MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Serene and subdued yet pulsating with vibrant life. The whole album sounds very contemporary and technically accomplished - the clarity of sound is excellent and the depth of the mix absorbing. Having said that, this machinery of sound is by no means impersonal and remote - the artists here create breezy, expansive panoramas, rich, emotional infusions, music full of feeling and implied imagery. The mood varies smoothly from supremely relaxing, drifting, floating ambience to mystical, deep and dramatic rhythms - a laboratory brimming with beguiling lustrous organic creations.

Unlike many compilation albums this collection is strong from start to finish. Percussive loops vary from sonic swishes and bleeps to the chilled d'n'b of 'Processing Lights' through to Carbon Based Lifeforms distorted crunches - yet all the time maintaining that transcendent restfulness. The sound is consistent and the vision clearly shared. The CD opens with Jaïa and then presents tracks by Solar Fields, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Hol Baumann, Aes Dana, Cell, Great Leap Forward, Aural Planet and SYNC24. The selection is mixed into one flowing whole by Tajmahal. If you enjoyed previous Fahrenheit releases, you surely won't be disappointed by this one.

Ultimae addicts will need no bidding to grab this collection - but if you've enjoyed albums by Carbon Based Lifeforms, H.U.V.A. Network, Aes Dana, Solar Fields etc - the mood is nicely maintained by the whole gathering across this CD. Chilled trance par excellence - ideal if you'd like some very modern ambient soundscapes with tripping downtempo beats.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Waxing, waning, organic minimal ambience all built around the extended drones of the khen - a mouth organ from Thailand or Laos. Naturally in the hands of Alio Die and having undergone appropriate processing this simple instrument is the source of unearthly strands of varying harmony and dissonance. Thickening the leading drones are various environmental recordings ranging from what sound like Tibetan chimes and faint voices to tricklings of water, distant thunder, birds, crickets, frogs. The final track on the album takes the unique approach of gradually building a rumbling ambience populated with crickets or frogs and then abruptly cutting to a familiar khen drone - this drone gradually fades and the process repeats. What initially feels distinctly odd, gradually becomes a rhythm until once again we're drawn comfortably into Alio Die's distinct sound world

The mood is other-worldly and timeless - sometimes sombre (as occasionally drones are) but more often serene or meditative. The water effects soften the atmosphere, frequently leading us between tracks, sometimes becoming the focus as the khen recedes. Some pieces are slow and almost monumental whereas others waver to and fro with revolving tonal cycles layering like waves. We are left with an impression of artist and environment collaborating together to realise a peculiar musical concept.

This collection of humming ethnic mouth-organ tones is not the most accessible of albums - but once the listener is absorbed, the effect is one of natural tranquillity. Stefano Musso is credited with playing: khen (mouth organ), drones and loops. He also produced the environmental recordings taken in Thailand and in Lunigiana/Italy. Ginfranco Cualbu plays percussion on one track, Francesco Paladino provided the environmental sounds from Katmandu and Nepal and Teo Zini/Opium those from Topolo', Italy. Stefano told us "I remember it was with a little suffering when I did the recording in the forest in Thailand with the frogs from the last track due to the mosquitos, as I could not move...actually that place in the island Koh Phi Phi was strongly hit by the tsunami of Decemeber 2004.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Oceans of haunting static, distorted drones and ambient guitar textures supporting floating female vocals that often flounder beautifully somewhere deep below the sound surface. The Sound Gallery's style is very individual and experimental, yet strangely appealing and accessible. The music is mainly beatless with ample delays and reverb effects. Long drawn out strings, E-bow or synth pads charged with crackling noise form a satisfying contrast to the ever-present dissonance that ranges from lonely and intimate to harsh and menacing. The warms voices of Leslie DuPre-Grimaud, Sarah Hepburn, Lorri Myers, Jan Johanson and Miranda Van Holland bring a touch of humanity to the loops, waves and strains that are so deftly interwoven to create this post-industrial montage.

Designed For Reading this may be, but certainly not designed for easy listening, at least initially - the atmosphere is one of stark contrasts, dark and eerie then gentle and moody. A melancholy, brooding elegance that suggests a flawed technology, a ruined urban vision, heavy with decadence, coated grey like a warm coal yet with pulsing colour showing through cracks in the surface. Indeed Herb Grimaud Jr. says that the inspiration for much of the album was the film Blade Runner. There are moments where, among all of the thick texture and sonic haze, guitars coalesce and hint at the Cocteaus or This Mortal Coil.

A well laid-out package with soft green abstract photography illuminating a dense, dark background. Text is in a sharp brush script with looping capitals, laid out in layered graphic panels such that it forms a strong aspect of the visual appeal. Inside, like breaking open a bubble the viridescence is at its most obscure - soft and fluid. Within the booklet text is laid out for each track like a guide to gallery exhibits, with full credits, thanks and dedications. The verse within the booklet translates: Shower me with cherry blossoms again - Lower me into this grave again - Watching my life die in your arms again - Bury me into your love again - Lower me into this pain again - Wiping your tears from my eyes again - Shower me with apologies again - Pulling the stars from the sky again - Placing them into this grave again.

The basic foundations of this CD are laid in adventurous ambient guitar structures with some very individual soundscaping. Sometimes the canvas of Designed For Reading consists of gracefully languid synth or guitar drones where rumbling noise, crisp, electrical stabs and swishes take to the foreground - on other tracks the backdrop is swirling white noise, feedback or interference with soft female voices whispering, singing softly or speaking. The richly affected atonal layers become so natural after a point on the CD that the more melodic elements of guitar and bass begin to sound almost obtrusive when they appear - almost too normal to exist in these far distant soundscapes.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Transcendent luminous soundworlds that will have you floating on mind clouds. As the Virtual website proclaims, this music is highly headphone friendly. The tone is one of unbounded imaginary imagery. Spiralling, cascading, science fiction sound beds lit with pools of inviting light - as insubstantial as a breath of air, multifarious as the spicules, tentacles and polyps of a techno-coral colony, a soundtrack to a new genesis.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Serene female vocals and subtle moody electronica. Singer Kathie Dojaczek sings emotionally charged songs in an alluring, clear, lingering style over the dreamy downtempo structures of producer Erwin Pitsch. There are pieces of haunting languor and ambient swell where the vocals entice the listener into a restful glamour and trance like basses lull and prowl. At the other end of the spectrum, Shine is a light song that could easily gain mainstream radio play.

MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS

Immersive, flowing chillout with exotic atmospheres. Aes Dana take time building up tracks making subtle use of rolling repetition in a way that constantly brings different details to the surface creating a restful mood even during the more up-tempo sections of the album. The frequent swells and synth pads soften the arpeggios and filtered loops, especially as tracks fade into one another, forming continuous fluid progression that soothes and stirs at the same time.

Season 5, we are told is the "in-between season, the one which does not exist but can at times be perceived. It could be the Indian summer or the beginning of Spring, something contrasted and filled with unusual lights." Aes Dana evokes this 'season' with a fluid montage of waves slightly tribal beats and breezy atmospheres. Starting gently, this album grows slowly into a montage of mild pumping basses and downtempo sequences strung with samples and colourful seams until once again the tide ebbs away and the beats subside into a meandering ambience.

Electronic chill-out listeners - someone looking for a less aggressive trance music to while away the later hours or early mornings. Season 5 will suit fans of ambient dance music; those looking for exotic downtempo outings yet still maintaining a solid beat.