Rainbow Vector - This Way

Spiritech: 2012

I should have known this when I started this mini-dig of Spiritech's discography – any tiny bit of 'journalistic investigating' would have unearthed it. Hell, if I'd just started with this particular CD instead of succumbing to my alphabetical OCD, I'd have the facts staring right in my face-hole, liner notes explaining things plain as day. But no, I gotta' do things my way (in my time, my ti-i-i-ime!), out of logical, chronological order. Thus, what under normal circumstances should have been the first CD I reviewed from Spiritech's catalogue ends up being the last.

Within the liner notes of This Way, a blurb informs that the players behind Rainbow Vector – Alireza Zaifnejad (BlueBliss, who you may know from Ovnimoon Records and Altar Records) and Albert Borkent (Lingua Lustra himself) – met over Soundcloud, shared some ideas, shared some sounds, and realized they should make them available over the cloud. Or Bandcamp at least, and hey, why not make their efforts the inaugural CD on their new label? What struck me about this knowledge is that Lingua Lustra had already been releasing music through Soundcloud for some time, which would explain why so much of his stuff on Bandcamp is offered as free downloads as well. Makes sense, not requesting monies for music that was already free in the first place. It's not a huge revelation, but does clear up a factoid I didn't know in the first place. Yay discovery!

So Rainbow Vector, the combination of a psy-chill guy and a noodly ambient guy: what could go wrong? A lot, but nothing did in this instance, so that's good. Depending on the track, each producer's style will generally dominates over the other's. For instance, shorter pieces like Nexus, Glass Onion, Aqueous, and Lemniskating go more the psy-chill route, including groovy rhythms complementing the spaced-out synths and pads. It honestly reminds me of early Ultimae, which shouldn't be a surprise since BlueBliss ran in similar circles from that era (oh hai, Altar!).

The other bulk of tracks lean towards Lingua Lustra's lane of lengthy ambient outings. Sometimes they'll do the widescreen layers of sound (Newsflash, Flower Of Life), or a simmering, glitchy drone (Raybow), but mostly stick to the minimalist stuff with dubby field recordings and distant harmonies (Light Circle, Spiral Time). It sounds nice and all, as I'd expect with the players involved, but the track sequencing kind of buggers the album experience.

This Way opens with Newsflash, eleven minutes of loud, provocative sonics, before easing us into the psy-chill stuff for a bit. Then a huge stretch of the album's taken up by the ambient material, music that's fine in of itself but totally derails whatever momentum the earlier tracks provided. It honestly makes getting to the remaining, shorter psy-chill tunes a challenge, a feeling like This Way should have wrapped up well before the end. It's never a good idea putting your longest, calmest tracks smack in the middle of an album. Ah well.

Various - Quinq

Spiritech: 2017

Just how insane is the alphabetical backlog I'm currently trudging through? This is my second 'Q' album in a row. You might recall that I only added a second 'Q' album to my entire collection just last year. This backlog has effectively doubled the quantity of something that previously took up ~0.13% of all the music I have. I've quite often gone on about “The Odds!” and whatnot, but this... this beats all, y'know? I didn't think there were enough 'Q' albums in my very specific niche of musical interests to make this happen – no must-have classics that I can think of at least. Plenty of producers, though.

Quinq was intended as the five year anniversary for Lingua Lustra's tiny yet robust digital label Spiritech. Not only a celebration of staying afloat in an overcrowded ambient market, but a statement of intent to keep the fire burning for as long as possible! Quinq is also apparently Spiritech's final official release, the label discontinuing operations almost right after it came out. Aw, now where will Lingua Lustra flood the market in perpetuity? Everywhere else, that's where! Seriously though, it's a shame they pulled the plug when they did, having just ventured into the demanding domain of physical production. Ah well, at least there's still their Bandcamp page, and its nearly eighty offerings. Not a bad five year run, that.

As per label anniversary rules, Quinq rounds up artists past and present as a showcase of the print's various talents, featuring fresh tunes unused in prior releases. At least, I assume they're unreleased, almost none of these tracks appearing in Lord Discogs' archives. Then again, nearly half of Spiritech's full discography remains unsubmitted to The Lord That Knows All – heck, I've uploaded these past few reviewed items myself. You'd think someone at Spiritech HQ would have been on the ball about that, but I guess Mr. Lustra had better things to do, like making his eighty-zillionth ambient piece.

You think I'm exaggerating, but four of the nine tracks on Quinq come care of ol' Albert Borkent. I guess it's appropriate, seeing as how he made up approximately 77% of Spiritech's output. Interestingly, they're all lumped at the end of the compilation, as though he's letting the other artists have some shine before taking us out with his usual, skillful ambient. Yeah, his music remains kinda' noodly and leans heavily on classic approaches to the genre, but is never boring, with enough field recording touches and dubby treatments keeping you engaged.

Still, I've heard more than plenty from him, thus it's the other artists that pique my interest. Olexa's Lyrical Love has shades of psy-dub, State Azure 's Mono has a chill trance vibe going for it, Ascendant's Sursamen treads into ambient techno's waters, while Data Rebel and Snufmumriko do their own droning ambient takes. Definitely want to check these guys out further. Might even break my 'Buying MP3s Iz Bad' rule to do so.

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.

Lingua Lustra - Spaces

Spiritech: 2016

I could have reviewed this a couple months ago, when going through the previous alphabetical backlog. Spaces initially found itself in my library as a download earlier this year, perhaps as a short-term free giveaway from Lingua Lustra's Bandcamp. He has quite a few of those available, though mostly all singles and EPs, not full-length albums. Spaces falls into the latter camp, but there's no way I paid money just for a download. I've forever refused buying digital if a physical option is available. *Always Sunny In Philadelphia theme starts playing*...

No, wait, there's a logical reason for having a CD of this! See, Spaces comes care of Spiritech, a short-lived label helmed by Alireza Zaifnejad (BlueBliss) and Albert Borkent; aka: Lingua Lustra. Mostly dealing with digital, Spiritech started dabbling in CD options this past year, including a 4CD deal of their four latest albums. Spaces was among those, and I thought to myself, “Well, I already have the digital version, I may as well include it in my standard backlog in anticipation of getting the CD.” And while I did listen to this in that batch, I didn't want to 'cheat' reviewing it without first having the physical copy on hand (why do I make things needlessly convoluted!?). For some reason though, the CD order took a long time arriving, over two-months – wasn't Spiritech situation in Saskatchewan? I know we make our 'hicksville' jokes about the province here on the West Coast, but seriously? I can only assume these CDs came from Mr. Borkent's own stash in Europe, what with the label folding and all (more on that later).

Naturally, I'm going on and on (beyond the halcyon) about pointless info because I'm left with Yet Another Ambient Album With Little To Detail. Spaces contains only three tracks, each nearly doubling the length of the previous one. Opener Ruin runs about seven minutes, follow-up Eden hovers around twelve and a half, while final cut Source stretches out to the twenty-six mark. That's actually an interesting concept worth exploring, if you're into technical aspects of music compositions – studies in time signatures, hidden messages in song durations, and the like. It's all a little wanky to my sensibilities, but props to those who dedicate their skills to it. It's like a painter who uses difficult techniques creating a portrait that anyone with rudimentary ability could accomplish. Or maybe not, I dunno' - my knowledge of painting is pathetic. Oh, and I kinda' doubt the whole 'escalating track duration' thing was intentional on Lingua Lustra's part, since these pieces aren't perfectly trimmed to accommodate the concept. Just a curious coincidence.

And the music itself? Ruin is ultra-minimalist with electromagnetic drone, soft pulses, and emergent field recordings. Eden does the bright, layered synth pad drone thing. Source is practically devoid of sound, subtle bleepy electronics, impossibly distant pads, and gentle washes of white noise static leaving plenty of open spaces for a wandering mind. Fits the album theme, that's for sure.