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------Robert
Scott Thompson - Frozen Light |
| STYLE |
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Long
form ambient mood music. Frozen light sparkles and glints
with metallic tones and lush sonorous chimes delicately
arranged across brooding ambient beds of sound. The underplay
of dark undulating drones is at times even, smooth and silky,
at other points akin to slow motion string phrases rolling
out heaving oceanic themes. The semi-melodic percussives
ring in bell-like clarity, reverberate in sustained textures
or drop in muted, dulled clanks - peaceful, natural, lulling
the mind into a blissful restfulness. Sometimes the notes
are deep and huge, sometimes fleeting, clashing, sometimes
light, tuneful almost resembling piano keys. Variation throughout
each track is subtle, minimal, establishing relatively steady
state listening zones. Very immersive, very transportational. |
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| MOOD |
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Initially
these four pieces appear dark, even tenebrous as the low drones
stir into motion, lit only by softly coruscating chimes and
peculiar textural material. But as the tracks unfold they
begin to feel increasingly inviting, enveloping the listener
as if floating weightless, intrigued by the constant surrounding
bursts and blossoms of colour. The gloom holds heavenly tints
and warm currents, the chimes at times falling into soft melody
or tranquil harmony. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Frozen
Light comes in a jewel case with a single sheet insert. On
the Front cover are four crisp graphic images relating to
the four compositions on the album. On the back cover a closer
image of swirling paint on a black ground fills the whole
panel. The four track titles are here with timings alongside,
Aucourant Records contact details below. Inside is a repeat
of the tracklist against a different background image - here
the colours appear as if glowing from behind a sheet of frosted
glass. |
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| OVERALL |
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Released
in 2008 Frozen Light is a set of four long-form ambient
compositions works from American artist Robert Scott Thompson.
The album is released through Robert's own Aucourant Records
and sits atop an impressive discography of engrossing 'classical
ambient' recordings. Promotional material explains that
these pieces are "intended as a means to provide a
sonic tinting to the environment, Frozen Light can be listened
to at various levels of awareness, ranging from rapt attention
to detail to background soundscape." That description
sounds very apt to me - in fact this release is likely to
lead you through some of those states of consciousness,
setting powerful mindscapes of great depth and emergent
beauty.
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Frozen
Light is an album for ambient fans that enjoy steady state
sound zones with plenty to hold the attention, should you
wish it to. The structure may be minimal but the attention
to detail is not. |
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---------Art
Of Infinity - Endless Future |
| STYLE |
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Romantic electronic soundscapes
and sweeping, imaginative songs. Endless Future is an ambitious
concept delivered with an appropriate theatrical grandeur.
Dramatic themes and passionate songs benefit from a stream
of constantly varying vocalists and vocal styles including
the sixty voices of the all male choir MGV Liederkranz Cleeberg,
a broad range of world sounds, classical instruments and electronica.
Whispered words (male and female) hang in the softer moments,
layered and massed voices welling up in the crescendos. There
is something of a contrast between the clarity and open singing
of Alquimia and the thicker atmospheres created around the
chants and words of Eva Wolf. These diversities are further
enhanced by the musical genres drawn upon - at times leaning
a little in the direction of lazy lounge, then toward rock
musical pomp, and then pop ambience. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Endless
Future comes in a luxurious digipack of four fold out panels,
revealing eight colourful surfaces in all. The front cover
sees the backs of two shadowed figures apparently facing into
a scarlet tunnel lit at the far end, or perhaps a deep red
sky centred by a bright sun. The back of the package holds
a timed tracklist against an enlarged version of the light
source from the main cover image. Opening out like a book
- the first two inner surfaces introduce a horizontal progression
of track information: titles and credits; multilanguage lyrics;
piece by piece images. Like a book within a book, the two
panels open out once more revealing the rest of the track
progression; a more detailed credit section and the disc itself. |
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| OVERALL |
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Art Of Infinity
are producer musicians Thorsten Rentsch and Thorsten Sudler-Mainz,
joined in this case by a broad range of guest instrumentalists
and singers. The project was initiated around 1996 leading
to a debut release back in 2000 - New Horizon. Dimension
Universe followed in 2004 and now we have the third album
from the project Endless Future released via BSC Music,
Prudence/Rough Trade. The band obviously have wide ranging
musical interests that show up to a greater or lesser degree
here - the progressive rock influences of such bands as
Pink Floyd entwine the ethnic neo-classical grace of Adiemus.
Promotional material frequently uses the term 'ambient'
in describing the more low key synthetics that underpin
some portions of the album. This melting pot of stylistic
sources complements the conceptual content that "deals
with ancient topics and archaic dreams of mankind, cosmic
journeys into the future and to magical mystic places".
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----------Antonio
Testa & Susana Beatriz Alvear |
| STYLE |
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Bright songs and instrumentals
with abundant international sounds, relaxing world and breakbeats.
The creative singing of Susana Beatriz Alvear features on
five out of the twelve tracks here. Both classical and ethnic
styles employed to equal effect - the former confident and
soaring in operatic opulence, the latter often subtle, expressive
and atmospheric. There is truly a wealth of global colour
here, horns, flutes and drones, bouzouki, various sonorous
percussives: talking drum, teponaztli, udu stones, shells,
stalagmites, kalabash - most played by Testa himself. Additional
musicians provide trumpet, keyboard work and guitars. Most
tracks are built around mid-paced, infectious rhythms that
could easily inspire dancing, however there are a number
of more ambient compositions - lazy exotic arrangements
imbued with a timeless beauty. Lush, diverse instrumentation
and environmental recordings provide a constantly shifting
soundscape where the human voice arises in distant choruses,
spoken passages, multi-lingual songs. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Ecosphere
arrives in a tidy digipack with a cover image stretching across
front and back. This panorama looks like a semi abstract heathland
drawn out in pastels or chalks - bold horizontal strokes curving
in hillside forms. Black borders hold the titles. On the back
panel is a tracklist with times given for each piece. Opening
out, similar imagery is presented between much wider borders.
To the left credits can be found including the wide range
of instruments played by Antonio himself. The lower section
introduces the collaborating artists for each track and relevant
website information for the project. |
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| OVERALL |
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This release comes to us via ExperimenTribe Records with the
description "Ecosphere is an alchemic project of ancestral
sounds full of tribal rhythms, performed for an underground
language, creating a balance between biosphere and technosphere....."
Adding to the extensive catalogue already under Antonio
Testa's belt, this collaborative project is an inviting
doorway to a melting pot of sound - worldbeat, ambient,
dub and electronic influences - with a 'genuine' feel about
it. Testa is not a dabbler with ethnic flavour, he clearly
has a wealth of serious musical experience and an experimental
fervour that channels his efforts in interesting directions.
The Myspace
page for the project features a number of tracks from the
album - why not have a listen decide for yourself.
|
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----------Erdem
Helvacioglu - Wounded Breath |
| STYLE |
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Five electro acoustic environments.
Wounded Breath delivers a rich montaging of lo-fi creaks,
aural fractures, dull rumbles, crackling textures and semi
percussive tones - many sounding as is they have been painstakingly
collected rather than created. These 'natural' fragments are
carefully built up into environmental structures underpinned
by delicate synthetic drones and enhanced by deft digital
processing. This method of arrangement means that the foreground
sounds are largely atonal, whilst the subtle drones that hang
in the background move in and out of consonance - sometimes
soft musical washes, sometimes more like breaths of air, sometimes
as devoid of tonality as the foreground noise. No beats, no
tangible melody - the five compositions are unfettered by
obvious structure - apparently freeform and loose - nevertheless,
very tight and logical. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Wounded
Breath comes in a jewel case with a single sheet insert. The
main cover image presents a soft liquid blue surface - hidden
in the depths a shut eyed profile, lips parted, engulfed in
the deep blue medium surrounding it. To the right five recurring
wave forms move away from the face. These waves re-appear
on the back cover where each connects to a track title. Here
too are credits, thanks and website details. The insert holds
a poetic accompaniment to each track - a mental image to give
form to the sound. Also there is a paragraph providing information
about the composer and his musical achievements. |
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| OVERALL |
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Turkish composer
Erdem Helvacioglu returns here with his latest album, released
via Aucourant Records. Promotional material explains "the
works on this album each explore the capacities of sound
design that is the hallmark of the current state of the
art of electroacoustic music composition". Helvacioglu
masterfully interweaves his peculiar found sounds with the
effects of cutting edge technology to deliver some very
personal recordings. Internationally recognised, Helvacioglu's
music has been performed at prestigious festivals and broadcast
all around the world. He has collaborated with a growing
number of well-known musical figures and is also actively
involved in composing for films, multimedia productions,
contemporary dance and theatre.
|
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----------Parallel
Worlds - Shade |
| STYLE |
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Pure
electronica luxuriating in a broad range of synthetic analogue
sound sources. Shade has a strong contemporary feel whilst
drawing on the powerful musical heritage of Berlin school
dynamism and ambient atmosphere and texture construction.
The sound is very rich, varied and energetic as is true
of much DiN output - sequencers percolate against programmed
beats, setting up intricate rhythms that shift and evolve
constantly whilst layered waves and washes of tone drift
in heavenly light or groan in grey shadow. Melodies on the
aptly named Shade are primarily sombre, serious forms sometimes
with melancholic infusions or subtle touches of beauty.
Peculiar sonic forms are everywhere: gutsy, plastic gurglings
beautified by delicate chimes; shuffling beats and echoing
sibilance with mechanical measure softened by warm melodic
currents; hazy ambient introductions with clicking patterns
and white noise dashes; sci-fi moods and night time spaces.
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| MOOD |
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The
overriding tone of Shade is one of low light, techno-structure
and flickering, colourful ambience. An organic-mechanic atmosphere
pervades most compositions as burbling sequencer patterns
and intricate grooves dance over melodic synth strains calling
to mind Blade Runner-esque dark futures and complex, alien
technologies. Indeed there is often a sci-fi soundtrack feel
as Parallel Worlds build up their moody sound environments,
sometimes with an air of tension hanging, sometimes a bathed
in doleful melancholy, in other places driven along with an
engine-like urgency. |
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| ARTWORK |
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In
traditional DiN style, Shade comes in a jewel case where an
abstract image sits between pale borders. As if taken from
a TV screen, the main image is cut through with fine lines
criss-crossing a series of horizontal bands and colour blocks.
This design runs across to the second panel of the CD insert
and re-appears with a different crop on the reverse. Track
lists appear both inside and out, each with times shown. The
innermost section of this two panel insert holds a complete
gear list, brief credits and generous thanks. |
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| OVERALL |
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Parallel
Worlds is the combined project of electronica artists Bakis
Sirros and John Sirros, originating in 1994 and releasing
four albums prior to the current Shade. Very much in keeping
with the label sound and ethos, Parallel Worlds have chosen
to deliver this disc via Ian Boddy's DiN Records. The previous
album Obsessive Surrealism
was reviewed here at Morpheus on its release back in 2007.
The ten tracks on this new product clearly exhibit a shared
love of traditional hardware synthesisers and deep sound
sculpture; exploring possible mental conditions and emotional
states. The maturity of form and thematic content is strongly
evident as Parallel Worlds continue their inevitable upward
journey into the electronic halls of fame. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
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This
album has been well chosen to appeal to the growing army of
DiN fans. It is perhaps one of the label's more readily accessible
products with plenty going on to hold the attention and a
rich sonic chiaroscuro effect providing plenty of emotive
ambience. If you enjoy brooding, dynamic electronica crawling
with atmosphere - then this is a strong contender. |
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----------Various
- Natural Born Chillers 2 |
| STYLE |
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Downtempo electronic dreamscapes.
This collection brings together crystalline synth lines,
burbling basslines and improvisational snatches touched
with shadows of dub, lit with the warm colours of global
dance and bathed in vapour-soft atmospherics. The lumbering
basslines of OTT and Majan roll along beneath bright melodic
phrases and acidic bursts; the world-fusion beats of Midival
Punditz and Agalactia compliment voices and instrumentation
from the Indian sub-continent; Pi and Hibernation deliver
hypnotic digital beauty with liquid tones and blissfully
easy rhythms. There are hints of a rather spacey form of
rock in places - twisted guitars searing into grandiose
crescendos among the more chilled elements. The collection
concludes with a mesmerisingly restful semi-ambient track
from Eitan Reiter where artificial sounds surround vibrant
flute strains and delicate guitar patterns. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Lush,
lush colour and depth of imagery usually marks an Aleph-Zero
release - this is no exception. Steeped in the most glorious
yellow hues a series of petal-rimmed faces emerge from mandala-like
layers of foliage. These blossoming forms hang in gorgeous
curling growths throughout the whole package. Graphic embellishments,
swirls, curves and curlicues are everywhere. On the back of
my promotional two panel folder is a tracklist and an outline
of the thoughts behind the project. Within, the track details
are expanded against more rich golden blooms with associated
credits and publishing details. |
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| OVERALL |
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The second instalment
of Natural Born Chillers has been a long time in coming, Aleph-Zero
masterminds Shahar and Shulman stitching together a strongly
coherent downbeat journey that follows the form of a gradual
build from gentle beginnings into a wave of intensity that
breaks toward the latter third of the album. Big names sit
alongside less well established artists, Bluetech, 3 Wise
Monkeys, Outersect, Interlaced and Tau Kita... The collection
is presented as "a genre-breaking story" of "hypnotic
rhythms, dubby moves, psychedelic adventures" that range
into "different corners of our globe and into other dimensions".
In general it's quite a beaty CD with plenty of musical detail
and melodic content. There are passages that might well have
you dancing with only the final piece having no obvious beat. |
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