by eyes cast down | Jun 24, 2011 | Album Reviews
Lost Links (Relaxed Machinery 0018) is a new collection of “lost pieces” from ambient-electronic wizard Max Corbacho, created during 2003-09 for other albums, but left out “for various reasons”. Fortunately, Max saved them for another day....
by eyes cast down | Jun 6, 2011 | Intrinsic Beauty
What is it about a sunrise or sunset that attracts us? What is it about a particular piece of music that makes us feel at peace, grounded, and uplifted? What is it that we love about being out in nature? It’s easy – banal, even – to say there is beauty in all of...
by eyes cast down | May 21, 2011 | Working That Studio
Two years ago, a friend of mine committed suicide at the age of 43. When I found out, I knew at once that I would have to deal with the shock by shaping it into music. Shock was far from being my only response to this disaster. Grief – of course, for this was a...
by eyes cast down | May 13, 2011 | Album Reviews
Steve Brand has just released a remastered edition of his 2008 release SoulSpiral, the first offering on his own Pioneer Light label. On the album’s initial release, Steve wrote: “SoulSpiral represents a new phase of work for me, in which I felt the desire...
by eyes cast down | Apr 28, 2011 | Album Reviews
I think Max Corbacho is driven by a love of life’s great mysteries. His music is fully informed and animated by this, by (as I’m hearing it) a quest for something transcendent, something far beyond our conventional, mundane states of being. I believe that,...
by eyes cast down | Apr 18, 2011 | Album Reviews
Russian atmospheric maestro Rudy Ensueno released Domestic Aerospace in mid-December 2010. Its ten pieces, ranging from under four to over twelve minutes, are very distinct from each other, their titles ranging from wistful to borderline-absurd. Each track conjures up...
by eyes cast down | Apr 4, 2011 | Album Reviews
On Soniq Variants (Harmonic Resonance Recordings), Alpha Wave Movement (Gregory Kyryluk), delivers an hour of vintage electronic and atmospheric delights. Working mostly with vintage Ensoniq synths (VFX-SD (modified to SD-1), ESQ-1 and SQ-R+), Greg presents an...
by eyes cast down | Mar 28, 2011 | Album Reviews
Ari Porki has just released Dimension, his first album with the Hungarian netlabel Limitless. Over eight tracks spanning 53 minutes, Ari channels the northern seasons of his native Finland. Like his predecessor, Jean Sibelius, he skillfully evokes their extremes of...
by eyes cast down | Mar 22, 2011 | Album Reviews
Bob Ohrum, whose 2010 release Elevated I recently reviewed, returns with a reissue of his 2005 album Subliminal Listening, also on the Relaxed Machinery label. This album is Bob’s love letter to his hometown of Buffalo, NY. It plays like an urban version of the...
by eyes cast down | Mar 16, 2011 | Album Reviews
Lucette Bourdin’s 2010 album Horse Heaven, her seventh release on the Earth Mantra netlabel, is excellently described on the album’s release page as one of Lucette’s most mystical, intimate, reflective and spiritual albums. At the same time, it...