The Chi Factory

Amongst ambient aficionados, obscure 1980's outfit The Chi Factory — a collaboration between Jacobus Derwort and Hanyo van Oosterom — has a cult following. While the duo went their separate ways in 1987, Derwort continued to work on tracks, which fused field recordings taken in far-flung locations around the world, with indigenous instrumentation and his innate ability to craft mood-altering soundscapes. The Bamboo Recordings on Astral Industries offers the first chance to savour those previously unheard mid-to-late-80's tracks; while they've been remixed for release, they remain as trippy, inspired and intoxicating as you'd expect. Akin to a humid saunter through thick Mangrove swamps, the album feels like a long lost, tropical partner to The KLF's Chill Out.