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Hypnos Recommends -- Latest, Featured Titles (this is a list of a handful of new, featured or recommended items, but several hundred more items are available through the category list (at left) or by using the "search" utility at the top bar) For the latest new additions to the store, even before they're added to the list of recommended items below, check our news blog, our Facebook profile, or our Twitter feed:
	Robert Rich - Sunyata & Inner Landscapes (2CD) (Hypnos section) ($14.99, 2CD) Of this new release, Robert says: Three decades after the release of my early works “Sunyata” (1982) and “Inner Landscapes” (1985), we created an archival edition with the help of Mike Griffin at Hypnos, who sponsored the first CD re-issues of these albums back in the late 1990s. After those pressings sold out, we decided to wait before bringing them back, assuming that the interest in physical media might be diminishing in favor of downloads. As it happens, people still express interest in getting a beautiful artistic package holding music that somehow stays relevant after all these years. “Sunyata & Inner Landscapes” will be the first of two double CD re-issues with beautiful digipack artwork and an 8 page booklet, followed in a few months with another archival edition of “Trances & Drones.” Track listing with MP3 sample clips: SUNYATA 01. Dervish Dreamtime - 19:32 02. Oak Spirits - 42:35 INNER LANDSCAPES 01. Part 1 02. Part 2 03. Part 3 04. Part 4 05. Part 5 06. Part 6 07. Part 7 08. Part 8 ... (more/buy)
	Robert Rich - Nest (Robert Rich category) (Price: $13.99) Latest from Robert Rich. "NEST begins with the kind of resolve many other CDs end on. With consonant chords and spare piano notes Robert Rich begins a wonderful journey through eight distinctive music tracks and contemplative moods. Although some of Rich\'s work seems to dispense with the idea of beginning, middle and end, NEST does possess a vague compositional arc. Using steel guitar, bells, flutes, synthesizers, piano and environmental recordings, alone or in various combinations, Rich realizes beautifully detailed soundscapes from just a small number of sources." - Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END... (more/buy)
	Robert Rich - Medicine Box (Robert Rich category) (Price: $13.99) Ecstatic, shamanic, surreal, spiritual: Medicine Box may be Rich's most dynamic album yet, an adept blending of technology with the ancient. Cheri Chuang\'s wordless crystalline voice graces three songs, with traces of Persian inflection. Deep basslines hint at dub, while analog synth skitters and chuffs the outlines of a rhythmic grid, propelled forward by pulsing north African drums. Sustaining guitars bring a psychedelic edge. Cello and reeds echo plaintively in the distance. Rich's sparse piano adds droplets of modal jazz to this dark tea.... (more/buy)
	Tony Gerber & Paul Vnuk, Jr. - City Skies 2011 (Miscellaneous category) (Price: $12.99) The original music on this recording is the result of performing live for the City Skies 2011 festival in Decatur, Georgia. This is the debut release from these two ambient music veterans. The magic of music is in the moment and this duo performance is a prime example of that. Tracklist: 1. Skytones -11:21 2. Topa - 5:07 3. Ulber - 7:19 4. Kuyn - 5:32 5. Gracious - 17:10... (more/buy)
	Steve brand - Catalyst (CDR) (Relaxed Machinery category) (Price: $12.99 CDR) "Catalyst" - four cavernous, ethereal, sentimental and lilting inscapes timing in at just over an hour. Instruments used on Catalyst include, keyboards textures, shakers, voice, conch, kora, bamboo chimes and field recordings. Steve Brand says: Catalyst was started in 2010 and completed in late 2011. 2010 reduces to three, which in a spiritual sense indicates catalyst, fecundity, magic and intuition. 2011 reduces to four, which indicates Earth, groundedness, solidity, calmness and home (which were a welcome respite from the previous years experiences). I was (and am) experiencing all of these, sometimes all at once, and I continue to feel their presence at work in my life. Because of the power of these experiences in my life, I felt compelled to make a group of songs that embodied the feeling and presence of these forces—which I think are powerful tools that can act as a catalyst for growth, meaning and an expanded way of living and being.... (more/buy)
	Steve Brand - Sunprints (CDR) (Relaxed Machinery category) (Price: $12.99 CDR) Sunprints is comprised of five quiet, and sometimes intimate, atmospheres focused around nature. Sunprints is dedicated to my mentor, Nadja, and accomplished with kora, zither, kalimba, shakers, bells, cymbals, gongs, conch, bone, cane and cedar flutes, didgeridoo, whistles voice, accordion, gutterphone, field recordings and keyboards. The final track, Sunprints, was created just for this 2012 re-release.... (more/buy)
	Numina - The Deception of Reality (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) The Deception of Reality is the fourth Numina release on Hypnos, the first since 2007's Shift to the Ghost. Still present is Numina's trademark sound, combining abstract deep-space textures with subtle melodic and rhythmic elements, but with a new emphasis on more vivid sonics. Listeners seeking smooth, creamy synthesizer background textures will still find them, here overlaid with more "up front" accents. Extra care has been taken in the mixing and mastering to preserve the separation and placement of individual instruments, and we believe the result is the best pure sound experience Numina has ever come up with. As with the last Numina album, The Deception of Reality is a continuous, long-form ambient music piece of about 72 minutes, broken into five "tracks" for listening convenience. Unlike much long-form ambient, this sound work is ever-changing, continually evolving in mood and sound texture, bringing in new instruments while fading out old ones. Despite its continuous format, the album is so varied across its duration that most listeners would likely never notice they're listening to a single unbroken piece. Track listing with MP3 samples: 1. The Illusion Transmission > 17:17 2. Our Elegant Experience > 16:59 3. In Cerulean Haze > 9:32 4. Empire of Nothing > 19:23 5. Translunary Return > 11:55 ... (more/buy)
	Steve Roach - Back to Life (2CD) (Projekt category) (Price: $17.99, 2CD) Back to Life is a masterful expression drawing from the realm of Steve Roach's mythic imagination: an enveloping experience of vast beauty and mystery. These harmonically rich, multi-layered pieces breathe with an elemental ebb and flow; with the 2-CD Back to Life, Steve achieves a new pinnacle within the ambient line of his oeuvre. The vitality on display within Back to Life owes a lot to Steve's fresh approach towards production, sound and creative inspiration, the result of a period of personal changes and the yearning to forge deeper into his evolving sound. After "hitting the reset button on the foundation of my life beyond music," Steve returned to the studio with a vibrant energy and focus. Even the most spiritual and mysterious creations are marked by sensations of weightlessness and an airy, shimmering translucent tonal palette. Although foremost a soundscape-oriented work, rhythmic pulses are frequently embedded deep into the structure of the surrounding atmospheres. Serene yet suspended drifts and propulsive dynamics merge into a single texture. Back to Life is a soundworld where rhythm and textures become one; the potential for complex interrelations has significantly increased... (more/buy)
	Forrest Fang - Animism (Projekt category) (Price: $13.99) On his ninth album, Animism, Chinese-American musician Forrest Fang creates a diverse musical style that fuses timeless Fourth World acoustic instruments with a modern fractal ambient sound. Inspired by the ancient belief that all living and inanimate forms possess a spirit or life force, Fang has composed eight pieces that radiate with energy and warmth. Besides acoustic and electric violins and mandolins, he embellishes his atmospheric textures with melodies and polyrhthms from stringed and percussion instruments such as the Turkish lavta, Peruvian bandurria, Filipino kulintang, Mexican cantaro and Balinese kendang. Animism is a celebration of life's internal rhythms and their ultimate path to rest... (more/buy)
	Alio Die - Deconsecrated and Pure (Projekt category) (Price: $13.99) Deconsecrated and Pure is an evocative liturgy from the realm where electronic music meets acoustic drones, found objects, sacral voices and field recordings. The processed traditional instruments and natural textures float alongside rich electro-organic drones, creating a perfect introspective soundtrack with a medieval and sacral atmosphere. Serene and meditative textures combine in a chorus of circular and interwoven sounds, reflecting the harmony of the cosmos as an opus of inner stillness. Marvelously floating and hauntingly expressive, Deconsecrated and Pure feels like a liturgical poem within an archaic mausoleum distorted by time... (more/buy)
	Loren Nerell - Slow Dream (Projekt category) (Price: $13.99) Loren Nerell creates a masterful release of deep ambient with Slow Dream, field recordings from the world of sleep. On his seventh solo release, Nerell's four lengthy tracks are all-encompassing sonic environments primarily forged from extremely processed location recordings made during his trips to Bali. Rich drones and shimmering highlights skirt over the organic textures, processed and layered into subtle, delicate resonant spaces. Glowing, amorphous drifts of sound create the impression of traveling along the supple contours of subterranean passageways. This slow dream takes ethereal shape as an exotic but compelling atmosphere that hovers between the waking and sleep state. When experienced at a lower volume and left to repeat play over the course of a few hours, the transportive effect of this soundscape is especially powerful and mind-altering... (more/buy)
	Bruno Sanfilippo - Urbs (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) Bruno Sanfilippo is a classically trained musician and composer, resident of Barcelona, Spain, and cofounder of the ad21 label. He has collaborated with such notable artists as Mathias Grassow, Byron Metcalf, Max Corbacho and Alio Die. Sanfilippo's work ranges from more melodic and structured to ambient drones with more a subtle and subdued musical component. Urbs, Sanfilippo's first project released with Hypnos Recordings, falls nicely in the middle ground among the artist's previous work. It's an intriguing combination of ambient textures with location sound recordings, along the lines of the classic Hypnos releases Sonic Continuum (Modell and Mantra) and Silence Speaks in Shadow (Paul Vnuk Jr.), but with more of an urban or cityscape flavor. The title Urbs derives from the prominent incorporation urban sound environments, recorded by Sanfilippo in urban environments such as train stations, streets, bars and other public areas to explore the boundaries between the textural sounds which surround all of us day to day, and the nature of composed sound art such as music. These "real world" sound textures merge with more traditional electronics such as synthesizers and samplers, leaving no doubt as to the composed and "intentional" nature of these soundscapes. Gentle and evocative, subtly textural and transporting, Urbs is something we genuinely expect to become a long-term favorite among Hypnos releases. Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: 1 - Urban Flow - 14:41 2 - The City Reflected - 20:20 3 - Chaotic Order - 25:29 4 - The Gray Umbrella - 06:58 ... (more/buy)
	Sleep Research Facility - Stealth (2CD) (Coldspring category) (Price: $19.99, 2CD) Sublime new album from the drone / dark ambient legend. As a project commissioned for Cold Spring, "Stealth" presents itself as an exploration of sounds neither here nor there, textures camouflaged against their own background noise, and the distant crackling telemetric code-speak of a vague humanity hidden behind a cloak of deadly high-technology. Comprising of five deeply-layered extended tracks, mixed and edited from re-sampled location recordings originally captured inside the hangar environs of a Northrop-Grumman B-2 Stealth Bomber, during a period of downtime maintenance at a U.S. Air Force base in Cambridgeshire, England. Original field recordings and texture preparations by FOURM/Si_Comm. First edition pressing of 1000 copies includes bonus disc comprised of this pre-mix material in its original, un-edited form, as a representation of the source audio from which Stealth was reconstituted. Deep listening inspired by one of the most mysterious aircraft of the twentieth-century. Headphones recommended.... (more/buy)
	Lull & Beta Cloud & Andrew Lilies - Circadian Rhythm Disturbance Reconfigured (Cold Spring category) (Price: $12.99) From England to the United States and back again... it all started as a simple drone project between LULL (aka Mick Harris of Scorn, ex-Napalm Death) and BETA CLOUD (aka Carl Pace), based on the concept of how insomnia can effect your thought patterns. Billows of powerful bass drones set to indistinct flourishes of temporary insanity. The original track is there, but also included is a fierce remix track by legendary sound artist Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND). Fans of Lull and Beta Cloud will really sink their teeth into this one; what Liles has created here is not a simple remix but a raging, deconstruction as only he can do. Originally released as a limited 3\" CD in 2008, now proudly presented in a deluxe digipak edition with stunning new artwork. A captivating listen for dark ambient and harsh noise fans alike.... (more/buy)
	Steven Severin - Blood of a Poet (Cold Spring category) (Price: $12.99) Acclaimed solo artist and founding member of the legendary Siouxsie and the Banshees, Steven Severin's debut album for Cold Spring Records is titled Blood Of A Poet (Le Sang d'un Poete). This album is his entire soundtrack to Jean Cocteau's 1930 black & white surrealist classic and is the second in his ongoing series of Music For Silents.... (more/buy)
	Sleep Research_Facility - Dead Weather Machine_Re:Heat (Cold Spring category) (Price: $12.99) "Originally conceptualised as a 100 copy only disc to go with a special limited edition of Dead Weather Machine, Manifold commissioned Sleep Research Facility to create a single, hour-long track of total dark-ambient drift based on the original material. Engaging, emotional and worthy of listening to ten years down the road. This is roughly an hour of slowly changing, deep, meditative drift based on the Dead Weather Machine source materials." -musicstack.com... (more/buy)
	Oophoi & Paul Vnuk Jr. - Dreamfields (Nextera category) (Price: $13.99) Newly added to the Hypnos store, Dreamfields by Oophoi & Paul Vnuk Jr. It's a sequel of sorts to the highly regarded and critically acclaimed album Distance To Zero released in 2006 on Hypnos, this time released on the Czech label Nextera. Paul Vnuk, rican synthesist, percussionist and sound designer, also known from tribal ambient duo Ma Ja Le with Christopher Short, reveals: "For me the story of Dreamfields starts before our [Gigi's & my] first collaboration Distance to Zero. Back in 2005 I sent Gigi a CD of loops improvised in my studio on a Lexicon Jamman and a Boomerang looping pedal. Part of those even included my then 8-year-old son reading improvised poetry. These loops were meant to get the ball rolling on our collaboration, but rather than using these loops at the time, Gigi instead sent me back a set of all new tracks that were inspired by my loops. I then added my parts and that became our 1st album. Then in 2009, unknown to me he went back to those original loops and blended them into his alchemic audio processes and created a whole new musical work. I then spent parts of 2010 and 2011 overdubbing further additions, crafting a final mix and a master. Dreamfields is a deep collaboration made up of many layers. I see it as a great sonic painting that contains a nice balance of our individual voices as well as some new sonic landscapes that neither of us expected and I am very proud of the result!"... (more/buy)
	Steve Roach/Vir Unis - Body Electric (Projekt category) (Price: $13.99) Steve Roach - Analog and Digital Instruments, Groove Creation, Prehispanic and Shamanic Percussion and Voice, Atmospheres, Soundworlds and Processing. Vir Unis - Fractal Groove Creation, Synthesizers, Treatments, Atmospheres and Soundworlds. From the gene pool of possibilities, an evolutionary mandala emits the music of chance, while the electric body emerges intelligent and in an awakened state of eternal becoming. Forged out of the primordial protoplasm from which we crawled, Body Electric is a cyber-shamanistic celebration of man and machine. Steve Roach and Vir Unis combine different rhythmic sensibilities and undeniable soundscapes in an alchemical reaction, creating an aural sensation that is surreal, hallucinogenic, but still organically human. Body Electric is a welcomed edition to the borderless world of new electronic music; this album is a zenith in bio-electronic body music, an evolutionary spark, a focused, high-energy trip of life-affirming, hyper-terrestrial grooves and sustained, soul-expanding sound worlds... (more/buy)
	Steve Roach - Structures from Silence (Projekt category) (Price: $13.99) Remastered Roach classic with beautiful new cover artwork. "This recording is a soothing, enveloping soundscape, ideal for quieting the mind and calming the body. The gentle ebb and flow of warm synthesizer textures are based on the rhythm of breathing, and entrains the listeners' own respiration to its serene pace. It's useful for setting a tone in a room, for aiding in meditation, for easing the transition to sleep, but it's also sensually pleasing."--Reviewed by New Age Voice Magazine... (more/buy)
	Steve Roach/Byron Metcalf - The Serpent's Lair (2CD) (Projekt category) (Price: $17.99, 2CD) Beginning as a collaboration between Roach and Metcalf, the music on The Serpent's Lair evolved over the past year into an epic 2-CD set, augmented with a myriad of guests. For those familiar with Roach's work, this release has it all. Steve's ultra-soundworlds, hybrid grooves and magical production combined with Byron's acoustic-organic tribal trance patterns set disk 1 in motion (in all directions). Aligning with themes of shamanic initiation found throughout the world, this disc is rooted in the organic . . . the earth . . . the ancestors . . . and the initiatory energy of focused transformational ritual practice which is integrated into the alchemical fire of psycho-spiritual death and rebirth. It is here that one is confronted with all the essential elements of danger and possibility. Disk 2 -- subtitled Offerings To The Underworld -- is built around musical elements from disc 1, yet forges a sonic alchemy as it dives deeper. Thought at times rhythmic, the overall feeling is a floating, pulsing, breathing adventure through a system of underground rivers and caves, inspiring fantastic epsiodes along the way. Guests on The Serpent's Lair include Vicki Richards, Vidna Obmana, Jeffrey Fayman, Momodou \"Mohammad\" Kah, Jorge Reyes, Jim Cole, Lena Stevens and Vir Unis... (more/buy)
	Nunc Stans - The Winterhouse - Winter Gardens (Dataobscura category) (Price: $13.99) Winter Gardens is an intriguing set of wintery landscapes crafted with an underlying blanket of sonic beauty, a flurry of ambient details, and an icy delicacy. Expect something a little more experimental than their previous outings ... but every bit as magical. Performed by Anthony Paul Kerby (canada) and Robert Davies (usa) using a variety of synthesisers, with occasional field recordings. Final compositions and mastering by APK. "Winter Gardens" is the 4th album of the collaborative project The Winterhouse, featuring the Canadian-US duo of Anthony Paul Kerby (London, Ontario) and Robert Davies (Ithaca, New York). Released at the beginning of March 2012 on the usual imprint via Anthony's DataObscura. The album opens quietly with pastoral "Winter Hymn", a serenely flowing organic ambience that precisely sets the stage for this deeply panoramic meandering through the serenity of a winter landscape wrapped in a heavy blanket of snow. Ice cold monotonous drones invade "The Depths Of Winter" and are precisely bridged with assorted cavernously echoed effects, gurgles and rumblings. Towards the end the texture moves into more experimental terrains. This must be the exciting soundtrack for your journey into the breathtaking "winter gardens" of underground ice cavern labyrinths with all their fascinating and mysterious ice figures and structures. Absolutely gorgeous!!! Deep, static, but massive drone magic enters the next composition, "This Land Drifts Into Silence", and it's nicely colored by miscellaneous distant winds, hisses and occasional heartbeats. It is gradually progressing and soaring above misty, snow capped trees. Delicate sonic disruptions fly along too. Stunningly immersive snowscapes, great work, guys!!! "We Walk Through Glass" keeps on the aerial, dreamy route, with a richly layered cascading structure offering drama and depth, and where icy drones are merged with diverse hazy sonic experiments, hisses and outbursts. "A Winter Symphony" is crossed with modern classical elements, which attractively interact with deeper drone wizardry created by some strongly absorbing voice magics. A really exciting cinematic-like composition filled with variety and intensity, and always gorgeously fascinating and strikingly picturesque!!! "Solitude" is the 13 minute closing composition and another perfectly fitting title with a richly textured, cavernous feel enhanced by various alien breathings, rumbling noises and water sounds. Another amazing trip into the magnificent subterranean domain. Anthony Paul Kerby and Robert Davies have unlocked for me truly beautiful scenic winter wonderland landscapes and underground chambers. Explore your "Winter Gardens" too!!! --Reviewed by Richard Gürtler (Bratislava, Slovakia) Audio sample clips, MP3 format: Track 1 Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5 Track 6... (more/buy)
	Strom Noir - Standing Out Against the Sea (Dataobscura category) (Price: $13.99) On his first DataObscura release, Strom Noir (Emil Maťko) from Slovakia delivers a collection of mesmerizing transmuted guitar textures and noise drones that show a keen persistence of vision, with dark tensions that draw the listener into all-encompassing sonic depths. Emil has previously recorded on such labels as Hibernate, U-Cover, and Resting Bell. "The album unfolds with motionlessly flowing looped drones on "Poppy Seeds", presenting Strom Noir at its most serene!!! The title composition "Standing Out Against The Sea" moves towards more typical guitar-based soundscaping, with a stronger acoustic feel and a repetitive, slightly more melodic structure enriched later by harsher hissed soundwalls and natural sounds, but always keeping within the signature of Strom Noir. This composition showcases a precise synergy and balance between fragile, melancholic warmness and louder, more massive passages. "In All The Wrong Places" begins with deeper, slow-motion drones, which fleetly shift into gradually progressing, intense and interplaying cascades covered by misty hiss. This richly sculpted and deeply evocative masterpiece holds all the finest "Made by Strom Noir" essences!!! The monotonously spiraling, but shimmeringly exquisite drones of "The Passage Of Truth" move again through multi-dimensional passages, backed by catchy voice-like sounds. The next composition, "Rearviewmirror", slips into a rather rawer, exotically sounding adventure, with distinctive sounds and intense, expressive strings. An all-inclusive piece with a deeply stirring and mesmerizing effect. Certainly another highlight on this highly challenging ride!!! "Digital Saturn" glides through more aerial, tranquilly soothing spaces with a slowly expanding structure, becoming more massive and profound, and always strongly imaginative. "Haanah" is dominated by heavier, repetitive drone, and colored by some distant rumblings at the back. The overall feel of this track is quite monumental, nearly mind-bending. By the way, "Haanah" also features the Fujara, a traditional folk flute of Slovak shepherds, but it's hardly recognizable throughout the piece. "Kalimagdora" quickly brings the album back into a warmly inviting blend of tender acoustics and cheerful organics crossed with nostalgic glitches, and allows the listener to float smoothly in a state of being deeply relaxed. Beautifully captivating closer!!! "Standing Out Against The Sea" is filled with sensitivity, richness and poignancy, it must be experienced to be appreciated!!! I am so proud to know this wonderful and talented artist!!!" --Review by Richard Gürtler (April 2012, Bratislava, Slovakia) Audio sample clips, MP3 format: Track 1 Track 2 Track 3 Track 4 Track 5 Track 6 Track 7 Track 8... (more/buy)
	Caul - Let the Stars Assume the Whole of Night (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) Caul has released an array of incredible dark, cinematic ambient music, but much of it has been self-released in small quantities, so many listeners who might potentially enjoy his work might be unfamiliar with it. His collaboration with Numina, Inside the Hollow Realm, did receive a fair bit of attention five or six years ago, but Caul has mostly flown under the radar. As I mentioned, most of his work has been self-released, often in elegant, artisanal hand-made packaging. See his Discogs Page for more information about his work, or his own site at caul.org/. Let the Stars Assume the Whole of Night is a wonderful mix of sounds and atmospheres: dark without being spooky, melodic but not pretty, listenable, but too nervous and somber to ever become predictable. These pieces are more composed and structured than most ambient music, more akin to the soundtrack for some dark and moody piece of cinema. Imagine the score to an undiscovered work by David Lynch or Andrei Tarkovsky and you have the idea. Listen to the sound clips below and decide for yourself. Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: 01 > A clear eye loves the shadows as well > 3.32 MP3 clip 02 > Radiance falls > 4.45 MP3 clip 03 > The sparkling snow is full of roses > 3.28 MP3 clip 04 > The silent road to your pillars > 4.32 MP3 clip 05 > Upon the vines > 4.30 MP3 clip 06 > Just one autumn for ripe songs > 3.59 MP3 clip 07 > We are like heartless shadows > 6.01 MP3 clip 08 > Words of praise arise, like flowers > 4.26 MP3 clip 09 > Oblivion and holy drunkenness > 3.22 MP3 clip 10 > She is holy to those who are lost or dead > 2.10 MP3 clip 11 > Bells ring softly in the twilight air > 6.05 MP3 clip 12 > The kindness of exalted night > 5.00 MP3 clip... (more/buy)
	Seren Ffordd & Oophoi - The Martian Chronicles (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) The Martian Chronicles, inspired by Ray Bradbury's story collection of the same name, sounds very much like the soundtrack to a mysterious and strange science fiction film that exists only in the imaginations of Seren Ffordd and Oöphoi. These seven tracks, while slow, moody and at times weirdly alien, also evoke a drama and emotional depth absent from much recent ambient music. It's a complex and beautiful mixture of electronic instruments, field recordings and percussion. These artists will both likely be familiar to Hypnos listeners. Seren Ffordd has released several albums on our Hypnos Secret Sound imprint, and also contributed to the Hypnos compilation Sounds of a Universe Overheard. The name Seren Ffordd (real name Andy Benford) is Welsh for Star Road, Way of Stars or Milky Way. Oöphoi himself released Athlit in 2002, Distance to Zero (with Paul Vnuk) in 2006, and his Nebulae group project album Path of White Clouds in 2011, all on Hypnos. Gianluigi Gasparetti, the man behind Oöphoi, first became known for creating the excellent Italian music periodical Deep Listenings. His Oöphoi persona burst onto the ambient music scene in the late 1990s and quickly became one of the most talented and prolific sound artists around. He founded the now-defunct labels Umbra and Penumbra, which released the earliest recordings of Seren Ffordd. After working together in this capacity for several years The Martian Chronicles is their first collaboration, but not their last; the pair has already completed another full album worth of material. Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: 01 > The Long Years > 14:38 MP3 clip 02 > Dead Cities > 15:03 MP3 clip 03 > Blue Fire > 13:19 MP3 clip 04 > End of a Changeling > 02:49 MP3 clip 05 > Canals > 08:11 MP3 clip 06 > Flamebirds Waiting for the Storm > 10:06 MP3 clip 07 > Unremembered > 09:56 MP3 clip... (more/buy)
	A Produce & Loren Nerell - Intangible (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) 2011. The first collaboration between two artists well-known to Hypnos listeners and fans of ambient & experimental music in general. While Intangible has a meditative and tranquil drifting quality, it also incorporates more melodic and rhythmic elements than most ambient music of the present day. Listeners who like their ambience musical will enjoy this as much as those who like their drones deep and mystical. Though it's the duo's first collaboration together, both of them have been releasing music for about a quarter century. These guys are responsible for some of our "Desert Island Disc" listening material here at Hypnos HQ (A Smooth Surface and Lilin Dewa are both long-time favorites). Often at Hypnos we try to introduce new, fresh talent to our listeners, but this is a case of two music-makers who know all the tricks, and yet continue to create work as vibrant and inspired as anything on the cutting edge. A Produce has released ten albums, including two on Hypnos (Smile on the Void solo, and Altara in collaboration with Hypnos founder M. Griffin). Loren Nerell has released solo work on Amplexus, Soleilmoon, and Side Effects, and collaborated with ambient music giant Steve Roach on Terraform in 2006. Track listing with MP3 clips: 01 - Intangible - 08:14 - MP3 clip 02 - Planet Atmo - 13:09 - MP3 clip 03 - String Theory - 03:54 - MP3 clip 04 - Area 51.1 - 07:02 - MP3 clip 05 - Lost in Transformation - 09:26 - MP3 clip 06 - Meadow Dusk - 06:11 - MP3 clip 07 - Pot Covers at Dawn - 06:39 - MP3 clip (more/buy)
	Saul Stokes - Sleek Nucleus (Stokes category) (Price: $12.99) Saul Stokes is definitely one of the most popular artists associated with Hypnos (though he has also released a lot of music for other labels as well). This is Saul's first self-released CD, in a distinctive folder-type package, but the music still has that recognizable "Stokes sound." Saul says: Stokes is pleased to announce the release of Sleek Nucleus. Eight effervescent songscapes that simply redefine electronic music. Each song is a crafted fusion of contemporary rhythm and melody sculpted from Stokes' hand-made electronic instruments. A lasting and unforgettable electronic album, Sleek Nucleus continues Stokes' 17 year history of merging sonic innovation with soulful song composition. Track listing with MP3 sample clips: 1 every voyage 2 a two sun summer 3 spun into static 4 pocket universe 5 we. are. signals 6 colonies 7 trace the edge 8 electric moment - with variant impact... (more/buy)
	Seren Ffordd - Floating (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $9.99, ltd cdr) Floating is the third release in our reissue series of the out of print recordings by Seren Ffordd, an ambient artist residing in Wales. Originally released in 2006 on the Italian label Umbra (operated by the great Italian genius of ambient soundscapes, Oophoi) and now out of print, Floating has been reworked slightly by Seren Ffordd for enhanced sound quality. We have previously released Arythmia and Stellar Nurseries in this reissue series, and previously released Seren Ffordd's album Veils, Shadows on Hypnos Secret Sounds a few years earlier. Track listing with mp3 sample clips: 1 Floating 70:30 early mp3, middle mp3, late mp3... (more/buy)
	Steve Brand - Avatara (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) Steve Brand got his start releasing experimental music under the name "Augur," and more recently switched over to releasing music under his own name (both solo and in collaboration with such artists as Ishq and Disturbed Earth) on the Atmoworks, Hypnos Secret Sounds and Relaxed Machinery labels. He's quickly established himself as one of the more interesting and distinctive artists working in ambient music, and having released two albums Bridge to Nowhere and Children of Alcyone on Hypnos Secret Sounds in 2008 and 2009, we're very excited to follow up with Steve Brand's new album Avatara on the main Hypnos imprint. This album has a ritual feel common to many of Brand's recordings, though Avatara is more ambient and less percussive. The recording starts out in a place of low-key contemplation and evolves through distinct stages and moods, though it is always gentle and meditative. Steve Brand describes some of the inspirations behind this album: Avatara is Sanskrit for "descent" in the sense of a deity's descent from heaven to earth. Avatara is inspired by the various avatars of various ages and cultures...Yeshua, Quan Yin, Buddha, Brigit, Krishna, Saint Germain, White Buffalo Calf Woman, and others. I’m fascinated by the idea and the various stories in various ages and cultures of humans becoming "ascended masters," or avatars, non-human beings that still are attached to humans and choose to returns to Earth to assist them. The stories vary, and almost every culture has its masters, but one thing is consistent throughout each of their stories, they've realized a more expanded expression of being and awareness, of what we are and what we are capable of, and return to assist other human beings. Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: 01 - Avatara - 5:09 MP3 clip 02 - The Far Shore - 8:45 MP3 clip 03 - Morning Glory - 12:09 MP3 clip 04 - Still Here (breathing space) - 13:38 MP3 clip 05 - Act of Creation - 14:26 MP3 clip 06 - Avatara (deathless) - 7:10 MP3 clip... (more/buy)
	Saul Stokes - Vast (Foundry category) (Price: $13.99) Saul Stokes returns to the music scene with Vast, a showcase for his unique brand of electronica. With Vast Stokes explores new territory utilizing a highly developed lyrical sense built, as ever, on the idiosyncratic sound of his hand-forged equipment. These tracks are truly multi-faceted, and the many detailed sonic embellishments, as well as the fluid structures, set Vast apart.... (more/buy)
	Forrest Fang & Carl Weingarten - Invisibility (Foundry category) (Price: $13.99) Invisibility emerges from a collaboration between Forrest Fang and Carl Weingarten, built on the strong and distinct musical personalities of these two artists. Carl Weingarten displays his assured guitar playing, a unique style that exploits a variety of sounds and a penetrating melodic sensibility. Forrest Fang builds well-balanced arrangements and develops intricate textural tapestries with a sonic palette drawn largely, but not exclusively, from Weingarten's guitar work. The result is a series of enthralling landscapes and tableaus, subtly, but definitively, coloured by the musical insight of Fang and Weingarten. And while the integration of guitar, synthesis and processing may suggest a kind of invisibility in terms of seamlessness, the music is anything but invisible. On first hearing Invisibility is beautifully simple, but repeated listenings will reveal the strong underlying texture and structure that makes this release special... (more/buy)
	M. Bentley - This World (Foundry category) (Price: $13.99) This World gracefully integrates M. Bentley's various approaches to sound design and composition. Created with a combination of DSP tools, field recordings and more conventional synthesis, the suites Chronos & Kairos and Import are related thematically and conceptually. These pieces are extended audio snapshots, sonic gestures towards narrative and story-telling. In one sense this is programme music for the 21st century, or perhaps a soundtrack for memoirs never written.... (more/buy)
	Alison Wait - Dove Esistono Solo I Ricordi (Miscellaneous category) (Price: $13.99) The name and the cover art bring to mind something soft and feminine, yet this is a recording by two male ambient artists from Italy, and is quite moody and even dark in tone. Packaged in a beautiful, glossy full-color fold-out sleeve similar to a digipak. "Alison Wait is the gift of the past. Remembrances of long gone days. Childhood memories amplified through the glass of melancholy. A journey hand in hand with what has been and will never return. Dark ambiences melt with guitars & lush synths - come with us to the place where Alison Waits"... (more/buy)
	Nebulæ - The Path of White Clouds (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) Hypnos is pleased to reissue this classic ambient album first released by the Stella Maris label. Nebulæ (previously known as "Nebula") is an European ambient supergroup of sorts, featuring Oophoi, Tau Ceti, Mathias Grassow, Klaus Wiese, Lorenzo Pierobon, Luna, and Mauro Malgrande. This is a beautiful, ethereal and abstract ambient recording, which certainly deserved greater attention than it received prior to the demise of Stella Maris, which existed only long enough to release two Nebula albums. That first release was a limited edition CDR but our reissue is a professionally manufactured CD in a beautiful digipak with new graphics. The Path of White Clouds explores a serene and otherworldly soundspace. Meditative and gentle, these six tracks are sure to appeal to listeners who enjoy the more spacious ambient works released by Oophoi during the height of his Umbra and Penumra sister labels. The sound sources utilized here lean more toward the organic and physical instruments, and electronic processing and synthesizers are used subtly to accentuate the rest. In the years since this album was released, Oophoi has grown from just another new practitioner of ambient music to a recording artist as respected and well-loved as any other. We at Hypnos have released other Oophoi works such as Athlit, and his collaboration with Paul Vnuk Jr. (of Ma Ja Le), Distance to Zero. We also have an upcoming release The Martian Chronicles by Oophoi with Seren Ffordd. Usually we focus on releasing new projects, but sometimes a significant early work becomes completely unavailable. In a case such as this, the material strong enough taht we're sure listeners will feel it compares favorably with anything recorded since. The Path of White Clouds deserves to be heard. Track list with MP3 samples 1 The Quest 4:00 MP3 clip 2 Ascension 10:36 MP3 clip 3 Devotion 13:25 MP3 clip 4 The Living Mandala 9:15 MP3 clip 5 Enlightenment 16:20 MP3 clip 6 The Path of White Clouds 11:16 MP3 clip... (more/buy)
	Rapoon - Dream Circle (Special edition reissue 2010) (Soleilmoon category) (Price: $21.99 limited) Beautifully produced re-issue of the very first RAPOON album from 1992, released shortly after the split from ZOVIET FRANCE; a classic of ethno-ambient industrialism. Dark, esoteric and dense, with a lot of haunting loops, frightening whispers and subtle trance-inducing rhythms. Though it’s nearly 20 years old, it sounds fresh and actual, as now the spiral of time made its turn bringing us closer to this point of eternal dream circle, just one level higher (or lower, who knows?) The release limited to 500 copies comes in a mini LP-like embossed cover with inner sleeve, both printed gold-on-black... (more/buy)
	Forrest Fang - Phantoms (Projekt category) (Price: $13.99) Phantoms is Forrest Fang's 9th solo album and the follow-up to his Projekt release, Gongland. Nearly eight years in the making, Phantoms builds on the gamelan-influenced soundscapes of its predecessor by weaving organic sounds of non-Western stringed and percussion instruments and filtering those sounds through a rich melodic tapestry of warm and vaporous atmospheres. Fang's subtly layered and continually evolving textures combine his Asian influences with his love of fractal algorithms that reflect the chaotic beauty of nature. The ambiences of Phantoms evoke a state of contemplation within a world in flux. The centerpiece of the album is a 23-minute ambient suite "The Hallucinations of Hung Tung" inspired by the otherworldly paintings of a Taiwanese fisherman and outsider artist... (more/buy)
	Forrest Fang's Sans Serif: Unbound (Projekt category) (Price: $13.99) Unbound is veteran ambient musician Forrest Fang exploring lush and abstract terrain under the Sans Serif moniker. Using very small - at times microscopic - sounds as source material, Fang utilizes a vocabulary of long shimmering tones that gradually warp, mutate and transform over the course of a piece.... (more/buy)
	Herion - Out and About (Hypnos section) (Price: $12.99) 2010. Herion is an Italian trio whose members include Emanuele Errante (known to Hypnos customers for Humus on Evan Bartholomew's Somnia label), Enrico Coniglio (Aqua Dorsa project collaborator with Oophoi for the album Cloudlands, he also released Sea Cathedrals solo on Silentes), and Elisa Marzorati. They've created a beautiful and compelling combination of delicate musical structures with "glitch" components and strange, experimental little samples. Always a pleasant, peaceful listen, Out and About brings a blissed-out classical musicality into connection with an artful edge. This combination of elements results in an especially sensitive, moving set of mood pieces. Somewhere between chamber music and minimalism, between lightness and melancholy, this trio balances elements uncommon in ambient music. Pre-release review: "Emanuele Errante, Enrico Coniglio, and Elisa Marzorati have created a wonderful album that moves right to the soul of the listener. While I was familiar with Emanuele Errante, who released the excellent Humus album on Somnia in 2008, the other performers were a mystery to me. Marzorati’s piano motifs, mixed with Coniglio’s multi-faceted contributions involving melodica, harmonica, and treated guitar, all meld beautifully with Errante’s orchestral arrangements." -–Review by Michael Vitrano for Fluid Radio Hypnos is very pleased to release the first album this this trio. Out and About is not only a departure in terms of sound, but is also the Hypnos label's first release in digipak format. Here are pictures to give a sense of the package (click on images to see super-big version). See below for sample audio clips in mp3 format. Out and About tracks, including mp3 sample clips: 01. Oxg MP3 02. Lindos MP3 03. Cab MP3 04. One Minute After the Sunset MP3 05. Moske Orgulje MP3 06. The Earth MP3 07. The Hanging Glacier MP3 08. Two Minutes To Sunrise MP3 09. Risvegli MP3 10. Solo MP3... (more/buy)
	Resonant Drift - Passages (Resonant Drift category) (Price: $12.99) This release has the feel of being made from the moment while at the same time woven with layers of subtle innerplay and amorphous, shifting spaces. The 10 pieces or passages find inspiration in part from the challenges faced when traversing a path to enlightenment. Mastered and sonic enhancements by Steve Roach... (more/buy)
	Hollan Holmes - A Distant Light (Miscellaneous category) (Price: $9.99) Hollan says: A Distant Light, my debut CD, is the result of a dream that started as a young man, to create music that would capture people's imaginations. While my music is always a deeply personal journey, I derive great joy from sharing it with others. My love of synthesizers and the creative process have inspired me to compose music that transforms my consciousness and feeds my spirit. It is a form of expression, of prayer and meditation, and reflection. The music on A Distant Light was composed between 2007 and 2010 and was mastered by Steve Roach at the Time Room in Arizona. It is with great honor that I share my work and I thank you for listening... (more/buy)
	Celer - Salvaged Violets (2CD) (Infraction category) (Price: $13.99 2CD) New Celer -- always popular around here! Statement by Will of Celer: "In February of 2008, Dani and I recorded, mixed, and completed the music for 'Salvaged Violets'. The words came as the subject line of a short poem, sent to me over email, included with an unrelated question. During these weekdays, our working schedules were almost the opposite, but we spoke over email constantly. Until recently, I did not notice how similar this was to our beginnings, sending letters as we were on different sides of the country. With no conceptual idea in mind, and since we were apart for so much time during the weekdays, we decided to begin 'Salvaged Violets', and see what came of it. Every night when I returned home, before sleeping, I would spend time working on the music that Dani had worked on through the afternoon, and had left on the desk. Every afternoon, she would find a different version to work on that I had left, and this continued for some time. When together, we would sip our tea, laugh at silly jokes, cook, watch television, and so on. There was no need for longing while we were together. There was always laughing, pots and pans clanging, or a muttering television. In forming 'Salvaged Violets', we did not mix it in a particular arranged order. It was mixed simply by the order it was first played, compiling many miniature sections rolled into one. In this case, they were rolled into two. Nothing was discarded, nothing was rearranged. As the sound changed over time, the original form did not. When it was finally complete, we listened together, for the first time. I remember how familiar it seemed, yet I also felt that so much of it was unknown, and undefined. More than a year later, in September of 2009, I revisited the recordings for the first time since 2008. At this time, it was being mastered by our good friend Corey Fuller, so I was still listening to the original. Riding my bike through the endless suburban subdivisions, through the busy downtown streets, I listened repeatedly, for days, over and over. Something was familiar, but so much I was unable to recall, and yet I was able to relate. I returned home, put my bike against the door, and took my headphones off. There, in the still silence, I think I understood finally what it was about." ... (more/buy)
	Capricornus - Halation (Infraction category) (Price: $11.99) Some nice new minimalist stuff from Infraction. Reviewed by Alan Lockett for furthernoise.org: "Halation gives off a flat-on-back eyes-to-skies drowsy air with its long drawn out tone-rays. Highly amorphous in strategy, a purist ambient Enovian ethos a la Thursday Afternoon may suggest itself. On occasion, clusters of notes flicker within the freefloating drone, mirroring the eponymous halation effect - transient morning brume, or light refracted through water vapour rendered blurred." Issued in a 4 panel digipak, limited to 500 copies.... (more/buy)
	Ray Carl Daye - Echoes from the Aether (Miscellaneous category) (Price: $9.99) Like the Earth's upper atmosphere, the music is pure, floating, weightless, frictionless - both static and slowly evolving. Track listing 1. Echoes From the Aether 6:58 preview: MP3 clip 2. A Fragile Shift 13:24 preview: MP3 clip 3. Meridian Wave 11:20 4. The Light Between 12:42 "I really enjoy discovering new music, finding something that I've never heard before that connects with me in a new and interesting way. One of my favorite finds so far this year has been "Echoes from the Aether" by Ray Carl Daye, an impressive release featuring four sublimely beautiful drifting ambient tracks that have stayed in pretty much constant rotation in my player over the last few weeks. Beginning with the title track a warm and soothing mood is set, music perfect for Sunday morning listening before the day begins. High end melodies paired with lower tones play atop slowly drifting pads, while vaguely watery sounds and occasional snippets of melody float by. It's a really relaxing track, ideal for closing one's eyes and drifting. "A Fragile Shift" follows, equally beautiful and engaging with light tones bending and stretching through a bed of subtle sounds. The track ebbs and flows in slowly drifting waves, with every sound delicate and nuanced, beautifully minimal. "Meridian Wave" is up next pairing bright tones with low bass drones. It's a quiet piece where things happen slowly but purposefully and sounds slowly rotate around a centre of stillness, a very nice example of the beauty of simplicity. "The Light Between" closes the disc with a bright and warm pad-based track that flows with rich textures and layers, drifting from space to space, bringing to mind images of comfort and safety. A slight melody is there if you look for it but if you'd rather you can just let the tones flow around you and be enveloped by the soundscape created over the course of its length. To say that I enjoy "Echoes from the Aether" is a bit of an understatement. I'm moved by it's beauty, and as I continue to listen to it I find myself discovering more and more depth and sophistication in the music. Ray Carl Daye displays an impressive talent that I'm quite moved by and I look forward to seeing where his work takes me in the future." Reviewed by rik - ping things... (more/buy)
	Phragments & Korinth - Mysteries of the Greylands (Greytone category) (Price: $12.99) Digipak. "On this album, Phragments and Korinth have united into one monolithic entity, to produce a common opus. Orchestral choirs, dark ambient and ritual passages create a perfect cinematic journey over the mysterious Greylands, an archetypal and symbolic travel through the hidden side of the world. All songs are the result of collaboration of the two projects, resulting in a unique narrative experience. After three years of work, Phragments and Korinth deliver a ripe album -- a great journey for the listener." From Greytone Records... (more/buy)
	SantAAgostino - Operazione Paura (Greytone category) (Price: $12.99) Digipak. "Operazione Paura is a total turning not just for the band but for dark, ambient music and noise, generally speaking. That's because santAAgostino is like a meteor crashed onto the Earth disarranging all the balances, rhythmes and cycles. After the crash the planet seems to be perished but, in the inner part, the new fire of life is burning. A brand new energy developed in a new way of living, of thinking and being. Operazine Paura speaks of the filmic and horrorific fear, mind trap to kill atavistic thoughts and all those mental factors that trapped the man into a selfmade cage in his own mind, through the mind itself. Operazione Paura is an awl that, slowly but inexorably, drives the listener to a dimension where there is no thought, no images, no more conceptualizing, nothing still exhists: there is just a huge solitary desert now, where sounds spontaneously flow creating new monster beyond space and time. It's a place where new divine dynasties born, spreading their seed, in order to bear a brand new reign far from the borders that we can't even imagine." From Greytone Records... (more/buy)
	Trama afonA - Trama afonA (Greytone category) (Price: $12.99) Digipak. "Trama afonA is gathering suggestions from the contemporary quotidian theatre and at the same time from the past, namely the 19th and early 20th centuries. Paying particular attention to the individual and specific human stories, rather than to History… Focusing on what happens behind the scenes, aside, beneath. Subjects and dynamics less showy, blurred, but not consequently less interesting or worth caring. Opening doors and drawers using the sole curiosity as tool, walking backwards the traces of memory, wandering amid shades and details given by mystery, decadence, abandon, romanticismâ. Carefully delving into psychological dynamics. Openly denouncing the social plagues, but often humbly providing just visual and sound suggestions." From Greytone Records... (more/buy)
	Topografia - Genius Loci (Greytone category) (Price: $12.99) Digipak. "Genius Loci uses deep drones, acoustic instruments, sounds and field recordings registered near the author's place of living (Jaworzno). The project was inspired by the author's personal fascination with the diversity of nature and the philosophy of Schopenhauer, who considered nature to be one of the most primaeval manifestations of a blind and aimless will, a will which we too are a part of."... (more/buy)
	Taphephobia - Access to a World of Pain (Greytone category) (Price: $12.99) Digipak. "The music Taphephobia makes is mostly based on manipulated guitars (except house of memories that is mostly based on sounds). Taphephobia try to get out the feelings he has at the moment when Ketil compose the music. The idea is to create a atmosphere that is sometimes scary, and sometimes beautiful, like for example a good thriller drama movie. Taphephobia is very skilled to create a cinematic atmosphere combined with personal feelings like fear, hope, hate, regrets etc… The main goal is to make the listener able to dream away with the music." -From Greytone Records... (more/buy)
	Larva 108 - 99.09 | Inside the Stones (Greytone category) (Price: $12.99) Digipak. "A soundtrack for walking alone through a winter snowstorm or between the trees during a gray day of November. Experimental, electronica, drones creates organic gloomy atmospheres." From Greytone Records... (more/buy)
	Moljebka Pvlse - Zojo (Greytone category) (Price: $12.99) Digipak. "The Moljebka Pvlse album Zojo was recorded during the Mathias studies at the Royal Institute of Art. He was inspired by the longest night of the year in Stockholm, the day when there is almost no daylight. His ambition was to make an acoustic album of minimal music without any musical instruments. Moljebka Pvlse setup long nylon strings across his entire studio at school, which he then plucked and bowed and recorded with his favorite contact microphones on that very night. These recordings became the fundament of the album and set the tone for the rest of the work." From Greytone Records... (more/buy)
	Relapxych.0 - City Nightlights (Miscellaneous category) (Price: $11.99) City Nightlights was built upon field recordings from areas around Stockholm central station, Stadshuskajen, Riddarholmen, Tegelbacken and some abandoned and architecturally left-behind areas under and beneath the main central station, imbuing the six tracks with a tangible spectral presence and greatly enhances their organically drifting nature.... (more/buy)
	Llunstorcarnay (Seren Ffordd and Gliese 614) - Lament of a Forgotten God (CDR) (miscellaneous category) (Price: $11.99) Debut album from "Llunstorcarnay," a collaboration between Seren Ffordd and Gliese 614. "Lament of a Forgotten God is inspired by the ancient poems such as the Song of Taliesyn and was recorded between August 2008 - March 2010. The album developed a life of its own, not quite going where we had intended but drawing us into its own sounds and direction - we are pleased at having given it a voice.... (more/buy)
	Seren Ffordd - Arhythmia (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $9.99, ltd cdr) Reissue of out of print 2005 recording by Seren Ffordd, an ambient artist residing in Wales. This is the second in our series of reissues by this artist, following Stellar Nurseries, and we previously released his album Veils, Shadows on Hypnos Secret Sounds a few years earlier. Arhythmia is hypnotic and at times restful, yet often has an "edge" or a discordant quality. It's more "active" than most other Seren Ffordd music Cycles, patterns and rhythms, the world is full of them. Not the steady beats prevalent in most music, but subtle interlocking rhythms that dance and move through each other. The flow between the monthly phases of the moon and the daily tides. Stellar precession and the turning of galaxies. The pulsations of our blodd, neurons and breathing. In five parts, Arhythmia is an exploration of such shifting patterns that can be heard and felt but not danced to. Rhythms and movements of sound that draw the mind and spirit into other places of dreaming. Arhythmia is a mixture of light and dark textures that contain both flowing and hypnotic elements. All the sound sources on the CD are acoustic in origin. They include field recordings of Thunder, rain and other things. The rest of the music is created on singing bowls, voice, gourds and chimes. All the effects and sound manipulations are performed on a Korg D16 digital portastudio. Recorded in June and July 2005. "Interestingly with a title like Arhythmia, the artwork on the front of this one looks much like the inside of a heart valve, albeit softened in both texture and color. As for the music, hopefully it won't give you any cardiac trouble. Darker and more experimental than his other discs, here Benford takes us into what he calls 'an exploration of rhythms that can be heard and felt but not danced to.' Rumbling and churning sounds are joined by a steady rain in the background. Benford notes that the music is divided into five parts, although it plays as a single track... Arhythmia is daring adventurous fun." --Review by Phil Derby, Electroambient Space Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: Part I - 10:15 mp3 clip Part II - 14:45 mp3 clip Part III - 17:00 mp3 clip Part IV - 14:00 mp3 clip Part V - 14:50 mp3 clip ... (more/buy)
	Nordvarger - Pyrrhula (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) Partly based on an old Swedish folktale, Pyrrhula (doomlord) is a pitch black journey into utter darkness. This is a tale of foreboding doom... a portent of dark times to come... a blight on the face of this earth. These eight Black Ambient / Doom / Droneworks were brought forth from the abyss of Villa Bohult exclusively for Cold Spring and contain the malevolent vocals of Lord Nordvargr himself! Beware the small creatures of light, they only bring misery and death upon the enlightened ones. For they will paint their breast with blood and reap your unborn angels.... (more/buy)
	Machinefabriek - Daas (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) The tracks on Daas have been carefully picked to form a provoking, haunting journey. What the tracks have in common is a sense of nostalgic graininess. As with the music of Philip Jeck, The Caretaker or William Basinski, these tracks are full of degrading melodies and dusty ambience. \'Daas\' is the previously unreleased opening track of the album, and features contributions by the great Richard Skelton. Flotter, Koploop and Grom were previously available on small run self released EPs, while Onkruid was a track previously released on A Room Forever, as an expensive and extremely limited 12\" boxset. All are now brought to a wider audience. Presented in a laminate digipak... (more/buy)
	Alex Tiuniaev - I Knew Her (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) I knew Her is a 40-minute long journey of heart-melting, melancholic and neo-symphonic splendour - full of choirs, strings and neoclassical orchestration. This solitary track builds to a haunting and breathtaking crescendo... then brings the listener gently back down to the warm earth. A monumental release, with influences ranging from Sigur Ros to Philip Glass and Stars Of The Lid... (more/buy)
	Inade - Aldebaran (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) Debut CD from the masters of Black Ambient, available again after 6 years! Aldebaran is the black sun of the secret knowledge. This work focuses on the German Vril society myths of Aldebaran, from which universal spirituality is said to originate. One hour of immense walls of dark, brooding atmospherics, pulsating anthems of the universal power, mixed with themes of heritage and history. The ultimate document of deep and cavernous dark ambient... (more/buy)
	Z'EV - Sum Things (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) These six pieces endeavor to transport the listener deep into their long forgotten memories of the primal forces at the dawn of creation. Each piece is based on a single sound source. Absolutely no effects of any kind, not even equalization, were applied to the source recordings. Instead, Z'EV relied solely on the stretching of the duration and pitch of the samples and then edited and mixed the results down into the heart of space... (more/buy)
	Sleep Research Facility - Deep Frieze (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) Ultra deep, glacial Dark Ambient, based around Antarctic co-ordinates. The polar regions are awe-inspiring environments of inhospitable minimalism, and at the same time there\'s a beautiful serenity to be found in their uncharted bleakness. There's a powerful purity and a timelessness to be found there; snow which has lain un-trampled for millennia and ice which formed eons ago; mountain ranges and deserts and rivers to be found if you look. Deep Frieze is SRF\'s second album for Cold Spring and here deep, resonant, abyss-like drones shine forth from icy chasms below. Jewelcase with foldout map booklet... (more/buy)
	Sleep Research Facility - Nostromo (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) Ultra deep ambience, based on the first 8 minutes of the movie Alien, which depicts the deep space haulage vessel slowly moving through the void. The disc takes you through a slow trip into the ship via tracks DECK A - E, deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Nostromo. Colossal dark ambience from the abyss, with beautiful artwork that evokes the sinister atmosphere of the ship. Reissue with bonus track Narcissus.... (more/buy)
	Tor Lundvall - Ghost Years (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) "Ghost Years is my first retrospective CD featuring tracks from various compilations, vinyl-only releases plus some unreleased material. The focus is more on my vocal work, however there are a few instrumental pieces included as well. Although the music spans about a decade, I was surprised at how well the tracks flow together to make a coherent ensemble, evolving from my earlier song-oriented compositions to the more ambient nature of my recent recordings." -Tor Lundvall... (more/buy)
	All Hail the Transcending Ghost - All Hail the Transcending Ghost (Cold Spring category) (Price: $13.99) The debut album from AHTTG - a joint collaboration between Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk (MZ.412, Toroidh, Folkstorm etc) and Tim Bertilsson (Fear Falls Burning, Switchblade). The Swedish duo have created arguably one of the most haunting drone-dark-ambient-industrial works in recent years, invoking the spirits of old Nordvargr, meets the sludge-doom vibe of Tim\'s hellish guitar. ...truly the most scary music I have recorded, (Nordvargr.) An icy chill down your spine... a cold hand on your shoulder... you are never alone in the darkness... (more/buy)
	Concert Silence (Infraction category) (Price: $13.99) Concert Silence is a collaboration between Charles Buckingham and Matthew Cooper, currently both residing in Portland, Oregon. An ongoing conversation between the two began in 2004 when they met over a shared interest in live sound manipulation. 09.22.07 was the first major outcome of discussions regarding symbiotic cultures and their implications to music. A live performance set up was designed, allowing each player to have equal input and manipulation control, (which can be seen in a diagram within the artwork of the album).... (more/buy)
	Concert Silence - Rain Furniture (Infraction category) (Price: $13.99) With Rain Furniture, Charles Buckingham and Matthew Cooper wanted to explore a new and different musical territory than previously traveled, while still using the audio set up from 09.22.07. As a companion piece to the full length, Rain Furniture engages a more raw energy.... (more/buy)
	Ben Fleury-Steiner - Keep a Weather Eye Open (Infraction category) (Price: $13.99) From the inset,Tender is the opaque morning the scene has been set on Keep a Weather Eye Open into a Bryars-esque dip into the sunken Titanic. Gently clattering china on a slow drop to the bed of the ocean, faint light filtering through. The band plays on, the notes become submerged & eventually a hymnal drone emerges repeating over and over in slow cycles. This is not the end however, as unlike the ill-fated Vessel of Sleep, this work re-emerges to the surface and into hazy light. Roughly 2 years in the making, KAWEO is presented in a digipak with a 12 page color booklet in an edition of 900 copies. KAWEO was mastered by Robert Rich... (more/buy)
	Mystified - Passing through the Outer Gates, Eulogy Series Volume 1 (Miscellaneous category) (Price: $12.99) Ambient and dark ambient soundscapes alike are deftly populated by neo-classical elements, occasionally with an experimental twist. There are no comparisons to other musicians or albums, as this album and the journey within are distinctly those of Mystified! Dare you join Thomas on his spiritual journey? Or do you fear to leave this world behind? Mystified's Passing Through the Outer Gates is presented in an A5 digipak with silver foil-embossed lettering and a specially die-cut cover whose coffin-shaped hole reveals only a hint of the true album cover artwork underneath! Featuring David Demaret`s Burning Souls painting, with additional graphics and layout by Eclipse Media. Limited to 500 copies... (more/buy)
	ATOI - Ambient Temple Of Imagination (Plague category) (Price: $13.99) Limited edition, housed in A5-jacket. Over 70 minutes of ritual kabbalistic trance. ATOI member Seofon says: It's the ATOI disc that I've always wanted to see released. Featuring Johannes Ayres (IAO Core), Joshua Maremont (Thermal), Stephen Kent, Roy Robinson (23 Degrees), vidnaObmana and Mark Wayne (E.A.R.)... (more/buy)
	Mystified - Primal Mystification (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $9.99, ltd cdr) Mystified is a pseudonym for Thomas Park, an ambient/electronic musician who lives in the midwestern USA. He's been prolific under the Mystified name as well as the Mister Vapor project, but this is his first release with Hypnos Secret Sounds. Most recently, Mystified has collaborated with Nunc Stans on a release "One Thousand Dreams" on the Dataobscura label, and he has previously collaborated with Robin Storey (Rapoon) and Nigel Ayers (Nocturnal Emissions). One of the things we enjoy at Hypnos is helping expose listeners to artists they may not have heard before, and that includes even artists whose work has been released widely on a variety of labels. The work of Mystified, while elsewhere working with more pronounced electronic rhythms, here emphasizes deep, slow-moving textures. Primal Mystification includes subtle and restrained percussive elements but is definite geared toward the listener who loves deep, thick drone work. Mystified himself says of this recording: "Primal Mystification emerged from drone sounds, similar to the way we humans emerged from the primordial ooze. Oscillating ambient bell washes were created using field recordings and mystical effect processes, and then simple rhythmic and melodic phrases evolved from the primal material. Sometimes there is a change or development in the rhythmic material, and always there are changes in the drones, behind, as they shift and flow. Primal Mystification is a musical union of form and formlessness." Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: 01 > massive turning > 14:58 > mp3 02 > departing certainty > 13:26 > mp3 03 > not knowing where > 10:30 > mp3 04 > back to the primal > 11:22 > mp3... (more/buy)
	Viridian Sun - Infinite In All Directions (Hypnos section) (Price: $10.99) 2009. Viridian Sun is a duo focusing on abstract improvisation, featuring Hypnos founder Mike Griffin, and Hypnos solo artist David Tollefson. Their last studio album Perihelion was released a full decade ago on Hypnos, though VS continued to record together and occasionally perform live. The new album Infinite In All Directions moves into slightly different sonic material, downplaying synthesizer electronics in favor of guitar and bass guitar, electronically treated and looped. The result combines sustained, blissful drones, along with occasionally strange, complex overlapping loops. Many Hypnos listeners have asked over the years when we'll release something new by Viridian Sun, and we now present an album that may be their best yet: Infinite In All Directions. Track listing with MP3 samples coming soon: 1 > infinite in all directions > 13:31 mp3 clip 2 > parallax drift > 07:13 mp3 clip 3 > four times I slept for a year > 09:46 mp3 clip 4 > travel at absolute zero > 05:03 mp3 clip 5 > 40 Hz emergence > 05:41 mp3 clip 6 > magnetars cast no shadow > 12:52 mp3 clip 7 > light years from here > 08:58 mp3 clip... (more/buy)
	relapxych.O - Ripples on the Surface of Time & Space / Last Industrial Estate Vol. 1 (Miscellaneous category) (Price: $9.99) You might recall Relapxych.0 (aka Anders Petersen from Sweden) on 2008's Hypnos compilation, Message From a Subatomic World. Here's a nwe split album on his own label, Ghosts Sounds. Pt. 1 relapxych.O - Ripples on the Surface of Time and Space. Pt. 2 Last Industrial Estate - Last Industrial Estates Vol. 1... (more/buy)
	Steve Roach - Afterlight (Steve Roach category) (Price: $13.99) This long-form piece delivers the listener deep inside a multi-dimensional realm of forming clouds, an endless expanse with no boundaries or sense of temporal limits. Amorphous strands of harmonic lumina emerge and recede in a constant unfolding and reconfiguring state for the duration of this pure atmospheric suspension.... (more/buy)
	Resonant Drift - The Call (Resonant Drift category) (Price: $12.99) 2009. This new one has a beautiful Steve Roach-like flavor, likely due to the duo's recent study with Roach, as well as his tweaks and mastering of the final recording. Definitely recommended. "The Call is the new release from the duo of Bill Olien and Gary Johnson, known collectively as Resonant Drift. Combining synthesizers, guitars, percussion, ethnic instruments and field recordings, this deep and organic release explores ambient and atmospheric territory, and boasts expert mastering and sonic enhancements by Steve Roach at his world famous Timeroom studio." -Morpheus Music... (more/buy)
	Parks - Hidden (Infraction category) (Price: $14.99) Parks is Russian ambient/electronic artist Igor Bystrov who has been working on his craft for nearly 15 years. Hidden may be his most accomplished and varied work to date. Sitting somewhere in the midst of the great 90\'s ambient artists, the (rather) new wave of Russian electronic artists all the while admiring from a distance the Kompakt pop-ambient of this decade - Parks seamless blend of it all has culminated in a brilliant finish. Presented in a 6 panel digipak... (more/buy)
	Eluder - The Most Beautiful Blue (Infraction category) (Price: $14.99) "The careful choreography of retreat and remotion is what Patrick Benolkin is about, so you won't be surprised when walls within and without come down, dissolved by the drift inside The Most Beautiful Blue. Eluder offers here a sonic solution in which thoughts, mirroring the music's mood movements, may dissolve, float free, and finally submerge, without fear of being taken down." -Alan Lockett... (more/buy)
	Loren Dent - Anthropology Vol. 1 (Infraction category) (Price: $14.99) "This album is like a soundtrack to life itself- one of joy, love, fear, pain, loss, grieving, euphoria and one which transcends time. Wondrous layers of sound are rich and constantly evolving, always emotional and hypnotic. Loren\'s tools are both analogue and digital, and his use of both is a joy to behold." -Norman Records... (more/buy)
	Seren Ffordd - Stellar Nurseries (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $9.99, ltd cdr) 2009. Stellar Nurseries is the first in a series of Seren Ffordd reissues planned to continue over the coming year or so. These recordings, by an artist whose work is always mysterious and sometimes ominous, were previously released on the Umbra and Penumbra labels operated (by Hypnos artist Oophoi) out of Italy, though the artist himself resides in Wales. He first connected with Hypnos on the compilation CD Sounds of a Universe Overheard, to which he contributed a track, and Hypnos Secret Sounds released his album Veils, Shadows. This recording exhibits a pleasing serenity, a great example of the artist's characteristic combination of dark and light elements into a balanced, deep contrast. Stellar Nurseries is a continuous track 1:01:02 in duration, with the following figurative "sections" (with mp3 sample clips): 1. Out of the Void mp3 2. Storm Movement mp3 3. Spiral Dance mp3 4. Floating, Dreaming mp3... (more/buy)
	Atheus - Soundscapes and Drones (miscellaneous category) (Price: $9.99) "Stunning full-length album from Atheus, I have been looking forward to this release ever since the first tentative audio samples appeared via myspace what must be more than twelve months ago now. So here it is, arrived only today and I have played this album through from start to finish three times already, it really is that good. Mysterious, intrusive, threatening ambience, almost drone-like in parts, and sounds totally amazing when adjusted correctly and played very, very loud. Thoroughly mesmerising, I can whole-heartedly say this is one of the most outstanding albums of year and certainly in my top three! Breathtaking." --interstellarsounds.com "Unique all Ambient & Drones release from one of the best Minimal Dub project around." --Cycliclaw.com Track listing: The Sound of Dark Matter Stella Mortis Laudanum Nacht Soundscape One Terra Incognita The Magic Mountain Vox Obscura Drone 37Hz Adagio for Drone... (more/buy)
	Birds of Tin - Altarwise (New - Diophantine Label category) (Price: $11.99) 2009. This is the latest release on the interesting (new to us) label discovery, Diophantine Discs, from which we'll soon have other items available. The two lengthy tracks of Altarwise were recorded in late 2004 and remastered earlier this year. The first track is a 30-minute experimental work that gradually moves through a wide range of sounds (echoing chimes, mysterious noises, subdued clanking, drones). The second piece is an epic 46-minute composition of deep ambient/drone music that manages to float freely through the listener\'s imagination while keeping his attention. While many modern day experimental artists have moved on into the computer realm, Birds of Tin has remained true to the experimental sound of tape loops, lo-fi samplers, and collections of unique toy instruments running through small fx boxes. The sound of the work may have become more cohesive and seamless over the years, but the methods have largely remained the same.... (more/buy)
	Nunc Stans and Mystified - One Thousand Dreams (Blue Oasis/Dataobscura category) (Price: $13.99) An immersive set of richly detailed dreamscapes that flow and shift with a sophisticated ease and engaging lyric beauty. Expect a haunting mix of grainy drone, sonic curiosities, and occasional treated field recording, all bound together by exquisite drawn-out melodic lines.... (more/buy)
	Phaenon - Submerged (malignant category) (Price: $13.99) Visually and sonically enveloping, this is an album of space and texture, slowly revealing a psychoactive soundscape of majestic, arcing timbres, circadian buzzes, and expansive drones. Heavy, and cosmically weighty in the beginning, Submerged evolves into something more minimalist and serene, radiating a celestial beauty, yet becoming even more bleak and suffocating as it progresses over it‘s 66 minute time frame. Experienced from start to finished, there’s a palpable sense of drifting and drowning, of being carried away into an endless, interstellar vacuum... (more/buy)
	Matt Borghi - The Phantom Light (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $9.99, ltd cdr) 2009. The Phantom Light is the third release in our Matt Borghi reissue series. Originally issued in an edition of only 30 copies in 2006, this Hypnos Secret Sounds reissue will be the first opportunity for this recording to be heard by most Borghi listeners. The four long pieces exhibit Borghi's characteristic simplicity and restraint. Matt says: The Phantom Light is a work that’s comprised four compositions with titles derived from some of the most remote lighthouses on the northern Great Lakes. The works are inspired by sailor’s tales of being adrift on The Great Lakes during storms, and catastrophic weather. Sailors, looking out on the horizon for a sign of life, a light of hope, aimed their ships towards the safety of these phantom lighthouses hoping to get to a safe harbor. Often times these phantom lighthouses just lead to a rocky shoal and a watery death. These “phantom” lights have been a thing of myth for as long as The Great Lakes freshwater seas have been sailed. In many ways, The Phantom Light is a sequel to Huronic Minor, as Great Lakes lore, and Matt Borghi’s own experiences on The Great Lakes were the creative impetus for this work. Track list: 1. Ile Aux Gales (17.54) mp3 2. Manistee North Pierhead (16.33) mp3 3. Seul Choix Point (21.01) mp3 4. North Manitou Island Shoal (20.28) mp3... (more/buy)
	Steve Brand - Children of Alcyone (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $11.99, ltd cdr) 2009. The second release by Steve Brand on our Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint, Children of Alcyone demonstrates the characteristic otherworldly quality of the artist's best work. Generally quite simple, at times singlemindedly minimal, this work is nonetheless possessed of a depth and complexity that are revealed upon repeated listening. Stretched-out drone structures combine with subtle tribal/ethnic elements to create very effective atmospheres for almost hypnotic relaxation. Though we're tempted to call Brand one of our favorite "new" artists, in fact he has been active as a recording artist for quite some time, having released many recordings under the name Augur, along with a handful of solo and collaborative works under his own name this past year. Steve Brand says: "The inspiring energy for Children of Alcyone was/is the books of Barbara Marciniak. Marciniak's books are said to be channeled information from the Pleiadians, our distant multi-dimensional ancestors from the Pleiades constellation. (Alcyone is the name of the "central sun" of this constellation.) Upon being introduced to these books, I was immediately taken by their wit and irreverence, the nearly unfathomable timeline of events, and their uncanny relevance to things that are currently taking place here on Earth (the first of these books were channeled in the early 90's). The initial sound sketches for "Children" were begun in September of 2007 in the tidal wave of energy that was Steve Roach's "Into the SoundCurrent" masters' class, and elaborated upon, refined, and re-energized over the intervening 3 years in my own studio. The result is a sometimes murky, sometimes soothing, sometimes phantasmagorical series of excursions through multiple timelines, and myriad possible half lit universes that other versions of ourselves inhabit. My friend, and frequent collaborator, Jonathan Benham, not only created the art for this disk, but contributed energy and sounds to a couple of tracks with his array of homemade instruments during a series of improvisations between he and myself captured at my studio." Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: 1. Golden Cloud - (08:17) - mp3 clip 2. Light Age - (22:51) - mp3 clip 3. Outside the Grid of Time - (17:15) - mp3 clip 4. Into the Central Sun - (12:30) - mp3 clip... (more/buy)
	Alio Die & Aglaia - Private History of the Clouds (Infraction category) (Price: $14.99) 2009. Latest from the Infraction label. They say: "This has been in the works for almost 1.5 years. Is there finer ambience (save Oophoi perhaps) coming from Italy outside of these two acts? And a collaboration to boot. Nice. 900 copies in the Japanese style mini-lp matte gatefold sleeve. Beautiful layout courtesy of the ever-impressive designwork of Pyhai.... (more/buy)
	Vidna Obmana - An Opera for Four Fusion Works (4CDs) (Hypnos label) (Price: $34.99, 4CDs) It was always our intention to lower the price of Vidna Obmana's An Opera for Four Fusion Works series once the final act was released. Not only have we cut the price on the "Acts 1-4" package from $41.99 to $34.99, we've also slightly reduced the individual disc prices, for those of you who have purchased part of the series, but not all. For those unfamiliar with this Vidna Obmana "series" release, each "Act" involved a collaboration between Vidna Obmana and a different recording artist, and was released separately. "Act 1" was a single-disc release, but packaged in a 4-CD case designed to hold all four Acts together. Acts 2, 3 and 4 were released in a paper sleeve with a booklet, to be inserted in the Act 1 case (or, of course, they fit into a standard CD case if you prefer not to buy Act 1)... Act 1 featuring Dreams in Exile, $10.99 (more/buy) Act 2 featuring Bill Fox, $9.99 (more/buy) Act 3 featuring Kenneth Kirschner, $9.99 (more/buy) Act 4 featuring Steven Wilson, $9.99 (more/buy) Acts 1-4 combined, $34.99 (more/buy)
	Robert Rich / Faryus - Zerkalo (faria category) (Price: $13.99) 2008. Tangential glimpses remotely echoed, untethered from touch. No time nor place, no past nor future, internal, external. Sculpting from energy, clouded motion vaguely slipping. Evanescent vibration, without meaning apart from its own open secret.... (more/buy)
	Birds of Tin - Rinpoche (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $9.99, ltd cdr) 2008. Birds of Tin is a pseudonym for experimental sound artist Brooke Oates. He has previously collaborated with Rapoon and Augur (Steve Brand), and released several solo and collaborative works on a variety of labels, most notably Manifold and Mystery Sea. We are pleased to announce the first release by Birds of Tin, Rinpoche, on the Hypnos Secret Sounds sub-label. This recording comes from an in-studio live improvisation from 2002, and covers a strange and varied sonic territory. Working in the realm of sound art as much as "music," the artist creates an effect that is hypnotic and at times seemingly psychoactive. "Birds Of Tin is the one man project of Brooke Oates and there has been no new release since 2004. That perhaps might be right, since the recordings here on 'Rinpoche' were improvised in 2002. Birds Of Tin had releases on Manifold, Solipsism, Mystery Sea and XZF. What Oates does here is pretty much outside the lines of Hypnos: no finely woven tapestries of synthesizers, but a likewise finely woven pattern of all sorts of heavily treated sound objects. Lots of echo and reverb on the tea cups that is. Two pieces, together spanning some seventy-five minutes, whereas one would have been enough. Another difference is the improvisational aspect of the music, also not unlike Hypnos. Birds Of Tin seems to me a man who loves his record collection - don't we all - and particularly records by zoviet*france and to a lesser extent Rapoon. Sometimes things are a bit too haphazard in the way its put together, but then in other moments he proofs to be capable of producing a nice tune. A pair of scissors to splice the tape would be handy though." --Reviewed by Frans DeWaard, Vital Weekly Track listing (with mp3 sample clips): 1 mp3 2 mp3... (more/buy)
	Various - Echoes of Polyhymnia (Hypnos label) (Price: $9.99) 2008. New, special price! Polyhymnia was one of the Muses of Greek myth, specifically the Muse of sacred hymn. Echoes of Polyhymnia compiles music in ambient and related genres composed and recorded exclusively by women. This genre is so male-dominated generally that we had a lot of fun gathering interesting ambient sounds, including some works that have one foot in ambient territory and another foot in one of several different, related genres. It covers styles and flavors as diverse as ambient, drone, glitch, vocal collage, goth and electronica. Hypnos manager (and artist) Lena Griffin curated this specially-themed compilation which gathers an assortment of ambient & atmospheric sound works from around the world. This project reveals a totally new angle on ambient music, more diverse and wide-ranging than all previous ambient compilations from Hypnos. Ranging from ethereal to dark to pretty to spooky to melodic, we think this album displays a solidly worthwhile musical and soundscape content beyond just the curiosity and "I've never seen that before" factor of the theme. "The nine Muses struck up a lifestirring melody. Polyhymnia, nursingmother of the dance, waved her arms and sketched in the air an image of a soundless voice, speaking with hands and moving eyes in a graphic picture of silence full of meaning." --The Dionysiaca of Nonnus Track listing with mp3 sample clips: 1. Margaret Noble: "Nufon" mp3 2. Stellaria Fennica: "Hibernia" mp3 3. Kristin Miltner: "Slew Wave" mp3 4. Clarissa Borba: "Floating Tones" mp3 5. Sara Ayers: "There Was No More Time" mp3 6. Rose Bolton: "An Unheard Message" mp3 7. Gydja: "Wave-Particle Duality" mp3 8. The Floating World: "Kanam" mp3 9. K. Cornelius: "Of The Ancients" mp3 10. Lena Griffin: "She Forgot, She Dreamed" mp3 ... (more/buy)
	Saul Stokes - Villa Galaxia (Binary section) (Price: $12.99) 2008. Always one of the most popular artists on the Hypnos and Binary labels through the years, Saul Stokes is also one we've been very proud to "launch" into the ambient/electronica world, going back to Saul's first album which was also the first album on Hypnos, Washed in Mercury in 1997. The first new work by Saul Stokes on Hypnos/Binary since Fields in 2005, this is certainly one of the most anticipated discs we've released in years. Saul Stokes says: Stokesí 8th solo album to date, Villa Galaxia is a hyperfusion of sonic exploration seeded in Stokesí seminary music past, while arcing into a completely new genre defining collection of songs. Stripping away any notion of ambient drone or chill out labeling, Villa Galaxia surfs its own ocean of contemporary electronic music culture with eccentric listenable experimentalism wrapped in catchy lyrical orchestras of electronic fireworks.... (more/buy)
	Sans Serif - Tones for LaMonte (Ltd CDR) (Hypnos Secret Sounds section) (Price: $9.99, ltd cdr) 2008. Sans Serif is an alter ego of Forrest Fang, the talented multi-instrumentalist and composer whose most recent solo album Gongland was released on Projekt in 2000. He has also collaborated with Carl Weingarten on the album Invisibility released on The Foundry, as well as contributing instrumentally to the works of other artists such as Robert Rich. Unlike the more traditionally structured and "musical" work Fang releases under his own name, the Sans Serif project is focused on minimalism. This project in particular is a tribute to the influential minimalist composer LaMonte Young, whose work was known for the use of long, sustained tones and alternate tunings. Tones for LaMonte bridges the two, related worlds of avant-garde classical influence, and modern ambient drone. Track listing, with mp3 sample clips: 1. Alpha mp3 2. Omega mp3 3. Gamma mp3 4. Delta mp3 5. Theta mp3 6. (infinity) mp3... (more/buy)
	M. Griffin - Fabrications (Hypnos label) (Price: $12.99) 2008. Originally announced in 1997 as the follow-up by Hypnos founder Mike Griffin to his debut Sudden Dark, Fabrications has been reworked, abandoned, restarted from scratch, back-burnered, reimagined, and left frozen in carbonite. Among those who have followed Hypnos from the beginning, Fabrications achieved a certain notoriety as the album always promised for release in the coming year, which never quite arrived. 2008 is finally the year in which Fabrications is revealed, perhaps appropriate for the 10-year anniversary of its original planned release date, 1998. Generally known as an ambient minimalist, utilizing synthesizers for most of his work, this time M. Griffin took advantage of "real world" sounds, captured with binaural microphones using a portable digital audio recorder. For this release, Griffin built up collages of numerous location recording elements, including cars driving on freeways, people walking in long echoing hallways, the ocean waves in Kona at night, a metalworking factory with heavy machinery crunching away, distant trains, and clothes driers. These elements were manipulated, combined, worked-on and re-worked, and overlaid with looped spoken elements later created by Griffin in the studio. The end result comes out something like the Zoviet France soundtrack to a David Lynch film, that is, a dark and dream-like collage of loops, spoken fragments, disembodied whispers, and the echo of far-off machinery... Track listing, with MP3 sample clips: Water is Silver Gravity Behind Air Sense Space Devise Sky is Glass Lit... (more/buy)