Sacred Seeds - Migration

Neotantra: 2022

Sacred Seeds, then. He seems to exist between the extremes of my first two outings in this Ember Delays box-set. Not so prolific as D York, but not so unknown as Herne. Instead, he's built a tidy, respectable discography this past half-decade, even appearing on AstroPilot's label before landing on Neotantra. I suppose him being from India is something of a talking point, though not as much as some may think. Lots of musicians come from India [citation needed], a few even dabbling in music that would be considered 'Western' in style than anything local.

Or who knows, maybe Chennai has more European influences than I know of? My knowledge of that region of India is severely lacking – well, almost any region of India. I know about Goa, obviously, and West Bengal, and Punjab, and Mumbai and New Delhi, but mostly as points of interest, little of their ancient histories, much less their current ones. Most other places catch my eye entirely from how curious they appear to my anglophonic interpretation. Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Rajamahendravaram, Thiruvananthapuram, and Pune. All areas with interesting peoples and captivating cultures, I'm sure, just not ones I've spent time delving into, for obvious reasons. Still, given the fact Wasim Kozhikode does originate from that area thereabouts, it's surprising hearing absolutely no sounds or tonal scales associated with the Deccan Peninsula.

In fact, Migration has to be the most upbeat collection of ambient music in this collection of CDs. None of the melancholic reflection of Melancholic Gardens, or varied sound experiments of Emotional Axes, or the quiet contemplation of Geirþjófsfjörður. Instead, Migration opens with the gentle piano of Tinted Glass, sweeping synths soon emerging, followed by spritely arps and glistening bell tones. Upper astral beckoning, I wager. Follow-up Ambient Sequence 2 slows things down a little, but is no less chipper, while Delicate Leaves doesn't hold back on the twee feels. It's really gonna' be one of those albums, isn't it.

Well, Lunar Landscape allows for something a little more smooth and graceful, tranquility as enjoyed while stargazing and all that. Places Of Mind is similarly reflective, while closer Shapeless Clouds starts unassuming enough, though gradually builds into another heavenly climax. Not quite so overt as the titular track, mind you, that one's peak almost treading into garish levels of jaunty synth playing. Like Wasim is just so utterly happy seeing all these various animals passing by in mass exodus to climates more befitting for their habitual needs. Dang, even the Passing Moon looks like it has a big ol' goofy grin on its face as it bounces along the night sky.

Migration is a bit of an odd one for me. I don't necessarily dislike what I'm hearing – you'd have to be a hopelessly cynical grumpy-gus to not have some sort of smile listening to this. I guess I've just come to expect a different brand of ambient music from Neotantra, but hey, the label's proving nothing if not being remarkably diverse.

Futuregrapher - Geirþjófsfjörður

Neotantra: 2022

Have I mentioned that Árni is from Iceland? Oh, I probably have by this point, but just in case you somehow didn't catch on yet, the title of this album should be a dead giveaway. I don't even know how to say that. Hell, I don't know if even Google knows how to say that. The sound I had it make in Translate sounded more like Tongues or a record played in reverse. And when I actually tried to have Google translate the word, it just spat out the exact same one, but with less vowel accents. Does that mean this is a completely made-up word? I haven't a clue, needing an Icelandic linguist to confirm that for me.

That's always been the quirky thing about their Native language though, right? Just one of those ridiculously incomprehensible dialects with words stretching to obscene lengths. What else can give it competition? German? Hungarian? Welsh? Sanskirt? I'm sure there's plenty, but Icelandese always seems uniquely quirky too, in a mysterious sort of way. For the longest time, most folks didn't really know it had these ludicrously long words, thinking stuff like Reykjavík or Björk being the most bizarre it got.

Then a major eruption occurred on the island, the resulting ash fallout causing all manner of chaotic flight problems for a spell, such that global news organizations had to report on it. And oh man, the hilarity of seeing broadcasters attempt pronouncing Eyjafjallajökull? Glorious. Still, it also makes me wonder if Icelanders are just making shit up, creating these weird combinations of abstract consonants and squiggly vowels, just to mess with us Latin-based vocabulary speakers. It would certainly make more sense to me why Futuregrapher would title this Geirþjófsfjörður, a word that even Google has no clue what is. Having a bit of fun with those residing outside the northern isle's influence, right?

Not quite as fun is the album the word is based upon. Well, not so much 'unfun', just rather melancholic and reflective – seems to be a running theme with these CDs included within the Ember Delays Vol. 1 box-set. Even without a translation of the track titles, there's a real sense of isolation, quiet calm, yet graceful beauty in the ambient Árni has crafted here, a sort of wanderlust in exploring his Icelandic homeland in a solo trek across its landscapes.

As an album playthrough though, it's a little odd. The first four tracks are rather unique from each other: Einmanna heavy on field recordings and lonesome synth pads; Gufudalur featuring soft Berlin-School pulses and organ tones; Næturhvíld quite bright and shimmery, if at times overall atonal; Sálarflakk bringing guitar strums and soft, wooden rhythmic thumping. They all come off like appetizers though, Geirþjófsfjörður closing out with Tjaldur, a twenty-six minute long minimalist ambient outing of drawn out flutes, gently swishing water, occasional bird calls, and little else. Imagine just hanging out on a lakeside grassy knoll, your only company the fauna fluttering by.

Herne - Emotional Axes

Neotantra: 2022

In a coincidental twist, the next album within the Ember Delays Vol. 1 box-set is one that would have ended up slotted in my review queue at this point regardless. Somewhere hereabouts, at least, the combination of 'Em' surprisingly common for titling among musicians. Emotional, Emit, Emfire, Empire, Empyrean, and so on. Of course, not nearly as many variants of 'El', what with well over a dozen versions of 'Electr' and 'Element' in there (and three 'Elephants', somehow ...yes, my mind still boggles).

Dammit, and now that I've tugged at that bit of useless trivia, my wonky brain-matter is suddenly compelled to find out all the useless stats of such combinations within my music collection. How many albums start with 'Ex' or 'Im' or 'Lo' or 'Xp'. Or maybe go reverse on it, like how many don't start with 'Qu'? (zero, by the way – the answer to that one is zero). Such insatiable need to know things, especially that which serve no purpose other than filling statistical bupkis.

Well, that was a tangent, which means I either have little to talk about the music on hand, or little info regarding the artist crafting it. Definitely the latter than the former, this Herne having almost no Discoggian presence, and nothing else I can find elsewhere. In fact, about the only material he has to his name are frequent contributions to Neotantra compilations, first appearing all the way back on tʌntrə V. He made relatively steady appearances after for the next couple years, then was finally given the album go-ahead with this here Emotional Axes. Then following that, not a peep. Maybe whoever Herne is started working on other stuff under a different name, but again, no idea of that with the information I have available to me. For all I know, it's another Lee Norris side project.

Anyhow, Emotional Axes. This was a bit of an odd one, in that it started one way, then kinda' morphed into something else by album's end. Yeah, we're still dealing with ambient music, but as I hope I've made abundantly clear over the years, there's a lot of variety within the genre, even when focusing on the more subtle, calming side of things.

For instance, the first few tracks quite remind me of the sort of lowercase minimalism I frequently heard on Andrew Heath's albums. Maybe not quite as abstract, the quiet use of field recordings and simple flowing pads rather straight-forward and obvious - when a track called Concentration invokes feelings of gentle reflection, you know the artist is on point in their musical intent. Yet while the minimalism does carry through, Herne's execution starts varying as the album plays out. Some tracks start layering atonal pads into a wall of sound, while others (especially towards LP's end) abandon musicality altogether, settling into experimental bleeps and ultra-quiet dark drones. I can't say I was as fond of these pieces, somewhat ruining the tranquil mood the earlier portions of Emotional Axes offered.

D York - Melancholic Gardens

Neotantra: 2022

So I got another box-set.

The collection is called Ember Delays Vol 1, which gathered five digital albums released under the Neotantra banner, and gave them a spiffy physical upgrade. Had I ripped those individual CDs rather than download the Bandcamp version for listening purposes, where they were all bundled within the same folder, I'd be reviewing them in their orderly alphabetical sequence instead. I didn't though, hence why it'll appear we're jumping all over the place for the next week. I'm technically reviewing a compilation called Ember Delays, but unique, previously-released albums within its slim casing.

But yeah, one of the reasons I sprung for this set was for the CDs, in that Neotantra doesn't really release them anymore. Ever since the label abandoned the gradient colour cover art, it's been almost entirely digital, which I'm sure is more convenient on the expenses front (no coincidence this switch occurred right around peak pandemic years). Not that I'd be greedily gobbling up all such releases if they did – it was difficult enough keeping pace with their Phase 1 material, even with a thematic scheme that triggers one's OCD. Still, given the abundance of material Neotantra releases on the regular, it's nice having a few of them properly sitting on the CD shelves.

Interestingly, D York is one of the few artists to have a physical option from the label in recent years, with the album Airport Meditations. I assume it's a sublime slice of ambient music – the cover art certainly deserves some extra shine outside the confines of computer screens – but the chap's got a lot of material in his discography, so I've no way of confirming it's top-tier among his releases.

Yeah, Mr. York (I can't find info on his real name) has released a lot of material, mostly while in isolation during lockdown – his first album was called Covidium, in case you're wondering where his inspiration lies. Lots of long-form drone pieces, a series titled Music For Long Attention Spans being his most fruitful assortment of works. He's mostly stuck to self-release options, but got chummy with the Neotantra folks with a couple contributions to their Tantra compilations, and was finally given the go-ahead with a full-length album for them with this here Melancholic Gardens. No guesses on how this one's gonna' go.

Yeah, expect lots of languid, layered ambient synths, richly textured field recordings, reflective moods and a general sense of calm as you casually stroll through urban green spaces. The music does feel open, yet somehow constrained too, always that sense of suffocating humanity just around the corner from the naturalist setting you're currently inhabiting. Most of the tracks follow this pattern, though a couple break form: The Pines mostly focuses on gentle glass tones, digital-only Cloudburst gets a little Berlin-School towards its end. Overall though, Melancholic Gardens is about as I expect from Neotantra: lush ambient music from a label that never seems to run out of it.

Nacht Plank - Echo Ark

...txt: 2014/2022

For as much as I've talked about his labels, his collaborations, and his influence upon modern ambient techno circles in general, I sure haven't covered much of Lee Norris' solo work. Indeed, of the twenty-seven items I have tagged with his name within this blog's archives, only four are of Lee on his own. And most of those tend to be Nacht Plank items, though that's not terribly surprising as it's the alias he's most often released under. Yeah, Metamatics and Norken may have given him more early momentum, but Nacht Plank seems to be where he feels most free in his musical journeys.

And that may also be why I haven't come back to it often. Alien was an interesting album with analogue '70s weirdness going for it, but boy do I need to be in a particular mood to enjoy it. Which is more than could be said for the raw experimentation I heard on Broad Tape Band. And as for Third Sacraments Council, well, it's certainly a solid slice of hour-long ambient drone, but again, only good for particular moods (chiefly, 'sweepy beddy-bye time'). All this is to say I needed something rather particular for me to indulge in a Nacht Plank release again.

And this Echo Ark album, that certainly looked to fit the bill. Just the cover art alone, EPCOT Center as viewed through some alternate lens, already sparks so many creative possibilities. The near-naive optimism of Disneyfied retro-futurism, twisted into some abstract tonal counterpoint, a lasting legacy of human hubris in the face of a society deformed from its former glory. I'm not saying Echo Ark is all that – indeed, maybe Lee presents this album with just as much Utopian idealism as Tomorrowland always envision. Given these colour tones though, I suspect not.

Opening Shepherd Satelite is a rather tranquil start though, the analogue bleeps and bloops kept mostly to a steadying heartbeat while synth pads gently slide and glide throughout- Oh, wait, things just took a tonal shift. Now we're in weirdly ominous territory, with additional transistor chatter. Did... did something happen? Has the grand plan fallen upon hard times? Well, whatever the case, following that is a near twenty-six minute long excursion of tranquil field recording manipulations, melancholy synths, and even a little pitter-patter of rhythm burbling to the surface now and then. Aminita, the piece is called, and if it don't conjure primordial vistas as seen through some viewscreen on the Prometheus (the one orbiting Solaris, I mean), I don't know what will.

The rest of Echo Ark (three tracks averaging a dozen minutes each) play out in similar fashion: field recordings, wistful synth pad melodies, light use of experimental sounds and effects. Overall a rather pleasant outing, especially considering the more foreboding tone the second half of Shapherd Satelite suggested. I guess even Lee couldn't get quite as cynical as some do whenever talking about the overtly celebratory nature of EPCOT's future vision for mankind.

N:L:E - Dune

Liquid Frog Records: 2021

Man, everyone gettin' their Dune on d'eez days, eh? Film makers, musicians, video essayists, and the whole lot. I'd like to say I've been getting down with the Dune just as much, but I can't quite make that leap. Like, the first movie from a few years back, I was a little intrigued, but already knowing the bulk of the story, wasn't that hyped for it either. And to be perfectly blunt, Denis' take on the source material looked almost too reverential, really focusing on the world building to an almost fetishistic degree. Say what you will about the Lynch version, but that movie had some real balls in going so gonzo with set design. David firmly putting his signature on it, catch my drift? Does Villeneuve's Dune have any scene as glorious as Patrick Stewart leading a charge into battle with pug in arms? I think not!

Still, that second movie, that would be the stuff. Those story beats got massively butchered in the Lynch version due to a truncated script, but surely Denis would flesh everything out with all the extra time afforded. Wait, it doesn't feature a creepy little girl murdering the Baron? Well, geez, what's the point, then? One of the best aspects of Dune is just how fucked up the source material really is.

Admittedly, I haven't read the books, mostly digesting the lore through video essays and dense fan wikis. My hesitation comes from being unsure whether Herbert's prose can live up to the premise. I sense Dune is one of those novels that's more fascinating in its ideas and world building than it is in actual execution, and perhaps why its long been regarded as unfilmable. Well, whatever the case, I can at least rest easy understanding every Duncan Idaho meme on the internet.

Oh, wait, I'm supposed to be talking about Juan Pablo Giacovino's take with Dune, aren't I? This almost feels unfair, in that a lot of musicians have taken inspiration from Dune, and how can I possibly compare his to them all? It doesn't sound like Toto. It doesn't sound like Brian Eno. It doesn't sound like Hans Zimmer. And doesn't sound like EON. It sounds like... well, it sounds like one of his Caravan sessions, if I'm honest.

Which is fine in of itself, but doesn't really capture the inhospitable nature of Arrakis, does it? So calm, flowing, and soothing, little of the mystery and ominous feeling of wandering a dry wasteland dominated by impossibly large worms, all the while tripping your dimensional space off to spice. No, this feels more like traversing the gentle waves of fine particulate grains gracefully moving across an arid surface of a mild wind, existing between the two extremes of torturous heat and deathly cold. There is still a sense of the grand in N:L:E's ambient excursions, but more like gazing upon the environment from afar, unaware and unconcerned with the turmoil that lurks within its unique surface.

N:L:E - Docking To The New Space Station

Liquid Frog Records: 2020

Hey, remember Natural Life Essence? Boy, sure has been a while since I last talked about an album specific to this alias of Juan Pablo Giacovino. According to my stats, the last was Botanical Adventures way back in December, which, okay, maybe not that long ago, what with a month off between and all. Still, it feels like I've been focusing more on Juan Pablo's other projects than this one as of late. Except Yahgan, that one's been left out on a limb for a while now.

Oh, and I'm kinda' fibbing on dealing with a regular ol' album from N:L:E in this case, even if the title doesn't imply as such. Way back when Juan Pablo started out, he released a three-part series called Space Caravan (chap loves his caravans), which I assume helped him stand out from an overstuffed ambient market. Nothing gets fans of droning synth tones more amped than adding a little conceptualization of the cosmic grande. Wrapped, he moved onto other sonic pursuits like bio-diversity and adventures of polar peoples, generally leaving the space stuff behind. That didn't last long though, returning to Space Caravan with Docking To The New Space Station, a spiritual sequel in concept if not in title. Not much longer after that, he started an entirely new alias for any and all space ambient music on his mind, H:U:M. But that's getting ahead of things. Or reiterating points I've already made. I'm honestly losing track of all this ten months on.

Calling this an album also may be a slight fib, in that three of the five tracks are billed as remixes of the titular opener. I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes overall, but as I've heard in other releases from Juan Pablo, he isn't afraid of exploring different facets of similar themes over genre variations. Just usually those are distinguished as 'Part's or '[Alias] Remix's, not independently titled remixes in of themselves. Well, I guess he was still sussing all these things out – when one has as relentless a work rate has Mr. Giacovino has shown, things like titling conventions tend to be a little fluid.

As for the main near-fifteen minute track, it's got much of what I've come to expect out of an N:L:E Caravan session: flowing, whispery synth pads, some spritely effects sprinkled about, a little arp action building rhythmic momentum in the back-end. And I swear there's a distant woodwind sample that rather reminds me of the opening refrains you hear on many an Enigma album. The Sounds Of New Sun Mix is much the same, but features bell tones rather than arps, the Error Data Solved Mix brings in some simple rhythms, and the Short Transmission Mix is basically the Original Mix at half the length. There's also a final cut of Ending Transmission which really gets on some proper planetarium ambient vibes, just in case you were feeling well sated on all the layered whispery pad work that preceded it.

Cymphonic - Dimensionata

Databloem: 2013

Diving deep into Databloem can seem daunting. Yeah, plenty recognizable names have passed through the label's doors over the decades, but I'm talking about all the other names that have come and gone. Your Danny Kreutzfeldts, your Krzysztof Orluks, your Beta Two Agonists, and so on. Of course, you never know who might make it far in this niche business – I doubt anyone had a clue that Daniel Pemberton kid would become a player in Hollywood when he debuted on Fax+ as a teen. Still, its understandable why some artists get bypassed, never gaining the name recognition that comes with a fruitful career. Only to be rediscovered long down the road when folks start truly digging into a long-lasting label in a flurry of “How did we miss this?” excitement.

I'm not saying Stanley Swinkel's Cymphonic project is one such example, but man, listening to his final record Dimensionata, I could see it happening. He didn't release much, just a handful of items on Databloem, but if they're as interesting as this one, they gotta' be worth scoping out.

It isn't even like he's doing something revolutionary or unique with his ambient excursion here, but it's somehow quite captivating for the hour-plus time it plays through. That's not such an easy feat as you'd believe, always those moments in LP-length ambient sessions that will have your attention drifting this way or that. Does it sound like I'm praising a singular track? Yes, because that's what Dimensionata is, even though it's not.

There are separate tracks on here, eleven ranging from three to fifteen minutes in length (mostly on the shorter end). You can hear when each track starts and ends, as there will be a distinct tonal shift between them. Yet everything flows so seamlessly together, you'll swear it's all the same piece with different segments. I know the easiest comparison would be something like an old, lengthy Berlin-School jam, but even those would be structured around a singular concept. Dimensionata is somehow like that, but each segment stands unique from the other, as a skipping session clearly illustrates.

Primavera features ethereal harps and meditative chants, Weaving makes use of distant operatic voices over minimalist pads, Alignment Of Realities grows ominous with dark ambience, Dancing In Purple Light brings tranquil levity with spritely arps, and so on and so on. As described, each piece sounds perfectly fine on their own, yet I can't imagine listening to any of them outside the context of this album as a whole. Yes, that makes Dimensionata the Ace Track of this review, even though it's not a singular track in of itself.

But is it any good though? Well, if you like your ambient music subtle and full of humble grace, absolutely. Whether its a true Hidden Gem of Databloem, you'd have to ask someone who's consumed the label's entire catalogue. From what I've heard out of the print, however, it's definitely one of the more fascinating listening experiences I've had.

Canopy Of Stars - Darkness And Light

Databloem: 2022

I do wonder what Databloem's legacy is at this point. What felt sort of like a proving ground for up and coming ambient, glitch, and chill techno producers has been supplanted by many more upstarts in the decades since the label's birth (a hefty chunk managed by Lee Norris, no less). You didn't need an album on Databloem to get prominent recognition in the scene at large, but it sure was a nifty feather in the cap for many producers. Yet though their output hasn't waned by any stretch, I sense there hasn't been as much of a rush to push product out since they finally surpassed one-hundred releases (only took twenty years). They've basically proven whatever it was that Dennis Knopper set out to prove (giving Anthony Kerby a place to shine when nowhere else would? Original manifesto seems fuzzy now), so every year is another victory lap.

That don't mean some ambient folks wouldn't like having their music on the label though. Indeed for some, it may still serve as something of a big break. While by no means an utter unknown, Christian Wheeldon mostly settled on self-releasing his Canopy Of Stars material for much of the alias' early career. He did get a tune or two on some reputable compilations from Touched and ...txt, and even provided a remix for an Autumn Of Communion track. Dream Sequence was his first album out on a label not of his own making though, Databloem giving him the green light to do so (including a green coloured cover!). This here Darkness And Light is his follow-up for the label.

There's no denying we're in for a space ambient excursion with this album, but what if I told you it was some real retro space ambient? Like, '80s era space ambient? Heck, maybe even '70s style, though Mr. Wheeldon's synths are far more refined than what you'd hear out of ol' school Vangelis. Nay, I hear more of that Hearts Of Space stylee in his work, bright and shimmery as the best of Kevin Braheny could provide. And opulent, oh my God is this stuff ever overflowing with the kosmiche grande. Some tracks, like the titular cut (and longest at a dozen minutes), are almost mini-albums in themselves, going through multiple movements as though a megamix of various themes from a planetarium show.

All well and nifty for genre connoisseurs, but what pushes this album just a little extra for me are the sporadic Orbital nods. Okay, I'm probably the only one hearing little Hartnoll Brothers riffs in tracks like Mist On The Water and Shinjuku Sunset. Wouldn't surprise me if Christian had more influence from ELO than Orbital in those cases (you can sure hear it in On My Way). Either way, it gives Darkness And Light enough pizzazz keeping it from being a strict exercise in '80s space synth. And quite an exceptional body of music compared to the more minimalist stuff I recently purchased from Databloem.

H:U:M - Dark Matter

Liquid Frog Records: 2021

Back in the summer of '21, Juan Pablo Giacovino released a pair of H:U:M releases simply titled Dark Matter. Only, he didn't title each one distinctly from the other (like Dark Matter II, or such as), creating a glitch in my music library sorting. Thus both Dark Matters ended up in the same 'album' folder, despite being separate sessions.

Or maybe they were all the same session, and Mr. Giacovino sold them separately? Even though each track is numerically titled, it's clear they all flow into each other. Yes, there's a fade between them, but that's more a consequence of the annoying streaming service handicap that doesn't allow for smooth, uninterrupted playthroughs between digital files. You either offer up a single, long track, or do light fades between so they don't abruptly start or end.

And I get that this is a bit of a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation. Not everyone wants to hear a thirty-to-sixty minute session of music in one go, sometimes content skipping to preferred sections. It's the sort of feature even Pete Namlook realized was a nice point of convenience for the listener, many of his older, hour-long ambient jams broken up for easy CD indexing. That simply isn't doable with digital files though, always that micro-second gap lurking between tracks. Hence, all the fades. (note to producers: it's very annoying when that digital file fade makes its way to a CD copy, just sayin').

So I assume it went with Juan Pablo's Dark Matter session. He ended up crafting an hour-plus long piece, but figured folks wouldn't be interested in a whole outing, so split things up into ten-to-eleven minute chunks. Why split them into two separate releases though? Or maybe there was just the first one, and he carried on with another shortly after? I mean, the fade between Dark Matter 3 and Dark Matter 4 isn't so noticeable – indeed, doze and you'll miss it. And the music of Dark Matter 4, 5, and 6 is distinct enough from 1, 2, and 3 such that they could be considered two separate half-hour tracks. Why am I micro-analyzing such things anyway? I dunno', just find it interesting how artists present their art, especially in the fickle environment that is streaming services.

Anyhow, Dark Matter 1-3 is the most ambient of the lot, mostly spacious pads gently floating along for all your stargazing needs. The whispiest of effects gradually emerge in 2, while twinkling synths finally add a little rhythmic momentum in 3. If you are listening to all six parts in one shot, you'll definitely hear a tonal shift in 4, with slightly busier elements coming and going throughout 5 and 6. Oh, and be prepared for a vocal sample that will rudely knock you out of whatever state of bliss you're feeling, so abrupt and piercing compared to the general tranquility as it is. Also doesn't help it always seems to appear when you're least expecting it.

N:L:E & Kiphi - Crystal Vision

Liquid Frog Records: 2022

After kicking off my block of 'C' albums with ten volumes of Caravan Of Healing Sounds, we had to wait until the end of this batch for another item of Juan Pablo's to appear again. Technically, there's two down here, Crystal Vision and Cycle, but the latter was already covered in the consolidation collection of N:L:E and Kiphi material Between Dreams Or Reality. Well, okay, there's one other track on the Cycle single, a shorter beatless version, but doesn't warrant any more attention than what I'm providing in this sentence. The original version is better, and I've done sorted that out. Let's stick to Crystal Vision here, and worry not about redundant releases. I've plenty more music from Mr. Giacovino as it is.

Have to admit, I'm surprised at seeing another 'collaboration' between these two aliases this far into Juan Pablo's discography. I thought he'd fully kept them separate at this point, finding enough distinct characteristics with his Kiphi project (specifically looping melodic arps) such that it didn't need the N:L:E bump helping it along.

Then again, he put out another N:L:E & Kiphi joint just this past December, Lights Between. And another prior in June called Floating Orbs. Hmm, maybe he just likes releasing them around solstices? *checks month of Crystal Vision* Oh, this one came out in May. Welp, so much for that theory. Also, I know I've said it before, but good God is this man ever relentless in his output. My last proper review of one his albums, Botanical Adventures, was late December, and he's added five more releases since. That makes for thirty more releases since I bulk-bought his Bandcamp catalogue! Almost makes me thankful I did buy in when I did.

Three tracks are the main feature of this EP, with alternate versions featured in the back-half. The titular opener certainly imparts visions of shimmering crystals, pulsing bright synths and angelic flowing pads building upon each other, eventually ebbing out for a little gentle piano playing. Follow-up Lifetime ups the energy some, bringing in a simple rhythms and soaring synth work that'll have it nestled nicely within the realms of AstroPilot psy-chill. The tune fades down, and while Ilusion is billed as a separate track, it essentially carries on from Lifetime with similar music themes, going more minimalist and groovy as it does.

And the rubs? Crystal Vision [ Retouched ] brings in an ambient dub groove, Lifetime [ NLE Version ] surprisingly goes beatless (isn't N:L:E the alias with the beats?), and Ilusion [ NLE Version ] extends out with a little Tubular Bells building before going full psy-chill itself. That one at least tracks.

That's another item out of Mr. Giacovino's catalogue covered, then. Still a long way to go before finishing his discography off, but take heart, intrepid readers, there's not a whole lot in the 'D' block coming up. At least, nothing where I'll have to 'cheat' again with a bevy of microblogging recaps.

N:L:E - Caravan Of Healing Sounds

So I took a month off to 'recharge' my creative spark and all that, but to be completely honest, it was also partly in fear of dealing with this series. As committed to reviewing Every. Single. Item. in my music collection as I am, I was utterly stumped in how to approach this run of ten albums from Juan Pablo Giacovino and keep it interesting. Even all those Lucette Bourdin albums were reasonably spaced out enough such that I could approach them from a different angle each time. Spending nearly two weeks on just Natural Life Essence ambient music though? Sorry, I got nothin'. I couldn't even think of a clever 'gimmick', like guest reviewers (real or fictional) or turning the process into some fanciful flight of fictional writing. There had to be something I could do though?

Hey, what about that 'sportsing' survey thing I do on the side? Just write concise, micro-blogging length summaries of each volume after listening to them on a stroll, then consolidate them all here in one fell swoop. Yeah, that can work, and at least keep some writing momentum going during this 'downtime'. Besides, I think everyone, Juan Pablo included, would agree Caravan Of Healing Sounds doesn't need that much critical analysis given to it. It's music mostly intended for background play and relaxing thoughts, right? Um, right... 'mostly'. Turns out this series was more diverse than I thought going in, but let's see how it all shook out regardless.










And that's done and dusted. Time to move onto the rest of my 'C' albums in this blog's never ending conquest of my music consumption coverage. A letter block that includes... hrm, more Suntrip CDs, more Speedy J material, and more N:L:E items. Folks, I promise I have more variety in my 'To Review' pile further down the line!

As for my next 'sportsing' survey, I think I need something with some actual pep to it again, a tried and tested, dependable source of cock-rock music as there's ever been, a band that's always heard at every sporting event you'll ever attend. Can you hear it, the 'THUN-DAH' on the air...?

Moss Covered Technology - Brick And Air

Audiobulb Records: 2022

I've gone on about all these other endless Bandcamp discography buys and box-set purchases, yet somehow have quietly almost completed another one just like that. Right, I didn't get the totality of Mr. Baird's material, only settling for a select few. Still, the handful I did wasn't a small amount, and now that I've nearly completed those, I find myself compelled to get more, just to complete the set. The fact he makes some captivating drone pieces doesn't hurt either.

Since it was the Neotantra album Sodium Light that first drew my attention to Moss Covered Technology, it's only fitting that I scope out its pseudo-sequel Brick And Air. I call it as such not just because it was the (year in the making) follow-up to the former record, but more that they cover similar themes, in this case the rather desolate isolation of urban night. This isn't really a concept Greig typically explores, more content casting his muse towards pastoral settings and foggy coast lands. And while I'm quite drawn to such settings myself (particularly the latter), I'm always fascinated by how some interpret wandering the cold concrete of back streets and dimly lit industrial sectors that make up our cities. Burial practically made it a whole genre, and fact of the matter is many artists find themselves residing in such locales. Some make music to escape, but others take it on, grimy alley gunk and steaming machinery steel warts and all.

In typical Moss Covered Technology fashion, Brick And Air came out on a totally different label from all his other works, this time Audiobulb Records. It's another one of those experimental prints that I barely knew existed, but has been in operation for two decades - is there really no end to such labels? A couple names I'm familiar with have appeared on Audiobulb (Darren McClure, Porya Hatami, Autistici) but most are utter blanks to my eyes. Artists like Otaru, Calika, Aria Rostami, Monty Adkins, :papercutz, Hans Van Eck, He Can Jog, A Dancing Begger, The Hole Punch Generation, The OO-Ray, and Craque.

As with most M.C.T. albums, each track is self-titled, though Brick And Air does come with an Intro and Outro as well. Anyhow, though I gave a Burial namedrop up there, this is most decidedly not in that lane of urban drone. Brick & Air I is almost modern classical, through fed through quite the haze of atonal hiss and analogue fuzz. II gets more glitchy with things, while distorted tones penetrate a gritty wall of static in III. Meanwhile, IV and VI feature more glitchy melodies, but V takes a turn towards the dark ambient side of things. I could totally hear this piece being featured in a God Body Disconnect album on Cryo Chamber, with additional field recordings of inner city existence among the distant harmonious pads. Hmm, now there's an intriguing label for Greig to appear on. Why not? He's appeared on Dronarivm, as has ProtoU. Drone ambient has all the connections, man!

N:L:E - Botanical Adventures

Liquid Frog Records: 2021

You can see how these Natural Life Essence releases kinda' run into each other now, right? This is the third one I'm doing with light green cover art (forth if you want to include the album on Neotantra). All of them featured some sort of naturalistic theme (woods, wetlands, etc.) and came out all within the same year of each other.

Mind, Juan Pablo is quite relentless in his rate of output regardless. I bulk-bought his Bandcamp discography thirteen months ago and he's released an additional twenty-five items since! That's nearly two releases per month! Man, imagine if I'd waited a year to do such a deed – I'd be buried in N:LE and Kiphi and H:U:M and Yahgan, more so than I already am. And while I haven't disliked anything I've covered thus far, it can't all be mint material, can it? I dunno' about that, but considering the reason I did bulk-buy was because I couldn't decide off any particular few sampled, it would be one Hell of a ratio for an artist.

The other thing though, is after a dozen items thus reviewed, I'm starting to hear Mr. Giacovino's sonic tricks and such. And hey, that's not such a bad thing, artists having signature styles and all. If falling back on a successful formula makes it easier for him to keep the creative fires burning, that's totally fine. Unfortunately, it makes individual albums difficult to stand out from the rest, familiarity leading me to believe I've already heard certain ideas explored. I honestly thought as such as Botanical Adventures played out, but comparing it to the last N:LE item I reviewed, Bioluminescent Forest, revealed that not to be the case in the slightest. Hmm, maybe I needed to go all the way back to W:O:O:D to confirm?

I mean, you can forgive for thinking there's some mighty familiar sounds going on. Fluid Transportation has those spacious, flowing pads and dubby melodies gently growing in prominence, the sort of sound that's about as definitive N:L:E as anything I've heard. Then the beat emerges, treading similar ambient dub grooves as- no, wait, all that digital spittering and sputtering in tandem. Huh, that's new. Mind, it ain't a touch on Tipper's digital manipulations, but certainly something unique.

Still, the rest of the album plays out in typical fashion as I've come to know N:L:E albums. The calm ambient pieces that make for lovely meditation music, the ambient dub cuts bringing some rugged contrast to the gentler tracks, the multiple versions of a track showing off either side of Juan Pablo's muse, and that one outlier tracks you didn't expect, in this case drum 'n' bass! Actually, Photosynthesis just barely could be considered as such, the 2-step rhythm and bassline working in spite of itself as the rest of the track is almost too happy and chipper for the totally serious d'n'b scene. Like, imagine if Banco de Gaia did an uplifting jungle tune.

N:L:E & Kiphi - Blurred Milkyway

Liquid Frog Records: 2021

Juan Pablo may have set up a specific alias in H:U:M to explore the space music side of his muse, but he wasn't quite there yet when he released this. Only one month away, in fact. Not that this was the first time he set his sonic sights to the outer cosmos, the three part Space Caravan series making up a tidy chunk of the early Natural Life Essence discography and all. This was his first return to something specifically spacey though, and I'm assuming after completing this three track single, Mr. Giacovino realized, yep, he's got more in the tank for this style of sound, so lets create a whole new alias for it.

I also kinda' 'hummed' and hawed about even doing this one. I've got a lot of Liquid Frog Records material now, maybe even more than Suntrip or Cryo Chamber (!!). Do I need to cover everything? Not really, especially if they're single-song releases. There may even be items down the line which are just re-uploads of prior material, as I've discovered with some of these N:LE & Kiphi tracks. Plus, I've already established a release has to be at least twenty minutes long for me to consider it a proper item worth review, right? Eh, you say I've already broken that rule? Oh, right, that Daniel Pemberton Silent Sky thing... that was barely ten minutes long. Okay, fine, ten minutes is the absolute minimum ...which Blurred Milkyway easily breaches. Ah well.

Actually, this one lasts nearly half an hour, with two versions of the main track, and a lengthier ambient 'b-side' in Deep Breath. Not that the original Blurred Milkyway wasn't ambient in of itself, but as this is partially a Kiphi joint as well, that means we get some nice, rhythmic synth arps joining in on the flowing pads and shimmering sprinkles of spritely synths. Deep Breath is basically the same, but stretched out to a languid pace, the Kiphi arps in no hurry to move along. Much like when actually watching the Milky Way move across the night sky.

If you find yourself in need of picking up the pace (it's not like the universe will last forever or anything), the Fast Star Mix adds a beat. Okay, it's about as slow as a prog-psy rhythm gets, momentum not much brisker than the original Blurred Milkyway. It's also rather deeper than the main cut, lacking the flair of twinkling synths, which really sells that feeling of being lost in the gaze of the darkest portions of our galaxy.

Speaking of, I cannot deny some envy of Juan Pablo's perspective in star gazing. Alpha Centauri, the Southern Cross, the Magellan Clouds, Eta Carinae, Omega Centauri, the Coalsack Nebula... so many object I've never had a chance to see, forever in his night sky. I know, I know, I should just make a trip to the Southern Hemisphere if I really want to see them. I still am overdue for that Kerguelen Island voyage...

Solar Fields - Blue

Droneform Records/Sidereal: 2014/2018

I made a big hullabaloo about having two 'beyond' albums in a row, but let's be honest here: I have far more 'black's and 'blue's. And why not, artists always eagre in finding ways of combining sensory input such as sight and sound. It's easy for us to associate certain colours with types of music, especially when something goes 'darker' and such as. Lordy, for 'blue' alone, I have Blue Lines, Blue Mountain, Blue Planet, Bluenote Cafe, The Blueprint EP (spoiler!), bleu, and Blumenkraft. Oh, and Solar Fields' Blue Moon Station, that one too. Hay, guess what song's on this compilation!

Yep, it's finally time to wrap up another box-set, the quite small yet somehow long gestating three-CD collection of Red / Green / Blue. Which I, naturally, reviewed out of order, though at least the Blue CD came last. Good thing I didn't start this from my usual alphabetical placement, eh? Throw everything into utter chaos, everything I says!

If you've forgotten what this coloured series from Magnus is about, they're essentially round-ups of all his wayward tracks, singles, and remixes as found on various label compilations, primarily from his '00s body of work. Considering he managed to gather three album's worth of material is a testament to his relentless work-rate throughout that decade but to be honest, it feels like Mr. Birgersson was stretching things to fit the concept to meet Blue's quota. For instance, that track I mentioned two paragraphs above? Yeah, there's an alternate version of it on here, but rather subdued compared to the grandiosity as heard on Blue Moon Station proper. It's fine as is, just can't stand toe-to-toe should you feel inclined to compare.

And that's the impression I get with most of Blue. Granted, I've been so got'dang spoiled by Solar Fields over the year that even what I might find 'mediocre' is still downright brilliant when stacked against the yearly bilge. Good Times? Such a deep, groovy slice of world beat and psy chill. Just, y'know, I've heard similar stuff from the man before. Water Silence? Oh yeah, that's a dope tune, but that was on Ultimae Records' Fahrenheit Project Part Five: aka: the one with so much amazing music, Solar Fields actually sounded ordinary on it!

Okay, let's get some neat/interesting stuff out of the way. The opening track, Life: where's this from? Lord Discogs seems to have no record of this chipper world beat tune existing elsewhere. Closer In Motion (Good Morning Edit): ah, good ol' prog-psy Solar Fields, gotta' love those slow, considered builds. Small Little Green Cubes: vintage opulent Magnus, and classy of him offering it to help kick off the Electrik Dream Records print. And finally, a remix of Cloud-Kingdom by Filteria, which really had me thinking Solar Fields was going a little synthwave at the start, before getting back to typical psy-chill territory. Still, that name, Filteria, seems familiar to me somehow. Let me check on Discogs a moment to... Oh son of a...!

N:L:E - Bioluminescent Forest

Liquid Frog Records: 2020

When I think of a 'bioluminescent forest', I think of the out-wordly foliage of those Avatar movies. Which, y'know, makes one-hundred percent sense, since the alien world of Pandora does feature all manner of indigenous fauna that glows in the dark. It's like James Cameron wandered the woods of an outdoor psy trance party and thought, “This, but naturally grown.” Come to think of it, ol' Jim's been fascinated by bioluminosity since at least The Abyss, a movie featuring an entire underwater realm of beings bespeckled in shimmering lights emitting from their metabolisms. I'm sure its his motivating factor in all those deep sea dives, hoping to stumble upon a true Atlantian civilization hidden within oceanic depths so far uncharted. Eh, we've done an adequate job surveying the abyssal plain thus far – ain't much down there after all.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Bioluminescent Forest. I bring all that Avatar business up because the Pandora forests are what I associate with such a title. Why, then, is the cover art of Natural Life Essence's album so drab and grey? I mean, it's a nice picture of a meadow at dawn, but hardly a forest, much less of a bioluminescent variety. Then again, there aren't any naturally occurring plants that glow in the dark as it is, so it would be a heavy ask for Juan Pablo providing cover art of such a thing. Plus, given the track names of this album, the cover art does make more sense. One doesn't think of shimmering lights when reading titles like Cold Thick Fog, Night, and Rainy Day. Methinks the theme may be a bit muddled here.

The first half at least sets out as it means to, The Autumn Ritual opening with some nice field recordings before settling into a nice, dubby jaunt of glittering synths and groovy rhythms. I wouldn't call this psy dub, but it does remind me some of Sync24's works, just without the added acid. Follow-up Tree Reunion slows things down, even invoking some Amazonian rain-forest vibes ...a vibe I just realized has been noticeably absent from Mr. Giacovino's work considering he resides in South America. True, Argentina ain't equatorial, but y'know what I mean.

Anyhow, as the album plays out, I can't help but feel we're mostly exploring similar ideas over various styles. The three-track run of Night, And, and Day lasts well over thirty-five minutes, and is practically the same musical piece, just progressively more minimalist and ambient. It's neat after a fashion, but rather feels out of place among all the other tracks, especially since the almost chipper reggae-dub of Cold Thick Fog precedes it. More than that though, many of the backing, whispery synth pads sound like they're in the same key, leading to the whole album sounding rather samey throughout. Still, hearing the gentle pitter-patter of percipitation in closer Rainy Day as gentle synths bip and bop about, how can I have negative thoughts about Bioluimiscent Forest? I simply cannot.

N:L:E & Kiphi - Between Dreams Or Reality

Liquid Frog Records: 2020

And now we're introduced to Mr. Giacovino's trance alias, Kiphi! Okay, I use the word 'trance' very loosely here, as there's little on this album that could be considered full-bore club trance or flailing under the stars psy trance. Maybe its more prominent on the 'solo' Kiphi albums, of which there's a handful, but from the few samples I've taken in, it doesn't seem so. Rather, Kiphi is the alias Juan Pablo uses when he makes music with synthy arps and multi-tap delays, tricks of the trance trade for sure, but also quite common in spritely ambient techno and atmospheric Berlin School (and, er, some New Age too). Trance-inducing, yeah, but not really trance.

It also seems he wasn't terribly certain this alternate alias could stand on its own, hitching it to Natural Life Essence for the bulk of its initial run. In fact, if Bandcamp release dates are anything to go by (and it's about the only thing I have to go by on chronological data), this particular album was more a compilation of prior singles, soon after followed by a proper solo Kiphi album called Eternal Molecule. Wait, does this mean I can skip on Random Touch, Twilight and Cycle down the line? I mean, if it's just the same tracks as appearing on this here Between Dreams Or Reality, it'd be highly redundant on my part to review them again, right?

Well, there is a slight difference with Twilight and Cycle, in that only one version from each of those appears here. Cycle is the older of the two, indeed the first N:L:E & Kiphi item released. And as mentioned, it's a pulsing ambient piece with synthy arps and chord progression that wouldn't sound out of place in a pumping trance tune. Much of it fades back for a more prominent melodic lead before heading into a synthy crescendo. Cool stuff, and certainly better than the Ambient Reform version which seems to take the peak and break it up with drone intermissions. Interestingly, Juan Pablo grabs the Panoramic Mix of Twilight rather than the original version for this album, which isn't much different beyond the spritely, bouncing synths getting more focus. Meanwhile, both tracks from Random Touch - Guide Star and Random Touch - make the cut for Between Dreams Or Reality. One's more Berlin School in its opulent synth work, even throwing in some rhythms, while the other is way more chill.

*phew* That's almost the entirety of Between Dreams Or Reality discussed, and I haven't even touched upon the titular track yet. Tracks, actually, as two versions bookend this album, the opener a more upbeat version, the closer a blissier option. The only other track I can tell is unique to here is Kindred Spirit, which is about as close to the realms of trance as Kiphi gets. More prog-psy, I guess. Will be interested to hear whether such a groovy vibe appears in any future Kiphi items, as Mr. Giacovino is more than adept at it.

Sphäre Sechs - Beta Pictoris

Cryo Chamber: 2021

Silent Universe may be my go-to cosmic drone artist, but this project from Misters Stritzel and Stürtzer definitely intrigued me enough to scope out future releases, should they release more. A few more since Particle Void, their debut on Cryo Chamber, yes. Heck, I may even go back to their Malignant Records material – that Enceladus record looks intriguing, a glimmering pearl among all the sonic filth and industrial decay that makes up that label's existence. With such charming artists like Dissecting Table, Steel Hook Prostheses, Sewer Goddess, The Vomit Arsonist, Teeth Engraved With The Names Of The Dead, and Gnawed, how could one resist?

Sphäre Sechs felt different though. Yeah, they still indulged in the dark and the bleak, but there was a calming undercurrent beneath their drones too. Like, the stillness of a desolate realm easing one's chaotic thoughts into perfect serenity. Okay, so that serenity comes at the cost of the living, but hey, if you're experiencing serenity, then you're experiencing conscious thought, and therefore you must be alive, right? Ah, cosmology and existentialism, forever intertwined.

So while I'm all for hearing dark ambient relishing in extra-solar emptiness, I was hoping for something a little more, well, warm out of Beta Pictoris. For one thing, the cover art isn't so cold as most Cryo ambient can go, blazing orange and all. Granted, whatever space phenomenon is occuring in the background can't be healthy for one's DNA structure, but as any astrophysicist well tell you, the redder a cosmic body is, the 'cooler' it generally is – blue is the hotter, deadlier objects, yo'. Also, there's a space station in the foreground, perhaps a research facility studying whatever the phenomenon is. Or did it just appear out of nowhere, threatening its inhabitants? Whatever the case, it suggests some sort of story behind the scenery, and narrative-driven dark ambient is always more fascinating to indulge than strict sonic drone for its own sake.

And yeah, there's only a hinted such story here, but I'm running with it. The first few tracks, while not necessarily 'warm', certainly impart a sense of the grand, the sort of space ambient that lets you just sit in awe of all that lays beyond. Planetesimal Debris may sound forlorn in the destruction of what once was, yet there's grace and beauty in the floating bodies against a cosmic backdrop too. Things only grow tense by fourth track Collapsing Cloud, as though eminent danger looms, even if our feeble monkey brains have no comprehension as to why. In fact, follow-up Infrared Emission suggests we're positively enraptured by what we're witnessing. Should we not be staring to transfixed by the destructive elegance before us? Perhaps not, as concluding Exosolar and Unstable Orbit imply a not-so gentle end for our viewpoint characters.

Yeah, I liked Beta Pictoris a great deal. It continues Cryo Chambers dabblings in ambient that doesn't go so dark as often, but leaves enough room for the macabre twist ending.

N:L:E & Yahgan - Antarctica

Liquid Frog Records: 2022

What, you thought I was done with Mr. Giacovino? It's only been two months since I last talked him up, a not-insignificant gap of time for sure, but not so long as to grow forgetful. I only just started this discography back in early June, and we've a long way to go indeed before finishing it off. Hell, that Lucette Bourdin box-set took nearly two years to complete, so ain't no way we're wrapping up Natural Life Essence and all his various aliases in due haste. There will just be alphabetically imposed lean times, is all, just as I'm sure there will be with all those Suntrip CDs. I'm sure...

This particular release has a little something extra to talk about though, in that it features both N:L:E and Yahgan, Juan Pablo's project that references the peoples native to the southernmost tip of South America. Naturally, music with a more frigid, arctic theme tends to follow this handle, but sometimes you gotta' get in a little extra pep with those vibes – keep the toes toasty with the tap-dancing, and whatnot. At least, that's what I assume is going on in combining the two projects for this release: a typical N:L:E jam-out, but with something thematically colder than his usual assortment of earthly sounds. I feel like we're cutting the differences between all of Mr. Giacovino's projects down to the slimmest of margins here.

I can't deny having some difficulty discerning the difference between N:L:E and Yahgan with these lengthy pieces. Antarctica features two twenty-minute plus tracks, and a 'bonus' cut of ten-minutes. The first, Antarctic Sun, does capture the feeling of a brightening dawn emerging over a frozen wasteland, chilly pads and glistening synths sparkling layer upon layer. With plenty of time to stretch things out, the piece is well past half-over before a dubby bassline and soft rhythm joins the chill party. Beyond some backing pads growing more prominent, however, Antarctic Sun doesn't really shoot for a rousing climax. Would seem out of place for such a generally tranquil track.

By contrast, Glacial Night keeps things strictly on the down-low and mysterious, the only hint of rhythm being sparse synth heartbeats. While there are similar elements at play as in Antarctic Sun, they're performed so subtly, it truly does impart a feeling of being locked in eternal night. Right, we're not talking dark ambient levels of dread, the shimmering nature of Juan Pablo's music providing too much relative bliss. Think more the twinkling of southern stars, or glistening ice on iceberg-clogged waters. There is a build of rhythm towards the end of Glacial Night, as though the long twilight is coming to an end, but doesn't amount to much on the whole.

Speaking of icebergs, Wandering Icebergs (Hypnotic Trip Mix) closes this album out, though it's just more of the same lengthy, loopy ambient pulses we've heard already, with some added echo and field recordings for flavour. It's fine, just feels like the 'bonus track' its designated as.