Release data: Thom Brennan – Shimmer CD-R, Private Release, 2001 On “Shimmer”, Thom Brennan continues his quest for nature-inspired music. It kicks off with the short piece “Radiant Ice”, which returns at the end of album in a longer version. It is followed by the engaging soundings of the 15 minute “Cavelight”, which also contains some modified e-guitar and several…
Release data: Thom Brennan – Satori CD-R, Private Release, 2002 “Satori”, originally released on James Johnson’s Zero Music-label, contains music in line of what is featured on “Mist”. “Satori” (which is Japanese for Spiritual Enlightment) is part of Thom Brennan’s live improvisations, and contains 71 minutes of drifting and ongoing textural sound worlds. The deep, but always transparent soundscapes with…
Release data: Tangerine Dream – Phaedra 2005 CD, Eastgate, 2005 For this project, father and son Froese took the music of the classic “Phaedra” album and reworked and remixed (read: tangenitized) it to make it fit in a more modern jacket. This, by TD-fans, much feared treatment meant it would wash away the strong sense of mystery and magic from…
Release data: John Lakveet – Epikus CD, Groove Unlimited, 2003 The Spanish musician John Lakveet is one of the members of the band At-Moos, who decided to pursue a solo career like his band companion musician Dom F. Scab. “Epikus” is Lakveet’s debut cd on the Dutch label Groove Unlimited, and is a beautiful example of Berliner School inspired electronic…
Release data: Zero Ohms & Brannan Lane – Soundfall To The Infinite CD-R, Space for Music, 2002 “Soundfall to the Infinite” is a well composed ambient space album, divided in three parts. It originated from the Space for Music festival in 2002, where both musicians did a solo performance, but after they heared each others music they decided to do…
Release data: Various Artists – Fahrenheit Project Part 3 CD, Ultimae Records, 2002 This is the third compilation from the small French label Ultimae, which continues releasing some fine “panoramic music for panoramic people”. The cd contains “a selection of ambient downtempo soundscapes and ethereal rhythms”, presenting ten unreleased tracks (with the exception of the piece by Mystical Sun) by…
Release data: Gaylene – Journey to the Surface CD-R, Private Release, 1995/2001 Gaylene is a synthesist from Norwalk, Connecticut, and one of the few female musicians within nowadays electronic music scene. Her album “Journey to the Surface”, which was already released on mc in 1995, was originally recorded as a soundtrack for an exhibit at the Norwalk Maritime Center. The…
Release data: Astrogator – Dreamlight CD-R, Private Release, 2007 “Dreamlight” is the second release of the duo Astrogator, aka Stephen Humphries (aka Create) and his musical pal Jez Creek, which initially appeared as a limited edition cd-r of only 50 copies. Later on, and after popular demand, the duo decided to do a re-release I fall 2007 with full colour…
Release data: Frank Klare – Digitalic CD, Groove Unlimited, 2007 Frank Klare describes “Digitalic” as the musical successor of the his album “Analogic”, containing six recordings made between 2003 and 2007. Mr Klare has an energetic way of composing electronic music, which overall is strongly sequencer based and rooted in the modern Berliner School of music. The outcome on “Digitalic”…
Release data: The Nightcrawlers – Traveling Backwards CD, Manikin Records, 1997 The Nightcrawlers was a US-band from New Jersey, consisting of Peter and Steve Gulch and David Lunt, who by now are regarded as composers of classic electronic music. The trio applied vintage analogue gear to compose three albums between 1982 and 1987: “The Nightcrawlers” (1983), “Space Walk” (1985) and…
Release data: Spyra – Excerpts 1 CD, Ricochet Dream, 1992/2004 “Excerpts 1” comprises eight tracks Wolfram Spyra composed between 1986 and 1992. This version is actually the cd version of an album which originally was released as a limited edition mc back in 1992, now complemented with one bonus track. I’ve always considered Spyra as one of the innovators in…
Release data: Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygene (New Master recording) CD & DVD, EMI/Capitol, 2007 To celebrate the 30th anniversary of his classic album “Oxygene”, Jean Michel Jarre had the plan to completely re-record the original music with the original instruments. The outcome on the cd is great, as Jarre sticked to the original music, which still shines in all…
Release data: The Speed of Dark – The “Dark Water” Edition CD-R, Private Release, 2007 Frank Makowksi started The Speed of Dark project after [´ramp] (the dark ambient project with Stephen Parsick) had reached a dead point from an artist point of view. I’m glad he decided to continue and further investigate his own musical pathways, of which “Dark Water”…
Release data: Steve Joliffe – Poland CD, Ricochet Dream, 2006 What I got here is actually a live recording made at the Ricochet Festival in September 2004. “Poland” contains three long tracks, kicked of by the strange mixed bag “Spring ‘67”. It starts out with solo piano with quite some discordant notes, later on even getting experimental with some awful…
Release data: Robert Fox – Touching the Serpent’s Tail CD, AD Music, 2007 By whatever reason, I lost touch of the music by the English musician Robert Fox after his third release or so, although I liked his music quite a lot. In the meanwhile he has become a member of Code Indigo, but also continued releasing solo music. “Touching…
Release data: Various Artists – Oxycanta – Winter Blooms CD, Ultimae Records, 2007 “Winter Blooms” is the second compilation under the Oxycanta-monniker, compiled by labelmanager, musician and dj Mahiane. It features over an hour of new, modern electronics by the musicians Hybrid Leisureland, Solar Fields, Amos, Antonio Testa & Maurizio Piazza, Malik Trey, Aes Dana, Sgnl_Fltr, Subgardens, bOb tracKer, James…
Release data: Inade – Aldebaran CD, Cold Spring, 1996/2007 I received this cd together with the re-release of Sleep Research Facility’s “Nostromo”. “Aldebaran” appears to be the debut album of Inade, aka the German duo Knut Enderlein and René Lehmann . They have the intention “to go beyond the in part static and often repetitive working principle of Ambient Music…
Release data: Sleepresearch_Facility – Nostromo CD, Cold Spring, 2007 “Nostromo” is actually a re-release of an album by Sleep Research Facility, aka Kevin Doherty, which was already put out in 2001. It’s a concept album inspired by the spaceship Nostromo from the sf-movie “Alien”, and especially the mindblowing interior of it, which is featured in the first five minutes. Kevin…
Release data: Solar Fields – EarthShine CD, Ultimae Records, 2007 November 2007 saw the the release of the fifth Solar Fields album “EarthShine”. This time, the Swedish composer Magnus Birgersson presents eight lenghty tracks which are firmly rooted in atmospheric trance music. There’s plenty of melody implemented in the uptempo groove tracks with powerful, straightforward sequencers, pulling the listener deep…
Release data: Alpha Wave Movement – Terra DVD-R, Harmonic Resonance Recordings, 2006 The audiovisual production “Terra” is a journey into the hidden natural landscapes of New Zealand, which comes with an exclusive ambient soundtrack by Alpha Wave Movement. The dvd contains 37 minutes of beautiful nature footage by Rudy Adrian, who shot some tranquilliscapes” of mountains, forests, and various water…
Release data: Evan Bartholomew – Caverns of Time CD, Somnia, 2007 “Caverns of Time” is the first release on the new Somnia-label, founded by Evan Bartholomew, aka Bluetech. Evan explains the music “explores a mythical journey into subconscious realms, and is an attempt to explore the deep waters through an experience of sound”. The cd contains six free form tracks…
Release data: Deep Sky Divers – Highlands & Skylands CD, Any Robinhood, 2002 “Highlands & Skylands” by David Jones and Jon Short, aka the Brittish duo Deep Sky Divers, is a haunting album filled with highly cinematic music inspired by the beauty and landscape of the Scottish Highlands. The almost hour-long cd contains nine compositions which reflect the passion and…
Release data: Kerry Leimer – The Useless Lesson CD, Palace of Lights, 2007 Mr Leimer explains this cd is comprised of constructed and deconstructed pieces juxtaposed to disclose the contrasts and commonality of organizing and recognizing sound into music. Well, I don’t have the slightest clue what he means by that, but the result is a remarkable form of precision…
Release data: Sunya Beat – The Jelenia Gora Sessions CD, Ricochet Dream, 2005 The music of this cd was recorded live in Jelenia Gora, Poland at Teatr Jeleniogorski during the Ricochet Gathering September 10, 2004. It features Harald Grosskopf and Steve Baltes (from Ashra and Ash Ra Tempel fame)on percussion and synthesizer, plus Axel Heilhecker on guitar. The seven tracks…
Release data: Mark Jenkins – This Island Earth CD, Ricochet Dream, 2006 The 66 minute cd “This Island Earth” comprises music recorded and composed on analogue and digital equipment on various locations on our globe, presented in three suites. For Mark himself, the album is an over flight of compositions and recordings methods which made evolve the art, since the…
Release data: Conrad Schnitzler – Conviction CD, Ricochet Dream, 2006 “Conviction” is a limited edition cd of only 300 copies, released on the American label Ricochet Dream. It’s my first encounter with the hypnotizing, industrial sound experiments of Mr Schnitzler, also known from the Krautrock days of the German band Cluster. Although the cd-sleeve lists 18 different tracks, the music…
Release data: Various Artists –Various Artists – The Collective, Vol. 2 CD-R, SynGate, 2006 “The Collective Vol. 2” is actually the 100th cd-r of the German SynGate label, a double-disc release with 24 different (often unreleased) pieces of music from various musicians. For all fans of modern electronic music, a nice range of music is put forward by e.g. Keller/Schönwälder…
Release data: Telomere – The Stellar Sea CD, Evenfall, 2007 Six years after his second release, Christopher MacDonald aka Telomere presents us his long awaited album “The Stellar Sea”. Like the previous recordings, it is merely composed with the Serge Modular synthesizer (which many in the genre know so well through the music of Michael Stearns and Kevin Braheny), although…
Release data: Harald Nies – Dual Systems CD-R, Syngate, 2007 This album is my second encounter with the music of German musician Harald Nies. I wasn’t satisfied by his 2004 album “Space in Everywhere”, but this time things have improved considerably on behalf of sound and production. “Spacejuggler” begins with tasty, melodic music and a nice sequence, later followed by…
Release data: Realtime – Lights of the Universe CD-R, SynGate, 2007 “Light of the Universe” is the second album of Realtime, aka the Cologne-based musicians Thomas Bock and Norbert Hesnellek, who are joined by Thorsten Sudler-Mainz (aka Deep Imagination). The well composed melodic music on this album offers a nice dose of well proportioned sequencers, which takes the listener “out…
Release data: Stockman – Future Science CD-R, SynGate, 2007 Stockman is actually the Belgium musician Godfried Stockmans, who’s third album “Future Science” is a concept album about the wonders of science. It begins with the 11-minute, two-part “Electricity”, which overall hypnotic sound is bit repetitive to my ears. Fortunately, things improve from the second track on, as the listener steps…
Release data: Michael Meara – The Last Days of Autumn CD-R, Private Release, 2007 Michael Meara’s “The last days of autumn” is an ep of 25 minutes, containing one uninterrupted free form ambient track. The album starts out with warm string textures, which is soon accompanied by nice violin, soft piano and flute. It’s a slow moving piece with a…
Release data: Eric van der Heijden – Da Capo CD, Groove Unlimited, 1998 After seven long years of waiting and ongoing requests from fans for new music, October 1998 finally saw the release of Eric van der Heijden’s second album “Da Capo”. The music on “Da Capo” shows a far stronger influence from the warm music by Vangelis, who’s output…
Release data: Eric van der Heijden – Cosmic Flight No. 3 CD, Groove Unlimited, 2003 “Cosmic Flight no. 3” is Eric’s third album, which was released five years after his great cd “Da Capo”. It actually premiered on E-Live 2003, where Eric also performed live. The music shows a more own style, although his roots can still be detected in…
Release data: Eric van der Heijden – Universal Time Zone CD, Synteam/ Groove Unlimited, 1991/1998 Musician Eric van der Heijden is a close friend of Ron Boots, who met each other at the Klemdag 1989, which actually was the start of a long-time friendship which lasts until today. Ron invited Eric at his home and encouraged him to make more…
Release data: Thomas Ronkin – Symmetric CD, Tristissima Records, 2009 Four years after his very nice debut album “Within: Distance”, Thomas Ronkin presents us the double cd “Symmetric”, featuring strong musical contrasts and nice stereo effects. It also reflects the composer’s fascination with illusions of parallel, alternate realities and visual effects, which is also expresse in the artwork of the…
Release data: Thomas Ronkin – Within; Distance CD, Tristissima Records, 1997 Thomas Ronkin hails from Manhattan Beach, California, who’s music was recommended to me by “Mr A Produce” Barry Craig. Thomas, who seems to have worked with Steve Roach at the begin of the ‘80s, has a background as a classic pianist and video artist, but since quite some time…
Release data: Free System Projekt & Dave Brewer – Ricochet Gathering Okefenokee 2000 CD, Ricochet Dream, 2007 This is actually some kind of re-vamped edition of the same titled cd which was released in 2000 on Groove Unlimited. It now comes as a limited edition digi-pack of only 300 copies from Ricochet Dream, a label started by Vic Rek not…
Release data: Hypnosphere – Magnetism CD, Spheric Music, 2007 This is my first encounter with the music of the German project Hypnosphere, aka Lambert Ringlage (electronic musician and owner of Spheric Music) and Wolfgang Barkowski (aka Alien Nature). The duo describes the 76 minute “Magnetism” as a thematical follow up to their 2003-debut album “Within the Whirl”, which both deal…
Release data: René van der Wouden – Pro Sequentia CD-R, Private Release, 2005 The music on “Pro Sequentia”(which is Latin for the sequential hymns sung by monks and musicians at around the year 1100) of Dutch synthesist René van der Wouden shows a few musical steps forward. Above all, it features a warmer, better produced sound, which makes the general…
Release data: GoGooo – Long, lointain CD, Baskaru, 2007 GoGooo is a music project of the French composer Gabriel Hernadez. “Long, Lointain” (“Long, far”) is a peculiar ambient release with miniature ambient music, assembled with what I would call a whole range of lost and found sounds. The outcome of ten short tracks is derived from field recordings, guitar, melodica,…
Release data: Psicodreamics – The Garden CD-R, Private Release, 2000/2006 Like his album “Mythomusic”, the Spanish musician Salva Moreno aka Psicodreamics also give his 2000-album “The Garden” a proper remastering. The album contains 64 minutes of spiritual, slightly fantasy-like electronic music. There’s a touch of romance to be found in the uplifting textures and choral passages of these modern electronics,…
Release data: Ololiuqui – Other Side of Odra CD, Ricochet Dream, 2007 The beautiful designed “Other Side of Odra” contains a live recording from Ololiuqui, aka the German musician Volker König, at the Ricochet Gathering Poland 2004. The album was released in February 2007 as a limited edition of 300 copies. The music is a sort of psychedelic trance music,…
Release data: Ken Davies – Floating Galaxy CD-R, Pattisan Records, 2007 Ken Davis is a Mississippi based musician, who already got several releases in different genres under his belt. The 70 minute “Floating Galaxy” is his attempt to compose a space music album of elegant, electronic ambient music. The album starts out with the two-fold title track, which sounds very…
Release data: Dan Pound – Tantra Majik CD-R, Private Release, 2007 Dan Pound’s goal with this music is “to help enhance an erotic, meditative state where a couple may find that massage and touch become more intense and absorbing”. What we got here is a kind of sensuous ambient music which Mr Pound classifies as shamanic space music with quiet,…
Release data: Gulan – Prologue CD-R, Private Release, 2007 “Prologue” is a 64 minute compilation cd from the Latvian musician Gulan, aka Andrei Gulaikin, which was released October 8, 2007. The cd contains eleven tracks which range from general melodic to cinematic kindred music. The eight minute opening track “Prologue” offers different tempi while roaming in progressive rock and classical…
Release data: Bernhard – Down on Earth CD-R, Private Release, 1998 “Down on Earth” is the solo debut-album by Bernhard Wöstheinrich, also known as one half of Centrozoon. It contains 37 minutes of meandering ambient music, composed between 1996 and 1998, which breaths an overall pastoral impact. But don’t think this flowing music is that cheesy, as there are quite…
Release data: Syndromeda – A Day in the Fields CD, SinSyn, 2005 Syndromeda (The Synthesizer Syndrome of Andromeda) is the moniker of Belgium synthesist Danny Budts. “A Day in the Fields” is a concept album, which was commissioned by the art centre Hof De Bist museum for an exhibition by Lieve Pettens about the Oude Landen. The latter is a…
Release data: Cymphonic – Strataradialis CD, DataBloem, 2007 “Strataradialis” is the second album by Cymphonic, aka the Dutch ambient sound sculptor and musician Stanley Swinkels. I must confess it took me quite some time and several extra spins in the cd player before I decided to write a review on this remarkable ambient release. The fact that the music created…
Release data: Robert Carty – The Inexplicable CD-R, Private Release, 2000 “The Inexplicable”, by Utah-based musician Robert Carty, is an album that is best classified as ambient-space music. The album last one hour, and starts with the two-fold “Dark and Drifting”, in which quite darkening soundscapes melt with each other. From the third track on, the overall atmosphere seems brighter…
Release data: Amir Baghiri & Wee Bandits – A Brief History of Light CD-R, DataBloem/BlueBox, 2007 “A Brief History of Light” is a concept album by the skilled German musician Amir Baghiri. It was established with the help of a few co-composers, a vocalist on one track, and guest musician Max Corbacho, who lend a hand on the opening track.…
Release data: Robert Carty – Skyhearts CD-R, Private Release, 1994 According to his website, ambient musician Robert Carty seems to have around 30 albums under his belt, of which the biggest part was released on cd-r. “Skyhearts”, subtitled “deep native earth space music”, is his fourth cd, which actually is a very nice one. Carty’s music uses nature sounds quiet,…
Release data: Robert Carty – Natural Wonder CD-R, Private Release, 1992 “Natural Wonder” is one of the first cds of the US-based ambient musician Robert Carty. As I liked his 1994–album “Skyhearts”, I decided to check out this earlier album which came out two years before that. The music contained on this cd is overall quiet and atmospheric, a times…
Release data: Vincent Bruley – Dauphins et Baleines CD, Origins, 1997/2004 “Dauphins et Baleines” is no. 14 out of the series “Collection Oxygène”, which mixes nature sound with electronic music. The cd contains four long tracks, making up for 48 minutes of accessible, dreamy, and most of all relaxing music. Next to the various sounds of dolphins the music just…
Release data: Vincent Bruley – La Nature s’endort CD, Origins, 1997 Well, most of the description of the album “Dauphins et Baleines” also applies to music on “La Nature s’endort”, which is no. 7 of the series “Collection Oxygène”. It features flute next to the electronic orchestration and the various sounds of birds. The music can be compared to the…
Release data: Brain Laughter II – Not Far from a Distant Sun CD, Spotted Peccary Music, 1995 This is the long-awaited second album of Brain Laughter, a project of Howard Givens who’s assisted by nine guest musicians, which includes Steve Roach. “Not far from a Distant Sun” is a typical desert album which takes the listener on an instrumental, cinematic…
Release data: Kevin Braheny – Galaxies (Original Soundtrack Music) CD/MC, Hearts of Space, 1988 Kevin Braheny composed this soundtrack for the Hansen Planetarium-show. “Galaxies” offers some great floating space music which a lot of fans of the genre will like. For the music Kevin applied his self-built Serge Modular synthesizer together with the EWI (Electronic Woodwind Instrument). The latter would…
Release data: Ron Boots – Liquid Structures in Solid Form CD, Groove Unlimited, 2002 “Liquid Structures in Solid Form”, which comes in special metal cd-case, marks Ron’s return to overall analogue sounds. Put in his own words: “it’s like going back ten years in the approach of creating music”. Well, the cd contains six tracks, which kicks off with the…
Release data: Ron Boots – 80’s Box CD, Groove Unlimited, 2000 This six cd-box “80’s Box”, which comes with an extended booklet with lots of information and photo’s. It contains five long out-of-print cassette albums by Dutch musician Ron Boots, all composed before his stunning debut cd “Dreamscape”. For the box, Ron revisited his old albums, which were all carefully…
Release data: Ron Boots – Area Movement CD, Groove Unlimited, 2003 The music of the 2003-album “Area Movement” is the outcome of 1,5 year of hard work. Again, it was assembled, composed and produced in Ron’s own Dreamscape Studio, although Ron received some generous help of his Belgium friend Frank Van Bogaert on the closing track. As the album title…