'A Trial Of Distances' is French ambient music artist Julien Demoulin's fourth release on the Sound In Silence label, consisting of a long-form suite for brass and synthesizers, divided into three parts, plus three remixes and reworks by HTDC (How To Disappear Completely), .foundation and Zakè, with a total duration of 60 minutes. Emotional themes, deep chords of eerie synths and melancholic drones are all balanced with lovely brass sounds of trumpet, trombone and flugelhorn, provided by Kelly O'Donohue.

The ambience in these complexly layered chordal clusters blend seamlessly into an elongated soundscape you would be hard pressed to pick apart. It comes on in waves, and although I can tell there is brass in there, separating the synths from the brass would be no easy task. Compositions have strong melodic content while no exhibiting form you would typify as melodies. The way Kelly's brass is used on this album fits hand-in-glove with Demoulin's technique. These tracks are rich and vibrant, and great at porteying some sort of eternal je ne sais quoi, but I did not care for either the .foundation rework (Track 5) nor the Zakè remix (Track 6) because of the staticky noise that was incorporated into both of them. I found it distracting and unpppealing. I don't know why people find noise (especially green noise) relaxing. To me, it just sounds like the CD has defects, which it doesn't. For that, I just can't rate the album higher. Limited to 200 numbered CDr copies in the usual custom handmade Sound In Silence packaging.