Lee Anthony Norris - Italian Works

...txt: 2014

First you find the free downloads from ever-awesome portals like Ektoplazm or Bandcamp, and you think it's fine, because you're not going back on your word about paying for MP3s. Then they start offering older, out-of-print items up for free download, for being so supportive of their efforts, and you go along with it because you're still not paying for MP3s. Then come the discounts on digital-only items, and you figure since those won't ever see a hard-copy release, what's the harm in indulging in those too? And before you know it, you've succumb to the seductive dance of digital consumerism. Not all at once, and not instantly to be sure, but here I am, a decade removed from an 'epic rant' on TranceCritic about never buying MP3s (never!), eagerly buying in. So it goes.

Anyhow, when Lee Norris set up his ...txt print, he spent much of that time also working on various musics with various musicians, flooding the ambient market with a ton of new albums in the process. I've even reviewed some of those (Autumn Of Communion, Moss Garden, Nacht Plank, that shorty Porya Hatami collaboration). Right, much of what I have covered mostly came care of Carpe Sonum Records, if only because their CD runs aren't quite as limited as ...txt's usually are. There's still a chunk of albums in this period that I haven't picked up, so when Mr. Norris provided a good-will free download of his 2014 2CD compilation Italian Works - essentially a summation of his work during this period – how could I refuse? It didn't matter I already had some of this stuff elsewhere, it's an out-of-print ambient double-LP, for free download! Can't... resist...

Along with the above mentioned projects, also within Italian Works are Ashtoreth's Gate (Norris and Craig Murphy), The Ashes Of Piemonte (Norris and Wil Bolton), Solipsism & Nacht Plank (Lee and Craig again), and The Angling Loser (Lee, Wil, Porya, Martin Hirsch, Shintaro Aoki, and Sir Cliff). Fifteen tracks comprise both CDs (or full download), ranging from three-and-a-half minutes to a couple twenty-plus minute compositions. It's also all arranged into a mix of sorts, though as we're dealing with ambient here, it's more like faded blends between tracks rather than any layering.

And if you're familiar with Norris' style of ambient in recent years, much of Italian Works shouldn't come of surprise. There's the stuff with field recordings coupled with gentle melodic meandering - The Angling Loser's Dawn, Ashes Of Piemonte's Ordained By Winter's Fire, Solipsism & Nacht Plank's Lush, Polite, Heroin... almost every track really. Other pieces get more droning and abstract (Ashtoreth's Gate's When We Return) or go wide-screen with layered pad work (Moss Garden's Daily Catachresis), but about the only real differences between everything is what unique aesthetics Norris' collaborator brings to the plate. It all makes for a tidy bluffer's guide to his recent output, but lacks the diversity to elevate it beyond more than a pleasant, diverting compilation.

Aythar - The God Particle

...txt: 2017

It feels like all my recent Aythar coverage has been leading to this, The God Particle. Yeah, it's Mr. Tamás' most recent effort, but it's his first proper album on ...txt as well. Considering the rarefied air Lee Norris' print currently occupies within ambient techno circles (painfully limited CD runs help), that's no small feat. Not to mention the compilation Dream Of Stars from a year ago served as something of a primer to the Aythar stylee, should you have missed the Carpe Sonum Records debut or his prior self-released material. So while The God Particle is technically his seventh full-length, I can't help but think of it as the first in a new stage for his career: from outright obscurity to ambient techno mini-fame ...which remains pretty darn obscure nonetheless.

Right, I may just be building an idea of “Aythar's Next Chapter” in my head. For sure many artists develop their sound over time, but it's left me with an expectation that The God Particle should sound significantly different and evolved from earlier works. Let's hear what Mr. Tamás has up his sleeve in the right here, right now. Or from last year, The God Particle apparently digitally self-released in 2016 before given this spiffy CD remastering. Well, doesn't that just shoot my narrative in the kneecaps.

Fortunately, Aythar does add some new wrinkles to his sound with this album, so I'm sated on that front. Opener The Sirens Of Titan is all kinds of dreamy, spacey ambience, with sweeping distant pads, burbling arps and spritely synths floating about the sonic ether. The titular follow-up gets in on that ambient techno front, starting out with a minimalist pitter-patter rhythm before escalating, echoing arps join the fray. As the track develops, it threads the line between mint Berlin-School modulations and light IDM manipulations without ever committing to either side. Meanwhile, Return To The Moon gets its dubby psy-chill vibe on, coming off like a long-lost track that didn't quite make it on one of Ultimae Records' Fahrenheit Project compilations.

If it's not clear yet, there be variety on The God Particle, Aythar seemingly trying out various flavours of ambient chill music both new and old. Healing Nature reaches way back to the olden days of Hearts Of Space (without getting too deep in the New Age sap), while Arctic Night's near eleven-minute runtime flits through some good ol' Fax+ ambient techno, and kinda' reminds me of Asura's Galaxies in the process. Molecular Flow almost comes off like something Orbital might have made if they ever contributed to Apollo Records, Pulsar like a latter-era cut from Ultimae (dub-glitch, yo'), and Mission To The Stars... I'd make the Sonic Voyagers call-back, but that might be too obscure even for ambient techno dudes.

Front to back though, The God Particle is solid material, mixing old space ambient with psy-chill and IDM aesthetics. Perhaps not the most original sound on the market, but Aythar does it right by my biased standards.

Aythar - Dream Of Stars

...txt: 2016

When you think about it, Aythar kinda' came outta' nowhere. Sure, there were a couple teaser tracks on Carpe Sonum's digital-only compilations, and Mr. Tamás' had been self-releasing his music for a while by then. Getting noticed in an overstuffed ambient scene is hard work though, many upon many budding producers flooding the market with their own take on noodly, calming synth pad drone works. It's almost a necessity having some label backing if you're gonna' rise above everyone else – even a compilation spot is enough in getting one's foot in that door.

Think about how many obscure acts contributed to Die Welt Ist Klang, some of which having never released official music before, that found themselves with material on a print with a little more prominence after. And man, Aythar didn't even have that going for him, which is surprising considering he was active when it came out. Maybe he sent in a contribution, but didn't make the cut? Carpe Sonum admitted they had to pare things down some to keep it at a 'minimum' of eight CDs. I suppose a proper album on the label's a nice consolation prize.

As always, Carpe Sonum never has an act they won't share with ...txt (and vice-versa). Aythar would release a new album on Lee Norris' print in due time, but as a primer to Mr. Tamás' work, a compilation of older music was released, Dream Of Stars. That's... actually quite remarkable. Usually one has to build up a little rep' on a label before they start re-issuing back-catalogue, get that hype going so new listeners might have more interest in an extended discography. I mean, what if this new act doesn't connect with the audience? Not that Aythar was in any danger of that, nosiree. It's just a curious road he's taken in getting to this point.

That all said, Norris had a bevy of material to gather from in forming Dream Of Stars. Four of Aythar's self-released albums are presented in this compilation: Cosmic Resonance (2010), A Few Light Years Away, Universe (both 2011), and The Flower Of Space (2015). Nine tracks may not seem a lot in offering an introduction-retrospective, but it does provide a tasty summation of the Aythar stylee up to that point. A Few Light Years Away gets the largest showcase, four tracks making their way in, including the titular tune of both that and this release. There is a distinct similarity between all four, with spacey pads flowing about, though Light Years works in an additional melodic lead, while Dream Of Stars gets more New Agey in its early portions before settling into chipper arps for its finish.

Something Depth and The Flower Of Space (both from the same album) also edge closer to New Age's domain, while two offerings from Universe get that Berlin-School vibe going for them. And as for Cosmic Resonance Pt. 4, well, it's no wonder Fax+ followers have taken a major notice of Aythar's music now.

Autumn Of Communion - Broken Apart By Echoes

...txt: 2016/2017

The Broken Apart series marked a change of direction for the boys behind Autumn Of Communion (Lee Norris and Mick Chillage, if you're just joining us). After a fruitful run of self-titled albums, the duo consolidated them into a memory stick box-set (mini-box!) as a summation of that period of work. Not that they were done working together, new material still being released at a steady pace after. Can't say I've heard much of it yet, but ooh, what I wouldn't give to nab a CD copy of Polydeuces. Say, 15% above regular retail?

Still, even if the creative embers between the two remained nice and toasty, there had to be an itch to try something unique. What else was there though? They'd both released music on CD and digital, had taken the move into box-sets, and everyone goes the vinyl or tape route as a collectible option (as if ...txt CDs weren't 'collectible' enough). Maybe try their hand at an ultra-deluxe DVD 5.1 recording, or go stupidly obscure with 8-tracks? Instead, they opted for the neglected CD3, otherwise known as the mini-disc. I'm surprised there's even still a market for them, but the computer I built this year still has the familiar indent in its disc tray, so I guess there is.

Thus it came to pass that the next major Autumn Of Communion project would focus on utilizing this format. Two sets would be produced, consisting of five individual tracks running the full twenty-two minute length of five mini-discs, contained within a box-set apiece. Naturally, I totally missed the boat on Broken Apart By Sunlight and Broken Apart By Moonlight, but hey, Lee & Mick had a few leftover tracks that ended up on one of ...txt's Nagual mega-compilation memory sticks. That wouldn't do for AoC completists though, an even extremely limited amount of Nagual sticks produced. So, the two tracks were released separately as Broken Apart By Echoes, first as a digital download, then on CD with an additional track. *whew* I think that finally brings us up to speed on this project. How many words left do I offer myself for the actual music then? Oh dear...

Broken Apart By Echoes Pt. 1 does the grand, wall-of-sound synth ambient drone thing, gently fading off in the back third into something a tad less opulent sounding. There's also a twitchy, oscillating transistor tone running throughout most of the track. Pt. 2 is a calmer, soothing piece of ambience compared to the former track, a little astro-chatter sprinkled in here and there among the gentle tones and blissy melodies. Pressure your planetarium DJ to play this one at some point. Pt. 3 brings the dubby ambient techno beats for half its runtime, then moving onto more conventional space ambient stylee for a lengthy lead-out. Think I like this one best, just because there's more going on in it than the other two. All are solid offerings though, as can be expected from Autumn Of Communion at this point.

Si Matthews - Aurora

...txt: 2017

After years floating in the periphery, Si Matthews' mythical Tales Of Ten Worlds finally came to light in 2015. Alright, 'mythical' is laying it on a little thick, but it was a good album for fans of '90s ambient techno, the sort of release folks from back when would constantly name-drop as 'must have'. As it'd been gestating in cryostasis before seeing daylight, however, Mr. Matthews had plenty of time to tweak it to perfection upon release. What would he do for a follow-up though? One doesn't drop a debut album that makes it onto 'Best Ambient Of 2015' lists without some expectations in the sophomore effort. Maybe not so much in this particular scene, where commercial aspirations are comical, but a little preconceived hype never hurt no one.

Okay, it does, in that it ofttimes leaves one wanting in first impressions. Two years after Tales Of Ten Worlds, we finally got Aurora on ...txt. Given the work rate of some of Si's peers, that's quite the gap between albums, with nary a contributed compilation track elsewhere in between. Yeah, not everyone can be like Lee Norris or Mick Chillage with their fifty albums per year (roughly), but I suppose not everyone can dedicate their whole life to constantly releasing music either. It don't pay the bills so good as years past.

Still, with all that time between albums, Mr. Matthews no doubt had plenty in his reserves, tweaking and pruning material for a magnum opus on par with- wait, Aurora is only five tracks long? They're long tracks, the shortest around ten and a half minutes, the longest over eighteen minutes, but that still feels rather slight given the time between LPs. I was expecting more, and I can't imagine me being the only one.

What we do get is five distinct pieces of spacey, dreamy ambient techno that gradually evolve as they play out, never losing the plot along the way. Opener A New Star In The Night Sky is the soft, chill sort that has me thinking of stargazing on a Balearic beachfront. A Portal works a simmering, bleepy vibe as it cruises along comet tails. Aurora itself does the ambient/New Age thing that has me thinking classic Iasos. Celestial Orientation has Apollo-era ambient techno in mind, with dubby, bleepy rhythms from the book of vintage Biosphere, though never going so cold. Twin Pines brings things back to modern sensibilities in its use of soft pads and velvety timbre, wrapping you in a comfy, snuggly blanket of sonic bliss.

As for the airs of petty self-entitlement in this review, I'm just laying my personal bias right in front. It took me a bit to get into Aurora, for a whole litany of stupid reasons not the fault of Si Matthews. Now that I've actually given it the time it deserves, I do enjoy it, but man, was it ever hard letting go of those initial biases. Don't let them control you too!

MO-DU - MOD01

Mata-Mata Records/...txt: 2015/2016

No, not Mo-Do, though I wouldn’t mind reviewing that charmingly cheesy Italian eurodance act at some point either. Come on, you already have Eins, Zwei, Polizei playing in your head at the mere mention of it. Their lone album of Was Ist Das? can’t be going for more than a buck or two on the used Euro market now. Maybe I should look into that.

But no, this is MO-DU, a side-project of Moduretik. Or maybe a new project, since the man behind it, Jan Jiskra, hasn’t put out any new Moduretik material for a few years now, save a retrospective in 2016. As Moduretik, he put out a few albums on micro-label Bleeder Ear of way-retro sounding darkwave tunes. It’s all rather under-produced, which I have no doubt is the point, capturing the messy vibe of musicians inspired by synth-pop of the early ‘80s, but trapped in the Eastern European bloc. Gotta’ make do with whatever gear you can grab, and get that stuff out on the streets of Prague while you can, before militsiya surrogates come a knockin’. There’s a punky, romanticism about it, which may be somewhat fabricated, but that doesn’t stop modern musicians from making tributes and odes to the era.

Then ol’ Jan tried his hand at another form of obscure European electronic music of those free-wheelin’ years, kosmische Musik, pairing up with Adam Holub as Neden, resulting in a self-titled album (on vinyl!). Jiskra must have been inspired by that session, as he didn’t wait around for Holub for another round of music making, striking out solo for more of that Berlin-School stylee as MO-DU. He’s released two albums now under the moniker, essentially self-released on his Mata-Mata Records print, with the first LP already out of print (because tapes). Somewhere along the way, Lee Norris stumbled upon it (was sent a demo?), because now we have a re-issue of MOD01 on ambient print …txt. What a strange journey this has been for Mr. Jiskra.

Stranger still, this album doesn’t sound like a pure ‘70s throwback, at least compared to Jan’s work as Moduretik. For sure the equipment used keeps things in that warm, analog era of electronic music, but the songcraft feels more of the ‘90s brand of ambient techno. Heck, opener Scoloyd wouldn’t have been out of place on Boards Of Canada’s last album, though to call MO-DO a Boards clone is quite a disservice, as there’s none of the trip-hoppy beats the Scottish duo are known for.

Nay, Mr. Jiskra keeps his rhythms as faithful to the old-school as he can, whether it’s clip-cloppy beats in Hangaduga, Sorson, and Kapusta, or something closer to synth-pop as in Asitrea. Elsewhere, he lets pulsing modulations and dubby effects act as his guide (Hicarn), or opts for the gentle ambient glide (Boditanka, Tongo, Ubitanka). It reminds me of the stuff those way underground ambient techno labels of the ‘90s would put out (hi, em:t!). Ah, no wonder this ended up on …txt.

Stormloop - Into The Void

...txt: 2016

With a name like Stormloop, I keep expecting blistering, grimy warehouse techno tools. Never mind this comes care of …txt, whom I’m darn certain specializes in ambient. Or the fact the Kev Spence alias closed out that colossal Pete Namlook tribute project Die Welt Ist Klang. Heck, even if you knew full well Stormloop is ambient, the name maybe suggests the noisy sort, more an assault of densely layered field recordings, blasts of white noise and static, and all manner of sound chaps hanging out in the noise scene getting weak in the knees over.

‘Tis not so. As Stormloop, Mr. Spence has released twenty albums over the course of a decade, the majority of which contains your traditional droning ambient. For sure there’s different ideas and themes approached throughout them all. Some explore seasonal moods (the Winter EP, Autumn & Autumn II), others the always popular cold wasteland regions (Snowbound, Nocturnal Winter, Arctic Conditions), a few dabblings into the Hearts Of Space school of New Agey ambient (Kaleidoscopic Blooms, Fragile Systems), the abstracted drone stuff (Transforms, Modulated Meditations, No True Beauty Without Decay), and my personal go-to style, space ambient (Signals, Back To Dust, Distant Star, Cluster).

Wait, did I just summarize the near-entirety of Stormloop’s discography? Well why not, since it’s at his Bandcamp anyway. In fact, Mr. Spence is pretty much strictly independent, almost all of his material solo-released. This means a near-complete lack of physical formats available of his work, and what he release on limited CDrs is absolutely snatched up at this point. So while he does make some nifty music that tickles my earlobes, the lack of physical options means I probably won’t be buying many Stormloop items in the future. May as well talk about his other stuff while I have the chance, eh?

Still, he has found distribution with a couple labels. Glacial Movements Records released one of his Snowbound* albums a few years back. A little while later, …txt came along and offered a Memory Stick deal, consolidating five of his albums into a USB stick. Huh, would that count as a physical release? I mean, technically it’s a mini-box set, but I dunno’ – kinda’ hard to impress the ladies having that on your vinyl wall.

This past year, Stormloop released another item with …txt, a fresh album called Into The Void. Though sticking to his usual assortment of droning synth timbre, it has a more grounded theme compared to his other works, a reflective ambient journey through the night (Deep Into The Dark).

Imagine you’re wandering through lonely streets (Another Drift), near empty park lands (To A Light) or suburban countryside (Night Ride), your only companion a frequently obscured Luna above (Clouds Pass Over The Moon). Insomnia keeping you from getting any rest (When Need Of Sleep), leading to some tense moments of the mind (Out Of The Dark), but all is well once the sun rises again (Into The Dawn). So, uh, what comes after Omega?

S.E.T.I. - The Guide Lockstars Of Astro Myrmex

...txt: 2016

Now doesn’t this look all ultra egg-headed in concept and design. Guide Lockstars? Astro Myrmex?? S.E.T.I.??? Right, that last one’s been a staple of electronic music for ages, musicians inspired by deep space frequencies traversing the endless void in meager hopes of finding kindred intelligence. Or something better, far superior to our primitive means, that’d be pretty dope too, but we’ll take whatever the cosmos sends our way. Beggers can’t be choosers.

Honestly, I picked this up because, hey, new S.E.T.I. – gotta’ check that out, yo’! Never mind I initially wasn’t sure which S.E.T.I. I was dealing with. Like, it seemed odd that the dark, abstract ambient project of Andrew Lagowski would end up on …txt, especially since his last few releases came out on industrial-leaning print Power & Steel. That other Seti project then, that consisted of Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree, they’re more up the alley of Lee Norris’ label. Then again, they haven’t been heard from since the ‘90s, so odds of this being the same group were remote. Could it be a whole new S.E.T.I.? Lord Discogs surprisingly lists few acts with such aliases, so a young cheeky producer could take it on too.

But nay, turns out it was Mr. Lagowski all along, finding a home with …txt as he takes his project into the realms of narrative concept. The Guide Lockstars of Astro Myrmex is the second of what appears to be an ongoing tale of sorts, started with The Data Logs Of Astro Myrmex, released the year prior. Little information is given on what ‘Astro Myrmex’ is, beyond something that’s travelling the cosmos. A ship captain? Interstellar cruiser? Robotic probe? Evolved light being? Something definitely advanced compared to our current technology, what with Data Logs’ liner notes mentioning ol’ Astro exploring wormholes. Lockstars offers a morsel of additional information, explaining that Myrmex’s journey was initiated by the Nibiru Cataclysm. Ah, that event, as predicted by the cover art of Public Enemy’s Fear Of A Black Planet.

The music within, such as it is, does offer the sort of space ambient you’d expect of such a hard sci-fi story. Opener Instrument Calibration spends a chunk of its early portion with distant transistor pings and other sounds you’d figure robots communicating with radio antennae would emit, accompanied by low thrums that all dark space ambient must include. This isn’t a dark piece though, spacey pads joining the effects, nicely selling a cosmic grandeur vibe.

Guide Lockstars generally alternates in tone throughout, with S.E.T.I. exploring different forms of sci-fi sounds and abstract music. Mirach, LoS Jitter Summary, Adhil, and especially Black Engines are quite dark and droning, giving me pause whether I’d accidentally thrown on a Cryo Chamber CD instead. The longer tracks of Gravity Stupor and Almach are more bleepy and benign, though still feeling isolated between the stars. Still, it’s nice hearing a hard sci-fi, space ambient album that includes both ends of the vibe spectrum. (not as famous as the electromagnetic spectrum)