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------Enrico
Coniglio - dyanMU |
| STYLE |
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Ambient
foundation with impressionist piano embellishment and some
chilled beats. This is an unusual album - Enrico Coniglio
has created a series of absorbing ambiences that have a moody
enigmatic quality about them - dark, deep morphing pools of
sound crackling in places with electrical damage - these are
overlaid with delicate piano melodies by Elisa Marzorati "partly
based on the piano Préludes of Claude Debussy".
The resultant combination is a delightful movement between
dappled light and thick shadow. Eerie passages of fractured
drones and sustained metallic ringing swell ghost-like, indistinct
whilst the gentle buoyant romance of Marzorati's ivory dances
wistfully across the surface. Track one has a sparse digital
beat that effortlessly carries the introduction into weightless,
breezy motion - the remainder of the music is pretty much
free of percussive rhythm. |
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| ARTWORK |
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A
tasteful twin panel digipack holds this CD - delivering the
same balance of light and shadow explored through the music.
On the front cover an improbable cube sits in a scrubby woodland
- littered with dead leaves and shattered sun light, pale
against the gloom of the undergrowth behind. On the rear cover
we find a compact tracklist and brief credits set out on a
densely tenebrous arched corridor photo scene. Inside another
woodland image holds a printed quotation from Franco Marzorati
and behind the disc itself is an extended list of credits
and sample sources. |
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| OVERALL |
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This
is the second album on Psychonavigation Records from Venice
based guitar player/composer Enrico Coniglio following a series
of earlier releases. Here the artist further develops his
interest in ambient electronica - his muted environmental
creations minimal and evocative - suggestive motes and minutiae
crawling in the depths. Yet the introduction of Elisa Marzorati's
piano playing completely transforms the overall tenor of the
collection - his soundscaping illuminated by her grace, her
fingering haunted by his static and gloom. Add to this some
drum programming from Rena Jones and a couple of well chosen
samples including one from Robert Fripp and you have a truly
stand out album. |
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------Don
Peyote - Peyote Dreaming |
| STYLE |
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Downtempo
'doof dub' and colourful ethno chill. Don Peyote has created
a beat driven album that brings together a dense mix of
global sounds, electronic patterns and psychedelic influences.
There are all manner of ethnic elements deftly interwoven
here - Indian chants, bowed strings, flutes, didgeridoo
drones and so forth along with plenty of international rhythms
- hand drumming and stick work that interplay with the western
percussive material to suggest a contemporary tribal meet.
Guitars and synth lines don't dominate over the global material
- hanging rather somewhat behind - smooth waves, rippling
patterns and blunt urgent basslines. Two prominent collaborators
feature on the album - flute and sax player Dan Richardson
and didgeridoo master Ganga Giri. Natural sounds also populate
many tracks - most notably bird cries and song taking their
place alongside digital effects and peculiarities. Reggae
extractions and voices make an appearance on the dub side
of things - gritty expressions, swirling echoes and bright
rim shots. |
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| MOOD |
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The
air on this album is one of colourful curling incense and
international diversity - lazy night time ambience and relaxed
tropical vibes alternating with fire-side tribalism and gutsy
dub. Steeped in global exotica from all over the world, Don
Peyote takes the listener from East to West in broad confident
steps stringing his varied collection together on a sharp
downbeat thread. It seems that almost anything goes in Don's
music, the unity of the album held by a strong vision rather
than any fixed stylistic artifice. |
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| ARTWORK |
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The
artwork for this album is as bright and detailed as the music
- the front cover montage juxtaposing multicultural art work
and carvings, wild birds and creatures with graphic designs
all sprawled out colourfully upon a blue tinted natural texture
background. On the rear another textural montage acts as backdrop
to the tracklist - a second listing appearing inside on the
sleeve back. Opening out we have an explanation of the project
and credits on one panel with thanks on the opposing face. |
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| OVERALL |
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Don
Peyote is Australia based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist
Yvon Mounier aka Peyote Sound System. This eleven track album
is the follow up to his 2000 release Are You Peyoted? His
music goes well beyond these solo works though, having collaborated
with Ganga Giri and Naasko among others on a series of recent
releases as well as having appeared on compilations with Buddha
Bar, Interchill and Green Ant Records. Promotional material
suggests the style of Peyote Dreaming be considered 'global
groove, psy-dub, intelligent temple beatz or doof dub' - that
gives a pretty good idea of what to expect. You'll enjoy this
release if you like your downtempo rich, vivid and eclectic
with a strong beat throughout. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This
album is one to try if you enjoy downtempo chill with plenty
of world sounds. There is something of a 'live' performance
feel to the music and although in the lower bpm field, there
are a lot of tracks to dance to here. Have a listen at Don's
Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/peyotesoundsystem)-
or buy the album from his own website (http://www.donpeyote.com). |
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------Journeys
- Tania Rose |
| STYLE |
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New age
instrumentals with emphasis on melodic performance. There
are a range of styles here - dramatic compositions with synth
strains and artificial strings propelled by uncluttered percussion,
beatless themes with chiming arrangements, pieces that are
almost piano solos (only somewhat effected and sonically altered
with sparse string accompaniment). For the most, however,
part the music consists of romantic keyboard music - at times
delicate and wistful, at times passionate, very harmonious
and peaceful. The final track is a vocal piece featuring Tania's
own voice, a cinematic, drifting ballad that carries a hint
of Celtic influence. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Arriving
in a crisp card envelope Journeys opens into two panels with
CD and promotional sheet slotted into a notched slash on either
side. The imagery consists of long exposure photographs of
moving lights snaking in bright curves across a graduated
backdrop that drops from near black to a deep brick red. The
legend 'music for the spiritual traveller' hints at the content
within. On the back cover is a faded tracklist and an explanation
of the project. Inside are credits and some background information
on the artist along with some brief inspirational verses -
the lyrics to the track Wind Dance. |
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| OVERALL |
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Tania
Rose is an Australian musician with a series of new age
albums under her belt. This latest release comes through
Artscope Music and is the follow up to her 2003 CD 43 Angels.
There are ten tracks here that maintain a fairly consistent
vision throughout - an interest in film music evident in
the arrangements - gentle, emotional and occasionally lightly
melancholic. |
|
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------Antonio
Testa - Inframundis |
| STYLE |
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Environmental
ambient sound installations. Antonio Testa here presents
a series of sonic environments that are often suggestive
of found sound or musical representations of wondrous places.
The listener is inclined to envision the musician working
in low light somewhere below ground in harmony with his
space - each taking equal part - artist and expanse. Softly
clanging chimes are scattered against bird song and water
movement, a low drone even and measured permeating everything
- meditative evolving strains are rippled by unidentifiable
sonorous percussives, almost rhythmic - reverberating fluids,
spills and streams run across smooth synthetic textures
- turbulence gently heaves whilst a soft female voice speaks.
We even get to hear Rahien Testa's first cry on the opening
track in his name. The impression is one of timelessness
- ancient simplicity against contemporary clarity. The gear
list includes stalagmites and field recordings as well as
contributions from fellow musicians Alio Die - samples,
textures, drones, soundscape from Thailand; Susana Beatriz
Alvear and Maurizio Dall'olio - voice; Daniela Risser -
crystal bowls among others. |
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| ARTWORK |
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I
have no artwork at all for this album as yet and so can only
point potential listeners to the image above taken from the
Faria
Records website where you can download a number of demos
of the tracks for the album.. |
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| OVERALL |
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Inframundis
meaning inland universe (from Latin) the latest in a considerable
discography from percussionist Antonio Testa. Antonio's
website points out that he "specialises in organic
sound and the creation of musical atmospheres through the
use of a vast array of mostly native and shamanic instruments,
together with his own creations made from organic and recycled
materials". This interest is clearly evident on this
recording which is primarily a piece musical research into
stalagmite and stalactite sounds mixed with textures and
drones. Stefano Musso shares in four of the ten recordings
- Inframundis surely being an album that will appeal to
fans of Alio Die. Very meditative and evocative, this CD
is one for lovers of experimental sound that enjoy something
with an exotic edge, cavern music without the cold isolationist
tone that many subterranean explorations employ.
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------Hyper
Frequencies - Phantasmikta |
| STYLE |
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Thumping
dance floor psychedelia. Phantasmikta plunges straight into
carefully measured rhythm from the initial bar - setting
the pace at 146 bpm, the rest of the album varies only by
a beat or two from this energetic standard. Arpeggiators
and oscillators burble atop programmed beats and percolating
bass pulses with acidic sharpness. Indeed Hyper Frequencies
focuses his mix on the harsher aspects of synthetic sound
- shuddering digital stabs, cycling jagged motifs, thin
squirts and spatterings of electronica - all relentlessly
thundering on like a roller coaster ride ... just a slight
lessening of intensity here or there, synths dissipating
away from a lone kick or perhaps some flickering sputters
of electricity, multinational voices calling through an
introduction or final wind down - then we're off again.
Effected voices inhabit some tracks - frequently repeating
their brief messages or chanting with tribal urgency, at
times spoken phrases hang in the air and on the final piece
the snatched strains of Irina Mikhailova's distinctive singing. |
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| ARTWORK |
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A
complex tangling of imagery complements the musical side of
this release. Built around a copy of the famous hieroglyph
that can be found in the Mayan Temple of Inscriptions, a Mayan
space man sits within a sharp cockpit, his fingers manipulating
the dials of his machinery. Graphic overlays and ancient shapes
interconnect with a graduated wash of yellow-grey bathing
everything. Track titles with bpm rates can be found on the
back cover along with brief credits and thanks. Inside is
a two panel booklet with a full panel given over to generous
thanks. The innermost part of the booklet features an enlarged
verson of the cover design and a second tracklist. |
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| OVERALL |
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Phantasmikta
is the second full-on trance album from French artist Gill
- Hyper Frequencies. Coming four years after the debut album
Red Crystal Moon - Phantasmikta was constructed over a period
of two years involving 'frequent testing on trancefloors
around the world'. For this release the new Irish trance
label Syncronize Records was chosen - further clarifying
their manifesto after previously delivering Ajja's Psychogenica.
The album consists of ten tracks of merciless electronica
mustered around rigid kick drum beats and corrosive synth
motifs.
|
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------Ian
Ion - Gringo Locomotion |
| STYLE |
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Eclectic
ambient and chillout mix. Gringo Locomotion explores a number
of low key musical genres from some floatational beatlessness
through, minimal chill and soundscaping into acoustic guitar
melody and space age folk adaptation. There are tracks of
an environmental nature that feature smooth synthetic washes
and soft drones with marginal atmospherics and semi-percussive
detail, actual field recordings from Tokyo sidestreets and
an Australian rainforest adding further depth. Freeform
in nature, some arrangements meander from one state into
another - the changes subtle and natural - moving in and
out of light, harmony rising and falling away into amorphous
abstraction. A spaced out contemporary rendition of Scarborough
Fair features the soft, breathy voice of half-Inuit singer
Aviaja Lumholdt, lazily wafting across a rippling electronic
sound canvas. The tracks here all run from one into another
creating an unbroken listening/peripheral experience to
absorb or ignore as you go about your business. |
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| ARTWORK |
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An
attractive digipack holds this CD - what looks like an aeroplane
fuselage spreads across front and back. Twin windows gleam
on the main panel, metallic frames around bedarkend bloody
red glass. On the back the windows are replaced by a tracklist
of witty titles each accompanied by a time for the track.
Brief credits and a Myspace page address are also found here.
Inside is an eye testing banded pink/black backdrop to an
explanation of the project that explains how the artist began
his journey into mellow. |
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| OVERALL |
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Ian
Ion is the Danish musician better known from such projects
as Koxbox, Saiko-Pod and The Overlords among others - this
being his first delivery of a solo ambient album. Gringo Locomotion
is released through Norway's Chill Tribe Records home to a
series of inventive downbeat CDs in recent years. This album
began with a need to fill the musical space between festival
highlights with something 'unobtrusive' for Roskilde. Bitten
by the bug of the gaps a 'secret career' began leading to
this experimental full length disc. Tracks range from a thirty
second recording of Ian's previous agent talking on the telephone
to the eighteen minute thirty one second concluding epic that
rises out of night time insect noise into a thick, airy dream-like
piece of beat free minimalism - exotic voices mumuring in
the sonic depths. |
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