“Vladislav Buben is the founder of a number of
genres in experimental and electronic music in Belarus and the cultic musician
who influenced several generations on the Belarusian electronic stage. …”
OK, wait, hang on. “Founder of a number of genres”? That’s
a pretty remarkable statement, and one that, if true, would elevate Vladislav
Buben to the echelons of those like Chuck Berry, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, and
Baha Men. I wish I could make that claim. I may have coined a term here or
there [I haven’t], but I’m certainly not the path to immortality in an
encyclopedia of some kind. I’m not like Vladislav Buben.
Whatever genres Buben claims to have founded, he’s
certainly perfected his craft within the electronic ambient idiom. Here he
drifts between poles, highlighting the spaces that quickly pass from one state
to the next. “Air to Breath” is caught between an inhale and an exhale, “Lived
in Harmony” suggests that passage away from an ideal state and a longing for
it, “Resources of Nature” highlights the raw forms we find before we fashion
them into something else. And of course, there’s “Between All Forms” itself,
the title track, the distinct hovering point where everything loses itself before
reconstituting. There’s so much promise there.
But we drift, along with the maestro, the composer, the
visionary, formless, waiting for definition. So what if we don’t get it? The
drift is enough!