Release data: Zhu – Inner Sanctuary CD, Private Release, 1998 According to the press-sheet, “Inner Sanctuary” is the second release of the Vancouver-based Reiki master & musician Robert Jennings, aka Zhu. Subtitled as “soothing music complementing the healing arts”, the album immediately gives a new-age impression, which is even emphasized by the cd cover. The disc contains twelve tracks from…
This follow-up to Char-El’s critically acclaimed debut album “Worlds Without End” is divided in two sections: a space-trip and an overall symphonic tour-de-force. “Heaven” offers more capturing space music in the tradition of Charles’ former album, moving further on into unknown regions of our galaxy. But then there’s “Earth”: which is something different. Here we encounter more rhythmic, symphonic music…
Release data: Char-El – Worlds without End CD, Private Release, 1996 “Worlds Without End” is the debut cd of Ohio-based musician Char-El aka Charles Thaxton. He is convinced that his music has a positive influence on both spiritual health and the soul. I must confess Charles has released some very nice space music that can compete with some of Jonn…
Release data: Telomere – Astral Currents CD, Evenfall, 1998 Well, well, here we have a cd which features some music which is perfectly in line with those made some years ago in the classic tradition of spacemusic. The musician behind Telomere is one Christopher John Macdonald, who’s “Astral Currents” is his first release. Christopher owns a nice piece of electronic…
Release data: Telomere – Zoetosis CD, Private Release, 2001 “Zoetosis” is the second cd of space-music composer Christopher MacDonald, inviting the listener to another fascinating virtual trip into space. Like his previous album “Astral Currents”, “Zoetosis” is primarily made on the Mighty Serge Modular (which almost immediately still remind of Michael Stearns’ masterpieces “Planetary Unfolding” and “Chronos”), offering handsfull of…
Release data: Mark Mercury – Music of the Domes CD, Private Release, 1992 Mark Mercury is an American composer of electronic music with a strong cinematic feel. The music on this cd is actually real planetarium music, split into five long tracks. Listening to it is a special experience as the descriptive, light symphonic angles and orchestral timbres shapeshift on…
Release data: Mark Mercury – Music from the Cycles of Spheres CD, Private Release, 2001 This album is actually a rebuilt version of the “Deep Spaces” album that space and planetarium composer Mark Mercury had in the works for quite a while. Now it is being used for the identically-titled art exhibition of Mary Edna Fraser, carrying the subtitle “Mapping…
Release data: Ashera – Colour Glow CD, Private Release, 2000 “Colour Glow” is the third album from Australian-based ambient musician Antonio Asher Wright aka Ashera. Again,the same two female vocalists on his former album contribute in a marvelous way to a few of the eleven tracks available. Was I a bit remembered of the music of Eno in the past,…
Release data: Rob Essers – Raincolors CD, Groove Unlimited, 1994/2002 Rob Essers debut album “Raincolors” was originally released in 1994 on Cue Records NL. A couple of months before that, Rob gave me a demo of the album, which resulted in quite some goosebumps when I heard the extraordinary music on it. The music on it is made in the…
Release data: Kees Aerts – Slices of Time CD, Groove Unlimited, 1997 What I got here is the every first Groove Unlimited-release. With “Slices of Time” Kees Aerts (at that time business partner of Ron Boots’ Groove Unlimited label) also presents his debut. His name appeared previously on various “Truth” cds. The album -dedicated to the function that allows events…
Release data: The Circular Ruins – Empathy Test CD, DataBloem, 2003 I’m not that familiar with the music of Anthony Paul Kerby, aka The Circular Ruins, although I’ve heard his album “Confluence”. In a different way than usual, his organic-flavoured ambient creations on “Empathy Test” (containing works from late 2002 and 2003) are a slow drift, but one accompanied by…
Release data: Brian Vassallo – Beyond CD, Private Release, 1998 Well, what is got here is electronic space music from the Maltese (!) musician Brian Vassallo, who steps forward with an album he already seems to have released back in 1998. It’s a pity it remained so long in whatever vault, as this is a real gem for fans of…
Release data: Steve Roach – Fever Dreams CD, Projekt, 2004 A short outtake of this cd (announced as part one of a trilogy) could already be heard on the sampler “Space and Time” from end 2003. Well, “Fever Dreams” contains four extended tracks (the press-sheet describes them as hypnotic groove meditations) , which starts very nice with the 18-minute “Wicked…
Release data: Rasal.Asad – Space.Scape CD, Thisco, 2002 “Space.Space” comes in a simple, single-sleeve envelope, containing electronic soundscape music without rhythm made by one Fernando Cerqueira from Portugal. Fernando is owner of the Tisco-label and has made at least ten CD’s using the moniker Ras.al.ghul, but he considers Rasal.a’sad a “side-project”. The opening track “Ur” has a floating nature, sounding…
Release data: Rasal.Asad – Asuna CD, Thisco, 2003 “Asuna” is the second album of the Portuguese electronic project Rasal.Asad, aka Fernando Cerqueira, which contains eight quite active, repetitive and slow evolving soundscapes. In a way, you might call it almost dream-like, but the outcome is rather abstract, also due to the use of some philosophical and literal spoke words and…
Release data: Dorian Przystalski – Antimatter CD-R, Underwater Music, 2003 Dorian hails from Poland, and found his first home at Underwater music, but by now he has set up his on website. “Antimatter” contains of 45 minutes of rather traditional, accessible EM in which tasty ingredients as up-tempo sequencers, groovy basses, warm sounds and some solo’s make up the whole.…
Release data: Randel Osborne – Celestial Mechanics CD, Redshift Digital Audio, 1995 Randel Osborne is a recording studio manager of Redshift Digital Audio, hailing from Connecticut, who’s also half of a band called Parallax. The cd begins with the heavy symphonic title track, which sounds rather familiar to the stuff Synergy did years ago, but then in a more freaky…
Release data: Redshift – Last CD, Distant Sun, 2007 “Last” features music which Redshift played live on Hampshire Jam 5 in October 2006. For this concert, Redshift performed as a trio, as no other than Ian Boddy joined Mark and Julian Shreeve on electric piano, synthesizers, software and sampler. For years, Redshift is known for their strong retro music (with…
Release data: Ixohoxi & Numina – Starfarer’s Tales Vol. 2 CD-R, Private Release, 2004 This is the second chapter of the collaboration between these two ambient musicians, so I was expecting some kind of continuation of the previous album. Well, “Volume 2” is definitely a more darker-shaded free form ambient trip taking up 51 minutes. The opening track “Dark Matter”…
Release data: Ixohoxi & Numina – Starfarer’s Tales Vol. 1 CD-R, Private Release, 2002 This is the first collaboration between these two distinguished American ambient composers, both known for their remarkable soundscape music. They now joined forces which have led to this album (which has Poul Anderson sf-novel “Starfarers” as core inspiration) that won’t disappoint any fan of long-drifting textural…
Release data: Loren Nerell – Taksu CD, Soleilmoon, 2003 As far as I know, this is the sixth cd of Loren, his previous cd (“The Venerable Dark Cloud”) was released on Amplexus in 2000. “ Taksu” contains one uninterrupted, cinematic track of 69:17. It’s a slowly evolving, flowing blend of environmental soft drone sounds and Balinese/gamelan instruments, rather soundtrack-like atmospheric…
Release data: M. Griffin – Sudden Dark CD, Hypnos Recordings, 1997 Mike Griffin, owner of Hypnos recordings, hits the spot with his first solo effort “Sudden Dark”. The beautiful cd cover (which later on would become a trademark of the label) and title give a promise of what the listener can expect: ten tracks in all which head for darkening…
Release data: Laudanum – Laudanum CD-EP, ArcHana, 2001 “Laudanum” is a cd-ep by the German duo Amir Baghiri and Rüdiger Gleisberg, aka Laudanum, which was released on ArcHana, a sublabel of Stefano Gentile’s Amplexus-label. Rüdiger already had the idea for this album for quite a while, as he wanted to melt Medieval mystics with electronic music, which finally brought him…
Release data: Mathias Grassow – Rüdiger Gleisberg – Amir Baghiri – Arcanum CD, Groove Unlimited, 2009 Rüdiger Gleisberg must have had quite an exhausting year, as he also found time to compose a solo-cd next to a cd of Solitaire. Well, “Arcanum” is a excellent cd he composed together with his musical companions Mathias Grassow en Amir Baghiri, which I’m…
Release data: Magic Sound Fabric – Uplift Drift CD, Spiralight, 2002 This is the second cd from the American musician Cameron Akhunaton, who hails from Virginia, which carries the subtitle “hifi downtempo ambient groove”. The cd contains nine tracks offering a fresh sound of dub and occasionally some chill-out styles, which can vaguely be compared to Nu Ambient Groove. But…
Release data: William Linton – Traveler’s Tales CD-R, Private Release, 1986/2002 “Traveler’s Tales” should be the first cd of William Linton, if I’m well informed. It carries the subtitle “music for inner travel”, which aptly describes what Mr Linton is trying to establish with the 40 minutes of classic floating space music contained on this disc. The title track is…
Release data: Klangwelt – Weltweit CD, Spheric Music, 2002 Weltweit” is the debut cd of the near Hamburg residing German musician Gerald Arend a.k.a. Klangwelt, who puts forward a both intriguing as attractive album. The album offers 77 minutes of commercially infused electronic music without getting annoying in any way or sounding too straight-forward. No, Gerald leads us with steady…
Release data: Brannan Lane – Hypnotic Drift CD-R, Private Release, 2002 It seems that drifting space/ambients has become a heavy trademark of Brannan Lane, who again knows how to impressive the lovers of the genre. “Hypnotic Drift” is another beauty with slowly morphing and shifting layers of sound, accompanied by some choral swells here and there, not to forget some…
Release data: Ishq – Orchid CD, Interchill Records / Dakini Records, 2002 Ishq is the ambient chill-out project of the English musician Matt Hillier, who has traded his guitar in ’91 for a synthesizer, after which he made music using various aliases. He set the personal goal to compose music that was able to alter the human perception and the…
Release data: H.U.V.A. Network – Distances CD, Ultimae Records, 2004 H.U.V.A. Network is the “North-South collaboration” of Sweden’s Magnus Birgersson (aka Solar Fields) and Vincent Villuis (aka Aes Dana) from France, resulting in 78 minutes of downtempo-ambient. Within eleven tracks, we find a tickling mix of fluid textures, deep sequences, rhythms and fx’s making up a vast array of sonic…
Release data: Jeff Greinke – Wide View CD, Hypnos Recordings, 2002 Ambient-landscape music is made in various forms, and on this new recording of Jeff Greinke (known from both his solo and collaborative efforts for many years) we find a nice blend of both the physical as mental component of the subject. “Wide View” consists of nine tracks, all together…
Release data: Matt Coldrick – Music for a Busy Head CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Absolute Ambient, 2002 Matt Coldrick has established to taking a turn in his career after being founder of a trance band. Next to composing for film and Tv, he now has put out an album with soothing mind-music to shut down the many things that keep out head…
Release data: Peter Challoner – Music for Cloudwatching CD-R, Private Release, 2002 This cd by English ambient composer Peter Challoner contains two long tracks of over 30 minutes. They are a perfect musical companion while gazing at cloud masses passing by. The freeform soundscapes remind of the airy compositions of David Parsons (“Himalaya”), the sophisticated textural ambiences of Thom Brennan,…
Release data: Ashera – Enviro CD, Private Release, 2001 “Enviro” is the fifth album of Anthony Asher Wright aka Ashera. It continues where his former albums already took him. In addition to his former albums, this one features the Hammond B3 organ, which gives things a twist. Each of the eleven tracks hold the key for a slow drift into…
Release data: Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express CD, EMI, 1977 In the period between the pioneering “Autobahn” and the band’s breakthrough-album “The Man Machine”, Kraftwerk road the edge with the cool avant-garde album “Trans-Europe Express”. The lyrics on this album are quite sparse, giving way to a great portion of hypnotizing music which captures a feeling of almost “eerie warmth”.…
Release data: Kraftwerk – The Man Machine CD, EMI, 1978 “The Man Machine” was released in May 1978 and is still regarded as one of the best recordings of Kraftwerk. The cover features the four musicians in red outfit looking East, which implies they see themselves as music-workers inspired by the Stalin-regime. Already known in those days for their static…
Release data: Various Artists – Ambienism Volume 1 CD, Spiralight, 2004 This great looking Spiralight-sampler offers a 74 minute collection of tracks by known and not-so-known ambient musicians. The first two tracks by Zero One and Mystical Sun set a great mood, offering up-tempo music with a profound atmosphere in which deep drone bass beats and effects are mingled together.…
Release data: Synth.nl – AeroDynamics CD, Groove Unlimited, 2007 The musician behind Synth.Nl is the Dutchman Michel van Osenbruggen, who started recording music for his concept album “AeroDynamics” in 2006. Although I can’t say the cd-cover to it is that attractive to me, the twelve tracks on the disc speak their own language. It’s a nice collection of mellow-melodic pieces…
Release data: VoLt – Nucleosynthesis CD, Groove Unlimited, 2007 The duo Michael Shipway and Steve Smith continue their grand tour of accessible and attractive sequencer-based electronic music with “Nucleosynthesis”. The cd contains three long tracks, on which the typical UK electronic music sound melts with Berliner School inspired sequencing and textures. The music pulsates and flows in the opening track…
Release data: Synthetic Block – Sonic Approach CD, Hypnos Recordings, 2003 There has been quite a gap between the release of Jonathan’s second release “The Opposite of Staring into Space” and this one. Nevertheless, “Sonic Approach” (eight tracks, almost 60 minutes) has been worth the wait, offering another blend of classic electronics & the sophisticated infusion of modern approaches, so-called…
Release data: Sylken – Illusions of Light CD-R, Atmoworks, 2000 Sylken is actually the Canadian musician Eric Hopper, who is joined in the Sylken-Ensemble by Wally Jericho, Arnold Sprogis, Steve Sauvé and Joe Galifi. “Illusions of Light” contains seven tracks of very nice and delicately composed electronic ambient in which the ambient-guitar has a core position. Next to the fact…
Release data: Liquid Mind – VI: Spirit CD, Private Release, 2003 Like its predecessors, the sixth Liquid Mind-album “Spirit” sounds very relaxing and well-balanced. It is typical music that turns you inward within a few minutes. Warm, encompassing textures surround the listener for over an hour, taking out every trace of stress in mind and body. Sometimes the background features…
Release data: Ixohoxi – Ambient Tone Poems Volume 1 CD-R, Private Release, 2003 This is the first volume of a series of introspective ambient music which Ixohoxi has started a short while ago. The album features lengthy floating ambient textures kept in a quite simple and elemental way. Next to soft layers of electronic sound also some organic additions like…
Release data: UK Heights – Ambients CD, Private Release, 2002 UK Heights (also on the cd written as U. Kay Hytz) is a UK-based band of three musicians whom have been making music since 1991. “Ambients” as such is the final outcome of the persistent demand of a radiostation for quiet, more introspective versions of their music. Well, “Ambients” contains…
Release data: Arc – Fracture CD, DiN, 2007 This cd and its music premiered at the E-Live 2007 festival on October 13 in Eindhoven, where Mark Shreeve and Ian Body, aka Arc, also performed a great concert. Like the previous albums, their fifth album continues in their well-known retro sequencer style, kicking off with the mellow soundings of the title…
Release data: Emergence Music – EveryOne 432 CD, Private Release, 2002 “EveryOne 432” expresses the joy of life in a way of a symphonic-oriented instrumental poem which lasts for over 70 minutes. The composer, one David McCarthy from Washington State, is first of all a flutist who also knows his way in implementing electronic layers of sound and worldmusic-elements and…
Release data: Epiphany – Mindscapes CD-R, Private Release, 2000 The guy behind Epiphany is the Dutch amateur musician Erik Teljeur. Years back, I heard some music of him which had been compiled on the album “Images”, which generally lacked a sense of direction. Erik remixed a few tracks from his debut and added some new compositions to what has become…
Release data: Ron Boots & Friends – Joie de Vivre CD, Groove Unlimited, 2003 Actually, this is the second live cd of MORE (Music Of Ron and Eric) and in that sense the successor of the very succesful MORE cd “By Popular Demand”. The last mentioned cd was re-released on April 10 at the Alpha Centauri Festival in Huizen (Netherlands)…
Release data: Revival – The Longest Dream CD, Private Release, 2000 “The Longest Dream” is an extraordinary release of the Canadian-based composer Sorin Pavelsco, his secondone until now. The concept deals with dreams, there impact and the different angles it holds deep within itself. Through his music Sorin masterfully builds a bridge between contemporary, classic and ambient music in which…
Release data: Remote Spaces – Silos CD-R, Requiem Records, 2004 “Silos” is a release of the Polish band Remote Spaces (aka Konrad Jakrzewski and Krzysztof Rzeznicki) which is nicely packaged in a dvd-box. It features six extended tracks of contemporary electronic music which is a switching maelstrom of elements. In their accessible music one can hear echoes of the electronic…
Release data: The Omega Syndicate – Analogue Waves CD, Neu Harmony, 2004 The Omega Syndicate is a band from Northern England which consists of Xan Alexander and David Gurr. Well, the title of the album already states what profile their music has. The album contains three extended tracks of progressive, improvised Berlin School-based music, the closing track clocking at 35…
Release data: John Luttrell – A Sense of Impending Levitation CD-R, Private Release, 2003 This seems to be the second cd of multi-instrumentalist John Luttrell, also founder of his own label Ottersong Records. Next to composing ambient music he’s also singer/songwriter of progressive rock music. This album offers a nice combination of original sounding piano- and ambient compositions which all…
Release data: Paul Lawler – Bronx Shadows CD-R, Ricochet Dream, 2004 “Bronx Shadows” is a live album from 1997, containing a recording of Lawler’s “Electric Cafe” concert in Derby, UK. The version reviewed here is not the original version featured on Paul’s website, but a copy of the limited re-release edition (100 numbered cps) which includes three exclusive bonus tracks…
Release data: Aetopus – Memories of the Elder CD, 12 Ton Productions, 2002 AeTopus is multi-instrumentalist Bryan Tewell Hughes from Washington. The album opens with a dynamic piano-sequence (sounds a bit like Frank Van Bogaert) but also reveals some classic elements. What we got here is progressive electronic music with flavours of pastoral new age and symphonic music in which…
Release data: Brannan Lane & Amir Baghiri – Lucid Circles CD-R, Private Release, 2004 Lucid Circles is the first collaborative outcome of the rather well-known ambient composers Brannan Lane (USA) and Amir Baghiri (Iran/Germany), which was already recorded in 2002. It’s an atmospheric album of 64 minutes in which the strongest elements of both have come to the surface. Introspective,…
Release data: Ixohoxi – Micronicom CD-R, Private Release, 2004 “Micronicom” is a concept-album about the hidden world of molecular and chemical processes taking place in the microworld. There’s an overall mechanical effect noticeable in the music, which shifts between electronic tribal ambient grooves and vast waves of shimmering soundscapes (“Molecular Resynthesis”) and drone-loops (“Amorphous Electron Clouds”). The contemplative “Filtered Luminescence”…
Release data: Ruben Garcia – Maybe Forgotten Forever CD-R, Trance Port Special Editions, 2003 The last decade or so I’ve collected all five solo cds of American ambient musician Ruben Garcia, of which the reviews have been published the demised Dutch electronic music fanzine KLEM. “Maybe Forgotten Forever” is the second release on Trance Port Special Editions, containing two cds…
Release data: Ryan Farish – Beautiful CD, Neurodisc, 2004 This is the first commercial release of the English composer Ryan Farish who previously built quite a name on MP3.com. Well, the instrumental music on “Beautiful” is very accessible and will surely appeal to a varied audience with it’s electronic, poppy tunes. Farish’ style leans towards Robert Miles (especialy his piano…
Release data: Starseed Transmission – Metamorphic Illumination CD, Nova Zembla, 1994 The Australian band Starseed Transmission are Steve Law and Andrew Orion, the latter calling himself Andrew Orion on the album. The duo initially met in 1988 through a Melbourne radio station who did a compilation of local electronic musicians. In 1993 Steve invited Andrew on composing a cd of…
Release data: Robert Carty & Brannan Lane – Climatic Infusion CD-R, Private Release, 2002 Well, both these artists have done very well until now regarding their own solo music. Their first collaborative cd “Climatic Infusion” holds the key to a next chapter in deep atmospheric music presented to you in seven extended sound textures with lots of organic undercurrents. In…