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------SYNC24
- Source |
| STYLE |
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Downtempo
electronica at the very edge of ambience. Smooth, shimmering
pads float up and vaporise into the air, swirls of pure
electronic atmosphere slowly curl through the gossamer soundscape,
delicate melodic phrases forming and unforming. A soft female
voice whispers dreamy musings deep within the mix, a male
voice equally low key and edge of hearing touches the ear
with subtle breaths of humanity. When the beats occasionally
roll in they throb with prominent muted kicks - often quite
minimal in structure - repeating dull thuds, resonant pulses
sometimes in tandem with undulating bass lines. At times
the rhythm is held completely by low sequencer patterns
blurring the boundary between beat and melody. Wispy effects
and dimly perceived sonic forms hang in the suggested space,
some distant and barely discernable, others a little closer
- organic or synthetic. 'White Pixels' lifts the pace into
blissful downtempo chill toward the latter part of the album
- a relaxing, flowing composition with the most complete
groove on the album and a memorable hook. The CD winds down
again into gliding, tranquil grace once more as the end
approaches. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Source
comes with the full Ultimae treatment - a glossy deluxe digipack
with 16 page booklet. Presented all in sharp monochrome, the
front cover features a macro water shot, frozen in its instant,
an after-plume rising from the spot where a clear droplet
has just fallen. The rear cover closes in even further on
a similar liquid disturbance - now glassy and solid looking
in extreme close up ... the track list is also here, each
one timed. Inside, the imagery is quite different, again in
shades of grey, but here a panoramic montage of natural forms
- leaves, berries, butterflies, mushrooms, blades and veins
with a running silhouette along the bottom edge. The booklet
holds a page for each of the eleven tracks - inspirational
photographs with credits and lyrics, there is also a page
given over to special thanks and another to a portrait of
the artist. |
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| OVERALL |
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SYNC24
is the solo project of Carbon Based Lifeforms partner Daniel
Ringström. Having appeared on various compilations
over recent years, Source is the debut album solely under
the SYNC24 title. Naturally there is a similarity of sound
carried over from Carbon Based Lifeforms, but SYNC24 is
more minimal and meandering - luxuriously unhurried, drifting
and immersive. That said, this is clearly an ambient creation
that has filtered down from distant trance origins as opposed
to having arisen from among the likes of Steve Roach, Brian
Eno and Robert Rich. Released on Ultimae Records, Source
is very much in keeping with the label's aesthetic and maintains
the high standard the fans have come to expect. Promotional
material encourages listeners to "discover [ Source
] like an environmental concept album, soundtrack for inspired
moments, sonic background to a quiet way of life....Step
by step, layers of listening experiences and secret perceptions
will unfold". |
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------Natural
Frequencies aka Andreas Leifeld - Tranquility In Motion |
| STYLE |
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Clean
relaxing electronica with emphasis on sequential structure
and silken atmosphere. Tranquility in Motion is aptly named
since this album is comprised of gentle rhythmic compositions
- programmed sequential patterns and smooth waves work in
harmony to produce lucid synthetic soundscapes, sitar drones,
flutes and hand drums bring organic textures into the mix
- once again in delicate rhythm. As well as the percussive
tracks there are passages of beatless weightlessness - drifts
of air and soft swells at times suggestive of an 'above
the clouds' clarity. Melody is mostly in the form of repeating
motifs and understated phrases taking second stage to pattern
and progression - yet there are also some elegant tracks
of buoyant pads and undulating washes where touches of tone
and faint notes produce beautiful loose arrangements of
harmony and warmth. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Plenty
of sky blue adorns the artwork on this jewel case package.
The front cover is two thirds sky - the other third a series
of curving glass panels reflecting the expanse and alternately
holding images of the artist. On the reverse is another sky
and glass photograph bathed in blue, tidy tracks titles in
a small font to the left each with times shown. The inner
booklet unfolds into a two page cloudscape - a heavy mass
touched at the edges with light, rays brimming over into a
fine fan. Here we find overlaid a series of portraits of the
artist over the years going back to childhood, the only text
being a list of musical instruments and equipment used on
the album. A vivid green strikes the eye on removal of the
CD - a verdant tree alone, simple against the ubiquitous sky
and clouds. |
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| OVERALL |
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Tranquility
In Motion is the second Natural Frequencies album following
the 2006 release Ornamental Journey (both via Ozella Records).
However, these are not the only works available from Andreas
Leifeld - prior to Natural Frequencies Andreas recorded a
number of other albums working in a variety of electronic
styles. As well as recording he also performs live and works
as a DJ. This CD will appeal to anyone that is looking for
something between Berlin school synthesis and ambient groove. |
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------Netherworld
- Mørketid |
| STYLE |
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Isolationist
ambient ice music. Morketid presents spacious drones and
atmospheric textures that combine muffled cotton wool softness
with cutting frost and the tingle of light. Often these
are woven into repeating phrases where reverberating sparkles
and cloudsounds are occasionally accompanied by a pulsing
percussive thud. There are distant voices echoing in the
spaces where tracks fade in and out or somewhere behind
the music - yet these suggest human distance and the solitude
of the listener rather than company or proximity. The track
Jøkul has a sibilant spoken voice running throughout
reminiscent of a dimly perceived radio transmission. Morketid
has a warmth that was absent on Cryosphere - although maintaining
the arctic emptiness and frozen stillness, this album reflects
the colour and delicacy of the landscape, the fragile blanket
softness of cloud and snow. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Mørketid
comes in a sharp digipack - well presented and in close keeping
with the musical side of the product. The front cover image
is a totally barren landscape, flat horizon, sheetlike surface
- however this minimal scene is beautifully lit, steeped in
blue/purple hues, faint clouds hanging in the rich colour
of the sky. A single disc of white gold punctuates the emptiness.
On the reverse is a timed tracklist on a frosty grey backdrop.
Within a snowscape backs an explanation of the project whilst
the CD sits atop a dark cloud shot. |
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| OVERALL |
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Mørketid
comes as the second release from Alessandro Tedeschi's own
Glacial Movements label. The excellent sampler "Cryosphere"
setting the tone in 2006. Apparently Mørketid is
a Norwegian term for a certain period in the year when the
Arctic winter cold encases everything and the sun doesn’t
rise over the horizon at all. Alessandro explains that "into
the deepness of my essence there is a wired, dark, silent,
glacial and eternal place. This imaginary place contains
a sort of parallel reality that I've named Netherworld.
I switch, shift and record (with my microphones) environment's
sounds and sibilance: a subterranean noise, ice blocks in
motion, gongs and crystals while broken. Through my music,
I would like to play the quietness of the silence, desolate
darkness and glacial landscapes". Netherworld's resulting
sound is a broad, understated richness that captures the
mood of the globe's uninhabited extremities masterfully. |
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------Mythos
- The Modern Electronic Kamasutra |
| STYLE |
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Global fusion electronica
with a rich sonic palette and powerful rhythms. The Modern
Electronic Karma Sutra brings together a variety of colourful
global vocalisation and instrumentation and a wide range
of vibrant synthesiser sound. The electronic aspects are
doubtless the foundation of the music - dramatic themes
led by exotic melodic tones, underneath liquid arpeggios
bubble and squelch softened by the broad spreading textures
of smooth swells and light floating washes. Indeed Kaske's
employment of current sound synthesis is masterful and absorbing
in itself. Embellishing the main structures are a wealth
of international performances and samples - Indian female
vocals, Pygmy calls, tribal chants, Chinese er-hu, finger
cymbals along with some soulful brass and wordless singing.
Beats on the album are frequently a fusion of deft programming
and global percussion loops - tablas and other hand drums
along with twinkling metalics and bells. |
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| MOOD |
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The
mood is one of theatrical vibrancy - strident beats drive
romantic compositions with lush layers of synthetic-organic
tone where different world flavours gracefully appear and
perform almost like characters in a dream pageant. The sound
is one of many interwoven layers and of deeply saturated colour
that calls to mind the coloured lights and bold make-up of
the stage. Many passages have an oriental feel - not simply
because of the use of Eastern samples, but the synthetic voices
and the musical modes chosen work together to evoke the atmosphere
and mythos of distant Asia. |
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| ARTWORK |
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The
CD comes in a two panel glossy digipack with a 32 page booklet.
The imagery throughout the package is primarily taken from
original Indian source material - a series of hand drawn illustrations.
The front cover presents an embracing couple framed in double
decorative borders with the simple title 'The Modern Electronic
Karmasutra'. The reverse contains the only musical information
- a track list with full times, all composing, performing
and programming credited to Stephan Kaske, contact details
are here also. Within all remaining space is given over to
pictures and information from the source material. |
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| OVERALL |
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This
is not the latest album from the Mythos / Stephan Kaske
catalogue - originally released in 2002 it was followed
by The Dramatic and Fantastic Stories of Edger Allen Poe
in 2004 and Mysteria - An Electronic Journey Into Sound
in 2006. The music, however, is still fresh and clearly
contemporary. For those that don't know Mythos began back
in 1969 with multi-instrumentalist Stephan Kaske, drummer
Thomas Hildebrand and bassist Harald Weiße. Kaske
went solo around 1980 Kaske with the album Quasar and worked
extensively producing other artists and writing for TV,
radio, film and commercials. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This album
will appeal to fans of European synthesiser music that enjoy
traditional international elements fused with cutting edge
technology. |
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------V/A
- The Sound |
| STYLE |
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A selection
of downtempo and lounge tracks from artists on the Ozella
Records label. The stylistic approach is eclectic ranging
from smooth jazz, through bluesy male vocals and world music
elements to cool electronic chillout. You'll find plenty of
slick electronic piano lines and dreamy vibes here laying
down comfortable melodies with enough gentle rhythm to dance
to. The tracks are mostly driven by relaxing beats and nodding
basslines with a crepuscular langour - spoken female vocals,
meandering saxophone lines and lazy piano all add to the low
light atmosphere, even including some pool table sound effects
at one point. On the more exotic side there is some evocative
flute playing on the orientally inclined Shan Qi track Avalon
and some clean spacey synth work from Natural Frequencies. |
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| ARTWORK |
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The Sound comes in a bright jewel case presentation
with a front cover photograph of an aqua sky over a glassy
lake where distant buildings hug the tip of a bar of land.
Between the two white English words 'The Sound' are three
multilingual titles in black fonts. Opening the inner booklet
we find that the outer scene is smoothly stretched out into
a horizontal pattern of banded colour that runs into abstraction
across three full panels. Turning over we find a list of
tracks detailing writers, performers, gear used and original
CD sources. The back of the case is bathed in the pale liquid
blue picked up from the rest of the package - here is a
simpler track list alongside publishing details. |
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| OVERALL |
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The
Sound is a strong sampler album from German based label
Ozella Music. This is the company of musician, producer,
composer Dagobert Böhm who appears himself on this
collection for a brief two minutes thirty eight seconds
with the blissful guitar instrumental Far Away. Interestingly
Carsten Menzel’s project Stardelay delivers four tracks
including a cover of the Portishead track It Could Be Sweet,
demonstrating that this is not simply a showcase of the
label's varied talent - the flow and mood of the album being
carefully considered and constructed. Overall this is an
easy going CD well introduced by the front cover sticker
that proclaims "new excellent downtempo lounge tracks
in the style of Air Zero 7 and Portishead" - although
there is a little more here in terms of variety. |
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------Netherworld
- Kall - The Abyss Where Dreams Fall |
| STYLE |
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Experimental
ambient noise. Netherworld has created a world of expansive,
hazy grey, a lurching, fogged space of dense, sound clouds.
Sonic turbulence and heavy surging air movement heaves restlessly,
reminiscent in places of the sound of one's own muffled breathing
heard under water - the sound of an uneasy sleeping landscape.
At times the ambience is cavernous as dense waves of sound
reverberate in rhythmic regularity, at times intimate, faint,
close to the ear and then thunderous - a huge vacuous rumble.
Irregularities constantly break up any pattern that might
have formed, diminishing any suggestion of organic origins
- more like the shiftings of wind or the straining of huge
ice formations. Tonal drones distantly touch this overwhelmingly
grey noise with periodic hints of colour - sparse, retiring
- sometimes like gossamer siren voices carried across great
distances, echoing off the landscape. Percussive disturbances
frequently arise, some muted, dull, uncontrolled others clearer
like splintered shells, metallic like tumbling steel tubes
or tingling bell trees, at one point an impact like the striking
of a snare drum full of sand comes close to establishing a
beat and then it's gone again. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Kall
- The Abyss Where Dreams Fall comes in a 'deluxe cardboard
sleeve' of textured white. A single sheet folded into three
sections with thin spines - the CD itself is held neatly on
a small plastic disc in the centre of the package. Imagery
is minimal - fine silvery grey lines radiating in a broken
ring like dropped shards of glass fibre. A light title completes
the front cover - the rear holds the titles, brief credits
and website details. Inside the whole space is given over
to another line image mirroring a similar design on the CD
itself. Mondes Elliptiques label information appears on the
third outer panel. |
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| OVERALL |
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angleREC
here makes use of the parallel Mondes Elliptiques label
to release "the first official CD production of Italian
project Netherworld". Alessandro Tedeschi has previously
delivered his music via CDR or mini-CDR releases through
such labels as Umbra, Gears Of Sand and Taalem/Kokeshidiski.
This album sees light of day around the same time as Alessandro's
own Glacial Movements label releases Netherworld's Morketid.
Of the two, Kall is far colder, greyer, more lonely. This
CD is limited to only 441 copies and is comprised of four
movements simply titled part 1, part 2, par t3, part 4.
Go for this album if you like isolationist music at its
most desolate, if you enjoy the bleaker side of Netherworld. |
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