The Future Sound Of London – Archived : Environmental : Views

It's odd to think that, before the release of Environments 4 in 2012, there had only actually been a handful of properly new FSOL tracks released in the previous 15 years, and most of those hidden away on albums described as "great lost albums from the '90s". Five years later, this triple album comes along, including a second disc which is effectively part of the Environment Six trilogy - along with Six and 6.5, it's one of three albums that was recorded during the same sessions. (Incredibly, since then, outtakes from these sessions still appear from time to time on the band's Calendar albums.)

Once again, Brian Dougans - who is in charge of finalising FSOL albums and, judging by the style of this record, doing most of the music - shows off his skills at curation as well as production. While clearly stylistically similar, the Environmental disc here is tonally as different from those other two parts of the trilogy as they are from each other. Here, the mood is stark, vague, cold. Mist lightly rolling over moorland towards a chilly winter seashore. There's heavy use of texture throughout, with the trilogy's familiar mix of synths and IDM beats regularly combined with crackling, crumbling timbres, muffled field recordings, saturation and murk. The music is mostly quite minimal, generally a series of repetitive miniatures, but the dense textural layers add interest to anyone listening closer. It's yet another approach for a band whose music rarely repeats itself.

The CD version includes the whole of Environmental and rounds it out with a few complementary pieces from the other two albums, and two bonus tracks. Personally, I wouldn't have included the bonus tracks but would have filled out the disc with some of the previously unheard 'Views' tracks from the third LP, as these are almost all stunning. At one point in 2009, it felt like the 'new FSOL album' that we believed was coming would actually be a modern classical album laden with strings and pianos. This never happened, but Views compiles tracks in that style from previous releases with a bulk of new compositions. Award winner soundtrack composer Dan Pemberton is a significant player here, with his piano lines playing alongside more beautiful textural aspects. With little in the way of samples or beats, it's a very atypical FSOL record, and in some ways feels like a coda to the early '10s era's more melancholic side of the band. It's also incredibly beautiful.

The first disc is Archived, which combines a number of tracks previously released on the From the Archives albums with a selection of unheard tracks in the range. It's easily the patchiest of the three, especially with some of the new pieces clearly being much newer than the '90s works elsewhere on the disc. For those who didn't bother with the earlier Archive albums and find the series generally unappealing, however, a number of the best tracks from those albums are present here, meaning it's a decent way for more casual fans to have a few of those tracks.

Archived : Environmental : Views continues the band's creative renaissance in style.

although this is a compilation it feels like a real album to me...i expected pure beatless ambient music and/or piano tracks like the "viewed" ones, but i was wrong.
there are ambient tracks, but also drums/beats, but all in a mellow way.
this is listening electronica i would say.
i am on my way to collect and listen to the fsol output from the last 5 or 6 years, there is so much going on with the duo and i am so happy to discover albums like this one.
sure, the style of music is one you can expect from fsol, but it has a slightly different sound and vibe for me.
anyway, i fell in love with it and with all the other releases by fsol from the last years.
their body of work became so huge, with all the other projects like blackhill transmitter etc. etc., you could spend the rest of your life only listen to their music...
fsol have created a own musical universe, they are the most visionary electronic musicians for me.
i highly recommend this one to any fsol fan and all lovers of decent listening electronica.

it is very often difficult to say, when fsol music was recorded, like aphex twin. that is a rare quality in electronic music and shows, that the music is timeless...

The perfect soundtrack to a Sunday afternoon or late night. Let the music take you away to another dimension.

i have to disagree with 'reTcon.' i don't think this release flows very well. i much prefer some of the 'environments' and 'from the archives' releases in of flow. also, i feel like there is a stronger d'n'b influence on FSOL over the last years and it is super annoying to me. some of the tracks on this release have that influence, but of course there are many that don't. they'll have a typical, fantastic 90's FSOL sound in a couple of tracks, then a d'n'b influenced track pops up and is startling. it's easy to make your own playlist out of this, but it's about $30 for the full digital , so it's expensive i think for digital files.

Realy great album, like Liforms even better!!! Especially third LP - amazing!!!

I agree with bullfinchart's review - this CD version is very well-rounded, and IMO sounds more like a true album than the vinyl and digital versions. Obviously, that's going to be the result with a medium that can only up to 80 minutes of music, but I think the FSOL boys assembled this in a very interesting way and it's got a great flow throughout. Out of all the plethora of recent FSOL music, this one in particular resonated with me. As usual it's experimental and at times sparse, but it's also quite musical and a lot of the tracks have some strong emotions to them. Even my wife, who is not really into ambient or experimental music, commented on how good this was.

Loved this LP, i feel cheated that it was an RSD release, but later its sold on their website with full codes cheaper. I would love a digital copy of this 3 LP set.

Skip all the patchy archive and environments releases most of which are hard to listen through; THIS compilation, stretched out on three vinyls is the one you need ( It's a pity the CD only contains the second record and a few tracks from the other two, but if you like, you can purchase the version, which contains all of the tracks) . All elements fit together perfectly here, finally FSOL have made the right choices when going through their archives. This time they have managed to create an album on which all tracks flow seamlessly into one another to create an even flow - the closest the "band" have come to creating something like an album in the past years. This said, there are two other releases that come close to this though; they are: Environments 1 and the utterly brilliant Environments 4 (update: and From The Archives 9) which have become some of my favourite ambient albums!

If you're a fan of Lifeforms, I'd recommend this album.
Love it! :-D

I have copy 1194, each disc is flawless and sounds great. The black matted cover attracts fingerprints very easily.