Release data: Maitreya – Telluric Waves CD, Council of Nine, 2003 It took Simon Lomax a.k.a. Maitreya four years to present us with this, his second album, but I must confess that the end result more than makes up for that. The sound of Maitreya has matured, pushing the boundaries in a most surprising way. The quiet “Night Vision” starts,…
Release data: Still Life – Volume Two CD, Private release, 2005/2006 Stiff Life is the duo Nelson Foltz and Tom Lynn, who state on the simple green cd-cover that no electronic instruments were used in this recording. This seems to be there third album (formerly they made “Volume One” and “Interlude”), featuring a sound experience which doesn’t emerge from silence…
Release data: Brannan Lane – Submerge CD-R, Ambient Circle Music, 2006 The album “Submerge” contains thirteen uninterrupted tracks of rather dark-oriented ambient music, freeform for the biggest part. There are quite some bell-like sounds scattered all over the album. “Part 8” features some heavy percussion accompanying the freeform ambient textures before things take a bit of an spooky turn on…
Release data: Numina – Symbiotic Spaces CD, Gestalt Records, 2007 In my opinion, Numina (aka Jesse Sola) has always been a rather extraordinary ambient musician composing delicately crafted ambient space music. The beautifully designed “Symbiotic Spaces” is a double-cd containing rare and unreleased tracks from 2000 till 2007, featuring music of which I’m more than happy it’s now available. Listening…
Release data: Sync24 – Source CD, Ultimae Records, 2007 Sync24 is a project of Swedish composer Daniel Ringström, one of the members of the Scandinavian down-tempo project Carbon Based Lifeforms. After several loose tracks on various samplers, “Source” is Daniel’s first full-length solo release. Listening to “Source” is kind of a deep and gliding experience, as the overall music with…
Release data: Anomalous Disturbances – The Spirit Molecule CD-R, Private Release, 2002 On his debut album “The Spirit Molecule”, musician Terry O’Brien uses the sedating, hypnotizing effects of repetition and loops while using electronic devices. His deep breathing soundscapes created through electronically modified looping guitar might make you think of Jeff Pearce, but here some different angles are taken. The…
Release data: Sonic Metro – Six Dregrees of Separation CD-R, Private Release, 2007 “Six Degrees in Seperation” is the debut album of Sonic Metro, aka the Dutch musician Peter Leijdsman. He formerly played guitar, drums and piano bit before he decided to switched to electronics. A whole new musical world presented itself, opening up totally new horizons. The instrumental album…
Release data: Steve Roach – Quiet Music CD, Fortuna Records, 1986/1999 “Quiet Music” (QM) is a collection of pieces ambient master Steve Roach created in respect for silence between 1983 and 1986. It is dedicated to the passing time and the experience of watching particles in sunlight. The recordings were originally commissioned for several healing arts programs such as the…
Release data: Kevin Rees – Pools of Instability CD-R, Private Release, 2003 Kevin Rees hails from Hampshire, England, but now lives in Osaka, Japan. This album was composed almost entirely on a Korg Trinity with only occasional use of classic and acoustic guitar. The recording stands quite on its own, although a typical Japanese flavour is apparent in the first…
Release data: Steve Roach – Proof Positive CD, Timeroom Editions, 2006 Steve’s Roach’s re-discovery of pure analogue instruments has led to another album of excellent “spontaneous impulse”, to quote the sleeve note of the cd. The 21-minute track “Westwind” kicks off with great minimal pulse sequencing and delicate soundscapes before the tantalizing vintage sequences from “Living the Pulse” show up…
Release data: Bruno Sanfilippo – Piano Textures CD, ad21music, 2007 “Piano Textures” is an introspective album which offers center stage for the processed sounds of a Grand old piano from 1923, accompanied by some synthesizers, duduk and samples of strings. All eight tracks have a more or less cinematic impact, their sounds tap from some kind of subconscious source, breathing…
Release data: Peter Mergener & Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock – Visions of Asia CD, BSC/Prudence, 2006 These two experienced German musicians already contributed on one track of each of their former albums. This is their first full-length release for which Hoffmann-Hoock did all the sound design, but one can clearly hear that each track carries a stronger signature of one of them.…
Release data: Amethystium – Odonata CD, Neurodisc, 2001 “Odonata” is a special and great looking cd from the Norwegian musician Øystein Ramfjord. It is almost all instrumental music which nicely features some influence of Enigma, but next to that also elements of the music of Synaesthesia, John Stanford (trance/dance-feel) and David Parsons (Tibetan/ethnic flavour)can be heard. Very nice deep bas-loops,…
Release data: Psicodreamics – Mythomusic (remastered) CD-R, Private Release, 1997 A while back, Spanish musician Salva Moreno aka Psicodreamics came up with the idea to revisit his album “Mythomusic”, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its creation. He gave the music a thorough remastering to make the music stand out even more. To a certain degree, the 13 neo-classical tracks on…
Release data: Parallel Worlds – Obsessive Surrealism CD, DiN, 2007 “Obsessive Surrealism” is the fourth full-length release of musician Bakis Sirros aka Parallel Worlds, one continuing the path of innovative dreamy atmospheric electronics since he started his music project in 1998. In a way he again succeeded in surprising me as Bakis reaches new heights with the eleven tracks featured…
Release data: Robert Rich & Ian Boddy – Lithosphere CD, DiN, 2005 This is the second collaborative album of Rich & Boddy, released as a limited edition of 2000 copies. It’s the outcome of ten days of hard work in Rich’s studio. Compared to its predecessor “Outpost”, the sound and overall feel of the new album is more organic, energetic…
Release data: Soundician – Memorophilia CD-R, Private Release, 2006 “Memorophilia” is the fifth cd of the English duo Odette and Kit Johnson on which they continue the musical path of its predecessors. Soundician’s output always had a rather unique style and sound, and on this recording the duo further investigates the boundaries of their minimal oriented rhythmic/melodic style. Although dedicated…
Release data: Jonathan Badger – Metasonic CD, High Horse, 2006 The cd “Metasonic” (lasting only 29 minutes!) is a live recording by the Baltimore- based musician Jonathan Badger. The music is all done with guitar with no studio overdubbing. In what he calls “a diverse sonic palette”, Badger applied use of pulse to bring rhythm to the ambient form. “Code”…
Release data: Rudy Adrian – Moonwater CD, Lotuspike, 2006 “Moonwater” is Rudy’s first release on the rather ambitious Lotuspike-label. As explained in the booklet, the start of the music was more or less accidental as some of his main studio equipment broke down. Nevertheless, the outcome is a beautiful collection of relaxed and moody ambient music carrying some distinct elements…
Release data: Projekt Erde – Mysterious Vibrations CD, CMS/4U, 1992 Musician and sound specialist Christoph Hausmann had a 24-track studio in the late 80s and early 90s. It had nearly all of the state-of-the-art synthesizers available at that time such as CMI Fairlight, Oberheim Matrix 12, Emax I and II and Sequential’s Prophet VS. Christoph met sound technician Martin Stark,…
Release data: Asura – Life 2 CD, Ultimae Records, 2007 Rather quick after the former great release “Source” from SYNC24, July 7th saw this release of Asura, the musical moniker of one Charles Farewell. The album starts out with drones, Aramean tribal rhythms, vocal samples on “Golgotha”, before a acid/dance sequence, fx’s and grand textures kick in on the glowing…
Release data: Jack Wood – Lighthouse CD, Private Release, 2007 “Lighthouse” is the beautifully designed second album (his debut “Per Ankh” came out in 2002) of the American visual artist Jack Wood. He uses the subject of the lighthouse to reflect his ideas, thoughts and visions from the lighthouse keeper’s point of view, investigating its various intrinsic and emotional elements:…
Release data: A Produce – Land of a Thousand Trances (special 2-cd edition) CD-R, Trance Port Special editions, 1994/2007 The last couple of years, Barry Craig aka A Produce has invested quite some works in revisiting & re-releasing some old recordings from the past. March 2007 saw the re-appearance of the 13-year old “Land of a Thousand Trances”, now available…
Release data: Samsa – The Laurentian Divide CD-R, Dark Winter, 2002 Samsa is Nathan Larson, one of the guys who founded the now defunct ambientlabel GreenHouse Music. “The Laurentian Divide” is his dark-ambient debut, which contains lots of heavy dronespaces with experimental touches and voice-samples, so quite hard stuff actually. But there is space on this cd for more transparent,…
Release data: Klaus Schulze – Kontinuum CD, SPV/Synthetic Symphony, 2007 I wasn’t that impressed by the music on his former album “Moonlake”, although I liked the first few minutes of the opening track very much. Well, the first track of “Kontinuum” made my smile stay on my face all the way through, as “Sequencer” (from 70 to 07) sets out…
Release data: Forrest Fang & Carl Weingarten – Invisibility CD, The Foundry, 2006 While listening to this fine cd, one almost has to think of some form of Fripp/Eno project, but then in a more spaced-out, floating manner. Mr Weingarten contributes some great sliding and well crafted guitar works to the very nice woven ambient textures and soundscapes of Mr…
Release data: Steve Roach – Immersion Two CD, Projekt, 2006 This is the second chapter in the Steve’s Immersion-series, aptly subtitled “Artifact Ghost”. As with all former infinite playback recording, the disc features one uninterrupted track of over 70 minutes. It contains a long atmospheric tapestry of slowly morphing textures and forms breathing calmness and introspection as the journey goes…
Release data: Peter Challoner – Interpolation CD-R, Private Release, 2007 “Interpolation” is the fifth album by the skilled British ambient composer Peter Challoner, bearing the subtitle “Music in Ambient remix”. It contains six extended tracks all breathing a relaxed but this time a bit more active music (compared to his former albums), as the freeform soundscapes are accompanied by some…
Release data: Anomalous Disturbances – HovR CD-R, Private Release, 2003 This is the second long awaited release of the Canadian musician Terry O’Brien who already surprised me with his engaging album “The Spirit Molecule”. Well, Hovr features lots of delicately structured repetitive elements, again created via electronically modified looping guitar and is another masterful recording. E.g. the grand track “Apparitions”…
Release data: Johannes Schmoelling – Images and Memory CD, Viktoriapark Records, 2007 May 31, 2007 saw the release of this beautiful retrospective album, an anthology of Johannes Schmoelling’s work comprising a well chosen list of tracks from 1986-2006, also featuring several new, unreleased pieces. In all, there are 23 tracks, nicely kicked off by “Zeit” and two more tracks of…
Release data: Amethystium – Emblem CD, Neurodisc, 2006 The album “Emblem” is a compilation-cd aptly subtitled “Selected Works I”, comprising tracks from his former three very successful albums “Odonata” (2001), “Aphelion” (2003) and “Evermind” (2004), which form the so called Dragonfly trilogy. All tracks have been digitally remastered and got a personalized narrative of Øystein Ramfjord, the musician behind the…
Release data: Projekt Erde – 11:11 CD, CMS/4U, 1991 Approximately six months after the German duo Hausmann & Stark had finished “Mysterious Vibrations”, the two musicians made a journey to Egypt. After their return they did the same kind of recording as for the previous album and generated the basic tracks for “11:11”. Different from “Mysterious Vibrations”, the music of…
Release data: Various Artists – Analogy 2 CD, Groove Unlimited, 2006 In 2005 under the title “Analogy, Volume 1”, a compilation cd came out with unreleased material from a lot of interesting electronic musicians. The assignment was to create a piece only using analog equipment. This was a success, hence now a second cd is released (well, the title “Volume…
Release data: Lisa Walker – Grooved Whale CD, Private Release, 2001 Canadian-born musician Lisa Walker has a peculiar fascination for humpback whales and their natural environment. So she made lots of recordings with a hydrophone, capturing the amatizing, broad repertoire of communication patterns of these huge animals, combining them with environmental sounds, and integrated all this into some highly inspired…
Release data: Ad van Gerven – Hatching CD, Cue Records NL, 1992 Ad van Gerven was one of the electronic musicians living in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, who participated in the KLEM subsection KLONE at the start of the ‘90. In 1989 he made his first electronic compositions, resulting in two tracks (“Etude” and “Etude 2”) on the Synteam sampler mc…
Release data: The Lab – Homodigitalis CD, Neuronium Records, 2003 “Homodigitalis” is the debut-album of the Spanish duo The Lab, aka Miguel Lázaro & José Corredera, assisted by image-expert Bernardo Rivavelarde. The latter was responsible for the nice visuals on the separately released dvd. This cd contains the music for the same audiovisual show, which is touring through Europe and…
Release data: Jeffrey Koepper – Etherea CD, Air Space Records, 2006 Jeffrey Koepper has been making electronic music since 1985 and has played in two groups, Pure Gamma and Immortal respectively, before starting this solo-effort. During these years he has collected a proper and varied collection of analogue devices and fine synths to finally create this stunning debut. “Etherea” offers…
Release data: Stephen Bacchus – Etherium CD-R, Akasa, 2006 Stephen Bacchus is the alter ego of Grant Mackay, president of the Canadian Oasis label. “Etherium”, released on the Oasis sublabel Akasa, consists of six music meditations for reaching inner space. So await slowly floating layers of soundtextures, tape loops and some high sounding accents, all breathing a sedate and harmonic…
Release data: O Yuki Conjugate – The Euphoria of Disobedience CD, Private Release, 2006 After a hiatus of over ten years, the English band OYC shows up again in their 3rd reincarnation, made up of original members Andrew Hulme, Roger Horberry and new additional member Rob Jenkins. The sound of their fifth studio album “The Euphoria of Disobedience” investigates the…
Release data: Various Artists – Evening Sky CD-R, Oasis Productions, 2003 This is the first cd-r of Oasis’ Music Theme from Canada, a music-database that is supposed to grow over the years and in which a lot of no longer available music is filed and can be bought by request. Music for Stargazing is he subtitle of “Evening Sky”, an…
Release data: Amethystium – Evermind CD, Neurodisc, 2004 With his third album “Evermind”, Amethystium a.k.a. Øystein Ramfjord continues his tradition of accessible, ethnic infused fairy-tale music. For the new album, the third instalment in the “Dragonfly Trilogy”, he invited a few guest-musicians, like the evocative vocals of one Lee Nisbet (from the band Animus Mundi) and Martha Rosbakken plus some…
Release data: Richard Bone – Experiments ’80-’82 CD, Quirkworks Laboratories, 2007 A while back ambient musician decided to revisit some 25- year old cassette tape recordings (composed with a Mini Moog, Korg MS10 and a Roland SH1) and restore them as best as possible. The material comes from two rare cassette only releases, “Quiz Party” and “Life in Video City”…
Release data: Brian Vassallo – Flashback CD, Private Release, 2006 In 1999 this Maltese musician released the very nice atmospheric space album “Beyond”. His new album “Flashback” chooses a new direction as the music (all tracks were composed in 2001) deals with chill-out, more upbeat stuff. “Senses” is a good opener which sends regards to Kraftwerk, followed by the nice…
Release data: Various Artists – Floating Point 3 CD, Iboga/Sofa Beats, 2006 In the world of electronic music it’s always nice to discover new names by means of samplers. This one comes from the Danish Iboga’s sublabel Sofa Beats and is compiled in 2005 by one Michael Banel. The cd features a very nice collection of modern electronic music from…
Release data: Seamus – Forever CD, Silentes, 2005 Seamus is a collaborative project of Amir Baghiri and Stefano Gentile: Amir composed all music while Stefano created the concept and made all photo’s. The music can be categorized as minimal ambient techno, executed in a smooth but rather unusual manner. Next to some vocal samples the album also captures a certain…
Release data: Geodesium – A Gentle Rain of Starlight CD, Loch Ness Productions, 2007 I must confess that although I’m a long-time space music fan I’ve never laid my hands on nor have I heard any music of Geodesium aka Mark C. Petersen until now. Since he started out around 1978, he has provided planetariums all over the worlds with…
Release data: Robert Carty & Sylken – The Endless Vista CD-R, Private Release, 2007 Just a couple of weeks ago I received “The Endless Vista”, the new album by talented ambient musician Robert Carty for which he collaborated with Canadian artist Sylken aka Eric Hopper. The title track starts out with beautiful soothing space textures, leading the way to five…
Release data: Dave Peck – Endo-Spectra CD, Private Release, 2003 I found Peck’s name on one of the many playlists of the US radio stations who broadcast electronic music, and got intrigued by the name of the album. Dave Peck is a synthesist and the creator of several of the factory presets for the new Clavia G2 synthesizer. Well, I…
Release data: Jack Andrews – Electrokinesis CD-R, Private Release, 2007 “Jack Andrews is a writer, visual artist and musician hailing from Arizona’s Sonoran desert , who’s “Electrokinesis” (meaning “creating and manipulating electricity from the mind”) is his debut-album. It is Andrews’ belief that musicians and artists act as some kind of “receiver” for music already present in a pre-existant cosmic…
Release data: Bekki Williams – Edge of Human CD, AD Music, 2007 Those who love accessible & highly melodic music can surely grab this cd, as it holds all strong keys to become a success in the genre of general and contemporary electronic music. Sure, certain comparisons to the work of Andy Pickford can’t be denied, but overall the music…
Release data: A Produce & Ruben Garcia – Early Sessions CD-R, Trance Port Special Editions, 2003 After many years of absence a brand new cd-r has been released on Barry Craig’s own label, Trance Port Special Editions. It features music he himself -using the A Produce pseudonym- recorded with electronics & piano-magician Ruben Garcia in the early ’90’s, and after…
Release data: RON BOOTS Dreamscape CD, Groove Unlimited, 1990/2003 This album always held a special place for me as it marked the real kick-off for Ron Boots into the world of electronic music. In addition, the recording is a perfect example showing how much fun it is to make such quality electronic music, which can stand test of time. Ron…
Release data: John Lyell – Dimensions CD, Private Release, 2006 The music on “Dimensions” is one about the stillness of outer space and its mysteries. Being an musician since 1984, John Lyell formerly made two others space music albums (“Wormholes” in 1998 and “Synthetic Universe” in 2002) with companion Brent A. Reiland. This is his first solo-trip offering 55 minutes…
Release data: Giles Reaves with Aashid Himons – The Deep End CD-R, Space for Music, 2000 Already by seeing the cover of this cd I got this exciting feeling that the music would sound more than nice. And yes: with “”The Deep End”, Giles Reaves again proves himself a mastermusician on spacemusic. Magnificent walls of sound drift on and on,…
Release data: Colin Rayment – Continental Divide CD-R, Private Release, 2004 “Continental Divide” is the second release of the London-based musician Colin Rayment, who has produced his own melodic electronica for several years. The inspiration for the cd came from a recent visit to the Canadian Rockies, of which the outcome is a nice atmospheric work. On a few tracks…
Release data: Arroniz – Contacto CD, Private Release, 2007 “Contacto” is the debut cd of the Mexican musician Miguel Arróniz Castrillón. The eight tracks on this album, which last over 75 minutes, almost all have a sequencer-based up-tempo character. The influences ranch from Kraftwerk to smooth, Schulze-like soloing over swinging sequence-lines. Especially the title-track is well composed, lasting over 15…
Release data: Various Artists – Chasing the Dawn [Ultima Thule Ambient] CD, Ultima Thule Media, 2006 After a very long delay of over three years this long-awaited sampler finally saw the light of day in the middle of 2006. The album is a fund-raiser for the Australia’s FM radio station which broadcasts the radio program Ultima Thule, dedicated to airing…
Release data: Gert Emmens – A Boy’s World CD, Groove Unlimited, 2007 On the concept-album “A Boy’s World”, Gert Emmens tries to capture a bit of the world, ideas, dreams and fantasies of his up growing son Frank. The albums contains six tracks which all breath a warm, positive and at-easy feel. The music is inviting and at times also…
Release data: Syndrone – Blind Date CD, Cuel Records NL, 1996 After a three year break, the album “Blind Date” was released in fall of 1996. The nine tracks on it were recorded during several jam sessions between 1994 and 1996, some of them one-time-only live recordings capturing the spirit of the moment. It is again Ron Boots who was…
Release data: Peter Challoner – Beneath the Ice Flow CD-R, Private Release, 2007 I received this ambient release together with his remix-album “Interpolation”, so I expected something in the same manner. “Beneath the Ice Flow” visualizes a sub aquatic journey in which one enters a world of darkening, mysterious lights and shadows. Altogether, there are three extended tracks on the…