Album Notes

Absorption is aptly named: Each song is like a sonic sponge, taking found sounds and seemingly conflicting influences and molding them into one coherent piece. It's the sound of trying to condense and relate everything you see and hear. It doesn't adhere to the conventions of one type of music-it's all types of music.

It's also the brainchild of recent London migrant Peter Beddow. Beddow began recording in 1997, layering samples of vinyl and found sounds into dense, atmospheric compositions. As the songs evolved so did the elements, and he enlisted the help of friends like Bob Green (the Grassy Knoll) on bass, David Revelli (the Grassy Knoll, Jewel) and Matt Knoth (All Wrecked Up) on guitar. The music is a complete hybrid of sounds, with sampled drums sitting alongside live, obscure vinyl loops giving way to swirling atmospheres, and soupy guitar textures coexisting with post-rock noise.

"Basically, for me, the challenge and the enjoyment is about the process of constructing the music," Beddow says. "I'm not a trained musician. I'll play guitar or keyboards to get what I need. I'll have a vibe or feel that I'm looking to get across, and it's a matter of starting with one instrument, one element, and building out from there. One thing impacts another, and that's part of the excitement. As the thing evolves, it changes, and becomes something that, at the end, has it's own identity, makes a statement, evokes."

As for his influences, Beddow couldn't list them if he tried. "Absorption, the name and the music, is about influences. I've been a music fan since forever, but that's just part of it. I'm not walking around with my eyes closed. Everything that I experience goes into the music, one way or another. The music is a document for all the influences, a translation of experience."