This anthology covers Tim Story's work between 1979 and 1986, serving up 18 pieces. Because there is no attempt to provide the pieces in chronological order (though the notes do indicate which album each piece comes from), there is no sense of Story's development as a composer - a later piece focusing on piano may well be followed by a more electronic piece. "Abridged" is a collection of small, floating still-life pieces, absorbing by dint of their lack of drama. Story's work draws the listener in, somehow capturing the attention by refusing to demand it - it's as easy to let the music fall into the background as to concentrate on it as a foreground element.

At 73, it's tempting to call Roedelius the 'grand old man of ambient' or some such nonsense. To be sure, as a member of both Cluster and Harmonia his keyboard skills have been central in shaping the more 'new age' (for want of a better term) end of krautrock's sonic dna. Yet, despite his age Inlandish, finds Roedelius still supremely able to fire off beguilingly simple melodic piano lines, seemingly at will. His work on the album was completed in days, leaving electronica artist Tim Story to tinker and tweak them for several months afterwards. The results are stunning. In the same way that HJR's work with Eno remains strangely timeless, this album exists in a parallel universe where it's still possible to spend an hour in quiet contemplation. To call it 'ambient' is to do it a disservice. For these are tunes that wiggle and shimmer into the ears, gently refusing to melt into background noise.