"Softness, elucidation
Gently departing from our station...

Why did you make me? Why did you break me into something foreign? Why did you deport, all that I thought into something common?
We are united
We are not blighted, we can get on.

Why did you break me, into all that would be, more than nothing?

~ Michael Buckingham, FL.

Or alternatively, from my friend Statto 9 months on...

'Nothing,' said Teddy Robinson loudly.
'What do you mean?'
'What I say. Deborah's always told me that if I can't think of a polite answer it's better to say nothing. So that's what I said.'

foci's left - nothing
formats: 2cd (17 copies) / digital
release: 2015
label: foci's left / split
news: international women's day, 08.03.15

original digital release tracklist, may 2015 (not on label)

001 ambient feeling soporific
002 plumstead
003 de-tuning (fly machines session special)
004 drowning
005 rectory
006 artemis song
007 bleeding pure (live 30.11.14)
008 statto's song
009 eschaton & foci's left - latitudes*
010 a minor g string
011 aura
012 vena amoris
013 all by myself
014 the machine has brains too
015 bella bostic buckingham (ambience pt.1)
016 little red - down (fl turning upward remix)
017 eschaton & foci's left - j'aime (album version)*

Amended into a 4 bonus track mastered version on focisleft.bandcamp.com.

Remixed by FL (Foci's Left, Magix, Focis Right, Dr. Paw Prints, Path Optimist et al) for focisleft.bandcamp.com in a 50 minute compendium.

Reviews

"If brevity is the soul of wit, it's also the beating heart of great pop music. There's plenty to be said for elongated musical journeys of different kinds, but a double CD album of ambient electronic noodling and minimalist pianism clocking in at well over two hours isn't the sort of thing to get our pulses racing, if we're honest.

A resolute lack of track listing, or even a hint as to which of the CDs to listen to first doesn't help matters, and we're left to plough on unguided through the shifting thought patterns of Mick Buckingham, who is Foci's Left.

CD number 1 starts well - a lengthy piece of shivering Steve Reich-influenced electronica that creates an eerie atmosphere across some 16 minutes, followed by a briefer passage of gentle pianism that teeters on the edge of random.

There's primitive synthetic squiggles, wobbles and undulations on the third piece, which drifts along but with some sense of purpose, and the harsher tones that defy the soothing ambient washes on track 4 keep the album alive and alert.

From here though, things unwravel at speed, detuned piano plonking and cheap Casio stabs lack any kind of structure and quickly become an irritant, recalling local experimental music maestro Jim 'Spunkle' Davies assertion that yes, playing a detuned piano at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft os experimental, but it's also shit, and by the end of the CD everything's degenerated into a mess of incoherent noise and we've lost all sense of patience.

CD2 starts in similar fashion to 1, with a dirgey take on Coil's dungeon-dark atmospherics lightened by some kosmische drifting, and a renewed feel for dynamics. This leads into possibly the album's highlight, an easy if occasionally stumbling piano meander that owes plenty to Erik Satie. It's the most melodic he gets. From here we're off into scattershot ambient drum&bass, haunted music box creepy/sweetness and distorted, bleached-out lounge jazz, by way of Eno's shifting sands. Again though, things begin to lose focus as the album wafts into generic ambient serenity and random plonking.

Ultimately Foci's Left are capable of interesting ideas, and capture and build a mood with a decent sense of nuance, but even this kind of ambient soundscaping needs self-ediiting, A 50-minute compendium of both CDs best bits would have made for a captivating journey. As it is you're left shouting "get a bloody move on!" at regular intervals. Even on the longer journeys a little brevity goes a long way." ~ Ronan Munro (Dale Kattack), www.nightshiftmag.com June 2015 issue.

"A harvest of avant-garde, a jungle of subtlety, a plucky stream of poignancy, a ledger entry of leftfield, a beacon of passion and a sublimate sluggish lush… Foci’s Left (Mr “FL”) Mick Buckingham is back with his fourth album LP and is nothing short of brilliance. The compositional structure of the album encompasses different styles and covers few different styles, ranging from the heath like sounds of minimalism and drones, to the stylistic funk coda of drum and bass.

Similar to the previous LP’s by FL fans will definitely appreciate tracks such as Ambient Feeling Soporific, which ventures into realms of eerie suspense of somnolent soundscapes gating for 16 minutes with a soporiferous and soothing feeling. While De-tuning is like a disposal of voluminous convergence, leaping with agony to some tragic apex. The laudable spacey adventures continues with Drowning which is riddling affair and keeps morphing from one feeling to another – more like being embodied with a conundrum.

The live recording called Bleeding pure is a wonderful addition to the album, keeping a Lo-fi natural profile. Just like other FL’s albums the Nothing CD has a few tracks which are piano led bringing about diversity and change in the mood of the album which elevates the musical pleasure for the listener to a different height. And as FL is no stranger to drum orientated sounds, Latitudes and A Minor G String drifts into the world of breaks while keeping true to the ambient sounds. Vena Amoris is another great tune and it is more of an emersion of the earlier sounds emulating charm and enamour.

Bella Bostic Buckingham and Plumstead reminds the listener of the early ages of gaming with retrospective arpeggios and fun electronic sounds. Although the Nothing CD has fragments of previously released EP’s, it’s highly worth investing on, filled with surprises and adventurous moments.

The organic ethos of the album is well complimented by the closer collaboration with the Omni music proprietor Eschaton, and like ying yang, the two blend into one another’s creative perspectives to present to us with J’aime – a long oldskool, acid house track and terrific way to end a spectacular tale of Nothing.

~ SImon Bean (Ramestse), Eschaton and Omni Music (www.omnimusic.org) on my 4th public album, 'Nothing'."

Very beautiful reviews I think Smile.