Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

An Encounter is all you need in which to see the day, Time, your life, differently, the chance meeting, the overheard information, the prize of attaining something new and exciting and regardless of what Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson may whisper down the monotone years, an encounter doesn’t have to be brief, it doesn’t have to just a passing phase, it can lead quite happily down the road to place where angels lay in eternal blissful wait or where the Music For Voyeurs is an unbroken and irreversible passion.

Rick Senley returns as an unquestionable master of the art form of progression and sampling, in Encounter the stage is once more set as the film reels pass, as conversations are snatched from the ether, and placed down with the air of unwavering conviction in producing a multitude of tracks that have the heady mix of ambient and mindful introspection jostling for the attention of the listener but being avant-garde enough to know that the true enjoyment comes from discovery on one’s own terms.

It is in Rick Senley’s persona as Music For Voyeurs that progressive takes on another meaning, not in the sense of the Rock genre but instead in that often ignored realisation of being human that so many seem to miss out upon, to explore, to delve, to wander through the world and hear everything, witness as much as you can and write it down, capture it, expand it and play with the feeling for as long as possible; you are not changing the initial encounter or contact made but you are enhancing it, making it more that it could have been.

In the tracks A Curious Young Man, Country Living, Johnny and So Evil, Rick Senley and the persona of Music For Voyeurs fulfil the glory of exploration, of delving beneath the sheets of investigation and the act of putting down on record all that can be gleaned from watching the world as it puts its foot down on the pedal and allows the splutter of diesel smoke to fill the void. It is a void that needs filling with the reason of adding to life, of enhancing the apparent scandal of the encounter and making, as only Rick Senley can, a respectable and touching memento of the stumbled upon meeting of minds.

A heartfelt welcome return for the Music For Voyeurs, it is always noted when someone is keeping watch and showing the audience a way forward.

Ian D. Hall