From Zoopa Loop - September 2002

    Ousia is a four piece band coming from the USA and exploring an ambient space music which has a serious nod to freezing ambient synths' music . That's why they surely described their music as Snowbient. I don't know if they have already recorded some previous albums under the moniker of Ousia but they were originally known as Blue shift. It seems that they just keep on playing ambient droney compositions but under a different name. "Face the robot" consists of 11 tracks covering different shades of cosmic music where a multitude of sounds, drones and noises blend with the instrumental dreamy basis of Ousia's stuff to give birth to an unique crystal clear atmosphere.

    Each track sets a mellow ambience built upon some multi layered backgrounds where keyboards and guitars seem to echo back on some invisible walls ( "Ebow lullabye", "Binary sort", "In absence" ). These echoing and light melodies are a big part of the swirling spacey sensation that I felt during most of the numbers ( "In absence", "Solar limen" ). The add of bubbling sounds, liquid waves and others dreamy samples increases the whirling effect as well ( "Preconscious processing", "Binary sort" ). Sometimes, few electronics rhythmics set the pace and join the ambient segments to create some colder structures during several tracks ( "Binary sort", "Sound check",  "Robot in" and "Counter rotation" ). That's where the band shows clearly its electronic influences which are more important than it seems specially on the repetitive layers and movements on which Ousia based most of its music. It creates a light hypnotic feel which is really welcome ( "Sound check", Counter Rotation" ).  

   Ousia is a sonic sometimes abstract adventure through the meanders our subconscious where a myriad of sounds bloom into a freezing atmosphere. "Face the robot" was a pretty cool discovery for me , I hope it will be one of yours this year. 

More infos about these records: http://www.mutantmusic.com/