MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Rich guitar ambience and inventive electronic soundscaping. Altered Realities is built primarily around the lucid tones of a solo acoustic guitar that have been powerfully embellished with live electronics. The resulting music is melodic and gentle for the most part, especially as the clean string work surfaces from within the heavy effects and lush beclouding treatments. When the various digital processes are in full thickness, the source instrument becomes less obvious to the point of invisibility, shimmering drones and crisp textures, echoing chords and twinkling harmonic plucks, melody often giving way to more amorphous structures. It appears that Erdem Helvacioglu uses every inch of his guitar neck to wring out these beguiling sounds and enhances the results such with such imaginative manipulations that it is often hard to believe that this is a real time solo performance.

Turkish musician/composer/producer Erdem Helvacioglu is well known in his home country and has performed and received considerable airplay internationally. Altered Realities comes as a follow up to the acclaimed A Walk Through The Bazaar released back in 2003 on the Locust label, this latest solo album being released via US label “New Albion”. Promotional material explains that "all of the compositions were recorded in real-time, directly to DAT without any overdubs, mixing, editing, post-processing, or the use of previously recorded material. All of the textures were created based only on the acoustic guitar signal with no other sound source used during the recording". The equipment employed consisted primarily of an Ovation Custom Legend 1869 acoustic guitar fed through a bank of audio processors on the spot. So what we hear are guitar recordings that are more or less recognisable drenched in colourful electronic layers and textural resonance.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Treasure is released via Spotted Peccary Records, having taken six years to create, the album has stirred up considerable anticipation. From the opening moments this album establishes itself as a high quality experience - Helpling and Jenkins delivering a gigantic musical expanse that truly stirs the depths of the listener. So it comes as no surprise that these two artists are two of the label's most popular, best-selling acts, both having achieved considerable solo success. David Helping has produced much music for cinema over the years and his obvious ability to evoke imaginary colour and space perfectly complements Jon Jenkin's musical interest in creating music to "stimulate the imagination and transport the listener to another place". Treasure is surely a CD that stands out from the crowd - appealing to lovers of tuneful ambience, fairy tale enigmatic groove and to anyone that loves very beautiful music.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Restless, gutsy darkwave songs with slinky, prowling female vocals. Ultrashiver is built primarily around a guitar, bass and drums set up - an almost live sound driving the album, yet there is also a wealth of electronic enhancement and sonic manipulation to broaden the sonic spectrum and excite the ear. At the beating heart of each song is kaRIN's distinctive voice - intimate, disdainful, dripping with coiled sweetness, sprawling in predatory languor. Reflecting the same grit and sugar mix, churning guitars brim over with distortion, squeal amid sci fi feedback or pick out rolling flanged patterns whilst electronic atmospheres and peripherals provide contrasting subdued hues. The overall effect is quite a dense sound mass broken apart into brief softer interludes where a rippling synth, some smoother programmed tones or a low-key sustain guitar paints a lighter scene for a moment. The Secret Meeting don't play with obvious melodies, preferring instead a driving intensity threaded through with sensual moodiness - electrodes connected directly to tissu, a nocturnal shroud draped over everything, an ethereal light shafting through storm clouds.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Dynamic electronica ranging from amorphous ambient to rhythmic IDM. Surface Tensions delivers eleven varied pieces of synthetic experimentation where melody is often prominent; brimming with evocative atmospheres and augmented by the presence of unique organic elements. A violin, a piano, vocal snatches, operatic performance, effected voice samples and other assorted less readily identifiable sounds. Beats are lively throughout much of the album - crisp digital affairs for the most part driving the compositions into brisk movement - at times more chilled patterns lulling the music into restful serenity, there is even some jazz influenced drumming on the rolling X Tension. Surface 10 lays out rippling sequences against textured drones, delicately harmonious lines draped across spacey programming, swimming effected wavs cut into repeating loops, human peculiarities sunk into artificial fluidity.

Surface 10 is one of Dean De Benedictis' projects - here released via the highly respected U.K. DiN label. This is the second album from this partnership DiN 8 being Surface 10's In Vitro Tide back in 2000. The album is again limited to 1,000 copies. Dean has released a number of other albums under the Surface 10 title through various labels. He has also produced music under his own name and other aliases such as Cathexis, along with collaborative works as The Strato Ensemble and putting together compilations as The Fateless Flows Collective. This album fits well with DiN's growing catalogue of high quality, unusual electronica - individual, unpredictable and alternately beautiful and sombre.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Deeply saturated downtempo trance collection. Cosmik Chill Orange features a series of lush, multifaceted beats where basses throb, sequencers bubble and a wide variety of percussives all work in unison - fluttery treble drum loops dance over pounding lower thumps, combining into a rhythmically intense experience. Curling flute plumes swirl across chugging electro grooves and delicate synthetics, other organic material seamlessly woven into the vibrant sonic fabric where everything seems to have heightened colour making for a rich, ear-filling soundscape. Female vocals, low, almost a whisper touch some tracks, ethnic chants, spoken expositions and distant transmission snatches further enhancing the various arrangements. Tracks interfade one into another creating some interesting interludes as each piece lazily morphs into the next. Gradually the bpm rises from track to track as the album progresses from the cool spacey opener up into the more driving conclusion - that said, Orange still opens up plenty of space among the beats, atmospheric lull's punctuating the overall pace.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Dreamy downtempo songs of love and loss spread across opulent electronic soundscapes brimming with colour and feeling. Although two restful instrumental pieces of strings, vibes, Rhodes piano, wah guitars and synthetic sculpture flesh out the album, this is first and foremost a collection of beautifully expressed songs where Leigh Nash pours out her heart with touching sensitivity and graceful intonation. Both words and melodies are delivered with aching honesty and a vulnerable energy that suck you into Leigh's world of fragile, bared emotion and warm colour. The imagery is imaginative and compelling, the singing natural and skilful. Chilled beats lazily drive these lush arrangements that sound quite orthodox for writers, players, producers Leeb and Fulber - drawing on a sound palette that downplays the strident electronica of past projects and making greater use of mainstream structures whilst maintaining a pleasing originality that arises out of the team's unique musical heritage.

Leigh Nash joined forces with Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber through Delerium back on the album Poem when she provided vocals for the track Innocente (Falling In Love) and later again on the follow-up Chimera. One of Leeb's personal favourites, Nash's voice really comes into its own here on this album demonstrating a vocal range beyond my previous expectation. I consider this to be superior to any previous work that this particular team has done together, or at least here a shared personality of great character has been much more strongly defined. There are a good number of stand-out tracks for a single album - personally I love Draw My Life and Let It Go - two almost tear inducing ballads that swell the emotions almost uncontrollably, but there isn't a weak song on the CD. The musical approach is more conventional than might be expected from Leeb/Fulber (this is not a second Delerium) - yet the poignancy of the arrangements, the sweeping strings and ambrosial digital orchestration , the blissful percussion structures, the romantic chord developments all stand high above the crowd.