----------Craig
Dongoski & Robert Scott Thompson - Orbital Lullaby
STYLE
March
2011
"Poised somewhere between ambient music and avant-garde
acousmatics."
Opening with electro-blips and bleeps flecked upon profound
synthetic washes, this album balances material not usually
associated with 'music' against deep electronic drones.
A thread of wavering sound emerges that could be a human
voice strongly distorted; ringing tones, crackle, turbulence;
a welling of massive ambient pads behind, beneath. Within
a short while a balance is struck somewhere between music
concrète and ambient space. No formal melody, yet
not entirely free of consonance; irregular waves and expansive
tonal intensities bring an ebb and flow of harmony whilst
the brain inclines to find patterns among the apparent aural
disorder. In places there are hints of climactic form or
suggestions of rhythm, either from the motion of harmonic
content or from the synchronising of ephemeral snippets
of faintly discernible voices, programmed clutter, assembled
found sound. Repetition of certain phrases is perhaps the
most tangible evidence of artifice; most noticeable when
human speech is the recurring element.
MOOD
Initially
Orbital Lullaby feels like it is going to have something of
a science fiction tone to it since many of the sonic elements
have digital, mechanical or computerised associations. As
the album progresses however, there is more a sense of post-apocalyptic
sound relics, dusty, damaged with age and neglect. Barely
grasped transmissions seem to struggle for recognition in
immense expanses. In places, such as within the title track,
there is a sense of aching nostalgic melancholy; voices (possibly)
drifting amid wistful atonal breezes eddying about the unlit
ruins of humanity.
ARTWORK
Orbital
Lullaby arrives in a jewel case with a single sheet insert.
The artwork combines spacey abstract forms, sharp graphic
constructs and a clear planet earth hanging high over the
front centre. Highly open to interpretation, the imagery,
as with the music, could suggest destruction, decay and degradation,
disquieting obscurity - or it might as easily infer emergent
order, colourful contrast, lush, beautiful obscurity. Track
titles are found on the rear of the package each with playing
time alongside. Aucourant address and website details are
here too. On the flip side of the insert are simple credits.
OVERALL
Both
based in Atlanta, Georgia: musician come sonic alchemist
Robert Scott Thompson and multimedia artist Craig Dongoski
combine their exploratory recording interests on this new
release. Delivered via Robert Scott Thompson's own Aucourant
Records label, Orbital Lullaby is intended as a "highly
immersive" listening experience. The music ventures
afar off into the boundaries between avant-garde acousmatics
and minimal ambience. Historically associated with musique
concrète, acousmatics refers to a sound of unseen
origin; without visual cues, a music to be heard apart from
its source. Traditionally the compositional elements can
equally be of musical instrumentation, vocal utterances
or of found sound, processed noise or random acoustics.
For some 'acousmatic' emphasises compositional style, for
others it refers to a way of listening. The result here
is an album of eleven intriguing tracks ranging from a little
under two and a half minutes up to thirteen plus.
WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM
Orbital
Lullaby is not an album for the sonically faint of heart;
straying into remote musical/non musical territory. Don't
expect melodic themes, beats or relaxing new-age style ambience.
Instead open your mind to a series of beguiling sound montages
that provide a highly transporting seventy five minute listening
experience. If you enjoy isolationist recordings or spacey
soundscapes this might well appeal to you. Why not investigate
the sound samples found at the Aucourant
website.
MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS
----------Bruno
Sanfilippo - Subliminal Pulse
STYLE
March
2011
Mostly beatless, melodic ambient music.
Bruno Sanfilippo here combines silken synthesiser tone,
twinkling sequential patterns and elegant string formations.
The tracks are mostly without beats, yet often not without
rhythm; cycling motifs ripple in regular time, dancing arpeggios
bright and prominent in places, subtle in others, hypnotic
in repetition. The opening track does have a percussive
beat; deep, sonorous ethnic hand drums reverberating in
layered patterns and there are a few other percussive flecks
here and there. There are a number of drifting passages
without any obvious metre where undulating drones gather
into profound intensities; within these restful, shadowy
zones Sanfilippo artfully places just the right sparcity
of piano touches, spectral voice atmospheres or reverberating
metallic chimes. There are some environmental recordings
in places; a low grumble of thunder, water movement, distant
bird or insect calls; Alchemical Powers especially drawing
a lot of its exotic mystique from these sounds of nature.
The concluding track Mantram is a charming piece where dreamy
string lines ebb and flow against the idle tide of warm
synth pads - very introspective, very beautiful.
ARTWORK
Subliminal
Pulse is delivered in a card digipack of three fold-out panels.
The imagery throughout is comprised of swirling loops of yellow/orange
light of varying lustre. Irregular forms yet crafted and purposeful;
some like spinning flames, others like pulses of electric
light. On the front cover, complete cycles are visible in
middles distance of similar hue to the titles. On the rear
cover the loops are close up and layered. Here, track titles
with their times are numbered by a series of increasing dots.
The final outer panel holds a brief explanation from Bruno
as to the concepts behind the music. Within a single spread
of close-up light loops runs across all three panels. All
are without disturbance except for the left most where credits,
a gear list and website address can be found.
OVERALL
Although
Argentinean electronic ambient composer and recording artist
Bruno Sanfilippo has been releasing distinctive instrumental
music for around two decades, clocking up fourteen items
on his discography, and although he is presently based in
Barcelona, Spain, Subliminal Pulse is his first official
US release. Presented via the well-known Spotted Peccary
label, the disc contains nine mid-length tracks all hovering
around the six/seven minute mark apart from Intrinsic Fluctuations
which takes in a second over fourteen minutes. Promotional
material suggests: "By blending lush dreamscapes, darker
spaces and a timeless universal quality into a classic sound
with a purity that speaks to the soul, Sanfilippo re-invigorates
the sub-genre of SPACE MUSIC with his first release on the
Spotted Peccary Music label." That's well put since
this album treads a graceful line between an earth-bound
sense of the sacred and galactic immensity. Bruno himself
says of the album: "Sometimes, the poetic language
of music reveals what cannot be seen. It shows a reality
that has nothing to do with words. With my electronic instruments
I take the universe’s “Subliminal Pulse”,
and I try to build a bridge between my inner pulse and the
pulse of the outer space" Spotted
Peccary have sound samples for each track on the label
website.
MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS
----------Dan
Pound - Medusazoa
STYLE
March 2011
Smooth, oceanic ambient electronica.
Medusazoa is an album of warm, fluid, mostly beatless synth
environments. Drifting pads and velvety drones waft and mass
around emergent pulse formations and rhythmic digital fragments.
Liquid clicks and flecks trickle against synthetic vibrations
or burble alongside repeating motifs; lazy scale patterns
meander upward, downward; peculiar disturbances rustle and
murmur and there are occasional sussurant flushes of turbulence.
A downtempo beat arises midway through the title track, lazy
and uncluttered; beguiling watery purring sounds cycling around.
Some tracks centre mostly on the ponderous heave of layered
drones, the flutter and flicker of rhythmic ephemera deep
within. Others have subtle melodic elements: hypnotically
repeating motifs; sparse piano phrases, electric guitar touches;
these buoyant centres of regularity suspended in sequential
tides or wandering afloat through ambient densities.
IN
DEPTH
The
title track opens with a luminous, repeating synthtic chime
motif echoing upon an undulating low drone. Soon the melodic
repetition drops off and an ambient bed opens out as if
the listener has strayed into deeper water. Here a variation
on the previous motif begins to well up with more of a piano
sound, evolving and meandering until a second evaporation.
Now a distinctly different liquid environment emerges that
is more suggestive of surface water or at least of the presence
of trapped air: laps and splashes rippling about a sybilant
purring noise that recurrs in organic pairings establishing
a loose rhythm. Drfiting piano notes once more provide intriguing
melody, deep single tones and lazy higher runs. At around
this mid point of the twelve minutes fifty three seconds
of Medusazoa a serene beat fades in, simple hihats, programmed
snare and lazy kick building around the nodding measure
of the pulsing purr. For a while now this dreamy rhythmic
pool of lilting piano melody floats in blissful reverie
until the beat ebbs away at around the nine and a half minute
mark. The purring remains a while upon a much more distant
memory of percussion, reverberating piano phrases thinning
out upon a low drone echoing the introduction until stillness.
A very relaxing composition, highly evocative of the underwater
environment Dan is summoning up and the delicate life forms
upon which this album concentrates.
Gear List
Synthesiser.com analog modular system; Nord lead 2; Korg
R3; Yamaha AN200, Korg Electribe; Dave Smith's Evolver;
Roland XP-10, Fender Stratocaster, various effects, processors
and sound shaping equipment..
ARTWORK
Medusazoa
arrives in a jewel case with a single sheet insert. Artwork
is all of saturated blue hues with soft-edged jellyfish forms
hanging transparent in mid-distance. The front cover features
a beautifully orange lit specimen, curling streamers and slender
tentacles arcing in a graceful curve below. On the rear cover
a number of the creatures form a loose cluster; some luminous
and distinct, others vague, transparent. Track titles are
here with times alongside, also website details and an email
address. Within, the insert flip side presents an almost circular
aspect with geometrical horseshoe shaped organs pinkly lit.
A concise gear list sits here at the left foot. Behind the
disc itself a veined close-up image, highlighting the inconsistent
densities of these intriguing lifeforms.
OVERALL
US based
Dan Pound has a discography as long as your arm and a musical
resume to match. Having classical training for piano, guitar
and double bass, Dan is an experienced composer for orchestra.
He also has degrees in recording engineering and electronic
music technology and currently specializes in producing music
for film and multi-media. Dan works from his own studio and
releases his music via his own recently established label
Pound Sounds. This latest release, Medusazoa presents seven
mid-length tracks ranging from the four minute six second
Living Fossil to the fourteen minute plus Tentacles. Promotional
material explains that this music was "made to accompany
the fluid movements and colorful bio-luminescence of the jellyfish,
flowing and drifting with the currents". Sound samples
can be found on the Dan
Pound website as well as a further description of the
music.
ARTIST'S
THOUGHTS
My
personal feelings about this album are simply that this is
exactly where I need to be right now musically and creatively.
I finally feel like I have come into my own as an artist.
No compromises or expectations. Just pure expression.
This is exactly the kind of music that I would listen to,
even if it was not my own.
LABEL'S
THOUGHTS
Get ready for your
own liquid space aquarium music environment.
Based and built from analog modular synth drones, patches
& effects, this is pure underwater dream zone music.
Made to accompany the fluid movements and colorful bio-luminescence
of the jellyfish, flowing and drifting with the currents,
the blend of sounds are surprisingly organic in their textures,
and mix well with crustacean-like effects and poly-sequential,
fractal rhythms & pulses.
Expansive, slow moving, aquarium-like environments are penetrated
and felt deeply here.
Instruments used:
Synthesizer dot com modular system, Nord lead 2, Yamaha
AN200, Korg Electribe, Dave Smith?s Evolver, Roland XP-10,
Korg R-3, Fender Stratocaster, various effects, processors
and sound shaping equipment.
Tracks:
1. Liquid Body 12:38
2. Under Her Spell 5:09
3. Living Fossil 4:06
4. Medusazoa 12:53
5. Tentacles 14:02
6. Bioluminescence 9:56
7. Currents 12:35
Inspired by the movements of fluidity and
bio-luminescent colors of the jellyfish, this is an all
out analog excursion of ambient liquid space.
Get ready for deep liquid space immersion with Medusazoa.
March
2011
Positive electronic downtempo dub.
Kukan Dub Lagan here remixes his 2004 album Life Is Nice.
The tracks are distinctly different from the originals,
clearly having been approached with artistic freedom and
creative improvisation. The trademark Kukan Dub Lagan approach
still permeates everything - lazy, summer reggae beats and
nodding chord stabs with colourful synthetic melodies. The
rhythmic material is considerably varied: deep rubbery basses
driving some pieces; some alive with programmed grooves,
sharp blips and echoing squirts; others having more of a
'live' sounding drum kit or a fusion of ethnic percussion,
at times even taking on a Latin flavour with intricate cow
bells, electro-claps and synth arps all entwined. The mood
is mostly relaxed and dreamy with emphasis on warmth and
easy going dance friendly atmospheres. Voice fragments arise
in places, mostly heavily processed; deep, deep within liquid
reverberation and employed more as instrumental effects
than for lyrical content. Global samples periodically take
over the melodic roles before sinking back into the electronica.
Heavily distorted fuzz guitar, a couple of glitchy textures,
jazzy ad-libs, dizzy effects, altered organs and sonorous
vibes all join the party in suitably chilled attire.
ARTWORK
I
have the electronic promo version of the album and so have
only seen the layout for front and back covers. The front
imagery you can see above left: tangled curlicues suggesting
entwined foliage are topped by floral concentric discs, a
bird motif and a couple of butterflies enjoying the idyll.
The back cover strips the same imagery down to a simple corner
ornament and presents the track titles each with associated
time in black font on white background.
OVERALL
Itay
Berger celebrates the goodness of life with this bright
remix album. Eight of the original eleven tracks from Life
Is Nice appear here in remixed form showcasing the increased
mastery of the tropical dub genre that Itay has developed.
The absent three being Shinzon Romulan, The Sound of the
Sword and The Bells of Burma. However, there are two additional
surprise pieces: Beautiful Afternoon edited from Live at
the Boom Festival and Fever. The Kukan Dub Lagan official
hotline tells us that the first three hundred buyers of
digital remix album will get a free bonus CD of "New
Life New Vision" (the recently released third album)
delivered direct to their home - that's highly generous
you have to admit. The new album is available in pretty
much any format you might wish for: 320k mp3, FLAC, etc.
The official Kukan
Dub Lagan Bandcamp site holds samples of the various
tracks if you'd like to see what you're getting.
ARTIST'S
THOUGHTS
I
started to work on this album a while ago. It was hard to
collect all the files and I had to re-build the remixes from
zero because most of the files been damaged on my old computer.
From that, it lead to the nice concept of a remixes album
where each track is like a totally new track, as a remix or
new version. I wanted that when the fans would listen to the
tracks, they would recognize and remember the old sound but
at same time would discover new sounds and atmosphere inside.
With the melodica, the percussions, the guitar, drums and
so on, where I took all these live instruments I played and
mixed it with an electronic touch. I made this music for the
people at same time as for my kids/family.
M y inspiration comes from both of these great waves I am
breathing each day. So we decided to give the 1st 300 customers
a bonus CD (Kukan Dub Lagan 3rd album-New Life New Vision)
to support the people as well and not just to be supported
only as an artist. Kindness and good energy need to go both
ways.
Feel Life.
AUDIO
MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS
----------The
Amnis Initiative - Distant Dreams
STYLE
April 2011
Dramatic, electronic instrumentals.
Distant Dreams presents a series of broad cinematic soundscapes
inhabiting the same general audio terrain as the legendary
Vangelis. This charming and highly melodic music moves from
stirring themes with climactic booming kettle drums and symphonic
grandeur through ethereally drifting passages where silvery
bird song and golden atmospheres lift the spirits on to programmed
downtempo beats, new agey synths and relaxing piano lines.
The Amnis Initiative makes abundant use of rich flute voices
and lush layered pads to make the music soar with a constant
sense of the exotic hanging in the air. There is a somewhat
medieval flavour to a number of the lead lines adding to the
timeless nature of Distant Dreams.
ARTWORK
Distant
Dreams is presented in an attractive digipack of three panels.
Artwork throughout is comprised of amber lit landscapes, the
sun illuminating gathered mists or piercing right through
in sharp stabs of brightness. The front cover positively glows:
a backlit forest of silhouetted trunks and branches; in the
foreground red leaves catch the light. The rear cover holds
a second moody forest image; track titles and their times
laid out across the shadows. Within, the left panel provides
a discussion of some thoughts behind the music; the right
side delivers all of the technical information: more inspirational
photography and a warm, aged paper texture providing ongoing
visual stimulation. Behind the disc itself is a twinkling
starscape, its infinite black in juxtaposition to the rest
of the visuals.
OVERALL
The
Amnis Initiative is the personal project of Dutch composer/keyboardist
D. F. Lodewijks, released via his own Amnis Music label. The
project takes its name from the Latin Amnis meaning broad,
deep flowing water - a stream, a torrent, an ocean - or simply
liquid, a current. D. F. Lodewijks has been working with electronic
music and sound design for almost two decades producing material
from art exhibitions to computer games: The Amnis Initiative
began as a vehicle to express the artist's own sonic persona,
Distant Dreams being the debut full length release. The thirteen
tracks on Distant Dreams aim at a balance between evocative
and soothing; music to stir the emotions and excite the imagination.
I think that this ambitious goal is well achieved, fans of
Vangelis, Amethystium or perhaps Mike Oldfield probably appreciating
the mood and scope of this album. The
Amnis Initiative web site provides sound samples and plenty
of options for buying the music.
ARTIST'S
THOUGHTS
The
melody line and basic idea for The Vision were actually the
first thing I started with for this album, while it was also
probably the last track to be finished. We had to drop a whole
section that was taking it in the wrong direction. We also
dropped some early versions of Long Distance that were really
very unusual but just didn't fit the format of the album.
Some of that material might still show up somewhere, some
day. Long Distance is certainly one track that I think still
sort of begs to be reworked into something else, the same
way Lament For The Living was reworked into Living Landscape,
both on the album. Then again, it might also simply be time
to work on something else altogether.
AUDIO
MORPHEUS
MUSIC REVIEWS
----------Fiction
City - Nova
STYLE
April 2011
Downtempo electronic/rock concept EP.
Nova presents a moody post electro-rock journey through
mental unravelling. Programmed beats drive the music, mostly
a range of shady, crunchy trip-hop grooves in the four original
tracks, apart from the driving rock-techno of Neon Face.
A disquieting, post-apocalyptic atmosphere pervades this
EP with plenty of attention given to building up unsettling
ambient introductions and disconcerting peripherals. Brooding
melodic synth lines and guitar phrases underpin the vocal
surface detail where the often slightly remote male vocals
talk-sing deep in the mix with an unhinged confidence or
garble, strongly effected and harsh. The remixes are quite
varied: the flickering, disjointed glitch beat of Introspective
Activity - Archos Impulse Reconvertation using the source
material as ambient atmospherics; the trancey thud of Dj
Frenklin's Minimal Mix of Neon Face; the second remix of
Neon Face from Saro is quite a heavy, digital grunge piece
that drifts off briefly into minimal dark ambience in the
mid portion.
ARTWORK
The
front cover of Nova centres on a lustrous mosaic butterfly
form that has the appearance of dark blue, polished gem
stones. The digital copy comes with a series of hand painted
images with something of a surrealist nature created by
the bands visual artist DF. The dark themes of the music
are each portrayed visually - one picture per track. The
cover butterfly makes a reappearance on the image for the
title track and can be traced to its source in the lyrics.
These are also provided for each track of the EP. The package
is completed with a series of photographs of the band shot
with projected imagery casting vivid light forms on the
faces of the duo.
OVERALL
Fiction
City is a four piece outfit including two musicians, a visual
artist, and a video engineer that logically is as much interested
in imagery as they are the sounds of their work. Working
the region where rock meets electronica, the project often
follows a musical composition with an artwork and sometimes
a video. Their first serious release, Nova includes four
original tracks and three collaborative recordings drawing
on the talents of artists & DJs from the U.S., Europe
and Russia. The music can be heard on the Fiction
City website which also hosts a range of visuals and
free downloads as well as biographical information on each
member of the band.
ARTIST'S
THOUGHTS
"Nova"
is basically inspired by 2 things. The first one is a novel
by J.R. Fowles, "The Collector", about a psycho
who kept a girl in his basement till she died. I believe
you've at least heard about this book - it's considered
as classical literature:) And while I was reading the book,
the other thing was going on - real life cases. I live not
in the most safe district in the city (and that's a mild
definition).
So when I was in the middle of the book,
a girl was kidnapped, and it happened right in the building
where my appartment is situated. An occasional witness saw
how she entered the elevator, but nobody has ever seen her
again. Then, after 3-4 months, the other girl was kidnapped!
They finally found her dead, with her arm cut off. I was
under impression of both the book and the stuff that was
going on right here, in the hood. So I started thinking
about such guys, trying to imagine what are their thoughts,
their excuses, and how actually a man can become so sick
and twisted .... After some time I developed a whole theory
about it, and finally it came to the point when I shared
my concept with Ultra and Irene DF (the second musician
and the art designer), and we started thinking about putting
the idea into some musical form.
As for our musical influences & backgrounds,
if you don't mind, I will just name some major artists (they
are not in order of importance): Nine Inch Nails, Camouflage,
Oomph, Depeche Mode, Juno Reactor, Marilyn Manson, KMFDM...
damn, and many, many others:)
