Various - Home

Spiritech: 2014/2017

Though Spiritech was primarily an outlet for Lingua Lustra and BlueBliss material, they did bring in a couple outside artists too. Data Rebel, Rainbow Vector, Textural Being, Dark Passenger, Snufmuumriko, 0ther... Okay, so we aren't exactly dealing with a roster of well-known producers. Heck, I sometimes feel Albert Borkent only got noticed in the world of ambient through sheer force of will, or at least flooding the digital market with dozens of Lingua Lustra EPs. That's the cynical take though, and I'd rather take the positive take, where the dude is just a workaholic, and understands any hope of getting your name out there in the world of ambient requires releasing music at a ridiculous clip, lest you are lost in the sea of other workaholics. That, or luck out with a record or two on Very Important prints of the scene (which he done did with Databloem).

Getting outside contributions for Spritech didn't hurt though, smatterings of EPs and compilations finding their way into the label's discography throughout its short run. This here Home was one of the few such compilations to get an actual physical release, just this past year in fact. Why this one in particular, I don't know. Far as I can tell, a digital version was originally released back in 2014, and several more were released through Spiritech's Bandcamp since, many of which free (or Name Your Price deals). The liner notes mention Home being dedicated to Mr. Borkent's mother, so perhaps this one has more personal connection for Lingua Lustra, thus more deserving of a spiffier roll-out compared to all the other compilations.

Seven tracks comprise Home, two of which are from Lingua Lustra, natch. The opener Time Window clocks the longest too, a shade under fifteen minutes, mostly minimalist space ambience with echoing tones being sent deep into cosmic realms. Moorland comes off a little more grounded, New Agey spritely synths pitter-pattering in the background, followed upon by lush pads for a moving bit of music; throughout it all, whispery effects guide you along like ghosts.

So Mr. Borkent's material is good stuff, of which wasn't in doubt. How about the rest, then? What does the likes of Shambala Networks, Tonauac, and Reality Sandwich offer? Ultra-minimalist drone, melancholy pad ambient with strings, and blippy ambient techno, respectively. The latter two also have very little to their names within Lord Discogs' archives, at least beyond anything Spiritech related. Then again, the label's catalogue's looking mighty thin compared to their Bandcamp; needs an updating, methinks.

Two other tracks come care of a Markus Guentner and John Daly, both some of the emptiest drone I've ever heard, though Mr. Guentner does add an extra layer of dub warmth. He's also garnered quite the cult following, which isn't too surprising as he's Kompakt alumni. This John Daly though, is it the same Irishman who's been doing house and techno for a decade now? Because his D1 is nothing of the sort. A strange contributor for Spiritech if so.

Halgrath - The Whole Path Of War And Acceptance

Cryo Chamber: 2014

Halgrath already has the distinction of being among the first artists invited into the Cryo Chamber fold, her Out Of Time album released when the label was almost nothing but Atrium Carceri and Sabled Sun releases. With her sophomore effort for Simon Heath's print, she added another first to her accolades: an album containing cover art with actual colour! Green trees! Blue skies! Contrasting white, making the colours pop! Alright, it's still a tad muted and shadowy, but compared to the typically bleak, black, grimy brown, blood-red grayscale most Cryo artwork entails, The Whole Path Of War And Acceptance is practically hot neon. Strangely, I haven't seen another Cryo Chamber album utilize such a colour-scheme ever since. Has Halgrath claimed a monopoly of healthy green trees for the label's cover art? Guess it pays to call 'dibs' on such things.

While Out Of Time was a fine showcase of Ms. Agratha's various takes on dark ambient's myriad moulds, at twelve tracks it had a tendency to wander as an album, its loose 'Limbo' theme never quite coalescing into a strong narrative. On this one, she's pared things down to a tidy eight, and boy does it make a difference. For sure she still indulges herself from dark drone to ethereal ambient to orchestral Occult, but all in service of this album's theme.

With a title like The Whole Path Of War And Acceptance, I was expecting something über-epic, like a tale of clashing countries and cultures, leading to cataclysmic battles and the dire consequences of such devastating destruction. Then I remembered two things. One: this is only eight tracks long, hardly enough space to parlay such a narrative. Two: this is dark ambient we're talking about, and the genre almost never depicts a grand, Game Of Thrones styled opera. But boy does it ever love detailing the apocalyptic aftermath, especially as told from the perspective of a lone survivor.

That's not what this album's about either, though. Nay, The Whole Path Of War And Acceptance is yet another introspective piece, and apparently a rather personal one at that. Essentially a retelling of dramatic events in one's life ('war') and the struggle to overcome them to some semblance of self-healing (“acceptance”). In the hands of a lesser artist, this would probably come off sounding trite and cliche, but Halgrath is easily up to the task of telling this tale. There's moody, droning openers (Acceptance Of Inner Self, Consecreation), melancholic ethereal pieces (Afflatus, The Opposite Mind And Mutuality, Cold Breath Of Mountains), mournful piano dirges (Epic Journey And Oblivion), and meditative ambient closers (Deep Immersion And Repose, Your Soul Is Just A Particle Of Stars). Along the way, you get operatic chants, discordant strings, claustrophobic field recordings, and even occasional tribal drumming. Yeah, I'd say that runs the gamut of a Halgrath album.

Out Of Time was good, but The Whole Path Of War And Acceptance is great, offering a tantalizing sampling of everything dark ambient provides in a focused journey.

Autumn Of Communion - Autumn Of Communion 4

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

I've been buying music from Mick Chillage. I've been slowly getting up to speed on Lee Norris. Seems I've no choice but to finally spring for an Autumn Of Communion album, the collaborative project between the two. No, wait, this shouldn't sound like a chore, though it does feel like a challenge at times. They made their debut as AoC on Fax +49-69/450464, which wound up being among the last albums the label released before Pete Namlook's passing (apparently the last). You bet that's made it a tantalizing collectible now. The project wasn't homeless for long though, finding a comfortable spot in Mr. Norris' newly established ...txt print, where they've released several albums since. But as ...txt typically has ridiculously short-runs of CD pressings, finding affordable hard-copies of such albums has proven most difficult for late adopters (damn, wish I hadn't missed out on that Polydeuces ...mmm, Saturn beauty shot...).

Fortunately, Misters Norris and Gainford did contribute an LP to another fledgling label that spun-off from the epic-mega Namlook Tribute project, Carpe Sonum Records. Seeing as how Autumn Of Communion were honorary Fax+ alum, it was only appropriate that they'd offer up some new tunes for the Carpe Sonum crew, who tend to have lengthier CD runs than their ambient techno brethren. Praise the Techno Gods!

Even more appropriately, AoC produced a clutch of tracks that fall in line with Fax+ of old, all the while keeping things sounding modestly modern in the process. Autumn Of Communion 4, so named because it's the duo's fourth proper album under the handle (d'uh), makes no bones about the style you're in for. I mean, just look at that cover art! My God, is it ever lovely, losing your gaze in a star-studded field of winter twilight, a leafless canopy serving as silent sentinels to the secrets above. And damn if the twenty-minute opener Ocean Of Religion doesn't feel like you're actually out there in the wilderness, losing your gaze in the great beyond. Distant percussion echoes from afar as lovely pads and soft timbre weave in and out, subtle astral-chatter meshing with field recordings throughout. I want to actually play this piece in such a setting, though the local park field at summer midnight might do in a pinch.

The rest of AoCIV is taken up by two longish tracks (Leaving Island, Zren Keen), and two shorterish tracks (Through The Motion, Animated Religions), which honestly sound like from different sessions than Ocean Of Religion. While still featuring lovely synth work, they're less spaced-out, coming off more grounded in songcraft, though Religions does reach some upper atmosphere vibes. Island mostly performs as a pure ambient outing with sporadic dubbed-out beats, Keen gets a little heavier in its rhythm department, and Motion is... groovy ambient? Is this a thing? I think this should be a thing.

But yeah, Autumn Of Communion 4 is as wonderful an album as you'd expect with the players involved. Miss at your own peril!

Vermont - Vermont

Kompakt: 2014

[Obligatory United States Of America geographical joke]

Ah, haha-ha! Hoo, what a zinger that was, eh? And the way I tied it into [Contemporary Political Talking Point] with [Middling Movie Franchise], it just can’t be topped. What does this have to do with Vermont by Vermont? Well, we wouldn’t have gotten to this place without the guiding hands of such Very Important record labels like [Three Name Drops] and [Notable Artist/DJ], so you see, [Crushing Conclusion That’d Make Simon Reynolds Weep With Envy].

Vermont (by Vermont) is now three years old. Yet it doesn’t feel so long this was being talked up in the same, small window of reverent breath along side Tycho’s Awake, Todd Terje’s It’s Album Time, and Efdemin’s Decay. Yes, it was a fun time being a Very Important music journalist covering hip, underground electronic music that appealed to the chiller side of tastes. Naturally I was having none of that, concerned with reviewing Ishkur’s old CDs instead, but I cannot deny the cover-art for Vermont’s Vermont intrigued me enough to pluck a copy. I figured by the time I got around to reviewing this album (late 2015, lol), the hype would have passed and I could take in this music proper-like. But now this duo’s gone and recently released a sophomore album (II), which kinda’ makes this look like hitching onto a freshly revved hype wagon. I swear its pure coincidence, just like [Inflammatory Political Talking Point].

For those who missed it the first time around, Vermont (4) is comprised of Danilo Plessow and Marcus Worgull. The latter has DJ’d for a number of years now, and through Innervisions put out sporadic singles along the way. Mr. Plessow is more of a production journeyman, flitting from project to collaboration to remix to project over the past decade. I recognize Motor City Drum Ensemble among his credits, and his work with Joachim Tobias as Inverse Cinematics garnered positive buzz from deep nu-jazzy sorts, so a decent pedigree in the funky soul camps. That begs the question, then, of why he’d make a debut with Mr. Worgull as Vermont for an album of throwback ambient techno and Berlin-School weirdness? Just because they wanted to? What sort of [Calvin & Hobbes Artistry Quote].

The thing I recall most about Vermont’s Vermont CD is the general sense of disappointment it brought to those hotly anticipating it. The music is very humble and unfussy, going about its business without much care for ‘pushing boundaries’ or ‘changing the game’, as so many thought Plessow and Worgull would. It’s the sort of ‘ambient pop’ that Kompakt have had no problem promoting for years now - pleasing to the ear, crafty to the head, charming to the soul, with enough unique attributes to stand out from the pack (Guitars! Drums! Old-School Bleepiness! Theremin!), though not necessarily stick with you even after playing it over a few times. Vermont is an album that the phrase “good enough” was destined for. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Cosmic Replicant - Soul Of The Universe

self-released: 2014

Another album from the Cosmical Replicantian One I snagged for free at the ever-awesome Ektoplazm.com. However, this one differs quite a bit from the other, Landscapes Motion, and not simply because Soul Of The Universe is a proper full-length album (the other was more a mini-album). Just based on cover art alone, it’s almost as though we’re dealing with two entirely different producers: one a barren picture of rock and dirt, the other a rather cheese-ball bit of New Age space CGI. Another key difference is that Landscapes Motion came out on Pureuphoria Records, whereas Soul Of The Universe was strictly self-released by Cosmic Replicant, with no label backing. Wait, I understand why Landscapes wouldn’t have been picked up by Altar Records, that five-tracker far closer to the domain of dub techno than anything a psy-chill print would have interest in. This album though, it’s totally up Altar’s alley, about as psy-chill and prog psy as anything they’ve put out.

Wait-wait…! Prog psy?? I thought Cosmic Replicant was all on that bleepy downtempo shi’. Since when has he done something as comparatively hyper-active as prog psy? Possibly right from the beginning on his debut album Future Memories, but I still haven’t taken that LP in full yet, so I cannot confirm nor deny Pavel’s always had an inclining. Lord Discogs tells me there’s ‘Progressive Trance’ on that album though, so I’ll take it that The Lord That Knows All isn’t deceiving on that front.

But yeah, most of what I’ve heard from Mr. Shirshin seldom breaks the 100 BPM mark, hence hearing the dub techno off Landscapes Motion being such a surprise (to say nothing of the unexpected genre leap). Having more uptempo material on Soul Of The Universe has truly thrown a wrench into my preconceived notions of what a Cosmic Replicant release may entail. If he suddenly puts out a dark ambient opus on Cryo Chamber or teams up with Banco de Gaia for a remix, my tidy compartmentalized music world shall be split asunder as only AstroPilot has proved capable of doing thus far. Not bad company at all.

Dodgy cover art aside, Soul Of The Universe is a solid enough album of psy prog-n-chill tunes, such that I’m surprised Altar Records didn’t pick this up regardless. Were they afraid of Cosmic Replicant overload with Mission Infinity already slated for release on their 2014 calendar? And while having prog psy on this album was surprising enough for me, I’m just as impressed by Mr. Shirshin’s handling of the genre, each finely crafted examples of the sound that fans shouldn’t overlook. My only quibble with Soul Of The Universe is its lacking the identifiable ambient ‘bleep’ techno vibe that I’ve come to expect from Pavel, the downtempo cut I Robot and chill acid tune Exotic Species about the closest we get in that vein. Kinda’ makes this album difficult to stand out from the annual glut of prog psy without those distinct HIA charms.

Lee Anthony Norris & Porya Hatami - The Longing Daylight

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

This is now the third alias of Lee Norris I’m reviewing, his seldom used eponymous pseudonym. Seriously, the scant few times he’s gone by his own name for an album is when he’s paired up with this Porya Hatami. He also put out a double-LP collection of prior works under his other projects (Nacht Plank, Autumn Of Communion, Moss Garden, plus others), a semi-retrospective titled Italian Works released through his own …txt print. Speaking of …txt, damn is there ever a lot of tasty looking music there, so much only available in extremely limited CDr if you’re a hard-copy connoisseur. Dammit, I’m breaking the bank buying from Carpe Sonum, Cryo Chamber, Silent Season, Ultimae, Altar, whatever stray Fax+ albums float my way. How many more nifty ambient prints can my finances take?

I’m not sure why Mr. Norris uses his own name solely for this collaboration with Porya Hatami, especially when he’s never shown fear in doing the Pete Namlook thing in creating a new project alias with every producer pair-up. Is there something in particular that makes Porya Hatami special? The Iranian has definitely been a busy chap these past few years, plying his trade in twee ambience and static-drenched field recordings across many labels (Dronarivm, Tench, Dewtone Recordings, Flaming Pines…ooh, Inner Ocean Records?). No surprise Lee would find a common vibe with Mr. Hatami, pairing Iran and Italy like no other ambient project before! Add Irish Mick Chillage, and they can form a super group called Triple-I (obscure Transformers joke).

Norris and Hatami first paired up for the album Every Day Feels Like A New Drug, initially on Unknown Tone Records, then again on …txt; good luck finding that one at a reasonable price anymore. A couple years after, they reconvened for The Longing Daylight on Carpe Sonum Records, a tidy five tracker of ambient music lasting less than forty minutes of runtime. Um, super-short much? I mean, it’s nice having a collection of pleasant, calming synth melodies that don’t pointlessly meander for unnecessary lengths – Norris and Hatami craft concise pieces that say all that needs saying within each. Just seems guys as prolific as these two would have more to offer than a quintet of tracks averaging around seven and a half minutes each.

Particulars, then. Opener Druid Liquid features field recordings of various flowing water sources as gentle, reflective pads play in support; towards the end, the water recedes, letting the pads shine on their own. Follow-up Rune Stoned gets old-school ambient with its soft piano work, lonesome pads, and night insects. Finally, Alchemy, The Longing Daylight, and Moon get all Planetarium Ambient in our ears – I can easily imagine watching shimmering stars slowly rotate while this plays. Rather preferred the reflective pieces early though. As far as this sort of ambient goes, they had more character, morphing as they played along, the rest mostly remaining static. Look, with this much ambient music out there, I can afford to be picky.

Aveparthe - Landscapes Over The Sea

Cryo Chamber: 2014

Time for my favorite type of dark ambient, that which gets geographical up in the house. Looks like this one’s got it all: cool coast lines, groovy ground carved by glacial processes, fluvial flows, probably all hanging out in some northern fjord too. Man, fjords are just awesome, all wavy and curvy and shit. They add so much coastal perimeter to your nation, several hundred or even thousands of kilometres of traversable landmass, all with impossibly steep hillsides plunging strait down into the deep black of cold oceans. Sure, the Oregon Coast may have some nifty dunes and eroded lumps of large rocks dotting its path, but there’s so little of it in total. Vancouver Island’s many fjords easily give the region a complete advantage in eroded lumps of large rocks. Look, it’s important for the lucrative postcard and wallpaper trades!

Okay, enough of the silly. While it’s true the concept of ‘untamed wasteland drone’ does appeal to me, it’s more for that sense of urban displacement than any sort of geographical porn. As with dark ambient focusing on deep space, there’s something captivating about unshackling your psyche from any and all human influence, losing oneself in the desolate emptiness of your surroundings. All from the comfort of my home, that is. Sure, I could make the actual trek to the Yukon tundra or alpine snows of the Coastal Mountains if I wanted a true isolation experience, but I like having a choice of six sushi restaurants within walking distance too.

The group Aveparthe hails from a fairly remote region of the world though, so they have some inkling of what it’s like having few ties to civilization at large. While info on Sádon is scarce, not so is the case with the other portion of this project, the charmingly named Astral & Shit (Ivan Gozikov). Hailing from the Russian city of Nevyansk, an administrative town on the eastern side of the Ural range, Mr. Gozikov has idled his time away making copious amounts of experimental noise and drone pieces under the A&S guise, some eighty-plus releases in the past half-decade alone. Throw in an additional eighty-plus releases as Demiurge Urizen, and you’ve got one ridiculously prolific producer. How nice of him to make time to collaborate with ol’ Sádon for a new project like Aveparthe.

Landscapes Over The Sea is their debut, on Cryo Chamber and in general. It consists of five tracks, two lengthy pieces breaching the seventeen minute mark (Nimbostratus, Full Of Sun), two shorter compositions running about three-and-a-half (Fog Machine, 1600), and a final eight minute track titled Turn. These are all straight-forward as far as ambient drone goes, growing and escalating with layers of pads, synths, field recordings, reverb, and timbre. There’s an ethereal quality to them all, especially Full Of Sun which utilizes chants as well. 1600 has a sparse tone going for it, Fog Machine obscures distant sounds, while Turn comparitively sounds luminous. Quite an abrupt ending though. Floating Points would approve.

Uganasie - Call Of The North

Cryo Chamber: 2014

And thus we return to the frigid sounds of Ugasanie, or Угасание in his native Belarus. This CD came out the year before Eye Of Tunguska, and for a brief time held the distinction as one of Cryo Chamber’s first sell-outs. At least, I’m assuming that was the case – I haven’t always kept tabs on the label’s Bandcamp. When I first took a proper perusal of their catalog though, this and Signals IV-V-VI were the only items with the dreaded red “Sold Out” tag attached. And that was a shame for yours truly, anxious to take a deeper plunge into Ugasanie's dark ambient world that included music of spiritual kinship with Biosphere’s work. I mean, just look at that cover art! So cold and inhospitable, yet captivating and mysterious, a realm untouched by the hand of Man, daring the spirit into challenging one’s mettle against the harshest of this planet’s clime’s. Still, I wouldn’t want to trek across the alpine glaciers reaching deep into my British Columbian backyard in the dead of winter – I just like imagining doing so.

In any event, Cryo Chamber restocked their wares, and upon seeing Call Of The North back in, I quickly snatched that one up. Funny enough, another Ugasanie album, White Silence, has since been fully plundered from the label’s stores, but I got that one way back, so it’s all good. During that uncertain in between however, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was about this album that had folks swarming in for a closer listen. Was it really just that hypnotizing cover art, or was there something more, something deeper, a masterclass of dark ambient and drone craftsmanship that stood Call Of The North above all its Cryo Chamber brethren?

Well, it’s got a nifty little concept behind it. Unlike the explicit narrative of Eye Of Tunguska, this album deals with a unique topic, that of a condition known as piblokto, or ‘Arctic Hysteria’. Essentially, there are reported cases of people going mad during the long winter night, overcome by remoteness and, if you believe in shamanism, the power of aurora. As this is strictly an Arctic phenomenon, most reported cases attributed to isolated Inuit communities and early European explorers, it’s not widely researched, with some experts doubting its status as a mental condition at all. Still, worth exploring through ambient drone, where one’s psyche is already overcome by sound.

Call Of The North traces the path of succumbing to piblokto. The first few tracks set the mood (Without The Sun, Aurora), segueing into the album’s centre as the condition takes hold. This includes an actual recording of a yukutish man taken over with Arctic hysteria (erm, in the track Arctic Hysteria), in the form of singing as dogs bark and a fire crackles – so very Biosphere. Finally, the album ends in Freezing and Cold Wasteland, wherein I picture our sufferer followed that calling of the north too far into the icy plains of the poles. Darn tricksy aurora.

Dronny Darko - Outer Tehom

Cryo Chamber: 2014

Have I mentioned Dronny Darko’s name yet? Tsk, three albums deep, and that’s just unacceptable. Right, Earth Songs was a collaborative project with protoU (real name Sasha Cats), and seeing as how I spent the bulk of that one getting all giddy over the CD’s concept, you’ll forgive my omission. Then I came to Neuroplasticity, and spent a good deal of time delving into Dronny’s details; and yet, no proper name drop. This self-imposed word count though, it forces content cuts, information incised from each review. And that’s good, long-winded, tedious, go nowhere tangents of useless use seldom clogging each post. Even if the sacrifice must be an artist’s real name, it must be so, lest I unwarily ramble into the never-ending chasm that is the Pointless Pitchforkian Anecdote.

Oleg Puzan debuted on Cryo Chamber with this album, and got his first hard copy CD out of the deal to boot. No more languishing in obscurity on saturated dark ambient netlabels, yo’! Heh, no, the Ukrainian resident was making a name for himself, one that stood out if for no other reason than he went by such an obvious pun in the drone scene. He's also rather obvious in tackling the concept of ‘old world horror’ here, where the occult and the profane meet up for a good ol’ outing in the murky pitch of abhorrent black realms. Not the most original topic where dark ambient is concerned, but these Cryo Chamber guys, I gotta’ hand it to them, always unearthing some of the most obscure references to suckle their creative juices from.

For those who are not practicing scholars of Judaism (or theology in general), Tehom is a deep, abyssal realm, kinda’ like Hell, but an empty void rather than a fire and brimstone domain. There’s also an ocean there apparently, for this is where it’s said the Great Flood that drowned the lands of Noah’s age originated from. God sent the waters of the Red Sea into Tehom as well, when Moses had to scurry all those Hebrew refugees out of Pharao’s clutches. And ultimately, you can either go there to drown in your sins, or be granted safe passage through during the End Of Days, depending on who you ask. It’s all quite vague, with barely a mention in any tome, but cool that ol’ Oleg used it as a source.

Also cool is how each track is thirteen minutes long, even if the significance is lost on me. Opener Black Arts and closer Arcane Shrine are rather similar in the desolate drone they offer, though Black Arts does start with some gnarly throat singing. Mortal Skin goes as you’d expect of occult dark ambient, including many creepy chants. Compared to the other three tracks though, Snake Hole is surprisingly soothing, if still eerie in a ‘staring into the abyss’ manner. I must wonder too, whether Outer Tehom is set in a contemporary age, as I hear distant transmissions emanating from distant radios throughout. Strange, that.

Alphaxone - Living In The Grayland

Cryo Chamber: 2014

Wow, it’s been a shade over a month since I last dealt with Alphaxone. Remember way back then, when I first started this epic alphabetical backlog? Y’all probably didn’t think we’d be only at the ‘L’s now, did ya’? Heck, even if you knew there were more Alphaxone CDs to come (I’m fairly certain I alluded to it), I doubt folks figured I’d have gone through four additional Cryo Chamber releases along the way. Hey, when I label-splurge, it’s with gusto. Still, d’is backlog tho’. I thought I’d have made it a little further along, yet here we are, only halfway through. It’ll be nearly another month before I can resume my regular course.

ANYHOW, this here Living In The Grayland is the first album Mr. Saleh released with Cryo Chamber, erroneously tagged as ‘New Age’ in Windows Media Player. Maybe the algorithm somehow thought this was a Monolith Cycle album instead? I don’t know if I should be more amazed that the app even assigned a genre to this album, or the fact it somehow confused a dark ambient CD for something more relaxing and meditative. I know release information is often user submitted, but how anyone could mistake Living In The Grayland for something one might hear at a yoga session or message parlor boggles my mind. Maybe if the masseuse is a succubus. No, wait; wrong sort of dark ambient. This is Alphaxone we’re dealing with here, not Council Of Nine.

In case you don’t remember, Mr. Seleh’s brand of drone tends to go for abstraction rather than portraying bleak pictures. The evolution of his Cryo Chamber albums saw him gradually shift towards LPs with some semblance of progression and narrative as they played. We’re dealing with his first for the label though, thus Living In The Grayland has about as intangible a plot as a David Lynch movie at his Lynchiest. Whereas Altered Dimensions and Absence Of Motion felt like you had to take a journey to reach their outworld realms, we’ve already arrived in the Grayland with this album. What will you see, what will you feel? What warping of your being shall unfold as you wander aimlessly through vistas devoid of hue?

A fair bit of drone, naturally, with plenty of layered texture and timbre in these ten tracks. Some pieces definitely make you small and insignificant, like the enveloping Overwhelm or spacious Darkscore. Others may give you a sense of dread as you traverse these unfamiliar regions, like foreboding Cold Spring or creepy Into The Silence. Yet the mood and tone is never concrete in how you should feel, whether you want to explore further or flee elsewhere. Where would you go, though? You’ve no choice but to remain here, for all eternity and longer. Why else would final track Grayland offer the only form of ‘music’, a minimalist dirge penetrating murky drone as it fades to nothingness. Your last clutches of earthly sanity ever slowly ebbing away from your grasp.

Lorenzo Montanà - Leema Hactus

Psychonavigation Records: 2014

Part two of Lorenzo Montanà’s trilogy on Psychonavigation Records, all released within a three years span of each other. As if that wasn’t enough, he put out another album on Carpe Sonum Records the same year this came out, to say nothing of two additional 2015 LPs alongside the final chapter of Trilogy, Vari Chromo. Does this guy just keep stockpiling music all the live long day? And have I already rhetorically asked this question in a previous review? Feels like I have, but I’m too lazy to hop in my time machine and ask January 2016 Sykonee if he’s written a similar query in Black Ivy or Serpe. In any case, we’re definitely getting a right-proper crash course in Mr. Montanà’s music these past few months.

If you’ve been following these Lorenzo reviews since the beginning, you might have noticed a pattern emerge in the quality of albums. Black Ivy was interesting, but unfocused, while Serpe was a splendid improvement. Eilatix, however, felt like a step back, so that must mean Leema Hactus springs back with the goods, right? Yeah, it does, but come on; you can’t seriously buy this line of logic? It’s too small a sample size to form any accurate model, and I’d be rightfully roasted by crusading statisticians on social media for peddling such pseudo analytics in the form of a music review. Whoops, getting sidetracked as always!

Leema Hactus is another great album from Mr. Montanà, taking the dynamic songcraft shown in Serpe and expanding upon it even further. There’s ample ambient techno, dubby pad work, clicky-glitch rhythms ranging from brisk tempos to subdued chillers, and gentle-sweet melodies throughout, some of which are among the best I’ve heard from Lorenzo. Greenlift will utterly melt your heart, I tell you what; like hearing a melancholy fairy lullaby as fireflies dance in twilight.

Most of Leema Hactus has an undercurrent of gardens, what with tracks titles like Conflict Garden, Emerald, Hynogreen, Greenlift, and Dew Flow. The cover art doesn’t hurt in selling that notion either, though I do wonder what the album’s title means. I searched about the Googles for it, and very little came up. ‘Leema’ is apparently a lady’s name, kind of like how Peru’s capital, Lima, is a name. ‘Hactus’ may be a name as well, but when Mr. Montanà’s album eats up the first twenty search returns, I’ve very little to go on. One day, maybe I’ll try that ‘journalist’ thing of asking the producers questions for my answers. Conjecture though, it’s much funner.

Anything else? There’s a dubstep track in here, the track Dew Flow. Well, one of those half-step breaks that the genre abused, to the point you can’t help but expect a horrible wub-wub accompanying it. Lorenzo don’t do that though, instead serving up gracious, delicate melodies as he’s wont to do in this album. Chillstep, you say? No it’s, um, ambient techno, with a fresh rhythm to your standard trip-hop steps. Yeah, that’ll do.

Adrian Younge Presents Souls Of Mischief - There Is Only Now

Linear Labs: 2014

Adrian Younge probably would have broke out of contemporary funk-n-soul obscurity eventually, a talent behind the producer’s console as much with nearly instrument he takes within his hands. When he teamed up with Ghostface Killah to produce one of the Wu-Tang man’s best albums in a decade, it was all but guaranteed he’d have the plumb choice of working with any number of top list rappers out there. Thus it was a surprising move on ol’ Adrian’s part that his next project was with backpacker favorites Souls Of Mischief. That Mr. Younge would be a fan of the Hieroglyphics crew makes sense given the musician’s background, but to convince A-Plus, Opio, Tajai, and Phesto into the booth for a throwback album of sorts? Now that’s some earned industry clout, mang.

Not that Souls Of Mischief had fallen off, disbanded, or anything like that, but as each member focused on their solo careers following the turn of the century, few figured they’d find reason to reconvene. Even 2009’s Montezuma’s Revenge didn’t hint at much future collaborative work between the foursome, and it looked to remain as such until Adrian approached them with his wishes and dreams of a vintage Souls Of Mischief LP.

But what, pray tell, is a ‘vintage SoM’ record? Anything that recaptures the spirit of their debut, 93 ‘Til Infinity, is my guess. The clever lyrical wordplay, the brash actions of youthful bravado, the vivid depictions of street stories, all presented with a Bay Area sense of laid-back, free-stylin’ vibe. In the case of There Is Only Now, these facets are presented in the form of a singular narrative – yes, even the ‘brash youthfulness’, despite all these MCs having aged two decades since 93 ‘Til Infinity. It helps the events of this album are loosely based on a real-life event, specifically being present during a shooting. Though they weren’t actually involved with the incident, Souls use it as a catalyst to weave a tale as though they were, with Tajai even being ‘taken out and captured’ by a perpetrator named Wormack, a part played by Busta Rhymes, of all MCs.

Much of this album chronicles the Mischievous Souls’ worries for their fallen comrade, concerns of the state of their neighborhood that such a thing could happen, reflection whether retribution is justified in this case, and their measures to seek their own brand of vigilantism. Remarkably, a guest spot that drops in for some sage advice is Snoop Dogg, coming off like a wise elder of this scenario despite him and Souls having little age difference between them. I won’t spoil the ending, but it does leave a bit open ended, letting the listener come to their own moralistic conclusion.

Throughout it all, Adrian Younge provides a musical backdrop befitting of a classic blaxploitation picture, and should you ever get lost with the plot, a radio DJ occasionally drops in as an ongoing narrator. Huh, I’m getting DJ Professor K of Jet Set Radio flashbacks. I’m sure Souls approve.

Mick Chillage - Tales From The Igloo Re-Told

Psychonavigation Records: 2014

While Oliver Lieb's Inside Voices introduced me to Psychonavigation Records, this was the album that got me digging further into the Dublin print's discography, though almost entirely by chance. If I’d sought out Inside Voices through my usual Amazon means, the Bandcamp option would never had exposed me to the rest of Psychonavigation’s recent catalogue. Doing a casual glance-over, I noticed a curiously cartoony looking item among the more credible pieces of cover art, sticking out like an ice-encrusted thumb. Despite never hearing the name Mick Chillage before, I dug a bit further into this oddball snowball of a CD called Tales From The Igloo Re-Told. Ah, a remix album then, with rubs from names like Gel-Sol, Lorenzo Montanà, Peter Benisch, Dialog, the New Composers... *record scratch*.

Waitwaitwait...! The Peter Benisch? That dude who made wonderful music at the turn of the century, then practically disappeared from Earth? What’s he doing on such an innocuous CD? Is this just a one-shot, some sort of curried favour for the label? Is this Mick Chillage guy a bigger deal than I could have thought? And what of the album-proper of Tales From The Igloo? Is it some masterstroke of modern chill-out music to have lured in so many highly respected names within this scene? I mean, Peter Benisch ain’t the only old-schooler on this remix project. David Morley’s here! Dr. Atmo’s here! Scanner’s here! Man, it didn’t matter that I’d never heard the original album, thus having absolutely no frame of reference for these ‘retold’ings – I had to get this just to hear what these chaps have been up to! Maybe discover a couple additional names in the process (that Gel-Sol, why he so familiar?).

My epic odyssey through Psychonavigation Records’ archives these past couple months have answered many of these questions. Without this CD enticing me though, there likely would never have been the label splurge, much less hundreds of words on my part chronicling all this music from the Dublin print. Well, maybe a few, just based on general consensus of essential albums from Psychonavigation.Tales From The Igloo-Prime was likely an eventuality - it does come highly recommended from most discerning ambient heads, after all.

Even without hearing the original album, Re-Told holds strong on its own merits. Mr. Chillage’s original compositions were already unfussy, so it isn’t much for our clutch of remixers to apply their own styles to the minute melodies Mick crafted. Morley, Montana, and New Composure do their ambient techno thing, while Benisch, Scanner, and Sense opt for something more on the widescreen tip. Dialog goes for a dubbier outing, Gel-Sol offers something abstract, and Dr. Atmo has old-school ambient house clear in his sights. Oh, and Mick indulges his full Biosphere on a lengthier rub on Hypothermia. All this diversity actually makes Tales From The Igloo Retold a stronger LP than the original album, though obviously defeats the simplistic charm Chillage had going on his debut. A yin-yang deal we got going here, then.

Mick Chillage - Saudade

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

Finally, ambient music on a label that's not Psychonavigation Records, care of a producer who got his start ...on Psychonavigation Records. *sigh* There's no escaping it, is there. I know Carpe Sonum fancies themselves the spiritual successor to Fax +49-69/450464, but it seems Keith Downey’s Label That Will is fast becoming the ambient-leaning print that everyone’s contributed to at some point in their career. Whether getting their start or chipping in for a track or remix, Psychonavigation’s built up quite the pedigree now. Hell, I only ‘discovered’ them because an old-schooler released his latest album there (Oliver Lieb, yo’). How long before I see Banco de Gaia or AstroPilot crop up on the Dublin label?

Hey, sorry for that totally unrelated tangent. We’re here to discuss a Carpe Sonum Records release, not the myriad ways other labels make their rep’. Of course, this print makes no secret of its love regarding Namlook’s old works, and as Mick Chillage was one of Fax+’s final artists (including the pairing with Moss Garden member Lee Norris as Autumn Of Communion), it’s only natural they’d come knocking with requests for an album. Or he made the offer himself. Or maybe a combination of both. Like, he certainly didn’t have to release on Carpe Sonum, Mr. Chillage (Mr. Gainford to the Ireland Office of Data) having albums out on a number of prints (...txt, Databloem, Anodize, self-release). Still, if that mega Namlook tribute box-set deal taught us anything, it’s there’s a lot of residual love for the Fax+ legacy, and having something proper on the label continuing it is only appropriate.

Ol’ Mick has dabbled in various forms of ambient and chill-out music (clearly), but Saudade is about as full-on ambient as you’ll likely ever hear from the chap. The first three tracks (Over Ingia, North Scape, Yakone) go the minimalist, droning route, with two of these compositions quite lengthy in the process. As the titles suggest, these are also rather cold, barren pieces, very much evoking the sort of vistas you’d expect from frozen wastes. Yeah, whether it’s cover art or song titles, Chillage doesn’t skimp on the ‘chill’ metaphors in his music. There’s a little amount of spritely synth in Over Ingia, like the glittering gleam off ice-covered landforms, but we don’t get much else beyond pure tone-setting drone.

At nearly seventeen-minutes in length, Solitude makes for an obvious centrepiece track on Saudade. Such a runtime offers Chillage time to go through icy bleak drone through faded, melancholic melody and back to lonesome drone again. That’s followed upon by big, bright synths in Altesch, bolder astral ambient with Ophir Aurora, and sequenced minimalism to close with Fall, ending the album on a very Berlin-School tip.

Despite being inundated with an over-abundance of ambient these past few weeks, it’s hard not to recommend Saudade as another essential addition to any fans of the genre. What’s remarkable is this is but the ‘tip of the iceberg’ (*groan*) of Chillage’s repertoire of cool (*slap*).

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Blood Music: 2014

So synthwave's now a thing. Who knows if this neo-'80s scene has much longevity – it's not like electroclash lasted a significant amount of time – but as we are, there's a growing fascination with the decade that brought us neon-glazed urban dystopia. Mostly following in the footsteps of Jan Hammer, John Carpenter, and a whole lotta’ Sega racing games, it's sole purpose is in recreating the soundtracks of every D-grade sci-fi pulp movie and splatter-slasher flick from the '80s, many of which are lost to time and degraded VHS tapes. Initially a digital market, it’s gained enough traction that a few names have large enough followings that some labels are investing significant pressing factory time. Perturbator, or James Kent on his Delorean insurance papers, has been one of the scene’s biggest names, and became a de facto ambassador of the darker end of synthwave thanks to the popularity of his contributions to the Hotline Miami video game series.

So popular is Perturbator that he can release multiple collector’s represses of vinyl and cassette, and folks will keep snatching them up. Dangerous Days, his third full-length, has some nineteen variations released, and you just know there’s a die-hard or two who’s gathered every record, CD, and tape. Man, Blood Music sure knows how to cater to obsessives.

What’s set Perturbator apart from all the other bedroom synthwave wibblers is his know-how in the album domain. Each LP could serve as the soundtrack of a feature-length flick (likely financed by The Cannon Group, Inc.), but Mr. Kent doesn’t get so wrapped up in retro navel gazing as many synthwavers go. He instead uses the fantastical urban pulp of yore as a starting point to go in his own way, creating his own vision of helmeted vigilantes confronting the cyborg ruling class controlled by mega-corporations, and all that good rot. Hey, it’s right there in his Dangerous Days’ liner notes, a detailed screed setting the tone and theme of the music within. C’mon, I just know you wanna’ see the movie now.

Pft, no motion picture is required with this album. Just take your standard neo-‘80s tropes and paint the imagery yourself. Aw yeah, Perturbator’s Theme sees him cruising down the rain-soaked dark alleys. Future Club finds our vigilante scoping out the seedy underground looking for hot tips and cool tricks. Hard Wired brings us a touch of detached romance in a cold, cruel, chrome city. The robots are on the counter-attack in Humans Are Such Easy Prey. High octane chases sequences with nitro-turbo on Complete Domination. A quiet, reflective moment in Last Kiss, before the all-out assault with the titular twelve-minute climax to Dangerous Days. Right, something like all that.

Of course, almost all of synthwave fosters such iconography, practically to a fault. Perturbator does it better than most though, and having Blood Music as his graphic designer certainly helps set him above the pack. If you’re curious what this scene has to offer, Dangerous Days is as solid a starting point as any.

Aphex Twin - Syro

Warp Records: 2014

Hey, remember when there was a new Aphex Twin album? Boy, it sure was an exciting time when that new Aphex Twin album showed up out of nowhere. Everyone got to wax nostalgic about what Aphex Twin's music meant to them again. Music rags got to write up Aphex Twin retrospectives for the fourth or fifth time. Journalists got to pontificate on why Aphex Twin is such a Very Important Person in the world of techno again. Folks were just plain ol' happy to see Aphex Twin active again, even though Richard D. James hadn't left in the first place. And we wouldn’t take him for granted as we did following Druqks, no sir. We’d keep him on that pedestal he earned back in the ‘90s, forever proclaiming the new Aphex Twin album an LP without peer, beyond compare, the best new music now and forever, a- oh, wait, no one’s talking much about Syro anymore, are they. Damn, maybe he should stop flooding his Soundcloud with so much music, let us soak in an actual album for a change.

So Syro: the record with a simple title and a dozen confounding song titles (and a hilarious expenses list that runs for six foldouts!). Rumours abound as to why the RDJ’d One felt compelled to give the world another full-length of music, though as with all things with the man from the lands of Cornish, it was probably all just a whim. Like, did he really need money again? Would Warp Records really pester him to fulfill a record deal? Nah, more plausible he just wanted a chuckle over the salivating reactions at seeing the Aphex Twin moniker reactivated. Nice of him to supply us with a solid album of tunes in the process.

While no two releases from Are Deejay ever sound the same, this does have some similarities to his mid-‘90s work than anything else. There isn’t so much micro-computer editing, drill-n-bassing, or real instrument keyboard doodling, but rather getting a playful groove on, tinkering with some sounds and effects, and riding an electro acid-funk jam wherever it may lead. Considering how much Aphex Twin always sounded weird and alien, it’s odd hearing him doing something that sounds much closer to our earthly realms. True, it’s future-Earth we’re dealing with, but we’re still on good ol’ terra firma just the same. Get some shuffle on with, er, that third track. Or find yourself at a robot junglist party with, um, those last run of tracks. Or feel that throwback rave anthem with the fifth cut.

Look, I’m not gonna’ actually name these tracks. They read like computer gibberish, probably are just some random nonsense Jamesy Boy slapped together, and only gave them ‘proper’ titles so stuffy music journalists would look like bellends trying to write critical prose with Syro u473t8+e [Piezoluminescence Mix] as part of a sentence. Well, I ain’t falling for that, I tell you what.

Anyway, Syro is a good album from Aphex Twin.

Various - DJ-Kicks: Brandt Brauer Frick

Studio !K7: 2014

Though DJ-Kicks has spotlighted DJs and producers somewhat off the beaten path, it's seldom that I draw a total blank on who's commanding the consoles. Even if they aren't immediately familiar, a quick Discogian search will reveal some information that sparks the memory synapses (oh yeah, Andrea Parker was on Mo Wax!). Such is not the case with this trio of dapper, fuzzy-faced German gents, Brandt Brauer Frick. I'm getting nothing on these guys, no appearances on familiar compilations, no namedrops from similar sounding artists, not even a whiff of recognition from locals who are all up in that European tech-haus scene. As far as my far-flung Canadian perspective goes, these guys are completely home-grown and insulated within Studio !K7's Berlin base, seldom exported beyond the eastern shores of the Atlantic. Or I could just be way out of the loop on this one. I mean, the trio have released three albums in the past half-decade, a tidy sum for any artist, and surely having generated some success as a result. Then again, considering this CD’s but a year old and already in among the discount options, just how popular can they be?

Whatever the case, I suspected I was in for something wildly eclectic upon checking out the track list (no blind leaps on this one, yo’). Twenty-eight tracks, a few familiar faces like Theo Parrish, Galaxy 2 Galaxy, Fantastic Man, and Machinedrum, plus a whole pile of new names to boot. Wee, just like the DJs themselves! As this is a three-piece group, I suspected Daniel, Jan, and Paul would go the tag-team route, showing off their various tastes of tech-haus, funky jazz, and other assorted trendy genre gobbledegook blends you’d hear out at Watergate. Hm, not so eclectic as I was led to believe, and sadly not for the better.

Despite having sections of sorts, Brandt Brauer Frick’s contribution to DJ-Kicks comes off disjointed and all over the place, and not in any esoteric mixtape sense either. The early portions go for their jazzy sound, but tracks come and go so quickly, with such jarring transitions of tempo and tone, little ever sinks in or flows. If you want to show off these cool, obscure tunes, let them breathe, got’dang it. This isn’t even a case of ancient vinyl being difficult to mix with current cuts, as nearly every track on here is from within the last few years.

Things don’t improve much once in the clubbier portion of this mix, where even a steady rhythm is denied by jumps and detours into broken beat jazz-house, quirky acid electro, and k-holed techno. There are a few clever blends and contrasts, but it doesn’t do the mix favours when the fading croon of Dean Blunt’s Galice at the end is the most memorable moments of the whole CD, only because everything prior has retreated to the cobwebbed back-corners of my cranium. Probably a better option with the vinyl sampler pack, this edition of DJ-Kicks is.

AstroPilot - Solar Walk III: Event Horizon

Altar Records: 2014

Why settle for one sequel when you can make a trilogy out of a concept? Hell, an entire franchise if one is so bold, though such projects are usually reserved for DJ mixes, not artist albums. Here we are though, now three albums deep into AstroPilot's Solar Walk endeavour, where the ambient side of Mr. Redko's muse gets to roam wild and free. And as I mentioned in the previous two Solar Walk reviews, if you prefer your trapstyle with wailing disco divas in a techno dungeon, then what the Hell are you doing looking at a psy-chill release?

Solar Walk 2 would be a difficult one to top, taking successful elements of the first and refining them into pure sonic excellence. It wouldn’t be a demerit in Dmitriy’s discography if he repeated that album – ample amounts of grand space ambient drone, with a couple outings in psy-chill’s more rhythmic styles for flavour. Heck, he might even taken the concept to a whole new level. Like, beyond the limit of our understanding in the realms of musical reality, where time and timbre have no meaning. Why, you might even call it crossing the sonic event horizon! Then again, if AstroPilot could achieve such a feat, I’m not sure how I’d be capable of listening to Solar Walk III in the first place. Should my feeble cochlea hope to comprehend of music of this calibre?

Obviously this album is nothing like that. A bit surprising though, is the fact Mr. Redko did change the format, going strictly ambient all the way through for his third constitutional across stellar photons. It’s also a different sort of ambient than to the previous Solar Walks, comparatively darker and subtle as though he’s finally succumb to what ‘proper’ space ambient should sound like. None of this massive, wall-of-synth opulence of the cosmos, but humbling respect of the impossibly vast emptiness that truly encompasses the universe.

Okay, we’re not dealing with Lustmord levels of bleakness here. AstroPilot still skilfully paints his sonic canvas with layered pads, harmonized synths, and even adds melodic moments that could serve as minor leitmotifs were this translated to the visual medium. Yet whereas Solar Walk and its sequel sold the notion of space as a place rapturous and inviting, Event Horizon firmly reminds us how limited humanity truly is in the grand scheme of things. There’s still wonders to behold, but damn if we’re gonna’ struggle to unravel them all. Titles like Millions Lights Years Away, Distant Worlds, Farscape, Whiff Of Eternity, and even Relict Emanation help sell this concept to a tee’.

As for what prompted Mr. Redko into such a drastic change in his Solar Walk project, he lists Event Horizon as something of a tribute to the ambient composers that inspired his own musical development. This includes classic names like Eno, Roach, and Boddy, to more recent ones like Biosphere, Alio Die, and ...Bad Sector? Oh man, add another producer I gotta’ dig onto The List.

Solarstone - Electronic Architecture 3

Black Hole Recordings: 2014

Ain’t no way epic, uplifting, melodic, cheesepuff trance could make a comeback, all the former heroes of the sound chasing the lucrative festival market and the awful music that comes with it, loyal fanbase be damned. Anjunabeats? Forget it. Ferry Corsten? Not really. Armin? Pft, he was never that good anyway. And yet, one name did hold out, quietly going about his business without much fanfare, steadily building a respectable reputation as one of the few, classy purveyors of a sound that defined a generation of clubbers at the turn of the millennium.

Who'd have thought the Solarcoaster guy would be the one, eh? Richard Mowatt wasn't even that busy a chap during the '00s, at least compared to your usual tastemaker within the trance scene. An album or two, a DJ mix CD here and there, but nothing to suggest he'd become the curator of a style having long thought tired and stale. Even the first Electronic Architecture, released around the same time as his album Rain Stars Eternal, didn't get that much notice as the old standard bearers still churned out their bilge. Slowly and surely though, old school fans of melodic trance noticed Solarstone was doing something different with his mixes, something respectable and, dare they say, credible in an age where trance is routinely mocked. This and his Pure Trance series have gone on as reliable mixes for those who still yearn for the early 2000s, providing fresh sounding tunes with a distinctly vintage feel.

Naturally, I was suspicious of such praise, but after the surprising turn with In Trance We Trust 020, maybe Electronic Architecture deserved a listen-hear too. I may not have much fondness for the ultra, epic, melodic, fluffball brand of trance Solarstone occasionally dabbles in, but his Balearic and chill moments are usually good. And with three CDs to work with, I felt the odds were in my favour.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad. CD2 has all the trance I just can’t care much about, and is bursting with far too many got’dang full-stop breakdowns, ruining any momentum it has going. CD1, on the other hand, goes proper Balearic for a good while, with plenty groovy prog rhythms and floating vibes throughout before ramping the energy up for a strong finish. It’s progressive trance that plays to Solarstone’s strengths without overindulging in them. Okay, technically so was the uplifting stuff on CD2, but CD1’s style more class, yo’.

Now, CD3, that was a surprise. Filled with downtempo reinterpretations of tracks off CDs 1 and 2, I wasn’t expecting much. Some pleasant ambient pad work and a trip-hop beat would have sufficed, and the first few tracks provided as such. Then things get gnarly (Razorbeam), spacey (Red Orbit), and even gloriously wide-screened (Metal Jaws). While not quite at par with Ultimae’s best (obviously), there’s some seriously epic sounding chill-out on display in this disc, almost worth the price of Electronic Architecture 3 alone. An ace first disc doesn’t hurt either.

Andrew Heath - The Silent Cartographer

Disco Gecko: 2014

In one of the great cosmic coincidences within my music collection, CDs from Simon Heath is followed upon by a CD by Andrew Heath in my alphabetical organization of album titles. I don't think they’re related. Even more coincidentally though, they both produce ambient music. Okay, given the amount of ambient I have, it's not that great a coincidence.

Plus, they're at complete opposite ends of the ambient spectrum. S. Heath makes dark, brooding ambient as Atrium Carceri and Sabled Sun, while A. Heath makes calm, meditative ambient as, um, Andrew Heath. Also, the former has quite a few releases to his various aliases, whereas the latter has very little. Lord Discogs claims Andrew floated about in ambient obscurity with Felix Jay as Aqueous, releasing a few albums in the '90s before all musical records of him disappear until very recently. Somewhere along the way, Toby Marks got wind of his music, and signed him to his Disco Gecko label. And now you know why I'm reviewing The Silent Cartographer in the here and now. Like, if Banco de Gaia reps the chap, there's gotta' be some dope transmissions coming in from Mr. Heath (no, not signals).

After taking in this album though, I'm left puzzled by the Banco bump. The Silent Cartographer is ambient at its most traditionalist, with soothing synth tones, delicate piano touches, and occasional soft percussion. The opening titular cut, running at thirteen minutes in length, harkens back to some of Pete Namlook and Dr. Atmo’s work as Silence, lazily idling along with soft pads ebbing and flowing while various field recordings come and go. There are birds chirping, water running, boats creaking, and… repair work near the end? It’s all very relaxing though, perfect meditation music if that’s your sort of thing.

And so is the rest of the album, little variation in terms of mood and tone. The Twilight World uses pad synths with more prominence as it develops, Shoreline (Found Object) has a pleasant planetarium vibe going for it, Still Point works in a little vinyl crackle for extra warmth, and The Poet’s Dream feels ‘old-school’ with some vintage synth sounds used. For the most part though, these ten minutes pieces are led by piano, and here’s where I make the inevitable Harold Budd comparison. What, were you expecting a Hybrid Leisureland one instead? Can’t be helped, Mr. Budd casting a long shadow in the ‘piano ambient’ scene. The shorter Paper Boat sounds like something right out of his work with Brian Eno in The Pearl. Say, maybe that’s why I picked up The Silent Cartographer, figuring this album would represent the historical drama I keep believing The Pearl is based upon.

Mm, no, it’s definitely because of the Banco bump. You’d think a guy known for ethnic-fusion beats would curate artists of similar ilk to his label, but maybe Toby Marks has long had an unrealized soft spot for art house ambient too. Don’t expect Mr. Heath at a Megadog reunion though.