Kraftwelt - Retroish

Hypnotic: 1998

I’d be first in line piping up the group that started as Audio Science never got their due, though I can’t say they’ve had an unsuccessful career either. To this day they’ve kept busy, mostly operating as a remix group called Patchworkz, providing rubs to some of dance-pops more notable names (Billy Ray Martin, Camille Jones, Ida Corr). Meanwhile, as Merv, they released a smattering of singles that fit quite snuggly within the early German dub techno domain that Basic Channel outright dominated, and continue using the alias for DJ mixes. Then there’s Kraftwelt, a project that almost certainly started out as nothing more than adding a few additional tracks to Cleopatra’s Tribute To Kraftwerk CD, but got a significant mileage with afterwards. Too much, in fact, as it’s clear by this second album of Kraftwelt material the ideas had worn thin.

The first one, Electric Dimension, was about as solid an ‘electro album by way of Kraftwerk in the ‘90s’ could have been, considering the genre was practically dead mid-decade. The electro revival was still a few years off, and even though a few outlier acts were found making the stuff, fewer gave it much heed. A deliberate throwback though? Sure, why not, there had to be a few folks feeling the early pangs of retro in their soul – an escape from big funky beats and bangin’ rave techno-trance. Bring back the original German robots, yo’.

And they did, but that’s for another review. Instead, I’m talking about the follow-up to Electric Dimension, Retroish. The album kicks off promisingly enough, the titular cut featuring plucky hooks, a bare-bones 808 break, and enveloping bassline as heard in an huge, empty robot factory. There’s even a little warbly solo that sounds like it was performed on an old, unkempt Moog, about as retro as anything could sound in 1998.

Following that, however, Kraftwelt settle into a schizophrenic game of not knowing whether they want to go proper techno or remain retro electro. It’s as though the group is lost in a transitional year between the two, sounding a bit of both but not committed enough to the other for things to work. It’s no surprise the best tunes - Metro, Centershade, Beautybox, The Eighth Approach, Au Revoir - remain firmly in the era Kraftwelt are drawing influence from, though even some of those are kinda’ chintzy. Okay, Beautybox gets away with it, only because it’s got such a silly, happy rhythm going for it.

Compared to Electric Dimension though, these sound like leftovers from those sessions, rounded out by some of the group’s techno tracks given the ‘Kraftwelt aesthetic’. Quite a few of these tunes - Slipstream, Back Seat, Rush - would have sounded brilliant in the year 1988, when Detroit was forging ahead from electro of old and creating its own, unique brand of electronic music. Unfortunately for Kraftwelt’s Retroish, the year is not ’88, but rather ’98, and sounding out of time in the here and now.

Escape - The Futurescape

Ambient World: 1994/2011

Just when I thought I’d escaped all things Namlookian for a while, I get pulled right back in, ironically with a CD from his project Escape. Fortunately, we’re dealing with the proper thing in this review, an original album from ye' olden days of Mr. Kaulmann's career …sort of. The original-original self-titled Escape album was a two-disc affair, gathering tracks off the four Escape EPs onto one CD, and the other dedicated to an original composition titled The Futurescape. Fax +49-69/450464 being Fax +49-69/450464, only one-thousand copies of the CD were issued and was soon out of print, but hey, that’s why the sub-label Ambient World was established early on, offering reissues of high-demand FAX albums. Erm, I guess Escape wasn’t terribly high in demand, as this particular CD didn’t come out until 2011, way late in Ambient World’s lifespan (and also now defunct with all other FAX sub-labels).

Can't blame folks for the alias' obscurity though, as Escape is often overshadowed by Namlook and Dr. Atmo's other collaborative project, Silence. That one was where all the big ambient epics came about, whereas Escape often played the safe bet in attaching hard trance and acid to its name. There were a couple decent cuts from those efforts (Escape To Neptune's still a blinder of a trip), but as nearly every German with a TB-303 was making trance in those days, quickly got lost in the glut despite providing ambient versions on the B-sides. After that, ol' Peter and the Doctor continued focusing on Silence whenever they hooked up, Escape and its album relegated to a mere footnote in the FAX discography. Its remarkable Ambient World even got around to a reissue for the project then.

As for The Futurescape, this isn't a strict reissue of the original self-titled Escape double-discer – no way old hard trance makes a lick a sense on a label called Ambient World. Neither is it a re-packing of that second CD either, since there were enough tracks on the experimental downbeat warranting another listen. Thus we have a condensed version, keeping the two biggest 'hits' under the Escape banner (Trip To Mars and Trip From Mars), an extended excerpt of Atmospheric Processor (ambient version of Escape To Neptune), and most of The Futurescape intact (about four minutes of ultra-minimalist drone from the opening cut out, thank God).

The Mars tracks are mostly dark drones with little splashes of sound echoing about. The only difference between the two is To plays forward, and From plays backwards. Atmosphere Processor pulls the same trick too, though has more rhythm going for it. As for The Futurescape, it’s a lengthy, moody affair, befitting the sci-fi theme most Escape tracks had. Sometimes it drones about with eerie samples, other times a bit of acid rhythm emerges, and other parts feature a brisk, soft techno beat guiding things along. And repeats. A lot. Honestly, it’s not a classic by FAX standards, but worth a listen if you’re digging deeper into Namlook’s discography.

Nick Höppner - Folk

Ostgut Ton: 2015

Mark Knopfler is a very important person in the world of rock music. Having cemented his legacy with the Dire Straits (Money For Nothing, Sultans Of Swing, many more), he's forged ahead with a solid solo career too. Argh, I'm doing it again! Every time I see Nick Höppner’s name, my brain tricks me into registering it as ‘Mark Knopfler’. There's a few similarities between the two, but not so much I should be suffering from whatever this short-cut cognitive response is called (help me out, psychologists reading this by happenstance!). My only answer to this mystery is that ol' Nick is such a new name in music to my eyes that my brain can't help but think this letter arrangement is associated with one I’ve longer familiarity with. So, Mr. Höppner, if you're reading this, get making more music pronto, and expunge Mr. Knopfler from my grey matter. Or, you know, because you make some darn fine tunes too.

This may be my first exposure to his name, but Höppner’s been active in the Berlin-based DJ for some time now. Along with Lee Jones and Carsten Klemann, he saw some success in the last half of the ‘00s as My My, releasing deep house, tech-house, and minimal deep-tech house, because of course. Jones and Höppner have since settled into solo careers, with ol’ Nick finding a home at Ostgut Ton, mostly falling lock-step with their brand of bunker techno and house. It comes with some surprise then, that his debut album Folk has a remarkable amount of melody in it. Why, some of it could even be-

Okay, probably not, but with plenty of hypnotic groove, gated synths, and flowing pad work, you can’t blame a guy for getting a ‘tee-are’ vibe on this one. There’s been a fair bit of techno getting in touch with its lighter side this decade, undoubtedly thanks to the almighty power of retro when the genre was comfortable with fun future-funk as it was painting dystopias. With cover art as chintzy as Folk’s, you can tell Mr. Höppner didn’t want his first LP an are serious techno outing, though he does allow for some menace in the thumping Grind Show.

Instead, Paws shuffles with a subdued shimmering synth line, Mirror Image has a charming, gaudy lounge vibe, Airway Management cruises high altitudes with broken beats, and Rising Overheads has no shame in reaching for those lasers. Elsewhere Mr. Höppner goes to his breaded butter of tech-house on the deeper side (Relate, No Stealing, Come Closer), though even these often float on blissy, Balearic pads. The only cut on Folk that goes for the tough, warehouse business is Out Of, which adds some welcome spice to an otherwise mellow album.

Even if you’re not in the market for tech-house, I recommend giving Nick Höppner’s first LP a go. There’s much to enjoy within its tidy nine-track runtime, and is a far better electronic album than Mark Knopfler would make.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD8)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

And finally we've come to the end of Die Welt Ist Klang. Not as bad of a slog as I feared going in. Heck, I wouldn't mind returning to a few of these CDs in another week or two after letting them sit fallow from my memory. Can't say that for many other box sets I own, much less collections of music running near the one-hundred mark (I haven’t played anything from The Electro Compendium since January 2013, and I like electro!). It's just too much for this soul to take, and my mind boggles at the thought of super-hardcore fans subsisting of nothing but FAX material. There's a reason Pete Namlook's label dwindled in prominence as the years went on – many ears were more than sated even by the turn of the century.

Yet, despite so many artists contributing to Carpe Sonum's epic turbo-hyper tribute, I must list a few names I'm disappointed didn't show up. Call it a sense of completion even on something as comprehensive as this box set. Here we go... Mixmaster Morris. Klaus Schulze. Uwe Schmidt. Christian Thier. Pussylover. Aphex Twin. Brian Eno. Steve Roach. Alex Paterson. Kraftwerk. Jimmy Cauty. Banco de Gaia. Phil Wilde. Neil F’n Young. Anyone from Ultimae. Anyone from Nashville, Tennessee. A humpback whale. Okay, some of these are just wishful thinking, but imagine the possibilities, eh? I'm sure Mr. Kaulmann would have encouraged you to.

Enough of that. After seven CDs of ambient, ambient techno, chill-out breaks, and a little trance too, what sort of music will Carpe Sonum take us out with for the final disc? By going back to ambient it seems, though more of an old-school flavour than CD5 went. After all, CD4 had all the outlier genres, and as the back-half of Die Welt Ist Klang is intended to mirror the front-half, it’s only natural for CD8 to get a little Berlin-Schoolie on our ears. There’s even an air of modern classical with Mass Roman’s Everyone Has It Now and Ceder’s Moog model D aC final (live take #6). No jazz, though.

I must admit many of these tracks have me thinking of many older acts. Metasonica’s Eternal Return sounds like its getting its mojo from Enigma. Terra Ambient’s Unfertig ohne Sie feels more appropriate for a New Age shop (though a tasteful one). Boreal Taiga & 3Music’s Piap-Bai could be a handy contribution to that Twin Peaks relaunch. The Garwin Project’s Solar is so Pink Floyd, I totally see Dick Perry in the studio despite the lack of a saxophone solo.

And then there are the final two tracks. After eighty-nine pieces of music, these have to be your money shot, the lasting impression of a Pete Namlook tribute. The second-to-last goes to James Lewin, an unknown to Lord Discog’s mighty well of knowledge, providing a minimalist, haunting piece of drone. It’s followed by Stormloop’s Snowdrift, where twelve minutes of widescreen ambient pads and synth washes shimmer and cascade like you’re in... well, y’know.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD7)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

Seven discs in, and one thing’s remarkably never faltered throughout this whole box-set: music quality. I’d expect nothing less from the first half, where musicians with tons of experience and skill made up the bulk – even the weird, abstract ones were interesting on a conceptual level. I won’t deny having some hesitation before diving into this back-half though, what with so many unfamiliar names to my eyes. When further sleuthing of Die Welt Ist Klang revealed a number of these acts were contributing music for the first time (as Lord Discogs has decreed), I suspected some dip in craftsmanship had to arise. Yet here we are, CD seven of eight, and nary a drop. This consistently high quality of music wasn’t some fluke of chance with submissions though; rather, it was culled by way of voting, with the crème of the crop arriving at the top. Can’t find much fault with that process. Maybe a bit too ‘homage’ compared to the originality of the first four discs, but then that’s the point of these last four discs anyway, so no blame.

That all said, I must admit the ‘listening fatigue’ did start settling in by CD7. It isn’t as bad as I suffered with The Electro Compendium - after seventy tracks of nothing but sinister electro, I felt like a robot. Die Welt Ist Klang holds my sanity enough through some diversity of genres, though given this is a Pete Namlook tribute, even that only goes so far. Mr. Kaulmann was known for a certain sound throughout his career, and by g’ar these producers are gonna’ honor that legacy, even if it means grinding the same general tone for a few hours’ worth of music. If you’re only now joining my OCD coverage of this box set, do unlike I and only listen to these CDs in occasional spurts, not all at once. You’ll appreciate these tunes more. Now, onto CD7.

Oh man, there’s more fun stuff here! Once again, the tempo is given an additional nudge, opening with a chipper ambient breaks beast running thirteen minutes in length (almost progressive breaks, really). It’s followed with a similar, subdued tune from Si Matthews, then goes total old-school trance on Music Hypnotizes from Gianni Parrini & Twoplusone! Okay, the rhythm’s more prog, but that high-pitched synth hook is right out of German trance’s playbook of 1993. It’s cheesy, but man does it ever tickle that nostalgia lobe – no surprise these guys are from that era.

In fact, quite a few names on CD7 have a wealth of material listed at Lord Discogs (Johan Agebjörn, Interconnected, Autumus) along with relative newcomers (Sven Kössler, Suit & Tie Guy), all offering variations of electro, chilled-out IDM, and ambient techno. Special mention must be made to Michael Brückner though, who’s apparently self-released around one-hundred albums of ambient and Berlin-School synth works in the last two decades! Holy cow, talk about a kindred spirit to Namlook. Get this man his own deserved box-set.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD6)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

Ambient’s about the journey, but sometimes it’s nice knowing where we’re going too. I’m a busy guy, and though the local gardens are pleasant diversions, this hair ain’t gonna’ cut itself. Thus, we leave the meandering synth works of CD5, and unto CD6, where there’s all manner of barber shops. Gosh, that was a strained metaphor. I think my subconscious is telling me something. Ah yes, my coif doth needs a cut. Also, coming up with new ways of starting each of these reviews for Die Welt Ist Klang is getting ever more difficult. By the end of this one, I’ll have spent three-thousand words detailing this box set, with another two CDs to go. Unless there’s an individual even more obsessive than I spending the same amount of words on each individual track, you’re likely not finding a lengthier review of Pete Namlook’s tribute. At what point does this venture turn into ‘quantity-over-quality’ though? Maybe it already has, given the opening of this paragraph.

Anyhow, as was the case with the first half, the back half of Die Welt Ist Klang opts for a gradual increase in tempo. Unlike CD2, however, things get rather brisk in CD6, even entering trance’s domain by track six! And no, this isn’t like earlier in the box set, where trance was more hinted than executed. Steve Hanlon’s Freefloating has the burbling acid, arpgeggios, hypnotic pads, and simple rhythms that earned many an old-school track duty on trance compilations. Following that, VAAST’s Syzygy has many similar attributes, while including other touches like soft, dubby atmospherics and gentle piano flourishes. And following that, Mia Rischmann’s Travels strips things down to a subtle, trance pulse that wouldn’t sound out of place on an old Laurent Garnier EP; or even a Fax +49-69/450464 collection, come to think of it. Call these melodic techno or ‘deep house’ if you must, but this is the sound of trance I’ve long associated with Namlook’s label. When he wasn’t doing the earlier hard acid bangers at least.

I should also mention these three artists currently have nary a presence at Lord Discogs, and they’re not alone in their, um, lonliness. Jason Hissong (ambient techno) and Michael & Spider (ethno’ psychedelic ambient) have absolutely nothing beyond Die Welt Ist Klang. A couple others have an EP or two under their belt (and if Mark T. Warren’s widescreen ambient dub Spin Cycle is anything to go by, one of the big chill labels had better snag this guy up post-haste!), but some veteran names from as far back as the ‘90s show up too. Within Reason (meditative chill-out), I’ve already covered, though he went by Open Canvas for that album. There’s also a curious group called Drøn (clicky, dubby downtempo), and Ben Zonneveld, who some trance heads might remember as one-half of Orientalist (of Tron microfame) – his track Liberation Through Hearing sounds an awful lot like Silence’s Omid/Hope, though at only a quarter the length. Mmm, tasty bite-sized ambient doodling.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD5)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

With many musical collaborators, associates, and influences wrapped up in four CDs, where else could Carpe Sonum Records go with their Pete Namlook tribute box-set mega-ganza? Why, a showcase of all the artists Mr. Kaulmann's had influence upon, of course, with another four CDs worth doing the deed. It can't be denied he's had an impact on a lot of ambient noodling wibblers and ambient techno knob twiddlers, so when word spread of a tribute collection, several producers outside the old FAX alumni piped up they'd be interested in providing music to the project. The fact things bloated out to ninety-one tracks across eight CDs may seem excessive, but I wouldn't be surprised if what we have for Die Welt Ist Klang isn't even half of what Carpe Sonum could have included. Also, instead of doing something silly like 'covering' Namlook compositions, these are all originals. Ha, take that, Cleopatra Records!

I should mention from here on out, my familiarity with the remaining artists fast approaches nil. Even Lord Discogs won’t be terribly helpful, many names relatively new to His mighty knowledge. Hell, on CD5 alone, some has this set as their lone entry (mamonu, Ray Rod In Sun Age), while others have a mere additional track or EP appearing elsewhere. Of course, in this age of Bandcamp releases, Soundcloud exclusives, and music sharing with online communities, a producer can have a wealth of experience and compositional background before ever landing anything with a format Lord Discogs recognizes as official. The ambient and drone scene in particular is notorious for its limitless amount of laptop writers. How on earth Carpe Sonum came about deciding these eleven acts for CD5, I can’t imagine. No, I won’t toss about wild theories; this is a tribute to Pete Namlook, dang’it, so happy, respectful feelings, yo’.

Since we’re now taking in a different perspective with the Namlook influences, it’s only appropriate that Die Welt Ist Klang starts featuring the extreme outlier genres- hah, no, we’re back in ambient’s realm again. Mostly it’s soft, meditative stuff (Jacob Newman & Devin Underwood’s Day Stretch, Veil Of Alchemy’s Sea Of Transcendence, Guides’ Flood) and dubby drone (Illuminum’s Principles Of Life, Bubble’s Ashes, mamonu’s So Long And Thanks For All The Chill...). Some go for the expansive layers of synths (Tha Silent Partner’s Tongue) while others choose the subtle road instead (Bing Satellites’ Caterpillar Dance, Ecoutez’ Just In A ...). And finally, the honoured elder of this CD, Sense (Adam Raisbeck, who’s been releasing music since the long-ago year of 2001), teams up with Jesse Somfay in a thirteen-plus minute piece that dabbles in much of the above. No wonder they titled it 3 Songs (Forever).

If most of these names are hopelessly obscure to your eyes, I warned you we were leaving familiar ground (if they’re not, holy cow!). I honestly wouldn’t blame ya’ if you tuned out for the remaining three discs, but who knows, you may discover some cool new names worth following.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD4)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

Scratch what I said at the end of the previous review. Here's where we find our offering of old-school trance, at the start of CD4! Pino &Wildjamin's Some Filter For Namlook has gated synths, subtle acid tweakage, minor key melodies, and even bleepy sci-fi arpeggios. Yeah, they use an electro break for their rhythm, and the track was originally from 1995, but dammit, it's the closest thing I've heard to any sort of vintage German trance in the box set, so I'm counting it. Honestly though, this probably should have been on CD3, were it not for the forced compromise of limited space on such antiquated technology. Playing Die Welt Ist Klang as a digital playlist of music, Some Filter For Namlook follows quite smoothly from Glitch's Kick The Habit. Oh, and about that track, turns out it was a remastered 1994 cut, hence the classic vibes I got off it. It’s difficult back-checking every single track in the FAX catalogue, y’know.

Some Filter For Namlook is also something of an outlier for CD4. The artists that make up this disc are primarily the artsy abstract sorts that cared little for house, techno, or even ambient. As ol’ Pete’s muse grew ever more restless in years following his ‘90s breakout, he started branching out into psychedelic rock, jazzy futurism, cinematic orchestrations, and throwback musique concrete. Not so much his own output, mind you, but he did take on such musicians within the Fax +49-69/450464 fold. The only name I recognize out of this bunch is Move D, who’s Regentropfen (Reprise) is all sorts of druggy jazz sludge. And yes, Mr. Moufang gets two solo tracks on this collection. Twenty-plus albums with Namlook!

I can’t deny CD4 is an interesting disc, but only as far as you’re willing to indulge the most extreme of music expressionism. Some of it goes for the New Berlin school of krautrock experiments (Aerial Service Area’s Cloud 2, Nikolaus Heyduck’s Lago Largo, Ludwig Rehberg’s Pink Pearl), others for improvised tonal harmony with pianos, taiko drums, and woodblocks (okay, only Hane’s Dazwischen). There’s some really naff jazz on here too, Sprya’s Sodbrennen sounding like a preloaded keyboard demo – at least that one’s only three minutes long.

And then there’s the plain ol’ weirdness. Victor Sol plays metal resonance in Gong #1, and Oskar Sala spits white noise and reverberating blips and bleeps in Anwendung Elektronischer Musik Für Den Film Von Oskar Sala. Wait, didn’t he start this electronic music shit; and this the thanks I give? I don’t think he ever worked with Namlook or on FAX, but you cannot deny the influence he undoubtedly had on a young Kaulmann.

In comparison, the surrounding tracks aren’t quite so leftfield. Gate Zero does dubby, chill trip-hop with The Ache, Burhan Öçal’s Seyh'in Rüyasi sounds like it belongs on a Six Degrees Records compilation, and Bardo Thödol lays echoing prog guitar over gentle braindance beats. Man, after all this, where else can Die Welt Ist Klang take us?

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD3)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

Of all the discs in this box set, CD3 has the highest ratio of artists I'm familiar with. That isn't an impressive stat, if I'm honest, as nearly everyone following this one is entirely new to my eyes. You'd think someone with a music collection nearing the four-digit mark should know a more than this. 'Tis not so, my knowledge but a mote of dust in the impossibly vast realm that is Pete Namlook's Influence. I'm not even sure whether these are all new names or scene veterans that have burbled in obscurity for all this time – guess I'll find out when I deal with their discs. Meanwhile, let's have a gander at the 'techno' CD of Die Welt Ist Klang.

First up is Thomas P. Heckmann. You might know him from such labels as Mille Plateaux, Wavescape, and the charming Acid Fuckers Unite. If you’re worth your techno salt at all though, you know him as Drax. For his offering to Namlook’s legacy, he gives us Ode To A Friend, sounding not a touch out of a 1974 krautrock album. Wait, what? Oh, right, talented producer makes music across tons of genres. That’s a running theme with a lot of these Namlook and Fax +49-69/450464 associates, isn’t it? Speaking of, second tune here is from Biosphere, though it’s one of his early demos sent to Mr. Kaulmann way back when, before they hooked up for Fires Of Ork. Holy cow, you guys, it’s Microgravity-era Biosphere! Robot voices! Bleepy techno! Rave-house groove! Long time fans have waited an age to hear something like this from Geir Jensenn again.

Following that, it’s Pascal F.E.O.S., most famous for being one-half of Resistance D., but having made plenty of music on his own too. His track is called Sax On Dub, and it’s... Balearic chill-out? Huh, are we getting any techno on this disc? Not if Oliver Lieb can help it, treating us to a tune that might have once been an Into Deep outtake. Man, the final run of tunes from CD2 was more techno than this. Where’s, like, Anthony Rother when you need him – he made music for Fax+, right? Right, so here’s Anthony Rother’s See Beyond, though more sinister EBM than robotic electro as you’d expect of the guy. It’s XJacks’ Acidbob that finally gives us a proper techno cut, all old-school acid weirdness with a little 808 cowbell for good measure.

A couple more names I recognize from recent digging is Gabriel Le Mar (a proggy breaks tune, plus an acid techno workout with Dr. Motte) and Mick Chillage (getting way-back FSOL vibes on this one). Both their tracks are the best on CD3, though a special mention must be made to Glitch’s Kick The Habit, a vintage hard trance track that’s got everything but a kick. Oh, you tease, we almost did get that which I thought not possible. Or maybe we still will later in the box set. Five more to go. Man, I’m earning this experience.

Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook (CD2)

Carpe Sonum Records: 2014

No, of course ninety-one droning, calm ambient tracks would be ridiculous. Namlook made his namesake with the stuff, but he produced far more forms of electronic music than that. If you’re doing a tribute collection, you gotta’ show respect to his techno, jazz, orchestral, and even hard trance heritage. Okay, maybe not that last one, but wouldn’t that be something, hearing ancient German trance in a modern release? Come on, retroism, do your th’ang!

Wisely, Capre Sonum Records gave each disc of Die Welt Ist Klang its own genre showcase, gradually upping the tempo with each successive CD. All the beatless ambient now out of the way, CD2 provides us with some ambient techno chill and rhythms on the downbeat. Honestly, I’d have sprung for this collection almost entirely for this CD alone, what with two new tracks from Peter Benisch and The Higher Intelligence Agency on it! These aren’t previously unreleased pieces from their reserves either, each specifically made for this collection. Yeah, most of the music on all these discs is new material, but having already come across a couple cuts that were old, unused pieces from former collaborations with Namlook, I had to wonder whether that’d be the case with Benisch and Bird too. It’s not like they’re making anything new lately – and if they are, they sure aren’t making their efforts public. Oh hey, long tangent. As for their tunes, Benisch’s Farväl is utterly lush, while HIA’s Sky One works the bubbly, bleepy ambient dub groove with spacey synth drone, neither sounding like any time’s passed since their last albums. I love it!

I can’t say I know much about the remaining artists on CD2, but hot damn they make some lovely music. Autumn Of Communion (Lee Norris and Mick Chillage) offers eleven minutes of soothing keyboards, dubby synths and soft beats, Massimo Vivona provides a chipper piece of Balearic chill, Material Object shoots for the stars with another eleven minutes of pulsing pads and spacey drone, and even Namlook himself gets in, care of Lorenzo Montanà working with an unfinished piece they worked on. Then there’s Krystian Shek doing the widescreen chill-out thing I usually associate with Ultimae, Benjamin Wild & Daniel Esswein go for a low-key ambient techno groove, Fanger & Siebert get a little more electro sci-fi with their tune, and Future Research Technology (Simon Ellis, who gave Fax+ one of their earliest commercial successes as Houdini) goes for the alien electro-funk vibe. Kind of reminds me of Namlook and Johah Sharp’s Alien Communication project, though he already got his tribute in on CD1 as Spacetime Continuum. Oh, and Gaudi’s here too, doing his heavy ambient dub business, but I already know him and he’s still making music, so I don’t get quite all atwitter over his tune.

Yeah, that’s a major reason why I sprung for this box set. Seeing new music from old favorites is nice, but discovering a plethora of new artists in the process is pure cream.