vapor Frames 86/91 was released on Divergo, a small anarchic label which also released some of the finest ambient music from Venice, in the late 1980’s. As a matter of fact, Bebo Baldan‘s album strongly reminds of another LP from the label, by fellow Venetian musicians, Gigi Masin & Alessandro Monti’s Wind Collector. It has the same blissful qualities than Masin‘s albums, seemingly reflecting the plenitude of the mediterranean sea (why do you think they always put some pictures of the mediterranean sea on these albums ?).

The whole album is really good, but Eb-o (from « Guerilla ») stands appart from the other tunes thanks to its pared-down melancholy. The recording is absolutely amazing, providing a rare deepness to the song, which is, nevertheless, swarming with details… Absolutely soothing music!