Release data: Hollan Holmes – Sacred Places CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Spotted Peccary Music, 2024 In one of my previous reviews of Mr. Holmes’s music I once remarked the heartfelt aural splendor spread out there simply draws you in without much effort. From there, something indefinably magical takes over to a lasting, mesmerizing effect. This stamp can also be put on “Sacred…
Release data: Cosmic Ground – Area 23 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Groove Unlimited, 2023 “Area 23” is an abstract and stark soundscape release by Dirk Jan Müller taking the listener through an imminent landscape of dark, eerie, and ghostly plains. It could be an imaginary soundtrack for a visit to a test site where all that’s left is barren. The overall outcome…
Release data: Wolfgang Bock – Mintaka CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, MIG, 2023 This fall and to my astonishment, I found out that this German composer -who now seems to reside in Spain- had released another album -some 23 years after the classic “Cycles”. Musically, the only 40-minute, almost quiet release features nine tracks with gentle melodic lines. “The breath of Aurelia”, “Passing…
Release data: Gert Emmens – City Never Sleeps CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Groove Unlimited, 2023 Painting emotive nocturnal cityscapes before the mind’s eye is what “City Never Sleeps” is all about. Its storyline is about a young country boy who moves to a big city after getting the job of his dreams there. Life in that city though turns out to be…
Release data: David Parsons – Forgotten Dreams DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Celestial Harmonies, 2023 This album, released through Eckart Rahn’s Celestial Harmonies label, saw the light of day in an unnoticed manner as I couldn’t find any promo for it. Dave and Eckart actually go back a long way, as Eckart (who had shown an interest in traditional Asian music at a…
Release data: Steve Roach – Stratus DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Steve Roach Exclusive, 2020 “Stratus” is one of the vast range of releases Steve Roach offers through his Bandcamp Exclusive page. It features 6 atmospheric, cloud-inspired pieces that -according to the artist- should be part of a yet unreleased recording entitled “Seven Clouds”. The 23-minute title piece kicks things off in a…
Release data: Zanov – Lost in the Future CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 It took Pierre Salkazanov some three years to come up with this follow-up to 2020’s “Chaos Islands”. Overall, the seven tracks making up the 45-minute “Lost in the Future” sound like his previous contemporary releases, managing to retain a lot of originality in both his compositions and…
Release data: Danger in Dream – Entrance CD/Digital Download, Virtual Music, 2001 Nearing the end of another year made me reflect on an album that came out over 22 years ago. “Entrance” is the classic debut album from Vienna-based duo Danger in Dream (aka Robert Wittek and Alexander Gülfenburg). It was finally made available in download format in 2020 as…
Release data: Kloob & Onasander – Goês CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Winter-Light, 2023 Ritualist dark ambient at full scale makes up Kloob & Onasander’s “Goês”, which rounds out the duos’ witchcraft trilogy. This last chapter focusses on funeral laments and chthonic sorcery and lasts nearly 60 minutes. It’s another haunting and immersive sonic experience loaded with drone tapestries traveling slowly but surely…
Release data: Parallel Worlds – Reflections CD/LP/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Móatún7, 2023 With “Reflections”, skilled Greek synthesist Bakis Sirros continues his sojourn through organic, dark-ambient electronics. The eight tracks air malevolent, gloomy, and stark atmospheres incorporating abstract future-noir as well as minimal electro. The profound adventurous 45-minute outcome is not for the faint of heart, as a strange assemblage of buzzing textures…
Release data: Erik Wøllo – Cloud of Strings CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Projekt Records, 2023 “Clouds of Strings” sees a return of talented Scandinavian multi-instrumental artist Erik Wøllo to his first love: the acoustic guitar. In more than one way, the 12 melodic moodscapes reflect on his previous releases “Guitar Nova” (1998) and “Blue Sky, Red Guitars” (2004) while exploring the possibilities of the…
Release data: TiRa The Art of Dance – Endless Ambient Part 1 CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Groove Unlimited, 2023 German composer Ralf Gülpen, aka Tira, is a new name to me and quite a discovery after submerging pleasantly in the first few tracks of the 75-minute debut “Endless Ambient Part 1”. The 14 tracks in total are presented in one continuous, uninterrupted…
Release data: The Roswell Incident – Departure from the Homeworld CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Groove Unlimited, 2023 Too many years have passed since this band’s last release from 2019, so it’s a relief Groove Unlimited grabbed the opportunity just before E-Live 2023 to release “Departure from the Homeworld” as a (well-deserved) hardcopy instead of the initial download-only version envisioned by the brothers…
Release data: Rob Papen – Waiting CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 It has been a long wait, it actually took Rob nearly 20 years to launch this follow-up album to “Daydreamer”. So what a surprise it was to see this talented Dutch synthesist, sound designer & developer of software for virtual instruments present a couple of audio snapshots of this…
Release data: Sequentia Legenda – Alcyone CD/Digital Download, Private Release, 2023 Here´s another fine Sequentia Legenda album filled with long-form tracks for every Berlin School/late ’70s Schulze aficionado seeing the French composer express his profound passion and admiration for the genre another time around. The pairing of lengthy sequencer patterns, rhythmic structures, choral pads, and emotive textures into expansive cosmic…
Release data: Amongst Myselves – An Abandoned Day CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 The overall feel of the eight-track “An Abandoned Day” is one of nocturnal ambient that walks on and crosses the abstract/experimental edge at times. The feel of nighttime already creeps in on the nicely rendered opener “The Winds of April” while stark, organic-infused ambiences dominate on the…
Release data: Simon Lomax – These Tranquil Winds CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 On “These Tranquil Winds”, skilled UK ambient composer Simon Lomax (formerly known as Maitreya) dives deeper into a fascinating, slow-moving transcendental world of textures and atmospheres. “The Vastness of it All” kicks off the 44-minute release most nicely into a dynamic drifting expanse before things shift into…
Release data: Loneward – Fractional Dimensions Volume 3 CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 “Fractional Dimensions Volume 3”, of which the previous volumes were published in 2022 and Spring 2023 respectively, is part of an ongoing series from Canadian composer Mike Carss (aka Loneward) that explores slow-moving spaces for contemplation, meditation, and sleep. The low-volume music featured here actually revisits, or…
Release data: Numina – Collection of Dimensions DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 After a hiatus of some six years, Jesse Sola aka Numina brings the Em-community “Collection of Dimensions”, an 8-track/62-minute dark-ambient and melodic space-music excursion to different dimensions. First some insight into the process that would end up being “Collection of Dimensions”: over the past few years since the…
Release data: Forrest Fang – The Lost Seasons of Amorphia CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Projekt Records, 2022 US musician Forrest Fang is one of the best-selling artists on Sam Rosenthal’s Projekt label. Forrest’s creative process is generally about exploration, aiming to develop a “sound” that he can use to suggest different moods and structures. The seeds for “The Lost Seasons of Amorphia”…
Release data: Alpha Lyra – Sailing over the Sea CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, PWM Distribution, 2023 During the years I´ve heard quite a bit of the work of French composer Christian Piednoir, aka Alpha Lyra, but it never was able to move me emotionally. After a break of many years, I decided to give it another shot with “Sailing over the Sea”…
Release data: Applefish – Astrosat DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2022 Warm, deep, and rather contemplative ambient space music is on the menu on Applefish´s debut album “Astrosat”, a 50-minute astral journey by UK composer Nik Davies unfolding calmly in 11 separate tracks that range between 3 and 5 minutes. The mood and feel are already set beautifully by the 5-minute…
Release data: Terminus Void – Apeiron CD/Digital Download, Groove Unlimited, 2023 “Apeiron” is the first real label release introducing Terminus Void’s full dynamic voice, including ambient, Berlin School, downtempo, and the classic Terminus Void emotional sound world. It contemplates the abstract concept of the infinite and boundlessness of everything; from the laws of physics to consensus itself and asks the…
Release data: Johan Tronestam – Roswell CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, SynGate, 2015 The albums and tracks by Scandinavian composer Johan Tronestam fit in the league of feel-good, moody, and well-tempered electronics. The 79-minute “Roswell” is no exception, offering nine Berlin School-infused pieces with captivating sequencer patterns, catchy rhythms, and smooth evolving melodies. Johan’s rather simple but always-to-the-point sonic approach with atmospheric nods…
Release data: Robert Schroeder – Into the Light CD, Spheric Music, 2023 With his release Into the Light”, the Aachen-based musician brings his listeners a 57-minute concept album that sonically stays close to that of Berlin School but contains far fewer tunes. The 12-minute opening title track already harkens back nicely to the tasty soundscape, choir/string pads, gentle percussion, and…
Release data: Loneward – Ferric Expeditions CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release/Ambient Soundscapes, 2023 Loneward’s “Ferric Expeditions”, mastered by the Ultimae label owner Vincent Villuis, is an ambient release published in collaboration with Ambient Soundscapes (a division of Valley View Records). The 47-minute concept recording consists of a series of ten gently unfolding audio vignettes (each exploring a musical motif—either holding within…
Release data: Three-six (36) – Cold Ecstasy Lp/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, 3six Recordings, 2023 I´ve heard and reviewed quite a bit of 36 albums by now, seeing Dennis Huddleston shape and evolve his musical style on almost every new recording. This time around, the outcome drifts within the realm of ´90s UK hardcore (with vocal samples roaming in the sonic background) and…
Release data: Biome – Essence CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Harmonic Resonance Recordings, 2021 What I got here is the second recording by Gregory Kyryluk released under the ambient moniker Biome, a project he coined as bio-organically infused electronica. Well, the result presents six quite minimalist tracks featuring subtle rhythmic structures underneath tapestries of subdued, almost gliding soundscapes incorporating some environmental elements on…
Release data: Yog Sothoth – Prehistoric Dawn CD, Private Release, 2012 What I got here is the debut album by Yog-Sothoth (aka Cologne-based musician Michael Wilkes) who has been around in the EM scene since the start of the ’90. Most notably, Mr. Wilkes won Germany’s Schallwelle award for being the best newcomer in 2011. The latter is no surprise after…
Release data: Rainbow Serpent – Voices of the first day CD, Manikin Records, 2001 Teutonic Berlin School, especially the output of Klaus Schulze, has been a strong inspiration for Rainbow Serpent´s core sound, but the German duo was always able to inject it with many modern vibes. “Voices of the First Day” is no exception to that, offering another well-accomplished…
Release data: Thorsten Quaeschning – The Capitol Session CD/Digital Download, Protonopia, 2020 The live music featured on this release was recorded at the E-Wave Festival in November 2019 in Zeil am Main where Mr. Quaeschning played a full 75-minute set set. From the start of the eight-part “The Capitol Session”, it’s clear Thorsten is well on his way here again…
Release data: Jonn Serrie – Sunday Morning Peace CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Valley-Entertainment, 2011 There´s not much to say about this one as the origin of this album with stress-relief music goes back to 2005 when Jonn released it privately on CD-R entitled “Sunday Morning”. For this official release, the music has been reworked with the sounds of the seashore woven into…
Release data: Bruno Sanfilippo – Ver Sacrum DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, ad21 Music, 2023 “Ver Sacrum”, inspired and informed by the ancient custom of ritualized expulsions of the same name, sees composer Bruno Sanfilippo head into a new direction that I’d like to describe as hallowed, intimate orchestral chamber music. The highly emotive, thought-provoking, excellently mastered, and produced outcome dwells profoundly in…
Release data: Ayaavaaki & Purl – Ancient Skies CD/LP/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, LILA, 2023 “Ancient Skies” is an extensive electronic dream journey of nearly 2,5 hours envisioned and realized by the duo Alexander Lux (aka Ayaavaaki) and Ludvig Cimbrelius (aka Purl). It features vast tableaux of ambient, drone, and space music with occasional subtle implied rhythmic structures. Moreover, a profound sense of…
Release data: Alio Die & Dirk Serries – The Chapters of the Eclipse CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Projekt, 2022 Both these two experienced ambient composers, hailing from Italy and Belgium respectively, have numerous collaborations and solo works under their belt. What I got here is a minimalist, totally subdued, and sedate work of free-floating textures unfolding on three extended tracks, imparting passage…
Release data: Node – Singularity CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, DiN, 2023 Sure, there’s been lots of talk about this UK quartet, most notably for their same-titled debut from 1994. The 67 minutes of music contained on “Singularity” -all created with analogue synths, modulars, and assorted vintage equipment- is said to be created during the same sessions, presenting an overall electronic-psychedelic, experimental-ish, non-conformist…
Release data: Steve Roach – Ambient Church CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Timeroom Editions, 2023 Concerts performed in churches are something special, filling the sacred space with hallowed soundings. Ambient master Steve Roach already did several during his career, which this time around led him in June 2022 to New York City´s Church of the Heavenly Rest. The full performance, integrating the music…
Release data: Applefish – Luminous DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Valley View Records, 2023 My attention was drawn to this UK artist and recording by my trusted friend Dan from Down Under with whom I had the privilege to do various audio projects successfully in the last decade. Pinpointed by its creator Nik Davies as “the perfect soundtrack for finding inner peace and…
Release data: Llyn Y Cwn – Stratigraphy CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 It´s been quite some years since I dug any further music by UK artist Llyn Y Cwn, aka Ben Powell, whose output is field-recording-based dark ambient with a focus on both atmosphere and environment. Most notably it draws inspiration from the composer’s native North Wales landscape and his…
Release data: Sphäre Sechs – Beta Pictoris CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Cryochamber, 2021 German synthesists Martin Stürtzer and Christian Stritzel make a great duo as they continue their exploration of the cosmic expanse under the Sphäre Sechs moniker. From the promo blurb, I learned they pulled off an improvisational online concert played from two different cities and gathered material in preparation for…
Release data: Johan Agebjörn – Subtracted Soundspaces DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Spotted Peccary Music, 2023 For “Subtracted Soundscapes”, featuring electronic music moving fluidly between the naturalistic and the slightly otherworldly, accomplished Swedish composer/producer Johan Agebjörn revisited past work, though with a strong focus on calmness and serenity as well as envisioning an outcome that’s entirely beatless. The sonic threads of the original…
Release data: Loneward – Willoweald CD-r/Digital Download, Private Release/Stereoscenic, 2023 Gentle and overall lush orchestrations make up Loneward’s “Willoweald”, a nearly 60-minute peaceful and imaginary piece of ambient soundscape music inspired by the spring season. As I’ve come accustomed to from Mr. Carss, the layering, and merging of textures is very well done, building emotive, dreamy atmospheric arcs to…
Release data: Lauge – Sceneries DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Valley View Records, 2022 I just realized quite a lot of quiet ambient music has passed on my plate over the last couple of months. In there also fits the lengthy “Sceneries” by Danish musician Henrik Lagesen. The recording sets off with a nine-track cinematic soundscape journey that takes the slow lane with…
Release data: Deepspace – The Blue Dunes Digital Download, Projekt Records, 2022 Over the last few years, I repeatedly felt the growing need to escape from nowadays constantly buzzing, chaotic, and demanding world, finding ambient music one of the best means to do so. The ambient works by Brisbane-based musician Deepspace -a true desert freak captivated by inner worlds- are…
Release data: John Mark & David Antony Clark – The Leaving of Ireland CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, White Cloud Records/Naxos, 1998 Ok, please join me on another trip down memory lane. “The Leaving of Ireland” is a concept album by these two musicians from “Down Under” and a number of session musicians, with Jon Mark once again showing that he still has…
Release data: Inhmost – Above the Sky MC/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Auxiliary, 2023 I ran into the artist Inhmost, aka Simon Huxtable, due to the two space albums this guy did with James Clements, who’s better known as ASC. “Above the Sky” is a 7-track atmospheric trip into the cosmic expanse, a calm unfolding journey expressing the wonders and mysteries of the…
Release data: Gert Emmens – Mysteries of Dawn CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Groove Unlimited, 2023 Since Dutchman Gert Emmens started out composing, he created lots of moody electronics with his large assortment of vintage instruments. “Mysteries of Dawn”, created between November 2021 and April 2022, sees Gert continue his journey through Berlin School sonic landscape in a confident, steady manner. The melodic…
Release data: Brendan Pollard – The Zone of Malleable Fears CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Acoustic Wave Records, 2023 For this record, UK synthesist Brendan Pollard decided to do things differently: creating music based upon a storyboard of ideas he created many years ago and musically interpreting those visions. The many vintage sounds Mr. Brendan is known for are still there, but the…
Release data: Meg Bowles – Voices from the Ethereal Forest CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Kumatone Records, 2022 Synthesist Meg Bowles considers music -which she always has experienced very visually- as a primary language, a means to link to vivid worlds full of feeling. From the beginning in the early 90-s, she chose to self-release her music as it proved the most efficient…
Release data: Gunnar Jónsson Collider – S.W.I.M. LP/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, A Strangely Isolated Place, 2023 “S.W.I.M.” is the debut of Icelandic musician Gunnar Jónsson Collider on A Strangely Isolated Place with an expansive trip through six fictional environments. We are talking about soundscape music with a slight experimental as well as organic edge, lush meandering ambient musings featuring subtle changes in…
Release data: Sphäre Sechs – Extradimension CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 The majority of the music of talented German composer Martin Stürtzer happens at the moment as he improvises live or during studio sessions, something also applying to the darker shaded ambient he makes as Sphäre Sechs with his musical companion Christian Stritzel. The non-rhythmic soundscape music of the 45-minute…
Release data: Brianwork – Back to the Roots II CD, Cue Records, 2019 I haven’t reviewed much of Uwe Saher’s music but am familiar with quite a bit of his accessible, melodic music since the middle of the ‘90s. This release follows up on the first volume that came out in 1993, but what’s found on no. II is even…
Release data: [‘ramp] – Arp-en-Ciel CD/Digital Download, Doombient Music, 2023 I can´t deny I´ve developed a kind of soft spot for Mr. Parsick´s sonic creations over time, most notably for his ambient material (released on CD-R in clam shells). His last few recent releases though stand out as in-depth aural travelogues through space and time, all following their own profound…
Release data: Bob Holroyd – A Different Space CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Six Degrees Records, 2000 Here’s Bob Holroyd’s third album “A Different Space” -turning out significantly more tribal-spiced- which would not have been out of place on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. With the previous recordings “Fluidity and Structure” and “Stages”, Holroyd already managed to deliver an intriguing portion of music,…
Release data: Exuviae – Echoes in the Emptiness CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Greenhouse Music, 2000 Greenhouse Music’s third album, released over 20 years ago, comes in the name of Exuviae, aka American musician Brooks Rongstad. The Greenhouse compilation “Convergent Evolution” already featured an exclusive piece by him, but now he has released a full cd. Brooks is self-taught, and after years of…
Release data: Pete Namlook – Silence III CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Fax, 1998 Here’s another release from the extensive Fax catalog. It sees Peter Kuhlmann -alias Pete Namlook- continue the concept of “Silence” in Part III. I’m not familiar with the previous two parts, but this one is certainly not unpleasant. Peter gives his own interpretation of ambient music, and sometimes that…
Release data: Boreal Taiga – E10 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Wayfarer Records, 2022 Boreal Taiga is the creator of beautiful, lush ambient electronic spherescapes inspired by the Northern Hemisphere and Arctic environment, an area where the reindeer roam and the Sami live. These Arctic and Subarctic lands are and have been spiritual to the composer in many aspects. “E10”, clocking over 130…
Release data: Pete Namlook – Namlook XX-Music for Urban Meditation II CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Fax, 2007 This is one of those albums that only works its magic when listened to focused and preferably with headphones. It’s a heavy and intense trip the listener is undertaking here, a lengthy drone journey of some 79-minutes mingling the gloomy, slightly industrial, and hypnotic effectively…
Release data: Altus – Descender CD-r/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 “Descender” explores the sonic roots of Altus’ past, journeying back to more melodic/structured and varied music, pre-Altus of the mid and late 90s to be more precise. Back then, Mike Carss wasn’t into ambient music at all, instead creating busy, beat-driven, and heavily melodic music inspired by the EDM and…
Release data: Cosmic Ground – Entropy CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, Private Release, 2023 Since this talented German musician started out under the CG moniker, dark ambient journeys into the deeper end in line with ‘70’s enigmatic, Teutonic Tangerine Dream have become his trademark. A variety of psychedelic spheres and malevolent, otherworldly landscapes accompanied by some dirty, dense as well as uplifting sequencing…