Release data: Altus – Symphony for the Sullen Digital Download, Altus Music, 2025 With this release, Altus’s music swerves away from his usual “ambient” self: the 48-minute “Symphony for the Sullen” is a completely orchestral work inspired by 20th-century composers.…
Release data: Altus – Terraform Digital Download, Private Release, 2025 Mike Carss writes to “Terraform”, it is the completion of the “Pioneer” trilogy, continuing Altus’ journey into the immense cosmic outdoors, where the outcome acts as a soundtrack for explorers…
Release data: Altus – Ultraviolet DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2024 In a way, I find it hard to get used to and adjust to Altus’s music, which marries rhythmic structures with transparent, soft, wavering soundscapes. This is the case on…
Release data: Altus – Solastalgia CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2024 I recall having quite some issues with the previous Altus album “Descender” but hearing the first textural waves of “Solastalgia” -created from May to July 2023- makes clear the latter…
Release data: Altus – Descender CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 “Descender” explores the sonic roots of Altus’ past, journeying back to more melodic/structured and varied music, pre-Altus of the mid and late 90s to be more precise. Back then, Mike…
Release data: Altus – Hidden Realms and Vacant Spaces CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2022 Altus’ “Hidden Realms and Vacant Spaces”, inspired by Stephen King’s immensely popular “The Dark Tower” saga, delves into the undiscovered wheres and whens beyond our imagination.…
Release data: Altus – Anthopoaliena CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2022 Here’s the first Altus release since composer Mike Carss decided to quit his job and dedicate all his time and effort on his music projects. “Anthropoaliena”, referred to as a…
Release data: Altus – Hypoxia CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2021 The initial music of “Hypoxia” was created over the course of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as the composer’s way to process isolation, loneliness as well as…
Release data: Altus – Sleep Theory Volume 4 CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2021 With this release Mike Carss brings his audience the fourth and final installment in the “Sleep Theory” series that was kicked off a decade earlier. If…
Release data: Altus – Trailhead: Singles Collection Volume 4 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2019 Since his debut “24 Hours” (2001), Canadian Mike Carss has proved a skilled ambient composer of emotive textural landscapes full of elegance and drama. In addition,…
Release data: Loneward – Protection DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2018 Loneward is a new side-project by Mike Carss (aka Altus) launched in August 2018. As the composer elaborates it will exist alongside Altus, however from this point on Loneward will…
Release data: Altus – Pioneer DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2018 A lot of the music released by Canadian composer Mike Carss (aka Altus) has been the sonic companion for travelling inward or into the grand outward expanse. The latter category…
Release data: Altus – Winter Embrace (15th Anniversary edition) CD, Private Release, 2017 What I got here is the first factory-pressed cd from Canadian sound artist Mike Carss, aka Altus. It’s the definitive 62-minute version of the orchestral-electronic release originally…
Release data: Altus – Sleep Theory Volume 3 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2017 This third installment in Altus’ Sleep Theory series (published about four years after the previous volume) contains the extended sessions 7, 8 and 9, all carefully molded…
Release data: Altus – Below the Root DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2017 Since I got to know the music of Altus it’s been evident for me many -if not all- of his releases feature a lovely cinematic, imaginary and deeper…
Release data: Altus – Innerspace DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2016 Canadian ambient composer Mike Carss, aka Altus, started out on “Innerspace” with his mind set to write something very slow-moving, very ambient/ignorable in nature. It turned out a bit different…
Release data: Altus – The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow (Singles Collection Vol. 3) DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2016 With this almost 80-minute compilation, Mike Carss comprises six tracks written between 2011 and 2015 that were contributions to various netlabel compilations…
Release data: Altus – Komorebi DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2015 “Komorebi”, a Japanese word describing sunlight filtering through foliage, sees Altus return with another fine nature-inspired release for which he applied similar composition techniques from the Elements-series. The chosen concept…
Release data: Altus – The Time Collection CD-R/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2015 With “The Time Collection”, Mike Carss (aka Canadian composer Altus) has delivered another monumental ambient work with narrative soundscape music travelling far into distant lands, the heavens and…
Release data: Altus – Excursion Three DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Earth Mantra , 2014 This recording, originally planned for release in 2011, marks the final chapter in Mike Carss fine “Excursion”-series. “Excursion Three” contains three sonic journeys with lush, melodic, slowly moving…
Release data: Altus – Sleep Theory Volume 2 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2013 After a break of about a year, Canadian musician Mike Carss returns with the second volume in the Sleep Theory series, bringing his listeners another chapter of…
Release data: Altus – The Sidereal Cycle 4 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Free Floating Music, 2013 This album marks the last chapter in Altus’ “Sidereal Cycle” series, rounding out the earth’s annual cycle with one more piece of immersive, highly contemplative ambient…
Release data: Altus – The Sidereal Cycle 3 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Free Floating Music, 2012 This freeform release marks the third chapter of “The Sidereal Cycle” series, which the composer regards the spiritual successor to his “Winter Embrace” concept series. The…
Release data: Altus – The Sidereal Cycle 2 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Free Floating Music, 2012 “The Sidereal Cycle 2” is the second installment of cinematic music on time and the change of the seasons by Canadian ambient composer Mike Carss. The…
Release data: Har & Altus – Shadow District DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Earth Mantra, 2012 At the beginning of 2012, Mike hinted at a collaboration that he’d been working on since 2011 with ambient guitarist/bassist/Chapman Stickist Har. The outcome is “Shadow District”,…
Release data: Altus – The Sidereal Cycle 1 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Free Floating Music, 2012 According to Mike Carss, aka Altus, this series is something that he should have done years ago, and has been suggested by a number of his…
Release data: Altus – Complex Silence 22 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Treetrunk, 2012 As usual, Mike Carss (aka Altus) had not much to say about the music on “Complex Silence 22”, a release in a series of albums of enigmatic atmospheres &…
Release data: Altus – Ecotone DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2011 Many may know the music of Mike Carss, aka Altus, as vast textural and out-of-this-world music. Sonically, “Ecotone” though opens a new, vibrant chapter in his already extensive discography. The…
Release data: Altus – Symmetry & Shadow (Singles Collection Vol. 2) DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2011 This is a second compilation by Altus, aka Mike Carss, supposed to fill the gap until the release of his full album “Ecotone” due…
Release data: Altus – Sleep Theory Volume 1 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2011 With “Sleep Theory Volume One”, Mike Carrs adds another fine chapter to his already extensive catalogue of soothing and highly textural ambient music. Quite similar to the…
Release data: Altus & TRX – Crossroads DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2010 The album “Crossroads” fulfills a wish Mike Carss (aka Altus) had for years: to compose a beat-oriented album in the style as he wrote them in the 90s,…
Release data: Altus – Black Trees Among Amber Skies DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2010 With his release “Black Trees Among Amber Skies”, Canadian musician Mike Carss (aka Altus) returns to his classic free form style of music, who describes the…
Release data: Mister Vapor vs Altus – Falling Out Of Orbit CD-R, Just Not Normal netlabel, 2010 I’m not familiar with any music of Mister Vapor (aka Thomas Park, who’s also known as ambient musician Mystified), but the fact that…
Release data: Altus – Coma Cluster DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2009 After some more challenging and adventurous releases such as “Macro” and “City of Ashes”, Canadian ambient musician Mike Carss now returns to his “common”, accessible style: “Coma Cluster” offers…
Release data: Altus – City of Ashes DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Music, 2009 On the audio/visual concept project “City of Ashes”, Canadian musician Mike Carss pairs his orchestral-oriented and minimal/fluid ambient work with the extraordinary photography of Shawn Sintzel. Well, listening…
Release data: Altus – Excursion Two DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2009 As one might expect, the music of “Excursion two” nicely continues where the first one left us. Again, Mike Carss offers a beautiful sonic painting that breaths total relaxation…
Release data: Altus – Macro DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2008 “Macro” offers 22 short “behind the scenes” sounds covering a broad range of sounds, from melodic ambient to atonal soundscapes, and a few oddities in between. As explained by Mike,…
Release data: Altus – Rapid Eye Movements DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2008 Mike Carss, aka Altus, explains that this album is not meant as a sleeping aid, but as a sonic voyage through one’s dreams and the secrets they can…
Release data: Altus – The Grand Expanse DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2007 “The Grand Expanse” by Canadian musician Mike Carss is a symphonic excursion into the endless worlds surrounding the Earth: the cosmos. The music is a well produced, refined…