?The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience.?
? Leo Tolstoi

Patience is a gift, a blessing in disguise because it requires effort and it doesn?t always pay off immediately, or ever, when you?re an unlucky bastard. If it does though, and this is very much the case with music, it?s tremendously rewarding. At all times, it?s absolutely essential when it comes to minimal music. The best minimal artists lure you in with just the slightest hint of beauty. A shimmer of a candle behind a gorgeous stained glass window. It all comes down to the intensity of seconds and the movement of space.

Down under native Stuart Busby is a guy who understands the concept of patience and even manages to stretch time beyond it?s earthly limitations. Especially on the first four pieces of this 3? double album, the ?North? suite, he slows things down so much that it seems like time?s standing still. Five minute tracks feel like an hour and the beautiful closer, ?Alice Dreaming? makes seven minutes sound like a timeless vacuum, or it?s just me wishing it would last forever. Busby?s main weapon of choice is the trumpet but on the ?North? suite the palet is enriched with sparse use of glockenspiel and ukelele. The first track, ?Drought Breaks? is a tension/release test, the spaces inbetween the sparkling glockenspiel as important as the actual notes played. The impact is a grande one. Pay-offs are sweet when they?re like this.

The second disc/suite, ?South?, is the first cd?s extravert partner. Digitalis followers will recognize it?s first track, ?First Steps?, which appeared on last year?s compilation ?Gold Leaf Branches? and positions ?North/South? as direct neighbour of J?hann J?hannsson?s ?Vir?ulegu Forsetar? album. Significantly shorter but equally glorious, triumphant but restrained. It is as if Busby is humbled by the trumpet?s powerful possibilies. It?s a beatiful restraint though and it makes every ghostly second of ?North/South? extremely fascinating. I hope he?s ready to do a full length in the near future because I am very ready to be stunned by it. 8/10 -- Joris Heemskerk (24 July, 2006)