Moi Non Plus

While the Amp collective has released any number of side projects and spin-off efforts over the years, Moi Non Plus is the first time Richard Amp has done a solo album under his own name, and from the start it's quite an unusual and interesting release. After a whoosh of sound that sounds like fairly typical Amp, "Self Destruct" suddenly transforms into layers upon layers of dramatic, sparkling piano lines, unusual and heavenly at once. It's a good attention grabber and from there Moi Non Plus finds the musician working throughout with a combination of piano and other textures and found sound parts — not for nothing do the credits say that the album was partly recorded "on location." The whoosh of traffic on "Charivari" is only one example of this, taking the song out of the studio and into a wider realm. The two longest tracks, "A Light in the Darkness" and "Derive," both of which break the ten-minute mark, find Amp exploring some of the most stripped-down and reflective music he's ever done, the delicate combination of piano and found sound suggestive of some of Harold Budd's best work. Other notable elements include the prepared piano that forms part of "Hollowman," often playing discordant notes set against the main melody, and the clattering, buzzing rhythm loop from somewhere — it's not clear what — which introduces "Fat Chance." In all, while Moi Non Plus is perhaps the biggest overall departure from the wider work of Amp released yet, it's a contextual shift more than anything else, teasing out those elements of stark, reflective melodies in the band's work into newer contexts.