Release data: Jon Mark – Alhambra CD, Kuckuck Schallplatten/Celestial Harmonies, 1992 Concept wise, this third album by New Zealand-based musician Jon Mark, takes a different direction compared to the previous two concept albums “Standing Stones of Callanish” and “Land of Merlin”, as it’s dedicated to character and history of the Spanish Alhambra region. Again, Jon has delivered a masterpiece of…
Jon Mark is best known as one half of the Mark-Almond band, session guitarist and producer, who now resides in New Zealand. Situated on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the Callanish Stones (also called the Stonehenge of the north) is a megalithic site that inspired composer Jon Mark to compose this classic ambient album on his Celtic…
Release data: Daniel Blanchet – L´Harmonie des Mondes CD, Editions Rubicon, 1991 Daniel Blanchet is a Canadian musician hailing from the Quebec area, who began experimenting with synthesizers in 1985. The concept album “L’Harmonie des Mondes” is inspired by the treatise “Harmonies of the Worlds” by German astronomer Johannes Kepler, to which it’s also a homage. Produced and mixed by…
Release data: Peter Challoner – Lunar Tide CD-R, Private Release, 2008 As Peter tells on the cd-sleeve, the ambient long form piece “Lunar Tide” is the outcome of an experiment in applying extreme sound processing to a piece of music to produce sonic textures contrasting radically to the nature of the original source recording. Well, the 60-minute meandering soundscape is…
Release data: Paul Haslinger – Planetary Traveler OST CD, Third Planet Entertainment, 1998 This is the original soundtrack album former TD-member Paul Haslinger composed for “Planetary Traveler”, the brainchild of two-time Emmy award winning director/producer Jan C. Nickman, noted for such projects as the computer animated hit “The Mind’s Eye”. The twelve dynamic tracks feature a powerful blend of symphonic…
Release data: Synco – Evolution of Events CD, Cue Records, 1991 The Berliner band Synco (short for SYNthesizer COoperation) was founded in 1984 by Frank Klare and Mirko Lüthge. In 1985 Werner Brandt (nickname Chaos) joined them. “Evolution of Events” is a amazing recording as it contains 70 minutes of well executed highly melodic and rhythmic music. The tasty outcome…
Release data: Evan Marc & Steve Hillage – Dreamtime Submersible CD, Somnia, 2008 “Dreamtime Submersible” features the exiting collaboration of Tech House project Evan Marc (aka Evan Bartholomew, Bluetech,) and Steve Hillage (System 7). Released in strictly limited edition of 777 signed and numbered copies, this 74-minute album presents a great blend of hypnotizing, sometimes minimal shaped trance electronica with…
Release data: Andrew Thomas Wilson – Carnarvon – Rain Forest CD, EMI Japan, 1984 “Carnarvon” is a Japanse import album by Australian composer, producer and musician Andrew Thomas Wilson, who describes the concept of the album in the linear notes as “an electronically orchestrated journey into landscapes imagery and real”. To compose the ten movements on the cd, he used…
Release data: Logic Gate – Voyages DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2008 “Voyages”, a musical tribute to human exploration, is the second album by Steve Grace (aka Logic Gate), who describes it as dreamy ambient old school electronica. The 48-minute release features lots of warm synths/mellotron pads and morphing drone soundscapes along sequencer patterns, of which the most part is in…
Release data: Charles Crevier, Francois Kiraly & Jean-Francois Crevier – Music from the Sky CD, Disque Rubicon, 1987 This is the debut album of the trio Charles Crevier , Francois Kiraly, and Jean-Francois Crevier, all hailing from the Canadian Quebec-area. The album is graced with five compositions (the first and the last made as a trio, with solo pieces of…
Release data: Francois Kiraly & Charles Crevier – Calypso CD, Disque Rubicon, 1989 “Calypso” is the second release by the Canadian duo Francois Kiraly and Charles Crevier. It’s a slowly evolving album of ten tranquil, slowly passing, occasionally slightly sequenced space music tracks creating exactly the right mood and state of mind. The warm, flowing textures of the opening title…
Release data: Xolotl – Procession CD, Erdenklang, 1982/1993 This classic album by the German Erdenklang-label is a re-release of the Bernhard Xolotl album that originally came out back in 1982. For this occasion, the 18-minute bonus track “Saturn Return” was added. “Procession” celebrates the harmonious fusion of violin and viola (played by the international acknowledged Daniel Kobialka) and the serene,…
Release data: Xylon – Mooncafe CD, Hypnotic/Cleoplatra, 1995 “Xylon is a German ambient duo consisting of Alfred Gregl and Torben Schmidt which originally released on Aural X-Perience in 1994. “Mooncafe” is a moody electro-ambient and chill-out trance release which could be a early release on a down-tempo label, although its has an overall uplifting, soothing effect, especially when velvet textures…
Release data: Max Corbacho – The Resonant Memory of Earth CD, Space for Music, 2002 After a long search, the talented Max Corbacho has found a new home at the US-label Space for Music. “The Resonant Memory of Earth”, of which the outcome again is one of pure beauty, sees Max return to the basics of “Vestiges”. His passion for…
Release data: Max Corbacho – Far Beyond The Immobile Point CD-R/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2000/2011 This is the second release of Spanish composer Max Corbacho, presenting a collection of seven non-rhythmic, highly atmospheric ambient space tracks, so taking a different road than was heard on his nice debut “Vestiges”. The inspiration for “Far beyond the Immobile Point” actually came from…
Release data: Steve Hillage – Rainbow Dome Musick CD, Virgin Records, 1979 The music captured on this classic blissed-out ambient album was recorded for the “Rainbow Dome” installation at the festival for Mind-Body-Spirit at Olympia London April 21-29 1979. The cd contains two lengthy tracks of 20 minute each, of which “Garden of Paradise” gently takes off with water and…
Release data: Nono Orchestra – Angels Breakin’ CD, Aurora/Amplexus, 1999 Nono Orchestra is an ambient project by Klaus Wiese, Mani Reisser and Rick Rummler, of which “Angels breakin” is their second release. As the cover explains, the central idea behind Nono Orchestra is to create abstract soundscapes with newly constructed natural instruments, which in this case are a huge steel…
Release data: Hagen – Logos CD, Private Release, 1993 “In my opinion, this privately released recording by Bonn-based German musician Hagen is a remarkable one. The cd itself contains very little additional info, stating that ARP, Hohner, JEM, MFB Moog, Oberheim and Roland instruments were used in the making of the music. The outcome of six tracks is an original…
Release data: Michael Stearns & Ron Sunsinger – Sorcerer CD, Spotted Peccary Music, 2000 “Sorcerer”, Michael Stearns’ fourth album in 2000, is a concept album made in collaboration with Ron Sunsinger (“Kiva” and “Singing Stones”). The cd is dedicated to the surrealistic works of the late writer Carlos Castaneda, and is different from the regular releases of Spotted Peccary Music.…
Release data: Rob Essers – A Lizards Walk CD, Cue Records NL, 1997 Those familiar with Rob’s very nice debut album “Raincolors” know TD’s music from 1973-1985 holds a special place in his heart. The linear note on the cd-sleeve says it all: “vintage pieces were prepared to sound just that: vintage”. For “A Lizards Walk” Rob chose to construct…
Release data: Max Corbacho – Vestiges CD, Free Records, 1999 “Vestiges” is the beautiful debut album by Spanish ambient musician Max Corbaxo, who later would start his own label ad21Music with his friend Bruno Sanfilippo. More than once, he has been described as the Spanish Steve Roach, due to the fact that he composes tribal-influenced desert music, although I think…
Release data: Catalin – First Breath CD, AD Music, 1999 “First Breath” is the debut album by Catalin Marin, of which the overall sound carries distinct flavours of Vangelis. The nice booklet contains several Biblical phrases, which lends a certain evangelistic feel to the whole release. The 44:44 minutes are split in eight attractive pieces of which “Opening” strongly ventures…
Release data: AirSculpture – Fjord Transit CD, Neu Harmony Records, 1999 “Fjord Transit” came out rather unexpectedly at E-Live ’99. It contains the music the English trio played at the second Eurosonic Festival on the Swedish island Valo. In all, there are three extended pieces, of which the title track (clocking over 30 minutes) contains lots of nicely sculptured soundscape…
Release data: Rudy Adrian – The Healing Lake CD, White Cloud Music, 2000 The music of Rudy Adrian’s atmospheric recording “The Healing Lake” is rather similar to “Twilight”. The album features nine reflective tracks (making up 57 minutes of music) with an emphasis on serenity, but this time there are no up-tempo sequencer-based pieces. The delicately flowing and meandering music…
Release data: Erez Yaary – Nibiru CD-R, Private Release, 2003 “Nibiru” is a concept album by the Israeli musician Erez Yaary, who already has composed five albums. The cd depicts the musical voyage of “Niburu, which is thought to be the 10th planet of the solar system that is affecting Neptune and Pluto’s orbits. Well, overall this is an atmospheric…
Release data: Yarek – Noc Na Zamku CD, Generator.pl, 2008 “Noc Na Zamku” (which can be translated as “A Night in the Castle”) by Yarek, aka Jarek Degorski, is the fourth release of the Polish Generator-label. This seems to be a live recording (part of the Polish event “Olsztyńskie Lato Artystyczne 2007”) although it overall sounds like a studio work.…
Release data: Mathias Grassow – The Lanzarote Concert CD, NO-CD Records, 1995 The double cd “The Lanzarote Concert” is a live recording with basic–tracks from DAT, documenting Mathias’ live performance in the “Cueva de los Verdes”, Lanzarote, on October 18th, 1994. At this event, Mathias played synthesizer and singing bowl, to which he added his own voice and environmental/nature sounds.…
Release data: Wave World – Cloudseeder CD, VFR Records, 2003 “Cloudseeder” is a double album by the Dutch trio Gert van Santen, Harry Kessels and graphics designer Rolf van Slooten. It’s a pity it isn’t graced with such a beautiful out-of-this world- cd cover as their previous albums “Species”, “Structures” or “Dimensions”. The first cd contains two previous released studio…
Release data: Klaus Wiese – Perfume CD, NextEra, 2006 “Perfume”, released as a limited edition digipak of 1019 copies, contains 12 electro-acoustic recordings using Tibetan singing bowls, chello, tabla, keyboards and nature sounds from ocean and wind. Gliding, warm atmospheric textures nicely kick off on the 15-minute soundscape-trip “Velvet Octaves“, which is a bit in vein of David Parsons “Himalaya”.…
Release data: Tomasz Zawadzinski – Sounds like Pictures CD, Generator.Pl, 2008 According to the press info, Thomasz Zawadzinski’s “Sounds like Pictures” is a highly cinematic sonic experience whose sound is deeply rooted in the Berliner School sequencing tradition. The almost 20-minute title track starts out atmospheric with rather flat and artificial sounding mellotron textures, but soon TD-kindred sequencing, rhythms and…
Release data: Fanger & Schönwälder – Analog Overdose 4+ CD, Manikin Records, 2007 This is my first encounter with the music of this duo, although I know the music of each of these established musicians is thoroughly rooted in the Berliner School sound for years. “Analog Overdose 4+” (which seems a kind of bonus cd to the regular cd/dvd release…
Release data: Konrad Kucz – Railroad Paths CD, Generator.pl, 2008 “Railroad Paths” contains lots of beautifully rendered vintage sounds and choir textures, fx’s and sequences, which almost immediately made my mind wander back to the great analogue days of the late ‘70s. The music is split in five “paths”, which creates a great moody atmosphere, featuring some very nice mellotron…
Release data: Exposed – Dive Master 08 CD-R, MellowJet Records, 2007 From the press sheet I learned this album is a new recompiled and completely reworked version of the album “Divemaster” by Exposed, aka K.H. Reiers. For this purpose, six tracks were added to the original album to extend the playing time with about 30 minutes. Well, “Dive Master 08”…
Release data: Deepspace – Another Empty Galaxy CD-R/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2008 Deepspace is the moniker of the Australian musician Mirko Ruckels, who has established himself as a mature composer of well-rendered electronic space music in a short period of time. This album is offered for free as a “thank you” to the Last FM fans and all others who…
Release data: Robert Scott Thompson – Poesis Athesis CD, Lens Records, 2008 “Poesis Athesis” by composer Robert Scott Thompson is his debut release on Lens Records. Robert and Chi Kung Master Terrence Dunn worked together in the mid-80’s, and contacted Thompson once again to compose music for his current series of video releases. Thompson composed the music to work specifically…
Release data: Stephen Parsick – Planetary Music CD-R, Private Release, 2008 This cd-r contains the one hour concert Stephen Parsick performed in front of a small audience in the Planetarium of Osnabrück on March 29, 2008. Musically it continues in the footsteps of “Fuzzstars”, offering a nice tapestry of well crafted textural ambience, slowly wrapping the listener in the realms…
Release data: Stephen Parsick – Cold Storage CD-R, Private Release, 2008 “Cold Storage” contains the music Stephen Parsick played at the final rehearsals for the concert in the Gasometer (which he considered his best-rehearsed concert that far), which later ended up on the album “Cryotainer”. It’s no surprise the music on this album resembles the sonic content nicely captured on…
Release data: Stephen Parsick – Traces of the Past redux CD, Private Release, 1998/2007 This version of “Traces of the Past” is a reworked, improved version of the album that originally came out in 1998 on Spheric music. It comprises a collection of ten tracks which Stephen composed between 1994 and 1997 with only limited gear and sound tools. As…
Release data: I Awake – The Core CD, Ultimae Records, 2008 The musician behind I Awake is the Stockholm based sound designer, soundtrack producer and musician Thomas Huttenlocher. “The Core” comes in a deluxe digi-pack with great digital art work by David Vineïs. The sonic outcome of the well produced and mastered “The Core”, for which Mr Huttenlocher collaborated with…
Release data: Dave Luxton – Hidden Music CD-R, Wayfarer Records, 2008 Dave Luxton is a musician from the Lawrence Kansas area. The concept-album “Hidden Music” -intended to facilitate a meditative process- is centred around the idea that natural places and phenomenon withhold an underlying energy, order and beauty that can be perceived and experienced emotionally by the human observer when…
Release data: Natural Frequencies – Tranquility in Motion CD, Ozella Music, 2007 Natural Frequencies is an ambient/chill-out project from the late Andreas Leifeld, who sadly passed away on February 1st 2006, only 50 years old. The music on “Tranquillity in Motion”, the second album under this moniker if I’m correct, is of an overall slow, minimal nature, carefully shaped with…
Release data: Robert Fox – Adonai CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, AD Music, 2008 The concept album “Adonai”, originally created for theatre, is Robert’s evocative sonic telling of the Easter Story and a remarkable man from a human point of view. Assembled of grand orchestral soundscapes, vocal textures, guitar and piano, the album unmistakeably reveals a new side of Robert’s music. The 17…
Release data: Amin Bhatia – Virtuality CD, Private Release, 2008 Amin Bhatia’s new album “Virtuality” was released on May 23, 2008, the birthday of synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog. It’s presented as a double concept album featuring a sci-fi trip inside the computer using a whole array of real and virtual orchestral instruments, while the second half contains an innovative realization…
Release data: Paul Hartzog – Faces CD, Cydonia Records, 1996 Only recently someone pointed my attention to this “forgotten” recording from American musician Paul Hartzog, which has remained the only one until now. The impressionistic idea Paul Hartzog wanted to put forth on “Faces” was a story of a cosmic traveller finding solace and illumination among the ruins of an…
Release data: Paul Speer – Oculus CD, Rainstorm Records, 2008 Some might know this musician from his collaborative works “Natural States” and “Desert Visions” with David Lanz. In a way, the music on this cd sounds vaguely familiar to that, still remaining more guitar-based than electronic. This cd is the sonic companion to the video album “Oculus”, creating a warm,…
Release data: Entheogenic – Flight of the Urubus CD, Universal Symbiosis Records, 2008 The electronic band Entheogenic, founded in 1999, are the UK-duo Helmut Glavar and Piers Oak-Rhind which seem to be known for their peculiar mixture of tribal instruments, Eastern and Western (sampled) vocals and creative doze of electronics. Furthermore I learned the Entheogenic project considers it their mission…
The contemporary instrumental album “Glow in the Dark” is the follow-up of Mr Bartlett’s 2003 release “Near-Life Experience”, which blends a varied mixture of emotional electronics with lyrical guitar work, again slightly following in the footsteps of Mike Oldfield. Kevin’s haunting, heartfelt musical style brings a whole array of progressive, symphonic and ambient elements together (overall breathing simple, straightforward honesty…
Release data: Fanger & Schönwälder – Analog Overdose 4 CD & DVD, Manikin Records, 2007 Fanger & Schönwälder’s “Analog Overdose 4” comes in a Manikin-style double-digipak holding an audio cd and a dvd. The cd contains three extended tracks of which the first one features a rather monotonous sequence on which improvised solo’s hover over a blanket of vintage textures.…
Release data: Picture Palace Music – Symphony for Vampires CD, Manikin Records, 2008 Picture Palace Music is a project by Berlin/Vienna based keyboarder Thorsten Quaeschning, who joins Edgar Froese in Tangerine Dream very often. His band’s goal is to reproduce the musical dynamic and experiments of old live accompaniment for silent movies and give them a modern soundtrack with nowadays-technical…
Release data: Immersion Theory – The [Icarus] Foray CD, Private Release, 2007 Those of you out there looking for a good release in the genre of deep ambient space music, should make sure to get a copy of this beauty. “The [Icarus] Foray”, holding a strong element of sonic story telling, is one of the several creative outlets by Los…
Release data: Kevin Kendle – Light of the Pleiades (Deep Skies 3) CD, Eventide Music, 2008 “Light of the Pleiades” is the third instalment in Kevin’s Deep Skies series, on which he attempts to capture the vast spaces, nebulae and shimmering stars from the cosmos into sound, and where the atmospheres and sonic textures take the place of melody to…
Release data: Steve Roach – A Deeper Silence CD, Timeroom Editions, 2008 Steve Roach continues his quest into the deep end of the soundcurrent, and has come up with “A Deeper Silence”. Reflecting back on his beautiful ’84 classic recording “Structures from Silence”, it’s a continuous playback recording of almost 74 minutes, about which Steve says it’s “minimal and infinite…
Release data: Bryan El – Out Of This World CD-R, AMAdea Records, 2008 Bryan El is a young musician hailing from Roeselare, West Flanders, who states the music of Amethystium, Vangelis, Ryan Farish, ERA, Tiësto and Armin van Buuren are among his favourites and a big influence. “Out of this World” actually contains ten tracks from his digital album “Secrets…
Release data: Carbon Based Lifeforms – Interloper CD, Ultimae Records, 2010 Premiered live in concert at Stockholm’s Cosmonova Planetarium in November 2009, “Interloper” is the third full-length acid ambient album by the Swedish duo Johannes Hedberg and Daniel Segerstad. Although the duo initially had another album ready around May 2009, the two musicians decided not to release it and invest…
Release data: [‘ramp] Looking Back in Anger – a decade of misfits CD, Doombient, 2006 The Doombient-release “Looking Back in Anger” is 78-minute retrospective compilation by the duo Stephen Parsick and Frank Makowski. It provides an overview of nine rare or elsewhere unreleased tracks spanning the first decade of [´ramp]´s work, which saw them collaborate with e.g. Stefan Kraft, Martina…
Release data: Gert Emmens – The Nearest Faraway Place Vol. 1 CD, Groove Unlimited, 2008 This cd, the first part of a trilogy, contains the music Gert composed for the Gasometer concert-gig on November 10th, 2007 in Germany. The outcome is an uninterrupted 71-minute piece of music, for which Gert invited a guitarist to add a few fine guitars licks…
Release data: Rainbow Serpent – Live @ Liphook 2007 CD, Manikin Records, 2008 I lost sight of the interesting German band Rainbow Serpent, aka Frank Specht and Gerd Wienekamp, after Arndt Maschinski’s label Ardema Music (which released their music) discontinued back in 1999. Fortunately, the band is still live and kicking’, as they were able to re-release quite a number…
Release data: Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard – Farscape CD, Synthetic Symphony/SPV, 2008 “Farscape” is a double cd containing the track “Liquid Coincidence”, which comes in seven different “Parts”, all ranging between 13 and 32 minutes. From the start, it becomes clear this for sure is a passionate, and at times even breathtaking album: it blends Schulze’s warm, flowing soundscapes,…
Release data: Various Artists – Texture -A Compilation of Minimal Ambient Guitar- CD-R, SloBor Media, 2003 “Texture” -A Compilation of Minimal Ambient Guitar- was the debut album of the SloBor media label, started by Matt Borghi and Jason Sloan in 2002. The 70-minute release offers a selection of (mostly previously unreleased) music from a global range of ambient artists. The…
Release data: W.A.dePhul – When aliens meet a drop of water CD, Manikin Records, 2008 Some might remember this musician from the short period he worked with Tangerine Dream back in the late eighties. Ralf, who nowadays works as freelance recording and sound engineer, states the music on this album was inspired by the tracks composed during TD’s ’88 North…