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----------Easily
Embarrassed - Planet Discovery |
| STYLE |
|
Downtempo
and midtempo electronica. The Planet Discovery album is presented
as a voyage beyond the confines of the earth. Fittingly the
synthetic sounds maintain the cosmic imagery - sci-fi soundscapes
and spacey expanses full of sparkling effects. There is often
something of a retro feel to the compositions looking back
almost to seventies progressive music and sixties psychedelia.
The dramatic opener features some sharp melodic synth forms
and tribal drumming to accompany the initial count down. An
ambient interlude leaves the listener then drifting for a
moment weightless as delicate piano phrases begin to tinkle
among the drones of the beatless Leaving Terra. Planet Discovery
moves effortlessly from floatational expanses into twinkling
slow motion freeform and dynamic downtempo with falling arpeggios
and bright progressive lead lines. The pace quickens during
The Journey into a slightly mechanical rhythm that breaks
open midway through into shimmering slo-mo with ethnic vocal
samples before winding back up again. Concluding with a pair
of tracks that once more drift and glide for the most part
without percussive support, the album leaves the listener
far away from home and heading for infinity. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
I
have only the electronic version of this album with the
front cover artwork as seen above left. Here we see the
clear orb of planet earth stark against the nebulous purple
and black of a star punctuated backdrop. The legend "Discovering
new audio planets and ambient galaxies" foots the artwork. |
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| OVERALL |
|
The
Easily Embarrassed project released their first EPs starting
in 2006 and their first full length album followed in the
form of Idyllic Life in 2008 through Cardamar Music. Brothers
Nick van der Schilden and Jeffrey van der Schilden run Easily
Embarrassed from their EE Studio in Aalsmeer, Netherlands.
This current nine track release comes via Cosmicleaf Records
presents a journey of through a "broad range of electronic
music styles, including electro ambient, dub, techno, trance
and psychedelic music, while also bits of classical and
world music can be found." Track titles build the concept
of a voyage - Ignition, Leaving Terra, Gravity, The Journey,
Extraterrestrial Lifeforms - the spacey theme colouring
the music. Available in digital and CD formats, the album
can be previewed at the band's
website. |
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| AUDIO |
|
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|
----------Bruno
Sanfilippo - Piano Textures 2 |
| STYLE |
|
Delicate piano atmospheres with
subtle electronic support. Bruno Sanfilippo presents here
a series of very beautiful compositions that feature an 'old
lady grand piano' recorded during the night hours. Smooth
electronic washes and drones are laid down in gentle layers
forming light, hazy expanses within which the master instrument
luxuriates. The piano playing is mostly of an understated,
unhurried melodic form calling to mind the purity and tranquil
grace of Satie, touched with delightful melancholy and haunting
airy wistfulness. Spacial structure is masterful, creating
an incredibly enchanting ambience, the arrangements seemingly
having the meandering freeness of improvised playing whilst
at the same time obviously exhibiting the kind of harmony
and refinement that comes only from painstaking crafting and
control. |
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
Piano
textures comes in a jewel case with three panel folded insert.
Imagery focuses on physical textures in harmony with the sonic
textures of the disc. The main image is of monochrome leaf
fibres, sepia strands running at a slight incline - an image
that is repeated behind the CD itself within. Since the case
has a clear spine the slim vertical left edge is used to display
a piano keyboard running from top to bottom. The back cover
takes a faded version of the main image and turns it sideways,
here forming a backdrop to a diagram of the inner workings
of a grand piano. Track titles discreetly follow the upper
contour of the instrument. When the insert is fully extended,
one side holds the front cover, a second textural study (this
time of fabric fibres) and a section for information: instrumental
details, recording facts, website info and a quote from Shakespeare.
The second side of the insert is completely given over to
a strongly textured landscape photograph - stony hills, flat
sky. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Piano Textures 2
comes as follow-up to the wonderful Piano Textures album released
back in 2007. In the meantime the albums Ambessence
piano & drones with Mathias Grassow and Auralspace
were recorded in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Buenos Aires
born Sanfilippo has been playing the piano since childhood
and his love of the instrument is fully evident in the six
powerfully emotive pieces here. The album is once more delivered
through the artist's own AD21 Records label. From my perspective
this latest collection of music is even more powerful than
the previous. Having found a form of expression that clearly
released some personal passion, Sanfilippo has refined his
technique since the first instalment - more confident, more
melodic, more captivating. This is exquisite music - I find
it hard to imagine that anything more breathtaking could be
coaxed from this instrument. Samples of the music can be found
at the website www.bruno-sanfilippo.com. |
|
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|
----------The
Nexion Project - ConSequence |
| STYLE |
|
Dramatic electronic soundscapes
in the tradition of Vangelis, Oldfield and Zimmer. ConSequence
has a broad, expansive soundtrack quality to it, instrumental
compositions, sweeping themes with powerful emotional content.
The music is very melodic and tuneful with an almost orchestral
range and variety. Beats are a blend of traditional drum
kits, congas, international percusives - sometimes stirring
and fervent, sometimes lazy, chilled and sometimes absent
altogether. There are restful pieces where elegant acoustic
guitar or piano melodies flit upon soft synthetic pads or
hazy flutes waft across choral voices. There are opulent
passages where electric guitar, tubular bells and strings
well up in climactic surges only to fall back into dreamy
downbeat interludes. This is an album full of vivid sonic
colour and variety of pace leading the listener on a real
journey of thought and feeling - from serene and poignant
through heart-warming, inviting optimism, melancholy introspection
on to impassioned zeal and pomp. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
ConSequence
is delivered in a jewel case package with sharp graphics.
The imagery features radiant light patterns against deep,
shadowy backgrounds. The liquid metal fonts of the titles
are bathed in the glow of light pools and sparkling splashes.
The rear cover holds further abstractions of light along with
a tracklist, each piece recorded with associated timing and,
to the foot of the panel, brief credits. The insert opens
out to make a single double page spread with the main cover.
Here we find an explanation of the project and a small portrait
of the artist. |
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| OVERALL |
|
The Nexion-Project
is Hungarian composer Török Zoltán who
began his career as a musician at around the age of sixteen.
A skilled guitarist/pianist Török has to date
delivered a series of album in different genres ranging
from dance music to electro-acoustic, chillout and ambient.
He explores enigmatic new-age on the Movements album; electronic
dance and uptempo piano trance on Closing To The Horizon;
chilled easy listening on The Isle of Freedom. ConSequence
is a refining and revision of previous releases Contact
from 1999 and Consummation from 2000 with some brand new
material added as Prologue and Epilogue. If you'd like to
get an idea of what The Nexion Project has to offer - why
not visit the artist's website at http://nexion-project.com.
The site offers samples of the music, purchasing options
and video clips.
|
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| AUDIO |
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|
----------Jeff
Greinke - Virga |
| STYLE |
|
Electro-acoustic melodic ambient
instrumentals. Jeff Greinke combines the textural richness
of synthetic layering and found sound with the warmth of cello,
trumpet and piano to create a series of filmic soundscapes
that have moments of classical elegance. Inspired by both
landscape and atmospheric conditions, Virga utilises sparse,
delicate melodic forms to capture a sense of environment -
sometimes moody and dark, sometimes meandering and airy, sometimes
lucid, suggestive of airborne moisture. The album is without
beats and for the most part without obvious rhythmic structure
following a more neo-classical approach.. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Virga
comes in a jewel case with two panel insert. The cover image
extends across the second panel of the insert once opened
out showing a broad scene of pale grass and distant mountains
black beneath the clouds. The sky takes up the greater part
of the image - dense masses of battleship grey, catching
the hidden sun in places, white over an almost obscured
blue. The rear cover once more gives most space to the atmosphere
- sweeping black font over light clouds. Each track shown
with time alongside. Another skyscape is within - wispy
forms to accompany brief credits, website details and the
quote:“Virga: streaks or wisps of precipitation falling
from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground.
In certain cases, shafts of virga may precede a microburst.”
– NOAA |
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| OVERALL |
|
US based musician,
composer and performer Jeff Greinke has been composing music
since 1980 and has over twenty five solo and collaborative
recordings released to date through a number of different
record labels. He formed his own label as a vehicle to deliver
his debut CD, has composed music for film, video, dance,
theatre, radio, and art installations and has been a part
of many ensembles and joint projects over the years including
co-founding Land. This album is released via Lotuspike and
contains twelve concise recordings some of which can be
heard at the artist's
website. Promotional material has Greinke explaining
"After completing the title track I was struck by how
the sonic fabric of the music resembled curtains of rain
falling from the sky, so I was inspired to call it Virga.
Virga sometimes occurs at the onset of dangerous and dramatic
weather. The mood present preceding an intense storm is
similar to the subtle foreboding quality of some of the
pieces on this album.”
|
|
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|
----------Fredrik
Öhr - Falling Through The Earth |
| STYLE |
|
Dreamy,
glitchy ambient chillout. Fredrik Öhr has created one
of the most individual sounding electronic albums that I
have heard in a long time. Clearly carried somehow by the
tides of current downtempo and psychill, Falling Through
The Earth benefits from cutting edge digital sophistication,
blissful glitchy beats and global interconnection - yet
at the same time this music is delightfully different and
idiosyncratic with beautifully beguiling atmospheres, brittle
textures and unaffected honesty. Rich, heady flutes waft
in contrast to the flicker and flutter of glitch-breaks;
plaintive piano and Middle-Eastern pipes interplay over
bright crackle on the beautiful, beautiful A Day For Great
Deeds; jazzy sounds and forms arise alongside international
song in subtle flavours such as the doped double bass and
muted wails of Morning Ritualism - dappled synthetic lights
playing behind. Vocal content is frequent, yet rarely dominant
- poetic phrases in a wistful gated female voice, sampled
chants from around the world, Fredrik's own singing, vocoder
musings and the spoken word. Not an album of arpeggios and
sequencer forms, not an album of overt melodic themes (although
some sweetly delicate melodies are certainly present), Falling
Through The Earth is the music of shifting textures, deft
layering and beguiling beats. |
| |
| MOOD |
|
The
dominant mood of Falling Through The Earth is one of enchanting,
exotic serenity. Crisp, lustrous soundscapes of playful, abstract
forms that at times are so light and airy as to almost float
away. There is often the sense of relaxing somewhere hot and
dry, not anywhere special, somewhere personal yet far off
- contradictory mindscapes arising and morphing constantly
- a testament to the evocative power of Öhr's music.
The gorgeous water movements and tropical environmental elements
of Return that are echoed in the subsequent bubbling electro/tabla-beat
and idle vocalisations leave the listener floating far from
shore on warm waters under a euphoric sun. |
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
As
unusual as the music - Falling Through The Earth is fronted
by a drawing of tightly crowded figures, clustered in the
lower half of the panel. They could have started out as fingerprints
- this little knot of faces has a primitive, tribal quality
to it - full of aboriginal style patterns, short lines and
dots. As the three panel insert is removed from the package
these peculiar persons now hang from the upper half of the
next panel as if gathered now at the opposite end of the earth.
Behind the CD itself a darkened close-up of the same faces
here fills the whole tray. The rear of the package presents
a tracklist and a discussion of the project that introduces
Fredrik Öhr himself and his music. Further sections of
the insert carry instrumental credits, poetic sources and
production details. Here too are website and email addresses
along with a generous listing of thanks. |
| |
| OVERALL |
|
Stockholm
based musician and producer Fredrik Öhr releases his
debut album Falling through the Earth through the much respected
Aleph-Zero label. Pursuing the label's interest in high-quality
international electro-acoustic downtempo; this new album
could hardly suit Aleph-Zero better. Fredrik Öhr both
fits in like something eminently familiar, in keeping with
the 'house sound' and simultaneously breaks mold, sounding
fresh and unexpected. The fourteen tracks of the album have
a pleasing, confident unity about them yet follow no obvious
formula - each piece taking the drift of the album off in
a new direction, a meandering journey of discovery that
is constantly turning up new surprises. Collaborating artists
bring soprano saxophone, acoustic guitar, quena, bamboo
flute, double bass and percussion as well as vocal content
to the mix. Promotional material describes the music as
"a wonderful dreamy and fresh combination of North
European atmospheres and textures interlaced with Asian
influences, all dipped in 70s psychedelic delicate feel"
- yes yes yes! I strongly suggest you explore the E-flier
for this release wherein you can read information on the
album and the artist whilst sampling every track. |
| |
| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
If
you enjoy quirky downtempo with an international leaning -
this could be one for you. Falling Through The Earth will
especially enchant you if you aren't looking for a steady
downtempo-trance beat; the rhythms here are delicate and fragile,
not regular and thumping. Listen to the E-flier. |
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| AUDIO |
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 |
|
----------Collide
- These Eyes Before |
| STYLE |
|
Electro-rock-goth cover album.
The Collide signature sound is turned toward a series of unpredictable
rock and pop classics that have their origins in a rather
diverse range of modern genres. kaRIN's slinky, ethereal vocal
style most immediately stamps the band's individuality all
over these familiar pieces - she takes on hits from such huge
acts as Pink Floyd, Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and The Beatles with
confident cool. Managing to redefine music that everyone knows
so well is no small feat - yet kaRIN does an excellent job,
managing to make the songs her own without appearing affected
or trying too hard. Statik's instrumental skill complements
the singing perfectly: be it the distorted, crunchy guitar
work and pounding drums of Depeche Mode's I Feel You, the
strings and psychedelic soundscaping of The Moody Blues' Nights
In White Satin or the brooding alien electro terrain of the
truly unexpected Rock On; originally a hit for David Essex. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
These
Eyes Before comes in a jewel case with a generous sixteen
page booklet. The front cover image shows singer kaRIN in
retro monochrome film star pose - blue eyes reflecting the
fine font of the album title. The rear cover holds track titles
and website information whilst the tray insert shows kaRIN
once more - here in caged darkness. The first image of Statik
appears inside the booklet opposite a page of credits - again
black and white, shadowy. Subsequent pages take a track by
track approach listing additional musicians and writing/publishing
credits. The booklet concludes with two pages of thanks and
appreciation. Appropriately the disc itself mimics a vinyl
45 from yesteryear. |
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| OVERALL |
|
These Eyes Before
takes it title from the lyrics of Nights In White Satin
and comes as the sixth or seventh studio album from the
band and follow-up to the 2008 album Two Headed Monster.
Having delivered cover numbers before, Collide here have
compiled a complete disc of iconic recordings from the last
five decades. This release removes any doubt as to the band's
desire to break down genre restrictions or expectations
and provides considerable insight into the kind of influences
that have informed the distinctive Collide sound to date.
kaRIN and Statik could so easily have rested on their laurels
and continued producing high quality discs of their own
unique material, but instead their adventurous spirit seems
ever keen to go beyond - collaborative music such as the
Ultrashiver
album, the remix double disc Vortex
and now These Eyes Before. The music is available to preview
on the band's
website.
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