Ernst Thoma

Ernst Thoma: Time Layer

by John Kelman
August 5, 2004

Ernst Thoma, a fixture on the Swiss experimental music scene, creates a multi-layered, multi-level excursion into electronic ambience with Time Layer , an album that finds him combining technologies old and new into a soundscape that is strangely compelling, but only if you are prepared to put down any preconceptions about how music is supposed to sound.

Unlike Brian Eno's intentionally less-intrusive ambient music, Thoma's creation is nothing but invasive. It's impossible to do anything but immerse oneself in the ...