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------Various
Artists - Materia Musica |
| STYLE |
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Extensive
tranquil psychill compilation. Synthetic strains, soft washes
and ambient textures laid out in delicate layers rippled
with arpeggio patterns work in conjunction with a variety
of relaxing downtempo beats. The sound is strongly electronic
- there are a few embellishments - spoken voices, ethnic
samples, female vocalising - but the main thrust of the
sound is one of lush synthesiser tones, digital effects
and attractive keyboard phrases. The album has quite a spacey
approach in places, drifting and floatational rather than
acidic or heavily tribal. At some points on the first disc
the music becomes almost abstract - light freeform arrangements
with fragile rhythms, touches of tone falling like gentle
sunshine interwoven with subtle breezes of movement - very
peaceful, transportational. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Golden
global symbols twinkle across the panels of this package lifted
slightly above pale galactic filaments. The lettering stark
in antique gothic font carrying the same bright sparkle as
the imagery. On the reverse and inside we find the tracks
listed - the inner list accompanied by brief credits. A generous
list of thanks foots the inside double panel spread. |
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| OVERALL |
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This
latest presentation from Ajana Records comes as a two CD
package - the first disc "contains tracks that are
more atmospheric music, made for home listening ... while
the second contains tracks that have a more uplifting style"
more danceable. Many of the names appearing on the twenty
one tracks here will be instantly familiar to chill fans
- Capsula, Chronos, Kick Bong - others are newer upcoming
artists. This is one for listeners that prefer something
on the less beat driven end of the spectrum, certainly the
chilled beats are there, lazily driving the music, but there
is something of a late night sleepiness to this collection.
In general the compositions are mid length - running up
to around the ten minute mark.
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------Vataff
Project - Kalitz |
| STYLE |
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Quirky
downtempo electronica. Kalitz brings together some blip-punctuated
lazy beats and ambient atmospheres that are inhabited by
a variety of sharp digital effects - swishes, pulses, clicks,
grasshopper flickers, sci-fi techno snippets, electro-squishes,
bird-like twitters. There are also diverse fleeting enhancements
to this primarily synthetic soundscaping - rich flute lines,
peculiar vocal samples, traditional Bulgarian instrumentation.
Ranging through chilled psychedelia, IDM, and rhythmic ambient,
Vataff Project leaves a distinctive impression - slightly
sombre, touched with enigmatic dusk. |
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| MOOD |
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Kalitz
has a cool, shadowy nature - comfortable, confident, relaxed
- yet there is sense of mystery lurking in the depths. The
melodic content of the album is suitably low key and spacious
allowing the mind to fill in the gaps, the tendency toward
almost ambient structure enhancing the evocative nature of
the music. The choice of electronic tones making up the sonic
palette is quite overtly synthetic suggesting programmed
spacey, sci-fi environments. |
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| ARTWORK |
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The
promotional copy of this package that I possess hints at the
usual high quality delivery we have come to expect from Aleph-Zero
productions. The graphics are sharp and evocative - blue tinted
forests overlaid with graphic elements and text fading to
black across the lower half of the various panels.
Explanational paragraphs describe the musician, the origins
of the project name and the artist's sonic vision. |
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| OVERALL |
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Kalitz
is delivered to us via Aleph-Zero Records and is the debut
release from the personal project of Bulgarian musician Victor
Marinov working under the Vataff Project title. The nine tracks
here work as a coherent whole, an evolving journey - pieces
cross referring, back echoing, gradually morphing and straying
from the point of origin in a leisurely unfurling of compositions
that tap into the mysterious qualities of the forests of Bulgaria
for inspiration. Marinov's interest in ethno-musicological
work is reflected here, aiming to evoke deep emotional reactions
linking back to ancient times, imbuing the recording with
a somewhat timeless feel despite its highly contemporary production. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
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Kalitz
will appeal to listeners that enjoy exploring the realms between
experimental downtempo and ambient groove. Very much in keeping
with previous output from the Aleph-Zero label itself and
like minded sources such as Native State and Ultimae. |
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------Muaxuam
- Viceversa |
| STYLE |
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Gutsy downbeat
electronic instrumentals. Mauxuam creates tenebrous techno
chill compositions that hang around prominent bass lines.
Indeed the low end rhythms and pumping phrases drive this
album with a heaving urgency, a menacing purposefulness. Beats
seem to be dancing around, radiating out from the basses,
synthesiser motifs and effects next level up. The musical
elements are pithy, acidic, often terse repeating chunks or
snips of melody shot through with all manner of high tech
peripherals and digital detail. A dub heritage is evident
in places, but Mauxuam has come a long way from the obvious
reggae structures and usual echoing stabs associated with
the genre - Viceversa has a prowling personality of its own
and a powerful one at that. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Viceversa
comes in a tidy digipack presentation that opens out into
three panels. Ambiguous repeating patterns swirl across most
panels looming out from infinite blackness - one moment resembling
ammonite spirals, the next laser lights or plasma flickers.
Complex graphic designs and some nice textures add to the
overall visual impact. Inside the CD is held centrally flanked
by two blocks of text. To the left a track list expanding
the one on the case rear, footed by various credits. To the
right some generous thanks and a dedication - 'to the ordeal
of the children of palestine, darfur, kenya, tibet and so
on...
genocides in front of our indifference...' |
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| OVERALL |
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Viceversa
furthers broadens the Interchill catalogue's bass heavy output
with this gritty, individual release. This being the debut
album from Mauxuam which is Maurizio Liguori's sonic baby
- a musician known throughout global underground electronic
circles. Mauxuam might well be known to many listeners having
appeared on various compilation CDs in recent months. Promotional
material describes this album as something of a nomadic diary
with 'a multitude of influences' and 'free range electronica'
- that description is apt as flashes of dub, breakbeat, glitch,
dark chill and psychedelic downtempo alternately bubble up
to the surface. Collaborators include such notables as Greg
Hunter, Master Margherita, Shiranami and Craig Musham. |
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------Klaus
Schulze / Lisa Gerrard - Farscape |
| STYLE |
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Smooth
electronic soundscapes and beguiling female vocals. Klaus
Schulze here brings his years of musical experience to building
a series of warm synthesiser compositions that flow with confident
ease, hang almost weightless or ripple with gentle harmonious
muscle and sinew. For the most part his music is inviting
and tranquil - lightly percolating arpeggios propelling swells
and washes of tone into easy motion - in place beats well
up and carry the music into rhythmic bliss. There are also
generous pools of drifting beatless space too, ethereal expanses
of subtle drones and transparent layers where sequential patterns
cycle and roll. Occasionally these interludes wander into
darkness, a faint menace or brooding uneasiness adding weight
and gravity. The voice of Lisa Gerrard inhabits these sonic
environments as a passionate presence - at times low, ghostly
and mysterious, at times ecstatic deep in reverie, then soaring,
heavenly high in the clouds. Lisa Gerrard's unique organic
style and vocal stream harmonises delightfully with these
synthetic arrangements. She is clearly steeped in the music,
engrossed; her expressions unfettered yet closely bound to
the sound, she is constantly within the structures of the
tracks yet at the same time gliding far beyond them as if
calling for everything else to follow. |
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| ARTWORK |
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The
artwork for this jewel case presentation is soft and understated.
A grey/white gallery space illuminated by three rows of discs
of light fills the front and back cover with geometric precision.
Two simple cuboid forms are the only objects in the broad
space. The inner panels contain a photograph of the duo apparently
seated within the same ashen gallery on a large sofa - pale,
monochrome except for Klaus' red scarf. Opening out the booklet
we are treated to two sections of extensive text that provides
biographical details and an explanation of the project from
initial contact to realisation. |
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| OVERALL |
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This
is a unique album - not in that it delivers strikingly new
elements, beautiful synthesiser music has been developing
for many years now, with Klaus Schulze there pretty much from
the start and Lisa Gerrard's voice has become legendary, familiar
across the globe - but this coming together is where the special
nature of this CD lies. The musical personas of these two
artists are both powerful and individual - their immersion
in their craft deep and passionate - when they come together,
the result is moving, mesmerising. Fans of Lisa Gerrard will
find this double album to be yet another quality expression
of her incredible sound, buoyed up with the restrained dignity
of the music. Lovers of Klaus Schulze will certainly be delighted
by this collaboration - his vision having come to exquisite
fulfilment. The album is released via Synthetic Symphony /
SPV and can be found via a dedicated Myspace
page here. |
|
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------Colourform
- Visions of Surya |
| STYLE |
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Glittering
raindrop electronica from the Vitual team. Visions of Surya
is an exotic, artificial garden of sound - tinkling chimes
delicately splash over synthetic streams and gentle currents.
Global fragments blossom and fade - subtle female voices,
Eastern instruments, breathy swells. The mood is one of blissful
wonder, melodic structures very much underplayed in favour
of atmospheric development. In places soft beats rise up and
sweep everything into flowing motion - deeply, deeply chilled
and airy. |
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| ARTWORK |
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In
keeping with the label's previous style Visions of Surya comes
in a pristine white jewel case package - arcane designs and
symbols dominating the various panels. On the front a familiar
layout of discs and ovals linked by connecting bands - each
a window onto an uncertain image beyond. Should you care to
decode, the rear of the case is laid out purely in dotted
symbols. Within is the tracklist and more circular windows
onto little far off worlds. Text is minimal and simple. |
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| OVERALL |
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This
limited edition of 500 discs is the third release from the
Vitual label - following Magik Square of the Sun and Infinite
Garden under the respective project names Ishvara and Elve.
This time the project title is Colourform - not that you will
find this easy to conclude from the CD layout itself - the
musicians involved (Jake Stephenson and Matt Hillier) are
well known for their work as Ishq and Optic Eye. The music
on this latest delivery maintains the otherworldly, ethereal
eastern tone of previous work - much of it beatless, spread
across seven tracks, the longest of which is an immersive
sixteen minutes twenty three seconds, the rest somewhere between
five and ten minutes. The album comes with a dedication to
Jake as sadly he "moved into the invisible world himself
sometime ago". |
|
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------I
Awake - [The Core] |
| STYLE |
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Lush,
liquid electronica with lucid downtempo beats. The Core
luxuriates in finely woven dense atmospheres of synthetic
tone filled with smooth, attractive patterns and clear phrases
that rise and fall in gentle harmony. The music interweaves
beautifully chosen artificial sounds with a range of more
organic sound sources - breathy flutes, affected guitars,
human voices, subtle global snatches - although the production
and composition is so polished that it's hard to be sure
which aspects of the mix are digitally constructed and which
are traditionally recorded. Despite being dreamy, warm and
melodic, [The Core] is not sugar sweet or overly soft -
there is a gutsy drive to the structures, a measured restraint
to the beats, an ebb and flow of deliberate intensity -
very Ultimae. Overall this is a superb debut from an artist
that enters the chillout arena at a very high level - absorbing,
transportational, soporific, colourful - everything a good
electronic instrumental album should be. |
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| ARTWORK |
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This
album comes with the complete Ultimae works - vivid three
panel digipack and accompanying 16 page booklet. The artwork
blends dew drop foliage with glassy digital renderings all
tinted in green pearl tones. The usual rear cover tracklist
appears alongside minutes and seconds for each piece - otherwise
text is minimal on the main structure. Within the glossy booklet
a page is given over to each track - an evocative image, credits,
additional track details. Concise thanks and a brief dedication
round the package off. |
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| OVERALL |
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This
is the debut album from I Awake and follow up to the digital
Ep release [Birth]. I Awake is primarily the work of Thomas
Huttenlocher currently based in Stockholm, however, the
album benefits from the collaborative input of other notables
such as Krister Linder, Fredrik Lundberg, Tara Devi and
Planet Boelex. Twelve tracks make up this release, each
somewhere in the region of four, five, six minutes ... between
me and you though - there's a secret track at the end after
a suitably deceptive silence. If you are a fan of the Ultimae
label this CD will by no means disappoint - right on the
tip of music's constantly breaking wave. |
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