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|
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------Na-Koja-Abad
- Dreamfall: Veils and Visions |
| STYLE |
|
Bird
song, vaporous drones, shakers and low moans in the style
of a traditional Indian male singer open the album. Indeed
a carefully balanced richness floods this whole release
- there are percussive peripherals: drippings, shiftings,
hand drumming and gorgeous rolling rhythms - the drones
range from toneless disturbances of air through cloudmass
wellings of tone to colourful swells and washes - the beats
reverberate in soft depth, in lazy, hypnotising regularity.
Na-Koja-Abad employs rattles, frame drums, tinkling rainsticks,
sonorous pebbles, sand and shells alongside didgeridoo,
flutes, and voices, field recordings and, of course, all
manner of electronic texture and sound. Each track has a
clearly distinct character - beautiful woolgathering, a
touch of eerie solitude, crepuscular reverie - the three
pieces working also together to form a powerful suite that
will steep your senses in sonic association. |
| |
| MOOD |
|
Dreamfall
has a wonderful otherworldly quality, shrouded in atmospheric
mist, thick with mystery, hanging just on the edge of music
so that the listener is drawn into filling in much of the
associative imagery. Gentle and lazy yet at the same time
darkened by a sense of unease or foreboding. The warmer tones
gather in places building a dreaminess, a sense of willing
floatation. There is a sense of vast scale to much of the
music as though the listener is at the centre of a huge panorama
enjoying close-up textural detail surrounded by hazy space. |
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
This is
a delightful package - the usually attractive graphic design
of Na-Koja-Abad is here enhanced by the addition of a four
page insert of poetic text and various hand placed items within
the jewelcase itself. The cover art is stunning - hazy, dreamy
tree silhouettes their roots threaded into lush green soil
are dotted with birds frozen in motion. Strong textures and
deep tints add to the effect which is carried across to the
rear of the package - this time the trees framing the panel
- titles running along the earth. Carefully placed into the
jewelcase spine itself is an arrangement of delicate twigs
bound with thread - this construct continues inside behind
the CD with pressed leaves and stalks and coiling tendrils
of the thread from the spine. The glossy booklet holds four
pages of text printed on plain paper - a story, a description,
an accompaniment to the music, a journey, a poem, realisation.
A timed tracklist, full gear list, credits and contact information
completes the package. |
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| OVERALL |
|
This
limited custom edition is released via Blue Water Records,
coming as the sixth full album from Sarajevo based ambient
excursionist Muamer Music. For this project Muamer is joined
by fellow ambient musician Max Corbacho and Aida Mocevic
a vocalist from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The promotional
material for the album well explains the purpose of the
release "Bordering between the sensual and the mystical,
Dreamfall, with its dense atmospherics and evolving drumscapes,
is always immersive and immensely evocative". A masterful
interweaving of electronic and organic sound, this CD is
truly transportational - captivating atmospheres carrying
the listener into far off imaginings, engrossing beats lulling
and beguiling, a fine balance between ambient space and
melodic movement holding the attention whilst at the same
time acting as catalyst to distraction.
|
| |
| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Na-Koja-Abad
works within a similar field to Steve Roach and Max Corbacho
- if you enjoy lush, emotive ambience carried along on tribal
rhythm then this CD is a must. |
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|
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|
------Abandoned
Toys - The Witch's Garden |
| STYLE |
|
Cinematic
new age instrumentals and semi-classical/ambient mood pieces.
Tinkling pianos with surrounding arpeggios meander up and
down the scales in gentle impressionist melodies underlaid
with fine, subtle electronic textures. These ambient synthetic
strains sometimes come to the fore in shadowy smoothness,
at other times hanging behind a piano or violin like shadows
collected in corners, flecked with occasional shiftings of
bright dust in shafts of light. Orchestral elements and choral
voices bring a dark, romantic soundtrack quality to the album
in places, so that the album alternates between melodic new
age fairyscapes and neo-classical gothic shade. |
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
A
sharp digipack featuring the painted work of artist Eleanor
Brickdale. Each panel is carpeted with lush imagery - a Pre-Raphaelite
style maiden in green stands knee-deep in meadow flowers brimming
with fairy figures, a trail of pigeons descending toward her
feet. Details of this main image are taken up on the inside
of the package, focussing here on the tiny female forms wading
among the foliage. The tracklist is on the rear cover, with
brief credits and website details within. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Abandoned
Toys was formed in 2006 as a parallel project to The Synthetic
Dream Foundation. This nine track debut album under the
new title is released through Mythical Records. Based in
the US and describing himself as "a multi media surrealist
artist" the man behind the music has worked as a classical
music composer, a game music composer and film music composer.
Exploring the fields of dark ambient, new age, and experimental
classical music, the arrangements here clearly benefit from
a sound formal classical training including a degree in
music composition. A lighter side of the talent behind The
Synthetic Dream Foundation. |
| |
|
 |
|
------Byron
Metcalf - A Warning From The Elders |
| STYLE |
|
A mesmerising
combination of drums and drones. Byron Metcalf delivers his
tribal influenced hand drumming against a lush backdrop of
organic vocal drones and didgeridoo performances. Sounding
for all the world like an artificially produced electronic
sound canvas Byron uses overtone singing and vocal harmonic
drones along with low throat singing to create rich harmonious
layers of tone. The varied layers and densities of utterance
hang cloud-like around the deep vibrations of sonorous didgeridoo
rhythms, surges and textures. Guest vocalists and Tibetan
bowls along with a large gong broaden the sound further whilst
trance inducing beats propel the music into motion. Like low
thunder at their most intense, or easily, hypnotically rolling
along the beats are clean and clear - shaking the air, beats
within beats, subpatterns and overbeats enlivening the grooves.
Beautiful production and recording quality deliver this series
of uplifting tracks to the ear with a natural dynamism and
potency. |
| |
| MOOD |
|
A
Warning From The Elders conveys a sense of primitive dynamism,
an optimistic vibration to stimulate inner vision and, the
hope is, to the urge look outward and react. Luminous warmth
and the suggestion of scintillation match the glow of the
cover art work. Mesmerising grooves both lull and stimulate,
cycling in serene repetition, thumping like a huge organic
process - the measure of the earth, the pace of the planet. |
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
A
warm digipack presentation - the whole package is bathed in
an amber hue picked up from the front cover sky. Here a rocky
outcrop thrusts majestically above the clouds - its jagged
surface in stark contrast to the enshrouding mists and distant
hazes. The back of the case holds a tracklist and a brief
explanation of the project along with the legend SONIC JOURNEYS
FOR HEALING THE EARTH. Within, the CD sits atop a personal
note from the artist revealing his motivations and experiences
surrounding the process of creating this album. A full list
of instrumentation and a run down guest contributions can
be found on the leftmost panel. |
| |
| OVERALL |
|
Byron Metcalf began as a professional drummer
at the age of fifteen and has since been successfully working
the music business for over four decades exploring a variety
of styles. Solo projects over recent years have allowed
Byron to enjoy his personal interest in musical healing
- this latest album furthering that particular avenue of
performance. However, he has also worked in collaboration
with other artists such as Steve Roach, Mark Seelig, Ron
Oates and Jack Coddington. A Warning From The Elders is
released via Dr, Bam's Music. This CD introduces Byron's
overtone singing for the first time and is presented as
an alert to current global issues in the hope of "a
radical global awakening". |
| |
| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This CD is one for lovers of gutsy hand
drumming and visceral drones presented in bright lucid space
and sharp focus. |
| |
|
| 
|
|
------Psicodreamics
- Mythomusic
------Psicodreamics
- The Garden |
| STYLE |
|
New
Age instrumentals with strong melodies and supporting electro-beats.
Mythomusic features a vivid palette of strong sonic colour
- melodic lines of artificial chimes, pianos and synthetic
voices sit upon beds of soft washes and bright strings.
The mood is one of gentle vibrancy and romantic fantasy
with neo-classical structures that are employed to suggest
a certain timelessness. The Garden works around a similar
dramatic new age sound but introduces a wider range of additional
influences and sound samples - spoken voices muse within
the mix, water and nature waves build aural images, touches
of trance arpeggiation up the pace amid dance floor rhythms,
the is even a hint of drum and bass. There also Gregorian
vocal chants and choral voices lending an ethereal otherworldly
quality to some pieces.
|
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
The
cover artwork for this pair of CDs is equally rich in hue
and saturation as the music. Mythomusic has a dragon soaring
against a deep blue night sky - lit in shades of orange, gold
and shadowy green. The garden uses a similar selection of
luminous hues this time to depict a waterfall draped across
a glossy landscape. Both CDs have a tracklist of the rear
with track times alongside. Both also contain audio and mp3
files. The albums are packaged in simple satin finished card
sleeves and so contact details and website information is
also found on the reverse of each. |
| |
| OVERALL |
|
Mythomusic
and The Garden (of Good and Evil) are re-releases from Psicodreamics
back catalogue, now remastered and repackaged. The former
was initially released back in 1997 and this version comes
as a tenth anniversary edition as it were. The latter first
saw the light in 2000 and builds on the sound explored on
its predecessor. Psicodreamics is Spanish musician Salva
Moreno who is steadily building a solid discography that
more recently has moved away somewhat from his new age roots
to a more trance induced sound with gothic shadow. |
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|
 |
|
------Objekt4
- Space Jungle Slums |
| STYLE |
|
Rhythmic
ambient structures and spacey beatless zones. Objekt4 gives
the listener the impression of passing through a futuristic
urban twilight where different aural states arise from each
consecutive area. Mechanical beats and seemingly incidental
rhythms flow from one into another - sometimes abruptly as
if the listener had stepped without warning into a new sector,
sometimes smoothly, fluid, gradual like a natural digression.
Zones free of percussion hang in the spaces, often pregnant
with expectation, anticipating the next variation. Beats range
from booming post industrial lattices and muffled engineering
that could almost be found sound to grooves that are just
at the edge of chilled downtempo programming. The electronica
maintains a similar ghostly quality suggestive of environmental
sound, very modern, almost freeform synthetic meanderings
that tend to be laid out in repeating arrangements and cycles
that roll one into another. Tracks frequently cross refer
so that a sound can be picked up in more than one piece tying
the album into a unified whole. |
| |
| MOOD |
|
Space
Jungle Slums conjures up crepuscular visions of abstract cities,
indistinct snapshots of contemporary life, distant haziness
and blurry intimacy in constant flux. There is a bleak quality
about much of the music, s detachment; despite the obvious
proximity of life, the human touch seems a step removed from
the listener as though he or she were observers unnoticed
by the world. |
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
This
jewel case presentation is fronted by a shadowy photomontage
of indistinct mechanical city structures. Glowing lights illuminate
small sections of the design, cubist edges fragmenting the
image. The reverse holds a skyscraper montage with black outlines
and fuzzy lights - the only information here being contact
and label details. Inside the CD is painted with a lush organic
piece of graphic illustration which contrasts the glass and
concrete of the sharp photograph hidden behind. The booklet
holds track titles and credits on one side opening out to
reveal a hazy shot of pale water pouring over a stepped surface
- no words. |
| |
| OVERALL |
|
Space
City Slums is the latest offering from Dutch independent label
Ajana Records - a company that has gradually built up a solid
catalogue of electronic music covering psychedelic downtempo,
ambient chill and experimental electronica. This current CD
is one of the label's most loosely structured albums so far,
described as "bleak industrial ambient" and "downbeat
chillout". Objekt4 is a one man project from Anders Peterson
who began this current line of musical exploration in 2003.
The music is separated into two sections Nexus Sector A/D
recorded between 2005/6 and Jungle Vibes from 2006. Eight
tracks in all that will appeal to fans looking for something
straddling the space between chillout experimentation and
structured ambient. |
| |
| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This
CD has a foot in the camps of both ambient experimentalism
and free form chill out. Object4 will likely appeal to fans
of ambient downtempo looking for something that works with
a much less structured approach than the previous output from
Ajana. |
| |
|
 |
|
------Between
Interval - Radio Silence |
| STYLE |
|
Ambient
electronic chill. Radio Silence presents a series of tracks
that alternate between blissfully serene downtempo and cloudy
techno ambience. There are some very beautiful melodic tracks
where soft beats and moody peripherals hang in the background
supporting the attractive lead lines on lush shifting beds
of sound. For a number of the pieces, there are minimal
percussives or even no beats and the harmonic content is
quite subtle - bleak almost, atonal drones and indistinct
shufflings thick with reverberation work against static
flickerings or degraded environmental recordings and voices.
|
| |
| ARTWORK |
|
This album comes in an attractive package
of hazy grey-green. Distant hills and huge dishes pointed
unblinking at the sky can be made out deep within the streaked
atmosphere. Beams of light and specks that could be stars
or dust motes stud the smoothness of the expanse. A timed
track list is on the rear of the jewelcase alongside crucial
logos and contact details. Inside - the booklet holds the
legend "A place where no one finds me; a place where
I find no one." Opening out, the sleeve presents some
brief credits and thanks. |
| |
| OVERALL |
|
Radio
Silence was originally composed by Stefan Jönsson during
2003 - 2004 and has now been remastered with Spotted Peccary
Music re-releasing the result. The original limited edition
appeared on black CD-R and sold out completely. Two albums
have followed since Radio Silence - Secret Observatory and
Autumn Continent, these too via Spotted Peccary. If anything,
this earlier creation is more readily accessible and more
clearly structured that the successors. The album has been
described as "a dystopic vision of a future where technology
has failed," indicating the sense of decaying civilization
and residual sound echoes. The track Wishful Thinking was
picked up by Ultimae records and appeared on the ambient
chill compilation Albedo. |
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