Peter Gabriel – Birdy

Darkly ambient, great BO! Sub-bass and noisy effects are incredible ! A good good disc!

its just not that good lol; at the time was a filler release between Security and So

El prensaje es bastante mejorable. El disco es muy fino y mi copia en particular pese a verse muy limpia suena con muchos clicks. Se escucha ruido de fondo en los pasajes bajos. El álbum parece estar concebido para escucharse a un volumen muy bajo. Menos mal que tengo una copia de la edición en 2LP. Hay mucha diferencia.

Just received a copy of this. Sounds terrific with no noise, no warpage. Pure ambient darkness.

This is cut too loud. The quieter ages sound quite good. But the louder ages…ouch!

I own this version and its definitely NOT 45rpm. Also, I see no indication of the half speed mastering. All othe info (labels, pics, etc) is correct

Peter Gabriel crafts such a visual soundtrack that for me, the fact I've never seen Birdy has no bearing on this being one of my favourite records. This soundtrack is every bit the equal of "ion", in places excelling it. The majority is slow, dark and moody, creating a thick atmosphere. "At Night, "Floating Dogs", and "Quiet and Alone" being the first three tracks and probably the best examples. It sucks you in from the word go with its dense synthesizers, fragments of sampled voice and hypnotic rhythms.

Around half of this album is comprised of previous material from the III and IV albums, not merely recycled but deconstructed and reworked to astonishing effect as instrumentals. For example, "Birdy's Flight", one of the real pulse pounding upbeat moments of this score, is taken from "Not One of Us". Its no mere cut and paste job and is a testament to Gabriel's inventiveness. Elsewhere, "Sketchpad With Trumpet and Voice" seems to point towards "ion" as its natural precursor.

I have a 1985 LP and the 2002 remastered CD and they both sound very nice.

My copy: UK, Virgin OVED 283, (grey-white label), 206995 (add. cat. nr.), Matrix: Charisma matrix-nr. scratched, new Matrix-Nr. added (printed); sticker "Virgin value" on cover

As reviewed by me in August 1994:

Summary: A brilliant collection of dark, dreamy soundtracks in the ion vein, weighted a little more heavily on the synth side.

One of my favorite 'ambient' musicians is Peter Gabriel, the ex-Genesis showman who has been a walking ment for the Prophet synthesizer for the last 15 years. If you're unfamiliar with his instrumental works, seek out this album and these additional tales from his darkside:

* ion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ;
* "Digging In The Dirt" US CD-single (which includes a very quiet version of "Steam" and the braintwisting "Bashi-Bazouk");
* the tracks "Curtains" and "Across the River" which appear on a couple of deleted singles from the mid-1980s.

Birdy is a real treat. With help from established electronic pioneers Jon Hassell, Larry Fast, Tony Levin, and David Rhodes, Gabriel constructed a series of short, dark, ethereal mood pieces, each devoid of lyrics or traditional song structure, though many of the themes were borrowed from previously released material. The longer tracks contain several movements, from quiet mixtures of groaning synths and haunting, synthetic flutes to intense tribal drumming that knocks your consciousness around like a tennis ball in a clothes dryer. Birdy is serious & dreamy but not dripping with ion's hopelessness. I highly recommend it to those looking for a break from the "lightness" of ambient techno.

Wow! This is super chill ambient stuff. Like a preamble to "The Last Temptation of Christ" soundtrack.How am I just now discovering this one? The 32 year old copy I have sounds as clean as any album I own.