| REVIEWS (in order of album release date) Cities in Fog / 1985 Places of Motility / 1987 Moving Climates / 1987 Timbral Planes / 1988 Changing Skies / 1990 Lost Terrain / 1992 Crossing Ngoli (with Rob Angus) / 1992 In Another Place / 1993 Timbral Planes (re-release of 1988 LP on CD) / 1994 Big Weather / 1994 LAND (with the group LAND) / 1995 Over Ruins/Moving Climates (reissue on CD) / 1997 Cities in Fog (2CD reissue) / 1998 Places of Motility (CD reissue on Hypnos)/ 1998 Hana / 1999 Ride / 1999 Omen (with Hana)/ 2001 Wide view / 2002 Weather From Another Planet / 2003 Selected Reviews for Cities in Fog / 1985 "Greinke's first LP presents a mature set of dark landscapes that are distant and beautiful in their sparseness and subtlety. His hauntingly exotic music is most immediately comparable to Eno's 'On Land'." --Unsound . "One of those exciting underground records that skates along the edge of incomprehensibility without being too off-putting... has some of the spaciousness of new age, but it's dark instead of pretty. Maybe we should call it 'dark age' music." --Keyboard Magazine . "For those unfamiliar with Greinke's uniformly superb oevre, it might be described as ambient techno-tribal music, mixing unusual electronic sounds with healthy doses of third world, particularly African, exoticism... With each new release, Greinke proves to be an unusual and creative visionary worth seeking out." --Dean Suzuki, EAR "Those familiar with Greinke's sonic drifts will find much to admire here." --Darren Bergstein, IE Magazine . "He is masterly at sustaining moods and emotions, and his
vivid, haunting textures linger on long after the laser has quit
scanning the disc. Changing Skies offers a veritable catalogue of
transient, shifting nuances." .
. "The best part of Greinke's sound constructions is the way they
can arouse fascination and maintain it.... The music and recording
quality are so good it's difficult to imagine this as a live
performance by only two people." "Greinke and Angus have produced a most original blend of
arcane jungle jingoisms and provocative electronics, music best
described as ethnic concrete." . "Austere and a little forbidding.... Vaporous tonal chords
drift apart to form denser, less penetrable shapes." "Greinke's timbres... have that Eno lushness and
diffuseness... it's a distancing, a patina of time and detachment.
There's an air of desolation that blows through this." . "In the same way that Tangerine Dream's Phaedra and
Rubycon created Siamese twins of dark mood music, so too does
this pair. Greinke is an aural sculptor of the highest order, melting
keyboard passages into haunting themes, and his use of clarinet,
piano, and samples adds texture to an already rich palate." . "Those familiar with Greinke's sonic drifts will find much to
admire here."
"You know that the last word in ethno-concrete has yet to be
spoken, because Greinke keeps pushing the envelope of the form...
never before has he clothed such complex synthetic textures in
propulsions as equally complex and compellingly designed... Big
Weather indeed -- Greinke's hit the meteorological treasure trove
with this stunning batch of imagistic fauna." . "LAND breaks the barriers on the obstacle course of
East-meets-West fusion... exotic and liquid quicksilver
improvisation... a revisioning of Fourth World rhythmic shibboleths
upon which found sounds are cleverly flourished." "To listen to LAND is to imagine what the product of a
collaboration between Brian Eno and Miles Davis would have sounded
like. This is a truly beautiful record not to be missed by those
unafraid to hear new directions in jazz and experimental music." "Intriguing electro-acoustic music... LAND works because it
takes chances--smart experimental music that avoids intellectual
trappings, possessing a strong sense of identity and cohesiveness." "The music LAND creates is at once dreamily vaporous and
soulfully rhythmic." "Exotic, trans-global soundscapes... sounds like Spike Jones
meets John Cage at a rave party." . "...shows Greinke's early stages very well, and is of course
not to be missed..."
"Back in 1985, Jeff Greinke released an LP of ambient
industrial music titled "Cities In Fog". The sound of
industry and contemporary cityscapes - grinding metal, pounding
machinery - were tempered and processed in the studio, producing a
removed impressionist haze. Though the imagery was disturbing, even
nightmarish, it was equally compelling, seductive, and undeniably
beautiful. This little-known gem was the starting point of a
fascinating musical trek for Greinke. His vision has expanded, and his
recent work is exotic and atmospheric.
"Jeff Greinke's _Places of Motility_ is a re-issue on Hypnos,
previously only available on a German imprint and long out of print.
This new, remastered release includes three previously unreleased
tracks from 1988, complementing the 12 originals from 1985-86. The
mood here is dark, indeed quite menacing at times. Some use is made of
strangled, gutteral voice samples. The opening track, "Uprising",
sets the tone with busy percussive patterns and whoops - a mock tribal
rebellion brewing? The rest of the original tracks present assorted
drones, groans and muffled rhythmic patterns. On the whole, it feels
like a collection of stylistic studies of various shades of darkness
and dissonance - Robert Rich territory - before the artist gained the
headier heights of his near-perfect, airier work _Changing Skies_ in
1990. The three bonus tracks from 1988 attached to this re-release
seem indicative of this change in course. Be that as it may, _Places
of Motility_ will surely please both fans of Greinke´s work and
lovers of dark ambient alike." "Originally released in 1987 on the Dossier label, Places of
Motility is the last of Jeff Greinke's early LPs to be reissued in CD
format. Remastered by Hypnos founder Mike Griffin with the addition of
several previously unreleased tracks, Places of Motility represents
some of Greinke's most daring and original work. "Greinke is one of the better sound explorers on the scene
today. This album reminds me at times of Hassell's Fourth World
forays, though it may need to be pointed out that Greinke on this
album does not play trumpet, instead his instruments are the piano,
wood flutes, pvc tubings, guitar and above all the studio, to
reprocess what he has recorded. There are some incredibly dark moments
on this album, but unlike a lot of dark ambient music these are
interesting textures and patterns of sound which keep you captivated
by their sonic power. Originally released back in 1987, this has been
remastered digitally by Mike Griffin at Hypnos. What you get are
fifteen tracks of mostly slow moving themes, atmospherically charged,
haunting textures that seem to change with every new act of listening.
Stylistically Greinke crosses several genres, those being ambient,
industrial and at times world. This production is a lot rawer in parts
than his later releases but keep in mind the technology and studio
possibilities were different back then. Still his use of layering and
the way he processes sounds is quite unique and ultimately this is an
album I have got a lot of time for. It's not a pretty album per se,
like a Steve Roach or Brian Eno cd might be, but there is an edge to
this music that allows Greinke to create what he terms a sense of
place, and ultimately this is what draws me to his music." "Ambient atmospheres and noise with rhythm. These are some of
the finer soundscapes, up with Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach and Raison
D'Etre in my ears. 'Billowing Smoke' has a bleak, ominous sound that
could go on forever. A pensive, eerie bassline burrows beneath
'Dropped', while moans of sound permeate above it. Soft tones fall
from 'The Well', which gave me pause, in where I had to bury my face
in my hands in order to guard myself against any bright light." "To describe Jeff Greinke as fourth world ambient, might be
very much true. To describe this CD in similar terms, is absolutely
wrong. This most welcome reissue of an early LP (the last one to be
re-issued), released in 1987, sees Greinke experimenting with synths,
rhythms and tapes. Plus the usual instrumentation of piano, wood
flutes and voices. This is not the early nineties ambient blur, but
takes it way beyond: more experimental, but with great care for the
various moods. It carries some trademarks which makes it a bit dated
(partly in some of keyboards being played), but the good thing is that
the tracks are relatively short and to the point (and that's something
that is most welcome nowadays)." "A haunting collaboration...a floating, sensual dream of dark
desire, Hana is redolent with ominous counterpoints and ghostly
visitations...deeply hypnotic."
"A floating sensual dream of dark desire, Hana is redolent with ominous counterpoints and ghostly visitations. Greinke's music is deeply hypnotic and Romero's hovering vocals complement it just as well, far surpassing her work with SCM."
"Fans of Sky Cries Mary need to get their hands on Hana...Anisa's voice is pure bliss, and when combined with the delicate textures and spiritual ambience of Greinke's atmospheres, makes Hana one of the best ethereal releases of the year."
"...a dynamic collection of eight hypnotic tunes aptly decribed as 'multilayered moody ambient dreamworks'...haunting vocalizations mesh beautifully with Greinke's spectral sonic impressions."
"Greinke draws from a palette of effects and sonorities, and manages to liberate them from their electronic circuitry, so that they become strange and compelling-something both human and 'other.' ...evokes places vaguely familiar, yet indistinct, and climates that, again are somehow familiar even though 10,000 isobars from home. Romero has a wrought, haunting voice...soaring, keening, and emoting... in sinc with the convincing, almost tangible otherness of Greinke's music."
"Greinke's haunting textural backdrop provides the perfect accompaniment for Romero's ethereal hymns."
"If you are a Sky Cries Mary fan who lusts for Anisa's vocals, then her HANA project will have you panting with excitement. Hana is the perfectly realized coupling of Anisa's abstact, angelic soprano and ambient sound sculptor Jeff Greinke's enveloping web of ethereal electronics."
"Lover's of smokey netherworlds conjured by such delicately reverbed bands as Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, and This Mortal Coil will find similar music on Hana's debut...gothic loveliness."
"...Anisa Romero's voice shines when layered atop Greinke's rich electro-acoustic bed of aural bliss. The duo has produced an ethereal masterpiece that deserves a prime spot next to the Projekt or Dead Can Dance discs in your collection."
"Greinke contiues to sculpt sound for conversely haunting
and funky purposes...Greinke has done his share to advance electronic music
and ambient soundscapes."
"Jeff Greinke and Anisa Romero are two of Seattle's most expressive artists, so it's not a shock that their collaboration has yielded such ripe fruit. Hana's 1999 debut featured mellifluous, otherworldly rhythms and haunting vocals. Often compared to noted ethereal bands like This Mortal Coil and the Cocteau Twins, the duo nevertheless forged their own identity, sounding not so much like two performers making music as two artists communicating through music."
"I've never heard an angel sing, but I imagine it would sound a lot like Anisa Romero in Hana--soulful, soothing, and unearthly (not completely...)."
"The music of Hana has moved me the most, falling into a groove of serene ethnic beauty with total blissed-out downtempo beat amalgams...a spiritual blend of rhythmic ambient-styled experiments."
"Lying somewhere between Dead Can Dance, Portishead, and Massive Attack, they're one of the few ambient trip-hop bands out there creating something fresh and new. It's more ambient and subtle than most trop-hop bands yet slightly more original in the arrangements."
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