At the back end of the Nineties two French lounge acts started to attract attention in the UK. One, of course, was ubiquitous Air. The other was the lethargically laid back A Reminiscent Drive, aka Jay Alanski, whose debut album, Mercy Street, drifted quietly into record shops in 1997.
Coming from Paris and playing laid-back music, comparisons between the two acts are inevitable, if not entirely excusable. But if Air play lounge music, Alanski is floating on a lilo in the Dead Sea with a spliff in both hands and half a bottle of valium cruising around his blood stream.
Not surprisingly it's taken him three years to release Ambrosia, his follow up album. "The process is very intense for me, which is why the music is so emotional," explains Alanski. "I've been a musician since I was seven years old so I react to the world through music. For me it's about self-discovery and through music you discover who you are.
"I'm also a photographer, so images are very important to me. Air play beautiful music but it's like a soundtrack to the past. For me it's about doing things for today. My first album was made without any computers – so I was recording electronic music without technology, which is a joke but I'm trying to make innovations."
Ambrosia sees Alanski in a more technology driven mode, although it ironically comes at a time when he is less enamoured with electronic music – taking his influences instead from turn of the century classical composers and artists from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The result is an album that maintains the soul stirring qualities of Mercy Street, while adding greater emphasis on rhythm arrangements and Latin inspired percussive breaks.
