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Seren Ffordd
Dreaming in the Well of Slow Shadows


Dave Fulton
Of Those Things Left Unsaid


Subradial
Ice Diving


Antonio Testa & Michel Moglia
Forget the Past


Robert Rich
Trances & Drones


Robert Rich
Sunyata & Inner Landscapes


Numina
The Deception of Reality


Bruno Sanfilippo
Urbs


Seren Ffordd + Oöphoi
The Martian Chronicles

Hypnos News Archive, 2001


2001.12.26 It took a few days longer to get Seed by Ma Ja Le and James Johnson added to the Hypnos Online Store but it's there now.

Also lowered the prices of the items in the "closeout" category of the store, and added a few new titles to the Dark Duck Records label section.

.

2001.12.18 Very, very soon we'll be announcing Seed by Ma Ja Le and James Johnson, and it will be added to the Hypnos Online Store soon after. Just a teaser to let you know it's coming.

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2001.12.13 Several additions and changes last night to the Hypnos Online Store. First off, added new titles by Steve Roach (two of 'em!), James Johnson & Vir Unis, Matthew Harris, Komet, and others.

Also, though the Hypnos store retains the same very popular flat-rate shipping charges for North America ($3 shipping per order in the USA and $5 per order in Canada and Mexico), it was necessary to slightly change the shipping charges for overseas orders. Instead of flat-rate, these foreign orders are subject to "split-rate" shipping charges. In other words, orders of 1-3 CDs will pay one rate, and orders of 4 or more CDs will pay a higher rate. This change was necessary because shipping these foreign orders was costing us roughly double what we were collecting for shipping. For instances, someone in Australia might order a dozen CDs and pay $7 shipping, and it would cost Hypnos over $20 to ship them.

Those of you in Europe & the UK will pay $6 for 1-3 CD orders and $9 for 4+ CD orders, while Asian & Australian customers will pay $7 for 1-3 CDs and $11 for 4+ CD orders. I hope that's not too complicated or confusing, and I think our overseas friends will agree that the shipping charges are still much less than what it actually costs us to ship the stuff to you.

.

2001.12.12 At the risk of this news page becoming an "all Echoes, all the time" space, we're pleased to report that Echoes has just announced its 2001 Listeners' Choice list. Echoes listeners were allowed to vote on their favorites of the year, and the top 25 choices were ranked, and played as a special Echoes radio show tonight.

Three Hypnos (including Binary) titles were included. Special congratulations go to Dweller at the Threshold, Paul Ellis, and Jeff Pearce. Their 2001-released CDs were all 3 included in the top 25. The rankings were as follows:

1  Afro Celt Sound System - Vol 3: Further in Time
2  Patrick O'Hearn - So Flows the Current
3  Dead Can Dance - 1981-1998
4  Dweller at the Threshold - Ouroborus
5  David Darling - Cello Blue
6  Erik Wollo - Wind Journey
7  Epiphany Project - Epiphany Project
8  Jalan Jalan - Bali Dua
9  Tim Story - Shadowplay
10  Robert Mirabal - Music from a Painted Cave
11  Bruce Kaphan - Slider
12  Rasa - Union
13  R. Carlos Nakai/AmoChip Dabney - Edge of the Century
14  Zero One - Prototype 2
15  Michael Hedges - Beyond Boundaries
16  Jeff Pearce - The Light Beyond
17  Paul Ellis - Into the Liquid Unknown
18  Mars Lasar - Karma
19  Sheila Chandra - This Sentence is True, The Previous Sentence is False
20  Brian Eno / J. Peter Schwalm - Drawn from Life
21  B-Tribe - Spiritual Spiritual
22  Hans Zimmer - The Wings of a Film
23  Vangelis - Mythodea
24  Gary Stroutsos - Pacific Moon
25  Tim Farrell - Songs from Clarowood 

Our thanks AGAIN to the listeners of Echoes (devoted readers of this news page may remember that Pearce's To the Shores of Heaven was #1 on the 2000 list), and John Diliberto, Jeff Towne, and the rest of the Echoes staff.

Paul Ellis, who is also a member of Dweller at the Threshold, can boast of being the only artist to have TWO discs listed (unless there's also some other solo artist plus his own group listed that I'm not aware of). Also, with three titles listed, Hypnos is behind only Hearts of Space, with four.

.

2001.12.02 Yet another Hypnos artist feature coming up on Echoes radio. Echoes has been very friendly to Robert Rich lately, and I think this is the third Rich feature on Echoes in recent months. Here's the announcement:

Wednesday 12/26*, Saturday 12/29**, Sunday 12/30*
ROBERT RICH-NOTES FROM THE BESTIARY
Robert Rich is a musician of many modes, most of them pushed
to the edge.  We recorded him in a solo piano concert this
past spring, but his latest album is his most purely
electronic disc in 20 years.  It's called BESTIARY and it's
a smoldering, morphing expanse of analog synthesizer textures
and subsonic grooves.  In his Silicon Valley studio, Robert
Rich unleashes some of his beasts.

Though Bestiary is not a Hypnos release, I thought this was relevant news, as Bestiary is sold on the Hypnos Online Store, and it's a disc I really believe in.

.

2001.11.29 Covered so much ground in that last update that I hope it lasted everybody this past two weeks!

Been crazycrazycrazy busy here, but the SEED disc is in the presses right now, and the wheels are turning on several other upcoming projects mentioned last time.

Also have had intermittent problems with internet connectivity, most recently going about 36 hours with nothing at all. But I'm getting caught back up on email again, so if you're waiting to hear from me on something, I should be back to merely usual delays instead of these extraordinary delays.

I'm working out a system that will allow me to update the hypnos.com site more easily not only from my main PC, but also from my newly updated iBook portable. This should facilitate even more frequent updates, possibly even the occasional weekend news udpate! More news early next week.

.

2001.11.14 It's no secret or surprise that many people have found their activities, both business and artistic, disrupted following the events of Sept 11. Hypnos has been affected like everyone else, and the result has been a bit of a lull in the release of CDs. Planned releases like Oophoi's Athlit and Ma Ja Le and James Johnson's Seed have slipped back a bit. Also, the Binary release of Thermal Transfer by Saul Stokes and Vir Unis was delayed.

This actually worked out OK, as Hypnos & Binary & Foundry had released a ton of stuff during the summer anyway, and this gave everybody a chance to catch up a bit on the flood of CDs from our three connected labels.

For a while now, though, the wheels have been turning again, and work has progressed on a number of fronts. The first item to be completed is Seed, which will go to the manufacturing stage this week for an expected early December release.

The Oophoi disc has been just about ready to go for a while, and I just need to put some finishing touches on the package artwork, and that should be ready pretty soon also.

Saul Stokes & Vir Unis took a bit of a break from working on Thermal Transfer, but they're back to work on it again and it's nearly complete. Saul utilized this "break" to work on his solo album Fields, for which three absolutely jaw-dropping tracks have been completed. I've played these tracks for a few people locally, including Dave Fulton and Paul Ellis of Binary group Dweller at the Threshold, and also Phil Derby who is a freelance reviewer of electronic music. I told these guys in advance that I thought this new work was exceptionally strong and very exciting, but even with that warning they were all three surprised by it. Fields may very well end up being the album that breaks Saul's reputation through to a much wider audience, the way Jeff Pearce's To the Shores of Heaven did for Jeff.

Work on the upcoming (and oft-delayed) M Griffin solo album Fabrications has been put on hold yet again so that I can start work on another collaboration with Dave Fulton. We want to finish this album so it can be released prior to our planned performance at The Gathering in Philadelphia during Spring 2002. Not a single note has been recorded yet (we're going to start tonight, actually) but I expect it to be in the general ballpark of The Most Distant Point Known, that is, a combination of deep ambient textures (drones and pulses) along with more sequencer-based loops and patterns.

Jeff Pearce is working steadily on his next solo album, for which a title has been suggested, but I'm not sure Jeff has settled on that title so we'll still call it "The upcoming Jeff Pearce album." Jeff claims to have mailed me a "taster" CDR so I'll be able to comment a bit more soon on what this will sound like. Jeff also claims that it's quite a departure in terms of sound. We shall see... That one should be released fairly early in 2002.

The Synthetic Block album Sonic Approach will be out on Binary soon, as Dave Fulton has recently finished the mastering.

Hypnos and Vidna Obmana are planning a 4-CD series that will be released in an unusual format. Instead of releasing four separate CDs, or a big plastic case with 4 CDs in it, the CDs will be released one at a time (the delay between subsequent releases still has not been determined). The first CD will be sold in a 4-CD case (similar to what Humidity by Robert Rich's 3-CD case), with empty slots for discs 2, 3 and 4, which will be released subsequently in minimal packaging and at a reduced per-disc price. These later releases may be inserted into the 4-disc case one at a time to complete the set. This project was originall planned as a 6-CD set, to be called Opera for Six Fusion Works. Now that the number of CDs has been reduced, I imagine the title might simply be changed to Opera for Four Fusion Works but that's just speculation.

Lastly, while no more Hypnos sub-labels are planned, some consideration has been given to doing more than one type of Hypnos-label release. In addition to the "standard" package everyone is familiar with, one or more new series of CD releases is being contemplated.

The first possibility, having been contemplated and planned for some time, is the "Hypnos Signature Series." These releases would be limited to 500 copies, individually signed by the artist, and more expensive due to their limited nature. The packaging would be generally similar to regular Hypnos CDs, though they would be differentiated in appearance (different color scheme, layout, and type treatment, but a materially similar package).

The second such possibility being contemplated is sort of the opposite end of the spectrum, with the working name "Hypnos Explorer Series." These releases would be limited to either 500 or 1000 copies and would come in a simplified package -- possibly in a four-color cardboard envelope or sleeve, or in a clear vinyl envelope or sleeve with a standard paper booklet. Due to the simplified packaging, these would be lower-priced, which would allow Hypnos to take risks on even more different artists and styles without needing to sell quite as many CD copies to break even financially. This would benefit developing artists, who have a hard time convincing established labels to risk a bunch of money releasing their music to the public, but otherwise (without an established label on their side) have a hard time getting people aware of their work. I feel it would also be a benefit to the listening community, who would have access to even more developing artists, some of whom may be working in styles that have a more limited audience appeal.

The Foundry sub-label has been investigating a series of EPs or limited edition releases in simplified packaging, which led to thoughts of this "Explorer Series," so it's worth mentioning that a number of really interesting and wonderful releases are planned on The Foundry in the coming year. I think 2002 will be the year when The Foundry will take a giant step into the awareness of the ambient & experimental music listening community. A couple of compilations are planned, as well as solo works by some names new to both Hypnos and The Foundry.

It's an exciting time, and as many good things as happened with Hypnos, Binary and The Foundry during 2001, 2002 will unquestionably be even better.

.

2001.11.12 News of an upcoming Vidna Obmana concert in Germany...

VIDNAOBMANA Live in concert

Other groups performing that night are PAL and KLINIK

Saturday November the 17th 2001 - 8pm
Historisches Bahnbetriebswerk, Arnstadt - Germany
(The Bahnbetriebswerk is a railway museum for historically steam engines.
There is an atmosphere of the beginning 20th century.)

the price for 1 ticket is 30DM.
Reservations through :
call: +49 (36 43) 77 90 89
fax: +49 (36 43) 77 90 93
mail: info@laborneun.com
write:
laborNEUN
Tröbsdorfer Weg 9
99428 Nohra OT ULLA
Germany

www.laborneun.com

.

2001.11.09 More good news for Hypnos related to radio.... this week's episode of Hearts of Space radio (a big nation-wide syndicated show, for those of you who don't receive HOS radio in your area) heavily features Hypnos material. The episode is called SOMNIUM, after the Robert Rich DVD:

Subject: Your Music on Hearts of Space

=------------------------------------------------------------=
   PGM 611 : "SOMNIUM"
=------------------------------------------------------------=
   PGM NOTE : a timeless journey in the arms of Morpheus
=------------------------------------------------------------=
   FEED DATE : 11-09-01
=------------------------------------------------------------=

 PATRICK O'HEARN
  "Like So Much Lost Time" < 0:00->3:47 >
   : SO FLOWS THE CURRENT; patrickohearn.com 80462-81003-22; 2000
   : Info: www.patrickohearn.com

 A PRODUCE
  "The Big Sleep" < 3:47->12:45 >
   : SMILE ON THE VOID; Hypnos/Trance Port hyp2129; 2001
   : Info: www.hypnos.com/aproduce

 THOMAS RONKIN
  "The Gates of Sleep" < 12:45->21:55 >
   : SYMMETRIC; Tristissima Records GM-511-1911; 2001
   : Email: tristissim@aol.com; Orders: 800-767-4748

 VIDNA OBMANA
  "Chasing the Odyssee" < 21:55->32:19 >
   : THE CONTEMPORARY NOCTURNE; Hypnos hyp2027; 2000
   : Info: www.hypnos.com; www.vidnaobmana.org

 BRANNAN LANE
  "Slow Wave Sleep" < 32:19->36:03 >
   : SLEEP CYCLE; brannanlane.com BLM501CD; 2001
   : Info: www.brannanlane.com

 ROBERT RICH
  "Somnium, Part 1" (beginning) < 36:03->52:44 >
  "Somnium, Part 3" (excerpt) < 52:44->58:20 >
   : SOMNIUM; Hypnos/Soundscape Prod. [DVD] hyp2131; 2001
   : Info: www.hypnos.com; www.amoeba.com/rrsomnium.html

=-----------------------------------------------------------=
 PRODUCED BY : STEVE DAVIS and STEPHEN HILL (c) 2001 Hearts of Space

Thanks to Steve David and Stephen Hill and the rest of the Hearts of Space radio staff for this support!

.

2001.11.05 This past weekend, Star's End radio host Chuck Van Zyl featured a show called 25 Albums For 25 Years - STAR'S END Silver Anniversary: 1976 to 2001 . As the title suggests, Chuck picked one especially significant and representative CD from each year in that period, and played one track from each on the air.

Hypnos has only been around for the last five year period of those twenty-five years. In fact, when Star's End began, I was riding around on my BMX bike, reading comic books, playing Combat on my Atari 2600, and drinking slurpees. So it's especially nice to see one's work recognized in a deeper historical context, stacked up next to the all-time greats. We are especially flattered and gratified that Star's End featured Outfolding by Saul Stokes as the lead-off track for that show. Congratulations to Saul, and thanks to Chuck and Star's End and WXPN radio.

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2001.11.02 Today, made the biggest update to the Hypnos Online Store in several months. About two dozen new titles were added, many of them featured on the store front's "Hypnos Recommends" section. Take a look, and buy heavily!

Some of the stuff added today includes:

James Johnson & Robert Scott Thompson - Forbidden Places
Various Artists - Passing Strange (compilation including Biff Johnson, Jeff Karsin, and others)
Markus Reuter - The Longest in Terms of Being
Various Artists - Beyond ME (Neu Harmony label e-music compilation featuring Dave Fulton, Paul Ellis, Synthetic Block, Robert Carty, Rudy Adrian, and others)
Paul Ellis - Appears to Vanish (solo debut of Binary artist and Dweller at the Threshold member)
(about 10 other Neu Harmony label titles now available)
Brannan Lane - Sleep Cycle
Brannan Lane - Troposphere
Brannan Lane - Lost Caverns of Thera
Alio Die & Yannick Dauby - Descendre Cinq Lacs au Travers d'une Voile (this out-of-print title was unavailable for over a year, until a few copies re-emerged)
Rapoon - Just Say the Faith
Rapoon - Navigating by Colour

As well, there are some other "not quite brand new but still quite sparkling" titles like Vidna Obmana's Tremor, Robert Rich's Bestiary, and the two latest from Hypnos/Foundry, Mollusk Accretions and Dean Santomieri's The Boy Beneath the Sea, for which MP3 sample clips are available on the store.

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2001.10.30 A big update to the "Reviews" archives on hypnos.com. Posted new reviews for the following CD releases, in the following quantities:

Vidna Obmana - Aquarium - 2
Tom Heasley -Where the Earth Meets the Sky - 7
Paul Vnuk Jr. - Silence Speaks in Shadows - 3
Sola Translatio - Mother Sunrise - 5
Jeff Pearce - The Light Beyond - 4
Markus Reuter - Digitalis - 1
M Griffin / D Fulton - The Most Distant Point Known - 1
A Produce - Smile on the Void - 5
Saul Stokes - Outfolding - 2
A Produce / M Griffin  - Altara - 1
Richard Bone - Etherdome - 1
Jeff Greinke - Lost Terrain - 1
Jeff Pearce - To the Shores of Heaven - 2

There are many more still to enter, which I hope to have ready this week.

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2001.10.27 This time it's TWO Hypnos-related features on Echoes radio, both within the week. The first is Tom Heasley, the second is Dweller at the Threshold. The announcements from Echoes, along with air dates:

Friday, 11/2*, Saturday 11/03**, Sunday 11/04*
TOM HEASLEY: AMBIENT TUBA
"Ambient" is an adjective we toss around a lot on Echoes, but
we've never applied it to the tuba until Tom Heasley's album,
WHERE THE EARTH MEETS THE SKY (Hypnos).  Heasley, who lives in
Palo Alto, Ca, uses extensive electronic processing to turn his
tuba into a pod of whales and a galactic transport ship in slow
motion, languid soundscapes.  It often sounds electronic, but
every sound begins on the tuba.  Heasley puffs up and blows
when he demonstrates his techniques on Echoes.

.... and ....

Wednesday 11/7*, Saturday 11/10**, Sunday 11/11*
DWELLER AT THE THRESHOLD ANSWERS A KNOCK ON THE DOOR
Sometimes trends skip a generation, and that's the case with
the Space music sounds created by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze
and Jean-Michel Jarre in the 1970s.  It took nearly two decades
for their musical children to be born.  Among them are a
Portland, Oregon trio called Dweller at the Threshold. This
syntheszier trio creates ambient spacescapes mixing old-style
analog synthesziers with newer digital versions.  Dweller
recently released the album, OUROBORUS (Hypnos) while Dweller
member Paul Ellis just put out his second CD, INTO THE LIQUID
UNKNOWN (Hypnos) We talk to the Dwellers about music born in
electronics and launched into space.

Thanks again to Echoes for the support

.

2001.10.18 Information from the most recent Robert Rich newsletter:

* Live Novemeber 3 in London

Robert will give a unique live performance at the October Gallery in
London, England as part of the Planet Tree Festival. This will be an
improvisation on acoustic piano, flutes and steel guitar, with looping
delays and drones. This will be a one-of-a-kind concert, the first time
Robert has performed in Britain, and the only Robert Rich concert in Europe
in 2001. For more information check http://www.planettree.org

----------------

* Live December 9 in San Francisco

Dub Beautiful Collective proudly presents "Alien Zoology" with Robert Rich,
a special performance in Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of
Sciences in Golden Gate Park. A live star show will accompany the music.
This will be Robert's only concert in the U.S. in 2001. Doors open at 8 pm,
show starts promptly at 8.30 pm. Presale tickets $12 available through
www.dub-beautiful.org in November, tickets at the door $15.

----------------

* New fan website at http://www.glurponline.com

A fan (Michael Ostrich) has set up an alternate artist-approved website
called Glurp Online. With a bulletin board, guest book, independent reviews
and more, this promises to be an interactive and dynamic place for you to
share your opinions and ideas about Robert's music and all other relevant
topics. Robert will visit from time to time to answer questions on the
bulletin board, and he will continue to maintain his own website in
parallel to this independent effort.

----------------

* Feature in November Keyboard Magazine

The upcoming issue of Keyboard Magazine will feature a full page article
about Robert's recent releases, "Bestiary" and "Somnium", with new photos
of his studio and fresh insights about his work.

.

2001.10.16 Ah, internet gremlins. Connectivity, especially incoming and outgoing email, have been hit & miss here since last Thursday. There's nothing wrong with the hypnos.com web server or the Hypnos Online Store, but a huge flood of email has come in since my email service has been restored last night.

If you have not received an email notification of an order, or a response to an email inquiry or question, please don't be alarmed. I'll answer through my 300+ emails (after deleting 600+ spams) as quickly as possible. If you have a question or problem that requires immediate response, please email it to me again, with the word "URGENT" somewhere in the subject line, and I'll put it ahead of everything else.

I hope to be back to normal (that is, behind, but not hopelessly behind) in a day or two. Thanks for your patience.

.

2001.10.10 A bit more information about the Echoes radio special show, "A Requiem Soundscape." As it turns out, the playlist is longer than the one listed in the last Hypnos news update, and also includes a track by Hypnos/Binary artists Dweller at the Threshold. The complete playlist from Echoes:

ID#01-J07-00204 Thursday, October 11, 2001 (Echoes Program 41N)
ARTIST - SELECTION - RECORDING

A Requiem Soundscape
Public Radio's Echoes Premieres New Music
Reflecting the Tragedy of September 11, 2001

*********
 - First Half Hour
Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson - Ars Moriendi - Children of Nature
George Winston - Lament - Remembrance
Steve Tibbetts - Black Temple - unreleased
David Darling - A Word and a Prayer - Cello Blue
Dweller at the Threshold - Walk into the Dust - unreleased
Bernie Krause - Distant Thunder - Distant Thunder
Patrick O'Hearn - Tears and Remembrance - unreleased

 - Second Half Hour
Steve Roach - Spirit Moves - Streams & Current
Clannad - Na Laethe Bhi - Banba
Jeff Pearce - Through Tears - unreleased
Pat Metheny/Charlie Haden - Spiritual - Beyond the Missouri Sky
Jamshied Sharifi - Requiem - unreleased

 - Third Half Hour
Hans Zimmer - Journey to the Line - The Thin Red Line
Tony Gerber/Josie Phelan - Healing the Moment - unreleased
Jonathan Elias - Mercy - The Prayer Cycle
William Colter - Caoineadh Na Mara/Amen - Celtic Requiem
George Winston - Where Are You Now - Remembrance
Ira Stein - Silent Prayer - unreleased

 - Fourth Half Hour
George Winston - Remembrance - Remembrance
Lisa Lynne - Amazing Grace - unreleased
Henry Wolff/Nancy Hennings - Adrift - Tibetan Bells III
Paul Ellis/Craig Padilla - Shanti - unreleased
Bernie Krause - Distant Thunder - Distant Thunder
Alex Cline - Benediction - The Constant Flame
Jane Siberry - Calling All Angels - When I Was a Boy

Thanks again to Echoes, not only for this fine tribute, but also for featuring much unreleased material by Hypnos artists Jeff Pearce, Paul Ellis and Dweller at the Threshold.

.

2001.10.08 This week Hearts of Space radio features a track from Ouroborus, the Hypnos/Binary label debut of Dweller at the Threshold. Thanks to all the people at HOS radio for this support on their widely-syndicated (though we don't get it here in Portland!) radio show.

In other "widely-syndicated radio show" news, Echoes (which we DO get here in Portland), has put together a quite ambitious and impressive tribute or remembrance to the tragic events of 9/11/01. Not only is this a noteworthy eveng, but two Hypnos artists are featured in this collection of specially-commissioned, exclusive tracks. In addition to Hypnos artists Jeff Pearce and Paul Ellis, the Echoes feature, titled "A Requiem Soundscape," includes work by Tony Gerber and Steve Roach, whose works are available on the Hypnos Online Store. This will be broadcast on October 11, the one-month anniversary of the original tragedy.

More information, direct from Echoes, about this:

A Requiem Soundscape
Public Radio's Echoes Premieres New Music
Reflecting the Tragedy of September 11, 2001

Press Contact: Kimberly Haas
610-458-0780
kimberlyh@echoes.org

****UPDATE****
More artists sign on for A Requiem Soundscape on Echoes
including pianist George Winston, guitarist Steve Tibbetts
and keyboardist/film composer Jamshied Sharifi.

*********
        On the evening of October 11, as America commemorates
the one month anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001,
Echoes will provide a respite from the endless analysis with
music for healing and contemplation.  In a two hour soundscape,
Echoes Senior Producer and host John Diliberto will take a
world divided in life and bring it together in sound, with new
compositions recorded in the wake of September 11.   A Requiem
Soundscape will be a space to  remember those fallen in the
terrorist attacks, the heroic efforts of those who worked in
the aftermath, the contemplation of a protracted war, and the
recognition of a changed world.

        ECHOES, is a daily two hour music soundscape,
distributed by Public Radio International and currently heard
on over 175 radio stations from Maine to the Marianas Islands,
as well as California , New York City, Philadelphia, Cincinnati,
Denver, St. Louis, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Portland, OR  and
Orlando .  Celebrating its 12th year, ECHOES has charted a course
through the modern music landscape and has been the home of
artists negotiating the twists and turns of a new global sound.

        When words fail, music can take over, drawing out an
emotional response to acts that defy logical interpretation.
Music is where we turn for solace in times of strife.  Music is
where we find the highest aspirations of humanity, from a Bach
cantata to an Islamic call to prayer.  Echoes has always been a
program where the world comes together, with African percussion,
Native American flutes and Middle Eastern melodies coursing
alongside synthesizers and samplers.

        A Requiem Soundscape will feature new works, composed and
recorded by artists as an immediate response to the events of
September 11.  We'll hear an ambient guitar piece from Jeff Pearce
in Indiana, a piano meditation from Ira Stein in Oakland, a
techno-tribal landscape from Steve Roach in Arizona, a duet for
synthesizers and cello by Tony Gerber of Spacecraft and a
spacescape by Portland Oregon's Paul Ellis from the group Dweller
at the Threshold.  Moved by the WTC/Pentagon tragedy, pianist
George Winston has put together a six song EP called "Remembrance"
with all new compositions.  The EP will debut on a Requiem
Soundscape two weeks before release.  Guitarist Steve Tibbetts has
composed a special work as has keyboardist and film composer
Jamshied Sharifi.  These performances  will make their premieres
alongside previously-recorded works by Arvo Pärt, Clannad, Brian
Eno, David Darling, Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble, Liz
Story, Moby, Jane Siberry and others.

"Music is the healing force of the Universe."
                               -Albert Ayler

A Requiem Soundscape will be broadcast on Echoes Thursday, October
11.  Check local stations for times.

Artist Bios

George Winston
George Winston's name is synonymous with solo piano since his
Windham Hill Records debut, Autumn in 1981.

Steve Tibbetts
Minneapolis based guitarist Steve Tibbetts has forged his own,
idiosyncratic approach to the guitar, creating a world fusion
since his debut in the late 1970s.  He recorded several albums
for the ECM label and composed the critically acclaimed album,
Cho, with Tibetan Buddhist nun, Choying Drolma..

Ira Stein
Ira Stein was half of the Windham Hill duo Ira Stein & Russel
Walder with the New Age hit, "The Underground."  Living in Oakland,
Ira has recorded solo albums for the Narada label and
most recently has been adapting Bach cantatas to his acoustic trio.

Steve Roach
Steve Roach is an influential synthesist who has recorded dozens
of albums in the last 20 years including his popular "Structures from
Silence" and "Dreamtime Return." He's one of the
founding fathers of Techno-Tribal music.

Jamshied Sharifi
Born in America with an Iranian father, keyboardist Jamshied
Sharifi's solo debut, Prayer for the Soul of Leyla" was critically
acclaimed.  The Manhattan resident has also score
several films including Harriet the Spy, Muppets from Space and
the forthcoming Rollerball.

Tony Gerber
Tony Gerber is a member of Spacecraft, the Tennessee  based
electronic ensemble that has released several albums on the
Lektronic Soundscapes and Space for Music labels.

Sanjay Mishra
Sanjay Mishra is an Indian born guitarist living in the Washington
D.C. area.  He creates an east-west fusion and had the late-Jerry
Garcia of the Grateful Dead playing on his debut, Blue
Incantations.  Sanjay also composed the score for the film "Port Djema."

Paul Ellis
Paul Ellis is a member of the Portland based synthesizer trio,
Dweller at the Threshold and also has two solo albums out, including
his latest, "Into the Liquid Unknown (Hypnos).

Jeff Pearce
Jeff Pearce is a guitarist from Indiana who has several albums of
layered, ambient guitar soundscapes on the Hypnos label.

John Diliberto
Echoes
Now On More Than 170 Stations
150 Park Rd.
P.O. Box 224
Eagle, PA 19480
610-458-0780
http://www.echoes.org

Also, more information tomorrow about the special benefit auction of interesting music-related items, to benefit the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund. Read last Friday's news update (below) for more info on this if you don't know what I'm talking about. Since Friday I have commitments for donated items from Vir Unis, Paul Vnuk Jr., Saul Stokes, and James Johnson. Not everything will be "rare" but there will be lots of great stuff to bid on.

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2001.10.05 Within a few days, I will be announcing several items, or packages of items, to be made available on an auction basis, the proceeds of which will be donated to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund. This excellent idea was suggested on the Hypnos Forum by Brian Kirby -- thanks to Brian for the suggestion.

Some of the packages will be groups of Hypnos CDs, or rarity items donated by different artists or record labels. Some will be small and presumably inexpensive, and some will be larger and probably more eagerly sought.

More information will be available here soon regarding the mechanism by which bids will be gathered, intermediate "highest bids" will be announced, and deadlines both intermediate and final. Again, thanks to Brian Kirby for the idea and also thanks to the friends of Hypnos, artists and labels who are donating items for bid packages.

As a bit a sneak preview, so that people have some idea what kinds of packages we're talking about, here are a few of the preliminary packages or items that will definitely be included:

"Hypnos Year 1" - A collection of the four CDs released by Hypnos in its first year, including WASHED IN MERCURY by Saul Stokes, SUDDEN DARK by M. Griffin, SOLAR NOISE by Viridian Sun, and THE OTHER WORLD (a 2CD various artists compilation). This package would be an excellent introduction to "early Hypnos" for the listener or fan who came to the party a bit late!

"Your Own Private Jeff Pearce CD" - This unusual and wonderful prize was suggested by Jeff Pearce himself. The winner of this bid item will be allowed to give Jeff specific instructions on a long-form drone piece to be composed especially by Jeff to those specifications. Tell Jeff if you want him to work in a certain key. Do you want it fast or slow? Light or dark? Smoother or more dynamic? It's up to you! The winner of this truly unique prize will receive the sole, signed CD copy of this recording, which Jeff says will not be made available elsewhere on future recordings. There are many serious Jeff Pearce fans out there, so it's my guess that this will be one of the highest-priced bid items on offer.

"Hypnos 2001 Subscription" - A collection of all CDs released by Hypnos, and subsidiary labels Binary and The Foundry, during 2001. Depending on what else comes out in the next few months, that will probably be at least 15 titles, including a DVD and a double-CD... that's a healthy chunk of music. Many of you may already own enough of these that this will only appeal to some, but then there's this next item.

"Hypnos 2002 Subscription" - Be among the first to receive each Hypnos and sub-label release during 2002. No promises as to how many CDs that will be, but I know this will be an extremely popular bid item.

"Hypnos Dozen" - Your pick of a dozen Hypnos CDs -- fill out your collection! Feel free to choose double or triple CDs, or DVDs. It doesn't matter!

"Hypnos Five" - Your pick of any five Hypnos CDs. The same ideas as the Hypnos Dozen, for somebody who can't bid quite so much (or who's only missing five titles!)

More items will be offered, in fact I already have several offers of prizes or packages not listed above since the specifics haven't been worked out yet. There will also be several smaller packages -- single-item rarities, or perhaps single signed CDs -- for people who are a bit daunted by the high prices of some of these packages. I'd like everybody to be able to bid on something, regardless of your income or budget.

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2001.10.02 Speaking of Echoes radio (see Sunday's update), here's some more news about a sort of Hypnos-related feature on Echoes:

Friday 10/12*, Saturday 10/13**, Sunday 10/14**, Sunday 10/21**
ROBERT RICH-NOTES FROM THE BESTIARY
Robert Rich is a musician of many modes, most of them pushed to the edge.
We recorded him in a solo piano concert this past spring, but his latest
album is his most purely electronic disc in 20 years.  It's called BESTIARY
and it's a smoldering, morphing expanse of analog synthesizer textures and
subsonic grooves.  In his Silicon Valley studio, Robert Rich unleashes some
of his beasts.

Though Bestiary is a Release-label project, and not Hypnos, I think it's a truly amazing CD, and support it 100% (not to mention that it's available for sale on the Hypnos Online Store). This Echoes feature will no doubt be worthy of attention, and I look forward to hearing what the Echoes crew, and RObert himself, have to say about Bestiary.

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2001.10.01 Last week I announced a number of CDs had been added to the Hypnos Online Store, and all of them really were added at that time, except one. If you were looking for Forrest Fang's wonderful album Gongland on the Projekt label, you probably couldn't find it. Well, it's there now, and I hope many of you will give it a try.

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2001.09.30 We love it when Hypnos (and Binary and Foundry) CDs get support from radio DJs, magazine reviewers. Those radio plays, or those published reviews, are vital assistance in spreading the news about our music. It's especially nice when one of the nationally-syndicated radio shows like Echoes or Hearts of Space plays one of the CDs, and even better yet when Echoes does one of its occasional interviews or features of a Hypnos artist.

In the past, Echoes has featured Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, and Saul Stokes, and Jeff Pearce has been featured more than once (winning the 2000 Listeners' Choice award on Echoes as the most requested CD of the year, for his To the Shores of Heaven). Most recently, Echoes has decided to do interview features on both Paul Ellis and Dweller at the Threshold, whose Binary CD releases Into the Liquid Unknown and Ouroborus, respectively, and both CDs are already receiving regular airplay on that show.

All of us in the Hypnos family offer our thanks to Echoes radio for helping to spread Hypnos and Binary music to a wider audience, and we also congratulate Ellis and DATT for the recognition.

No specific date has yet been announced for these features, but those dates will be announced on this page when available.

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2001.09.26 More information about an upcoming Tom Heasley performance -- this one's tomorrow, Thursday 9/27, in Toronto.

This Thursday September 27th @ St.George The Martyr Church
(197 John Street, Toronto - 1 block north of the CITY-TV building)
map - http://www.theambientping.com/art/stgeorge_map.jpg

The Ambient Ping presents a very special concert performance:
         Tom Heasley and The Ambient Ping Orchestra

Tom Heasley (from Palo Alto, California) plays a very unconventional
ambient instrument - the Tuba! Tom has burst the seams of traditional
tuba playing with an ever-growing stockpile of acoustic and electronic
gadgets. After performing in a wide variety of experimental, rock, jazz
and improvisational music group situations (including Charlie Haden's
Liberation Music Ochestra and the Deep Listening Band) and giving
West Coast and World premieres of works by Pauline Oliveros, Anne
LeBaron, Lois V Vierk, Alvin Curran and Jonathan Harvey, Tom now
performs primarily as a solo improvising composer.

On this night, however, after his solo set - Tom will be joining the
horn section of The Ambient Ping Orchestra - a special assembly of
Toronto ambient artists coming together just for this one performance.
Each of these artists could perform a rich soundscape set on their
own but are all excited to be part of the collective improvisational
consciousness required to create the restrained but deeply textured
weave of a large-scale ambient music ensemble.

Tom Heasley - tuba & treatments
http://bayimproviser.com/artistdetail.asp?artist_id=83

Richard Underhill - saxophone & treatments
http://www.astrogroove.com/

Wally Jericho - trumpet & treatments
http://216.94.129.60/

cheryl o - cello & treatments
http://www.cellojuice.com

Eric Hopper - guitar / guitar synth & treatments
http://www.mp3.com/random_act

Scott M2 - moog modular synth & treatments
http://www.dreamstate.to/

Jamie Todd - laptop computer & treatments
http://www.dreamstate.to/

Jakob Thiesen - percussion & treatments

$5 at the door  -  9:pm  -  All ages  -  A smoke free environment
(with a beautiful courtyard just outside for between set smokes).

Click on the links below to play LoFi exerpts from
Tom's CD "Where The Earth Meets The Sky" (HYPNOS)
which will be available for sale at the concert.
http://www.hypnos.com/audio/th-wtemts-01.ra
http://www.hypnos.com/audio/th-wtemts-04.ra

Also, the items added yesterday to the Hypnos Online Store have now been updated to show up on the front page's "Hypnos Recommends" section, making them easier to find. If you went there yesterday and couldn't locate one of these new releases, take another look today.

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2001.09.25 Today, added some very exciting new items to the Hypnos Online Store.

First, the third Hypnos/Foundry cooperative release, The Boy Beneath the Sea by Dean Santomieri. Jim Brenholts describes this CD as follows:

“The Boy Beneath the Sea” is an enigmatic ambient saga coordinated by Dean Santomieri. He narrates the story. Improvisations by Bruce Anderson (chromotone guitar), David Kwan (sampling, processing and tidal control) and Karen Stackpole (percussion and gongs) surround Dean’s narration.

This is an eerie and eclectic construction. The entire project borders on the avante garde and the nouveau noir. The story is interesting and offbeat. The music, while straightforward at times, benefits from David’s processing and pre-mastering techniques and from Dean’s direction and production control.

Keeping the focus on the music is difficult. The story is very cool and Dean’s narrative style is hypnotic. The music is very worthy. The experimental sounds and overt minimalism serve the story very well. It IS the background. It DEFINES the background. Thus, it is definitive ambience.

It IS possible to play this CD as a pure background. To do so would be to miss the story. This is a cool experience. It demands total attention!

Thanks to Jim Brenholts for that advance review.

Also new on the Hypnos Online Store, two releases on the Projekt label, including the latest from Alio Die, this time collaborating with Amelia Cuni, on the album Asparas. Also, a video DVD by Steve Roach and Steve Lazur entitled Time of the Earth.

Lastly, four new CDs (actually two of them are brand new, and two of them are titles that have been out for a while, but which are new to the Hypnos store) from the Release label. These include:

Robert Rich - Trances/Drones (2CD)
Amoeba - Pivot
Robert Rich - Bestiary
Vidna Obmana - Tremor

There's some great stuff here, so go and get it while you can.

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2001.09.24 Here's a nice review of Tom Heasley's performance at the Gathering in Philadelphia, along with Spectral Voices (Jim Cole and Alan Dow). The review was written by Bill Fox, host of "Emusic" on WDIY radio:

Spectral Voices (Jim Cole and Alan Dow) started off the evening with their brand of ambient music. It originates with vocal music that includes harmonic overtone singing. This is a technique where each vocalist sings two or more notes at a time. Through the use of digital reverb (120 foot water towers are notoriously difficult to transport to concerts), their sweet voices are sustained to the point where they can harmonize not only with each other, but also with what they have sung in the previous moment. Those monks have nothing on Spectral Voices! The slowly evolving melodies that sustain and harmonize with what came before and what followed, drifted throughout St. Mary's, enveloping and penetrating the listeners. It was the aural equivalent of a medicinal salve sorely needed by a people recently traumatized.

Tom Heasley continued to beat back the assault of the outside world with his unlikely source-of-choice for making ambient music. The five valve tuba that Tom embraces produced everything from whale song to subvocal subliminal sounds. Loops, delays, and reverbs allow Tom to brew a stew as potent as Spectral Voices' salve. Like nourishment during the healing process, the unexpectedly wide range of frequencies emitting from the tuba's bell fed the souls of all present.

All the Gathering performers used breath to make their music. Perhaps it was our collective need, but life and courage was breathed into each and every soul in attendance.

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2001.09.21 It is hard, after these past ten days, to look at things exactly the same way we looked at them before. I know that many creative people, not just musicians but also artists, writers and others, begin to question the importance of their role at a time when so many have suffered so deeply, and our future is uncertain in so many fundamental ways.

Even in ordinary times, many people consider creative artists and performers to be frivolous and not essentially serious. After all, some say, humans need food and shelter and water to survive, but they don't really need music or movies or poetry. At times like this, it is tempting to question whether we should spend time or energy or money on such things. Americans and others who sympathize with what happened this week may feel that it is frivolous to go see a movie or listen to music, as though this would make light of what happened.

I believe, however, that a civilized society such as ours values more than just the bare necessities of existence. We want more than just food, water, sleep and safety, and our spirits go hungry when nourished with nothing more than this. We want love, friendship, and family, and even though these things are not needed for moment-to-moment life, surely they are vital sustenance. Similarly, the arts, the various forms of expression of humankind's mind and spirit, stimulate us, nourish us, help us learn about ourselves, and urge us to more closely approach our fullest potential. We flourish when our minds, both intellect and emotion, are stimulated, made to admire, allowed to laugh and to cry, and inspired to wonder.

Artists who create things of beauty, and audiences who admire those works, are taking part in a collaboration to strengthen the fundamental core of humanity, and to slowly but inexorably advance us all to a higher state of peace, understanding and achievement.

As humans and citizens, we should accept and acknowledge the emotions that are natural at such a time. But it is no contradiction to suggest that even as we grieve a great tragedy, we should remember to celebrate what is great and worthy within all of us. That collaboration and exchange between artist and audience is a fundamental part of what makes us great, and it is something in which we should fully participate, now more than ever. We must go forward, even as we look back and remember.

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2001.09.20 This is a terrible, hard time, and many people I know are having a hard time functioning, concentrating, and being productive. I will have something more to say about this tomorrow, as I try to get myself to a place where I can move onward at more than quarter-speed.

Remember, also, that the Red Cross is still working and still needs our help. I have heard that blood supplies are more than adequate, but the Red Cross could definitely use money. An easy way to donate is through amazon.com, where you can donate by credit card, and amazon.com gives 100% of your donation directly to Red Cross without any fee deducted.

www.amazon.com

Also, Costco stores will take donations when you make any purchase -- in fact, at the store I last visited, they are asking every customer if they wish to donate something and have the amount added to their sale. I was pleased to see that every person I saw in front of me in line, as well as at the lines nearest to me, gave something.

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2001.09.13 I am hesitant at this time to post anything that sounds like business as usual -- music business hype, CD promotion, etc. -- preoccupied as I am with other thoughts.

But there is a bit of news related not only to music and Hypnos and Vidna Obmana, but also to the events of the past few days. You may know that in Europe, Friday has been declared a day of mourning for Tuesday's terrorist attacks in America. During Friday's noon-time three minute period of silence, all Belgian national radio stations will play a piece from Vidna Obmana's The Surreal Sanctuary during that time. In addition, the piece will be played on national TV in Belgium while some suitable words are read.

At normal times, we celebrate such "breakthroughs" in the public recognition of our music, but at a time like this, such an honor has a completely different emotional effect upon us. It is with humility that I congratulate Vidna Obmana on the selection of his work, for this significant position, by the Belgian national media.

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2001.09.12 For those of you who would like a fast, convenient way to offer your help in yesterday's crisis, amazon.com has established a very easy way to donate between $1 and $100 (your choice, any amount) to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. 100% of the amount you donate will go to the fund, with no amount held back by amazon.com.

Over 37,000 people have already donated a total of well over a million dollars. I'm on my way over there now to make a donation.

www.amazon.com

It's impossible to miss the Red Cross banner, which will take you to the donation page, as the banner is the only thing on amazon.com's front page.

I hope everyone will understand the interruption in music-related updates to the hypnos.com pages, for these few days.

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2001.09.05 A very important new item added to the Hypnos Online Store today..... it's the second Hypnos/Foundry release (following the very popular Zero Point by Seofon), and it's All the Stars Burning Bright by eM.

Also posted are mp3 format sample clips, available on the Hypnos store as well as the audio clips page on hypnos.com/foundry and also foundrysite.com.

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2001.09.04 Speaking of Tom Heasley, here's a listing of the performances in his current mini-tour:

Aug. 26       The Ought One Festival of Non Pop, Montpelier, VT
Aug. 30       The Den At Two Boots, NYC's East Village
Sept. 4        Downtown Music Gallery, NYC
Sept. 7        House Concert, Baltimore, MD
Sept. 11      Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY  (with Spectral Voices).
Sept. 15      The Gathering, Philadelphia, PA (with Spectral Voices)
Sept. 16      following the Gathering, I'll play live on Stars End radio.
Sept. 20      School of Music, University of Akron, Akron, OH
Sept. 24      Dana School of Music, Youngstown State U., Youngstown, OH
Sept. 25      The Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL (w/ drummer Susie Ibarra)
Sept. 27      St. George the Martyr Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

More dates to be announced.

Upon my return to the Bay Area, I will perform at Maybeck Recital
Hall in Berkeley, CA.  Designed by reknowned architect Bernard
Maybeck in 1914, this room is also famous for its acoustic
properties, which I will make a key ingredient of the 'site-
specific' music that I will perform there.  This is a semi-private,
word-of-mouth, performance and as such the date is flexible.
Tentatively scheduled for October 14...

Obviously the first few of these shows are already past, but there's plenty of time to catch one of Tom's performances, depending on your location (or willingness to jet around the country to catch live tuba gigs). The "big one," which presumably be the best-attended, is The Gathering in Philly, hosted by Chuck VanZyl who is also the host of Star's End radio.

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2001.08.31 A very nice review of Tom Heasley's Where the Earth Meets the Sky appeared in the latest Tower Records Pulse! magazine (September 2001 issue), the review written by John Diliberto (Echoes radio host). As the review is brief and does a good job of not only describing the sound of the CD, but also providing a context for a recording of this type, so I will reproduce it here:

"Everything has been given the ambient treatment, from Madonna to Bach, Tibetan monks to accordions. But the tuba? It's not that far-fetched an idea. Years ago, Stuart Dempster took his trombone into a cathedral and let it ring out in long echoes. Heasley's cathedral is digital, as he runs his horn through long delays, reverbs and loops. No doubt helped out by engineer Robert Rich, a master of sonic sound shifting, Heasley sends his tuba deep and low, stacking up a brass choir that moves like a dreadnought in space. In fact, on "Ground Zero," after the opening notes, it doesn't sound like a tuba at all, but like a whale, calling out across an ocean, gathering its echoing brethren in some kind of cosmic harmony. "Western Sky" has more of a conventional tuba sound, but again, playing in sustained notes, Heasley gets audio hallucinations going, not unlike LaMonte Young's "Well-Tuned Piano." If only John Philip Sousa were alive to hear it, marching music might be different today."
--John Diliberto, Tower Records Pulse! magazine

Thanks to John Diliberto and Tower Pulse for this review.

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2001.08.30 Many new items added to the Hypnos Online Store today, plus the "Hypnos Recommends" section on the front page has been updated for September.

Most of the new additions are on the Groove and Fax labels, but there are many others as well, so if there's something you've been looking for and haven't seen on the Hypnos store, take another look!

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2001.08.29 Today I'd like to cover a lot of subjects, and basically try to update everyone about what's cooking here, what's coming soon, and what certain Hypnos artists are up to.

Sub-labels Last month Hypnos launched two sub-labels, Binary and Foundry. To oversimplify, Binary is the imprint for more uptempo music, and Foundry is the more experimental end of things. The first two Binary releases, Ouroborus by Dweller at the Threshold, and Into the Liquid Unknown by Paul Ellis (who is also a member of Dweller) were released in July, and preliminary response is strongly positive. The first Foundry release, Zero Point by Seofon (with Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana, Stephen Kent, Thermal, and others) also came out in July, and likewise has been received with much enthusiasm. There's a lot of excitement here about what these sub-labels will enable us to get involved with, essentially opening up a wide range of new possibilities. The next three Foundry releases will come soon, a few weeks apart, and the next two or three Binary releases are in the works as well.

Hypnos proper The label that's at the core of it all, Hypnos Recordings, is still a very active and busy entity. 2001 has already seen 8 releases, including a DVD and a double-CD and Hypnos debuts by 4 artists. The rest of the year will see 4-5 more releases, including Athlit by Oophoi, Seed by Ma Ja Le and James Johnson, Proton Jelly by Jeff Karsin, Fabrications by M. Griffin, and possibly the third Viridian Sun album. 2002 should be equally interesting.

Saul Stokes Saul has stopped working on his fourth album Fields for a while so he can finish his collaboration with Vir Unis, to be entitled Thermal Transfer. This album is a fantastic, energetic and modern piece of electronica, and will be released on Binary this fall. Following it by a few months will be Saul's own Fields.

James Johnson In order not to interfere too much with this fall's release of James's album Seed with Ma Ja Le, we've pushed-back James's next solo album The Butterfly Chamber until early 2002. Also in 2002 there is another James Johnson release planned for Hypnos, but details on that one will have to wait a while. Also, though it is not a Hypnos release, James's collaboration with Robert Scott Thompson (who also has a solo Hypnos release planned) will be out soon and it sounds great.

David Tollefson He's keeping busy with his local "rawk" projects and live performances, and occasionally reminding me that it's been quite a while since we've gotten together to finish up the Viridian Sun album.

Robert Rich Not planning any new Hypnos releases any time soon, though that's not to say we won't come up with something! Robert's latest new release is Bestiary on the Release/Relapse label, and judging from the mp3 clips I've heard, this recording is weird, wonderful, strange and exotic... but not "exotic" in the sense of foreign or ethnic, as with Seven Veils or the like -- perhaps "alien" is a better word. Bestiary will be available for sale at the Hypnos Online Store pretty soon.

Jeff Pearce I know he has started on his next album, which presumably will be a Hypnos release. Jeff told me a title but it's still unofficial so I don't know if he wants me announcing it yet. This would be a 2002 release, as it's still in the early stages.

Tom Heasley Currently driving across the USA, playing shows here & there on the way to and from his Gathering performance in Philadelphia. I don't have a "master list" of all the dates and locations of his shows, but Tom posted a bit of information about some of the shows on the Hypnos Forum, so check over there if you're interested in seeing whether Tom's playing near you. His Hypnos debut Where the Earth Meets the Sky has been extremely well-received, which is especially gratifying as Tom is a relative unknown in the "ambient" music scene, having spent most of his long career working in the loose genres of free jazz and experimental music. To their credit, Hypnos listeners gave this "tuba stuff" a chance and Where the Earth Meets the Sky has been one of the most highly praised Hypnos CDs ever. Even devoted fans of "pure" electronic music love the tones and drones on this CD.

There are other artists, and other bits of news to pass along, but the above does a pretty good job of filling in some blanks about what's going on at the moment. More soon!

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2001.08.28 For a while I've debated whether the RealAudio format is the best option for online audio previews. Now everyone seems to have an MP3 player, and many poeple tell me they'd rather preview a low-bandwidth mp3 file than deal with all the garbage that Real adds onto their RealPlayer software.

So, with the launch of the Binary and Foundry sub-labels, we've tried a bit of an experiment. All new preview clips are in mp3 format, meaning they're larger and probably too large to stream unless you have a DSL/cable/T1 connection. So if you have a problem streaming the files, just right-click (or command-click if you're using a Mac with a one-button mouse) and save the mp3 file to your hard drive, and after it's done downloading, play it from there.

You'll find a selection of mp3 files for both Binary releases on the Binary page (click the Binary logo at left, and when the new window opens, click on the "binary audio clips" link, to find these files).

All the audio clips for the Foundry sub-label releases are also in mp3 file format, though those are hosted on the primary Foundry web site at www.foundrysite.com. Those files will be mirrored here on the www.hypnos.com/foundry/ pages as each release date occurs or is about to occur (so only the clips for the Seofon and eM releases are available here so far).

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2001.08.27 The long break since the last news update has been due to a vacation to Ireland, from which I recently returned. Wish I could say I return refreshed and rejuvenated, but exhausted and sick is more like it. It's pretty hard to cross half the globe on an airplane when you're not able to sleep on planes, and it's also hard to avoid getting sick when you've spent so much time on planes with other sick people, sharing the same air supply for such a long time.

But Ireland is a beautiful place, natural and peaceful, and it was wonderful to visit.

Those of you who have waited patiently for your orders placed at the Hypnos Online Store during the past 10 days, will have your orders sent out in the next day or two and confirmation emails will be sent out at that time.

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2001.08.15 Here's a bit of information regarding an upcoming performance by Hypnos artist Tom Heasley at the "Gatherings" series of concerts in Philadelphia.

The Gatherings is a concert series dedicated to presenting innovative
contemporary music of the 21st century. The series, run by volunteers, has
featured significant musicians and composers from many corners of the world
as well as from varied parts of the United States. While the Gatherings are
held exclusively in Philadelphia, the series attracts numerous attendees
from outside the area and is considered an international rather than local
event.

The Fall Gathering season begins with a unique concert of ambient tuba
soundscapes by Tom Heasley and the harmonic singing of Spectral Voices. The
concert begins at 8:00pm on Saturday 15 September 2001 at St Mary's Church,
3916 Locust Walk on the Penn campus in Philadelphia, PA. Admission is $20.
Advance Tickets are available on-line through TicketWeb.com. For more
information, please access the Gatherings website
http://www.thegatherings.org

At the Gathering, Tom Heasley will be performing music similar to his new
album, WHERE THE EARTH MEETS THE SKY. The Gathering in Philadelphia will be
the perfect spot for Heasley to realize his live improvisations. "Heasley
focuses on making subtle changes in texture and building harmonic layers
from loops of echoed horn". "Using electronic processing and the physics of
sound, his current of sustained notes transforms into a confluence of
layered tones. Cavernous reverberations set a soft glow to the waves of
sound and the listener is lulled by the sonic scenery of this smooth
ambient soundscape." Following the Gathering concert, Heasley will perform
live on STAR'S END ambient radio.

Spectral Voices returns to the Gathering as a duo. After many years of
devotion to their art, Jim Cole and Alan Dow have become masters of
ethereal singing. Their craft is multi-faceted, involving the disciplines
of overtone singing (producing and controlling more than one note
simultaneously per singer), breathing and perfect pitch. At the Gathering,
Spectral Voices will improvise texturally diverse soundscapes of subtle
complexity and eerie beauty as on their two critically acclaimed albums,
SKY and COALESCENSE

You can learn more about the Gathering with Tom Heasley and Spectral Voices
by accessing the Gatherings website. There you will find background on the
artists, photos, audio of a Jim Cole interview, directions and news about
future events in the series.

Thanks very much for your time and attention. I hope you can make it out to
the concert! Please pass this info along.


Sincerely,

Chuck van Zyl
http://www.thegatherings.org

On his way across the country from California, Tom will also be playing a number of smaller shows at various venues in between.

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2001.08.14 PLEASE NOTE: Hypnos mail order HQ will be in hibernation mode between Wednesday August 15 and Thursday August 23. This online store will remain "open" during that time, and orders will be held safely until we start processing and shipping your orders again on Friday August 24. Thank you for your continued support!

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2001.08.13 BINARY (the new Hypnos sub-label, for those of you not paying attention lately) is pleased to announce its forthcoming third release (following the debut releases by Paul Ellis and Dweller at the Threshold). Coming this fall:

Thermal Transfer by Saul Stokes and Vir Unis

More information on this title coming up soon, but let's just say that it was the opportunity to hear a sneak preview of this project six months ago that convinced me to start up BINARY in the first place. This is exciting, strange, thoroughly modern electronic music.

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2001.08.12 Revised release dates for the Foundry releases:

FOU.11 Seofon - Zero Point  -  8/13/01
FOU.13 eM - All the Stars Burning Bright - 9/3/01
FOU.12 Dean Santomieri - The Boy Beneath the Sea - 9/24/01
FOU.14 Mollusk - Accretions - release date 10/8/01

Zero Point by Seofon et al is actually available now at the Hypnos Online Store.

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2001.08.10 (later) Today's episode of Hearts of Space radio opens with the title track from the A Produce album Smile on the Void. Congratulations, AP!

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2001.08.10 For a while the Hypnos/Foundry co-operative has been working toward the first set of releases, starting with Zero Point (by Seofon with Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Stephen Kent and Robert Rich), mentioned in the latest news update of 8/3, below.

It finally looks like Zero Point is ready to go any moment now, and will be available for purchase from the Hypnos Online Store during the weekend. You can also find more information at www.hypnos.com/foundry and www.foundrysite.com/seofon/zeropoint. Audio clips in MP3 format are available now on the Foundry page and will be available from the Hypnos Store when Zero Point point is listed there for sale. If you like, you can check those clips out here:

SEOFON ZERO POINT MP3s
Album samples

1. collecting the spirits (excerpt) [2.40]
mp3

2. science of success (excerpt) [2.37]
mp3

3. rev. 20:13 teknos (the seeding) (excerpt) [2.44]
mp3

SEOFON ZERO POINT MP3s
Non-album tracks

1. collecting the spirits (vidnaObmana) [7.32]
mp3

2. zero point (thermal) [10.54]
mp3

3. persistent memory (seofon) [5.11]
mp3

4. point of balance (steve roach) [3.29]
mp3

The launch of the two Hypnos sub-labels, BINARY and THE FOUNDRY, can now be considered complete. We already consider both ventures artistic successes, though it remains to be seen what the listening public will think. Stay tuned.

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2001.08.03 The first release on the Foundry sub-label of Hypnos will debut soon, and should be one with a lot of appeal for regular Hypnos listeners. It's Zero Point by Seofon with Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Stephen Kent and Robert Rich. So while many of you may be less familiar with Seofon, I'm sure you've all heard of the other names. This is a unique "multi-collaboration" release that covers a lot of ground, and it's a great starting place for the Foundry & Hypnos cooperative project.

Seofon himself recently described the project as follows:
For the last year or so I've been engaged in a collaboration with Vidna Obmana and Steve Roach, and the results are just about to be released as the first disc on Mike&Michael's new Hypnos/Foundry imprint. The album, "Zero Point," springboards from material recorded by the Ambient Temple of Imagination, and features guest appearances from Stephen Kent, Robert Rich, Not Breathing, and our very own Joshua "Thermal" Maremont. I'd also like to give honorable mention to Jack the Tab for his contribution of making VO the man of the hour. =) I'm sure that further specifics will be forthcoming from the labels when the time is right, but suffice it to say for now that Zero Point will be available wherever fine Hypnos products are sold.
http://www.hypnos.com/foundry
http://www.foundrysite.com/seofon/zeropoint

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2001.08.02 (later) The text of a Hypnos press release announcing the launch of the BINARY sub-label:

Announcing BINARY (Hypnos sub-label), and two new CD releases

In its first five years, Hypnos Recordings has established itself
as an explorer of atmospheric and minimal ambient recordings.  One
of the most common requests received, and one which coincides with
my personal musical interests, is that Hypnos should become involved
in more dynamic forms of electronic music, everything from
experimental electronica, to more rhythmic trance, and classic
European-influenced e-music.

To that end, the BINARY sub-label has been established, to give
voice to artists both new and familiar, who were previously working
in forms more kinetic than would have fit with Hypnos.  The first two
CD releases both have a bit of "classic e-music" flavor, heavily
utilizing analog sequencers and synthesizers.  Definitely not for
people who hate music that sounds electronic.


 * * *

The Binary label debut is INTO THE LIQUID UNKNOWN by Paul Ellis (best
known as 1/3 of Dweller at the Threshold, a group whose new disc
OUROBORUS is the other new release on Hypnos/Binary -- see below), a
bright and distinctive piece of modern electronic music.  Those of you
who are more interested in true e-music -- shifting synthesizer
patterns, beautiful resonances, expressions of the soul of the machine --
will delight in this fantastic, fresh recording.

Using a dash of classic European e-music as a reference point, but never
for a minute sounding like an artist exploring any path buts Ellis's
own, INTO THE LIQUID UNKNOWN supplies that modern synth music "fix" for
listeners who remember their excitement at first hearing Wendy Carlos,
Jean-Michel Jarre, Synergy, or early Tangerine Dream... but for people
who already own all those albums and don't want to hear them re-done.
Like the first albums of Alpha Wave Movement and Synthetic Block, this
album utilizes just the right limited measure of "classic" and moves on
from there to create something new.

Ellis takes the listener on a nearly exhausting musical roller-coaster
of pulsing arpeggios, cascading mechanistic sequences, many-layered
melodic passages, and gradually to brief calm passages, before cranking
the energy and complexity level up again.

 * * *

OUROBORUS by Dweller at the Threshold is the first Binary release by a
group whose members include Dave Fulton (whose collaboration THE MOST
DISTANT POINT KNOWN with Hypnos founder M Griffin was released on Hypnos,
to much acclaim, in 2000), Paul Ellis (whose  solo album INTO THE LIQUID
UNKNOWN is the Binary label debut, also released this month), and John
Duval.  The first Dweller album, NO BOUNDARY CONDITION (released on
Eurock) had a stronger Tangerine Dream influence, but the group has since
moved further into deep, deep space.  Though some measure of digital
technology is in use here, one of the features identifying Dweller's sound
is the heavy use of analog modular synthesizers.  Fulton relies heavily on
a refrigerator-sized bank of Doepfer modular synths and a Synthesis
Technologies (MOTM) system, while Duval uses "The Fist of God," a massive
Serge Modular system.

The use of all this expensive, esoteric analog synthesis gear is no mere
"synth geek's vanity" -- the sound of Dweller at the Threshold possesses a
character and clarity that would simply not be possible with modern digital
synthesizers.  An audience member at a recent DATT concert in Portland was
overheard afterward saying "I haven't heard something that good since
Tangerine Dream was young."  That isn't to say that Dweller intends to mimic
the German synth music greats -- just that their sound has enough substance
to thrill even the most jaded e-music fan.

Both CDs are available now at the Hypnos Online Store:
  http://www.hypnos.com/Merchant/merchant.mv

Audio clips will be available soon at the Hypnos/Binary site:
  http://www.hypnos.com/binary

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2001.08.02 The new Saul Stokes album Abstraction, released on the Green House Music label (don't worry -- yes, Saul is still definitely a Hypnos artist with other projects coming out later this year), is now in stock and available on the Hypnos Online Store. It's in both the Green House section, and a new section devoted to Saul Stokes (I always hated having Saul's excellent "wood box" limited editions in the "miscellaneous M-Z" section).

Also New Age Voice magazine has just released their July 2001 radio airplay charts, here. Hypnos releases didn't peak quite as high this month as last (when A Produce's Smile on the Void was #7), but there are still 5 Hypnos titles in the top 100, more than any other label. Groove has 4 on the list (which is pretty strong for a foreign label if you ask me), HOS has 4, and heavyweight commercial labels like Narada, Astralwerks, and so on, have a couple each. That's not to say that chart presence on the NAV radio charts is any kind of proof of quality (I haven't even heard of some of the stuff on top of the charts) but we're pleased that so many DJs choose to play Hypnos CDs on their shows, even though we don't have expensive promotional consultants calling DJs every day to "encourage" the play of our CDs.

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2001.08.01 In case you haven't yet visited David Opdyke's excellent web site dedicated to ambient & related music forms (experimental electronica, etc.) The AmbiEntrance, now would be a good time to check it out here. This month's update has 3 new Hypnos reviews, including CDs by Sola Translatio, Paul Vnuk. Jr, and Tom Heasley.

The AmbiEntrance usually has other interesting features as well, such as artist interviews (this month it's Lustmord), and a fun & interesting "Question of the Month" feature in which the same question is posed to a list of the genre's musicians, and their answers are listed all together. Usually makes for good, entertaining reading, and a good way to get to know a little more about your favorite musicians.

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2001.07.31 Hypnos artist Saul Stokes (soon to be Binary artist as well) recently unveiled a complete redesign to his web site at www.saulstokes.com. It includes information on all his CD releases, including non-Hypnos titles (two "wood box" limited editions, and his just-released Abstraction on Green House Music), a page of MP3 files, information about live performances, and a "studio" page where you can see a bit of the hand-built synthesizer gear that gives Stokes his distinctive sound.

Not only a great information source, this is also a top-notch piece of web design. Check it out!

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2001.07.30 Busy weekend! Saturday night in Portland we had a live performance by Hypnos/Binary artists Dweller at the Threshold, as well as Robert Carty. Dweller's album Ouroborus, and Dweller member Paul Ellis's Into the Liquid Unknown -- the first two Binary releases -- were made available for the first time at the show.

Carty started off with a drifting, swirling atmospheric set, mixing electronic and acoustic (didgeridoo, shakers, and this rotating "rumble keg" thing -- not sure what it's called) textures. Dweller followed with a more dynamic set of pure, vintage electronics -- overlapping sequencer patterns, on-the-fly chord changes, and plenty of flashing LEDs to tickle the fancy of the old-school e-music fans in attendance. The crowd was enthusiastic, and numbered 75 people or so.

Probably we'll try again with another pair of artists in 4-6 months or so -- perhaps Viridian Sun will perform, and maybe we'll bring in another Hypnos artist from out of town. Though the crowd was smaller than for the Vidna Obmana / Steve Roach performance in the same venue last November, I'm more certain than ever that with the right promotional planning and efforts (and possibly even a switch to a slightly less HUGE and expensive venue), a live concert series in Portland can be made to work.

Dweller's album Ouroborus, and Paul Ellis's Into the Liquid Unknown are available now at the Hypnos Online Store. In the next day or two I'll flesh out the descriptions a bit, add blurbs from some early reviews by Portland-based reviewer Phil Derby (who writes for SMD and Sequences, and formerly for Wind and Wire), and post some audio clips. But in advance of that, the discs are available for purchase now, for those of you who already know you want to buy them!

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2001.07.25 It looks like we'll be receiving CDs for the first two Hypnos/Binary releases -- Dweller at the Threshold Ouroborus and Paul Ellis Into the Liquid Unknown -- on Friday, just in time for the Portland performance by Dweller (of which Ellis is also a member) on Saturday, meaning that those who attend the concert (July 28th, 9PM, The Old Church near PSU downtown) will be the first to get their hands on these new discs. They'll be added to the Hypnos Online Store during the weekend.

Speaking of the Store, some new items were added this week, without any announcement made on this News page. Click over and take a look -- you'll see several new items in the "Hypnos Recommends" front page section.

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2001.07.24 About 6 new reviews added for Jeff Pearce's latest, The Light Beyond. If you've been waiting to buy until you have a chance to see what others think, then check the Hypnos Reviews page.

Also added a single rave review of Paul Vnuk Jr's minimal soundscape Silence Speaks in Shadows.

.

2001.07.23 Added about 10 new reviews for Vidna Obmana's The Contemporary Nocturne, as well as the first pair of early reviews of Vidna's Soundtrack for the Aquarium special edition, released last month. Check the Hypnos Reviews page.

.

2001.07.20 Posted some reviews for the following CDs: Mother Sunrise, The Light Beyond, Silence Speaks in Shadow, and Where the Earth Meets the Sky. Check out the Hypnos "Reviews" page by clicking the link at left.

Also, just wanted to remind everybody about the upcoming performance by Hypnos/Binary artists Dweller at the Threshold, in Portland on July 28th, just in case you forgot. Of course, not all of you can fly around the globe to hear live music, but for those of you in and around Portland, or those with lots of frequent flier miles to use up, here's another reminder.

On the subject of live performances by Dweller, they've just been confirmed as performing at the Alfa Centauri festival in The Netherlands, in March 2002. Here's the announcement from the show's organizers:

We are very proud to announce that there will be a 9th Edition
of the Alfa Centauri EM Festival, definitely !

When ?
-----------
Saturday March 16, 2002

Where ?
------------
Theatre 't Spant in Bussum, the same great venue as the previous festival

Who ?
-------------
These are the first 3 confirmed acts:

Finally on stage 70's synth pioneer .....

*** S Y N E R G Y    (Larry Fast)   (USA)

and

*** D W E L L E R   A T   T H E   T R E S H O LD   (USA)

and

*** K U B U S S C H N I T T    (Europe)

And 3 more acts to be announced soon !

Tickets ?
-------------
On sale (advanced booking) from September 1 till March 5, 2002

Please look at our website for more details such as ticket prices, advanced
booking procedures etc. at our website www.alfacentauri.nl

Stalls and tables available as of August 15, for more details please contact
us through festival@alfacentauri.nl

More information to be published soon


Regards
the Alfa Centauri Festival Team
This sounds like a pretty cool show, though a bit more distant a trip for most readers of this forum, than Portland. So come to the July 28 show here, and then start saving your money immediately for the trip to The Netherlands, and you'll have eight months to scrape the funds together. Congratulations to Dweller at the Threshold for this exciting opportunity to reach a new audience.

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2001.07.19 Finished updating the Audio clips page, for all CDs up through the very most recent (Vidna Obmana's Soundtrack for the Aquarium, for which clips will be added soon). Many of you had pointed out that clips for such CDs as Mother Sunrise, The Light Beyond, Silence Speaks in Shadow, and Where the Earth Meets the Sky were long overdue.

So look to the left frame in your browser window to where it says "Hypnos Audio Clips," and take a walk down the path of low-fi RealAudio exploration!

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2001.07.16 We always especially love to see reviews of Hypnos CDs (or in the case of Somnium, DVDs) in mass-market magazines. It's not that we don't appreciate the attention we get from lower-profile web-zines and specialty magazines and newsletters.... it's just that we have these crazy ideas about getting people not already familiar with ambient music and Hypnos, to give these CDs a try.

So it was especially gratifying to see Robert Rich's Somnium very favorably reviews in the most recent Tower Records Pulse magazine (which is free at every Tower Records, Tower Video, and Tower Books location) by Echoes radio host John Diliberto. He gives Somnium a nice boost and a five-star rating.

And even more recently Alternative Press magazine, which usually doesn't have much time for music that ISN'T by Nine Inch Nails or Limp Bizkit or the like, took the time for a Somnium review of their own. It's a slightly less rapturous evaluation -- rated 7 out of 10 -- but pretty good stuff considering we're talking about a magazine with a narrower focus. Color us pleased!

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2001.07.15 The busy release schedule by Hypnos in the past month-plus ended up getting me way behind in creating RealAudio sample clips, as is my custom, for every track on every Hypnos CD.

I caught up a bit over the weekend, getting clips finished for every disc up through vidnaObmana's Aquarium, which will be done this week. Though the Hypnos Audio page isn't updated yet, you can link directly to those RealAudio clips here:

Tom Heasley Where the Earth Meets the Sky:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4

Paul Vnuk Silence Speaks in Shadows:
Part 1 (early) + Part 2 (a little later) + Part 3 (after the middle) + Part 4 (near the end)

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2001.07.14 Online orders for the upcoming Dweller at the Threshold & Robert Carty performance in Portland, have started to roll in. Just a reminder to visit the Hypnos Online Store if you want to make sure to get your tickets. Assuming there is not a sell-out, though, you'll be able to buy tickets at the door for the same $13 price.

.

2001.07.09 New Age Voice magazine (a new age & related genres trade magazine serving radio & retail) just released their June 2001 radio airplay Top 100 list, and recent Hypnos releases occupy 5 of the spots in the top 50, including A Produce's Smile on the Void at #7.

www.newagevoice.com/chart4.htm

.

2001.07.07 Several times in recent weeks we've discussed the upcoming Dweller at the Threshold & Robert Carty performance in Portland, Oregon on July 28th. Now, you can order tickets to the event through the Hypnos Online Store. Actually, the tickets were available online last week, but I made them fairly hard to find..... but now they're prominently featured right on the front & center of the Store's main page.

Those who attended the Vidna Obmana & Steve Roach performance at The Old Church in downtown Portland can vouch for the fact that this is a fantastic venue for a live show. The Dweller/Carty show is going to be a great example of visionary electronic music. We hope to see many of you venturing to Portland from out of town or out of state.

.

2001.07.05 A bit of a mini-holiday here.... back to work again, though. If you've emailed in the last few days and not received a response yet, sorry about that. It's a combination of holiday-related absenteeism, and extreme busy-ness related to the launching of the Binary and Foundry sub-labels. Pardon our mess!

.

2001.07.02 A few update to the Hypnos Online Store, the biggest of which is the much-anticipated Soundtrack for the Aquarium Special Edition 2CD by Vidna Obmana. It's $15.99. You'll also find a new CD by Numina, and a few other featured items.

.

2001.06.28 The word of the week around here has been Binary -- lots of work on the web site www.hypnos.com/binary/ and also revision after revision to the first two package designs. Very soon we'll have a sneak preview of the cover artwork for the first two Binary releases, Ouroborus by Dweller at the Threshold, and Into the Liquid Unknown by Paul Ellis (who is also a member of Dweller).

These are a couple of very strong releases. In both cases the music is a bit more active and dynamic than what Hypnos would normally release, but they should also appeal to most "mainstream" Hypnos listeners as well. This is the very sort of thing -- excellent music that didn't quite fit the "Hypnos sound" -- that brought about the genesis of the Binary & Foundry projects.

Also coming soon, sound clips so you'll know what I'm talking about, and so you can judge for yourself whether all this fuss is worth anything.

I've been so busy working on these Binary release, and helping to co-ordinate the four upcoming Foundry releases, that I forgot to offer a "teaser" here about a very exciting upcoming Hypnos release: vidnaObmana's Soundtrack for the Aquarium: 2CD Special Edition. This is one of the most truly "ambient" vidnaObmana releases in recent years, and includes some of the Belgian ambient master's finest work ever. It will be available for purchase Friday or Saturday, so stay tuned. When it's available at the Hypnos Online Store I'll make an announcement on this page.

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2001.06.26 Pretty soon you'll see a revision to this web space, as we expand the hypnos.com domain to encompass the two new sub-labels, Hypnos/Binary and Hypnos/Foundry. If updates here lately have been a bit scarce, it's due at least in part to all the work going on behind the scenes, toward this next major update to the main Hypnos site, the www.hypnos.com/binary/ site, as well as the www.foundysite.com domain. Stay tuned.

Oh, and a bit more information about projected release dates for the first four Hypnos/Foundry releases:

1. release date for fou.11 - 7/23/01

2. release date for fou.13 - 8/13/01

3. release date for fou.12 - 9/3/01

4. release date for fou.14 - 9/24/01

Also, a bit more information on the upcoming Dweller at the Threshold performance (also featuring Robert Carty) in Portland on July 28th. The venue is "The Old Church" downtown, where Vidna Obmana and Steve Roach performed last November. The address is SW 11th and Clay, near PSU, and the show will begin at 9 PM. Tickets will be $13.00, and will be available for purchase from the Hypnos Online Store in the next few days.

Here's a preview of the promotional poster for the show, soon to be plastered all over every telephone pole in the 972xx zip codes: DATT poster.

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2001.06.25 This week's Hearts of Space radio show featured a track from Markus Reuter's Digitalis, the first Hypnos disc featured in a while. Since this widely-heard syndicated show only airs for one hour, once a week, getting airplay there is tough!

.

2001.06.22 As promised, here's a little preview of the cover artwork for the upcoming Hypnos co-operative releases with The Foundry:

FOU.11 - Seofon - Zero Point: lessons in being nothing
(with Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Stephen Kent, Robert Rich,Not Drowning and Thermal) cover image

FOU.12 - Dean Santomieri - The Boy Beneath the Sea cover image

FOU.13 - eM - All the Stars Burning Bright cover image

FOU.14 - Mollusk - Accretions cover image

The designs are by Michael Bentley.

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2001.06.20 A bit more information on both the Hypnos/Binary and Hypnos/Foundry sub-labels.... In the next two months, there will be two Hypnos/Binary releases (mentioned yesterday), and four Hypnos/Foundry releases.

Though the Hypnos/Foundry project has been "cooking" longer than Hypnos/Binary, things have finally come together to the point where we're ready to get some CDs going. Of course, many of you are familiar with The Foundry label, as it is a pre-existing entity, not something created from scratch as a subsidiary of Hypnos. In fact, just to clarify, a good way of explaining these two projects (H/B and H/F) is that Hypnos/Binary is a true sub-label of Hypnos, while Hypnos/Foundry is more of a co-operative project between Hypnos and The Foundry.

An example of the difference between the two is that the Hypnos/Binary web site will be located on this hypnos.com domain, whereas the Hypnos/Foundry site will continue to be primarily located on the foundrysite.com domain (there will be some Foundry content located here soon, most likely at hypnos.com/foundry/, though there's nothing in that folder yet).

Also, the CD package designs and artwork for Hypnos/Binary CDs will be designed at ChromaStatic III studio, by Hypnos founder Mike Griffin, just the same as "regular" Hypnos CDs. The CD package designs and artwork for Hypnos/Foundry releases will be designed by Foundry honcho Michael Bentley (aka Foundry artist eM, and part of The Apiary). If you've never seen a Foundry label design, you may have seen the ambient01@hyperreal compilation of music composed by members of the Ambient music mailing list at hyperreal.org -- Michael designed that too. He has a strange and yet minimal design approach that we both feel fits well right next to the "Hypnos style," while maintaining a distinct flavor. We'll have some sample artwork available here soon.

Another distinction: Hypnos/Binary catalog numbers will start with "hyby0101" while the Hypnos/Foundry catalog numbers will start with FOU.11.... speaking of which, here's a list of those first four H/F releases:

FOU.11 - Seofon - Zero Point: lessons in being nothing
(with Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Stephen Kent, Robert Rich,Not Drowning and Thermal)

FOU.12 - Dean Santomieri - The Boy Beneath the Sea

FOU.13 - eM - All the Stars Burning Bright

FOU.14 - Mollusk - Accretions

The first release Zero Point will no doubt be of great interest to Hypnos listeners, being as it is a sort of "multi-collaboration" between Seofon and a number of very strong and yet diverse artists. We anticipate this one having a lot of interest and appeal for just about anybody who might be reading this news page!

The second release The Boy Beneath the Sea is a collage of deep ambient soundscapes mixed with spoken word "storytelling" elements -- magnetic, engrossing and listenable.

The third release All the Stars Burning Bright is wonderfully strange, deep-space sonic experimentation by The Foundry's Michael Bentley under the name eM. This will have a lot of appeal for fans of weird deep stuff like Viridian Sun or Lustmord.

The last of the four is Accretions by Mollusk, a strongly uncompromising work of experimental digitalism and ultra-processing. Those interested in the experimental works of the 12k or Touch labels will find Mollusk to be among the most interesting recent work in the so-called "microsound" genre.

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2001.06.18 I know these updates have been not only rare but also lean (sounds like a steak) lately, but that doesn't indicate a lack of activity here. One thing that has been taking a fair amount of time and attention is the launch of the Hypnos/Binary sub-label. In short order this has gone from being "just an idea," to a legitimate, active new label with several releases coming in the next several months.

First will be the latest Dweller at the Threshold album Ouroborus and the second solo album by Dweller member Paul Ellis, to be entitled Into the Liquid Unknown. Other releases are being discussed by artists like Synthetic Block, Saul Stokes, and others.

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2001.06.13 Added about 10 more reviews for Robert Rich's landmark DVD Somnium, and Jeff Pearce's The Light Beyond, to the Hypnos Reviews page.

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2001.06.12 Many, many reviews added for A Produce's Smile on the Void on the Hypnos Reviews page. Also, a lesser number of reviews were added for Digitalis by Markus Reuter, Sunyata by Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana's first two Hypnos discs, and Griffin & Fulton's The Most Distant Point Known.... about 26 reviews in all!

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2001.06.05 (later) The Hypnos/Cascade idea as announced last month has been changed slightly, broadened, and renamed Hypnos/Binary. It will be a Hypnos sub-label dedicated to more dynamic, pulsing, sometimes rhythmic forms of electronic music -- everything from sequenced Berlin-school to "electronica" of the more experimental variety. Basically it is the more upbeat & active cousin to Hypnos.

Paul Ellis and Dave Fulton of Dweller at the Threshold will be involved in different capacities, which will be announced in greater detail soon. They can be reached at ellis@hypnos.com and fulton@hypnos.com effective immediately. It looks likely that Paul will have the greater direct involvement, and will have a "Project Manager" type of role in which he will help facilitate specific projects, artist relationships, and possibly new directions and outlets for this music. Dave will, at least for the present, have a more limited technical role, though this may change at some time in the future should Dave's schedule loosen up a bit.

We consider this a very exciting stage in the development of Hypnos as an entity, as an exciting new outlet for all of us (me, Paul, Dave, and the artists).

Likely initial releases will be Paul Ellis's excellent sequencer-driven INTO THE LIQUID UNKNOWN, and the third Dweller at the Threshold CD, both of which will be out this summer.

Subsequent releases will involve other artists not previously involve with Hypnos, yet who will be familiar to many of our existing listeners.

More soon, and please watch this space for details and greater content, soon:

www.hypnos.com/binary

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2001.06.05 New Age Voice magazine recently announced their "4th annual New Age Voice Awards" winners and finalists. There are several categories, several of which would not be of much interest to Hypnos listeners, but two Hypnos CDs from 2000 were entered for consideration in this year's awards, and both fared very well.

First, Jeff Pearce's highly acclaimed To the Shores of Heaven was entered in the Ambient/Space/Electronic category, and it won the first place award in that category over works by Michael Stearns/Ron Sunsinger, John Serrie/Gary Stroutsos, Lightwave, and Stephanie Sante. Once again (as with the Echoes Radio "Listeners' Choice Album of the Year" award), Hypnos and Jeff Pearce deal a smack-down to the bigger labels and their more heavily publicized & promoted artists.

Also, James Johnson's Hypnos debut Entering Twilight was entered in the Healing/Meditation category, and it ended up as one of four finalists.

You can find the awards announcement page by visiting http://www.newagevoice.com/award2.htm.

Congratulations to Jeff Pearce and James Johnson for these well-deserved honors!

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2001.06.04 A very busy weekend.... though I had not updated this page last Friday, I did announce the new Hypnos releases through various mailing lists, and updated the Hypnos Online Store to include them. So with three brand new Hypnos releases, as well as a bunch of interesting new and back-in-stock Hic Sunt Leones label (Alio Die and associated artists) materials, the orders flooded in all weekend.

In keeping with recent (possibly misguided) tradition, I'll copy the recent Hypnos press releases regarding our new releases, below:

Artist:    Paul Vnuk Jr.
Title:     Silence Speaks in Shadow

HYPNOS RELEASE:  Paul Vnuk Jr. - Silence Speaks in Shadow

SILENCE SPEAKS IN SHADOW, the first Hypnos CD by Paul Vnuk Jr.
of Ma Ja Le (a duo that released a collaboration IMAGINARIUM
with Vir Unis, and also more recently issued a limited-edition
live CD with Hypnos artist James Johnson).  Vnuk ventures out
into the solo world with a longform release that blends the
environmental sounds of a cityscape with an ebbing and flowing
synth atmosphere.  SILENCE SPEAKS IN SHADOW gives us a glimpse
into the psycho-environmental sounds of a city drenched in
rain and industrial sonics.

Stating his aims with this project, Vnuk says:  "The open
windows and industrial sounds of a rain drenched city can have
a strange calming effect on the soul."

A pre-release review by Jim Brenholts says:  "....expertly
mixes somber passages and samples with an expansive drone,
nature samples and melodic pastoral ambience.  The effect is
both chilling and calming.  The emotional and spiritual
responses are clear and undefinable.  The physical response
is immediate calm.  This CD is essential psychoactive
meditation material!"

Hypnos Recordings feels a special fondness for smooth,
long-form environmental pieces.  We find them full of details
which gradually reveal themselves, and transport the
listener to unfamiliar locales, or frames of mind.  SILENCE
SPEAKS IN SHADOW is sure to be a favorite "place" of many who
experience it.

TRACK LISTING:

1  Silence Speaks in Shadow  73:58

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Artist:    Tom Heasley
Title:     Where the Earth Meets the Sky

HYPNOS RELEASE:  Tom Heasley -- Where the Earth Meets the Sky

Tom Heasley is almost certainly a new name for most Hypnos listeners.
He's a classically-trained tubist (that is, he plays the tuba) with a
widely varied musical background -- free jazz, and a great range of
experimental work in addition to more conventionally "musical" music.
Heasley has performed and recorded with a wide range of musical
innovators such as Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran and Anne LeBaron,
as well as with many luminaries from the worlds of jazz, free
improvisation, and rock.

WHERE THE EARTH MEETS THE SKY is the Hypnos debut by Tom Heasley.
Tom's work impressed Robert Rich, who recorded and mastered the
then-untitled collection of deep tuba atmospheres, and who found
the material unique, special, and appropriate to what Hypnos is
doing.  We have no doubt that once the ambient, space & atmospheric
music audience gets over the issue of "tuba?!" they will quickly
see what we recognize in the recording -- a deep, restrained
sonorous richness, and a very nice divergence from the usual
"synths and samplers" sonic palette common to our genre.  Put
aside any preconceptions you may have about the tuba as an
unlikely instrument for beautiful, restrained ambience. If you
like the Hypnos sound, you'll love WHERE THE EARTH MEETS THE SKY.
It's a truly deep, organic, and beautiful album and Hypnos takes
great pleasure in bringing it to the public.


TRACK LISTING:

1 Ground Zero
2 Western Sky
3 Monterey Bay
4 Where the Earth Meets the Sky

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2001.06.03 New Hypnos artist Tom Heasley will be taking part in a pretty high-profile performance at the Monterey Bay Aquarium this Saturday, June 9 2001. The event, entitled "Jazz At the Aquarium," is in part a benefit event ($30 of the $50 admission is tax-deductible), but includes a long list of varied musical artists, including (as described on the event's promotional flier): "The Roy Hargrove Quintet, featuring noted trumpet/fluegelhorn player Roy Hargrove, the Madeline Eastman/Bruce Forman Duo, Modern Gypsies, the vintage sounds of Dizzy Burnett & Grover Coe, the Rob Lautz and Stan Poplin Duo, local pianist Biff Smith, up-and-coming jazz group Deuces Wild, Jerry Shanahan and Scott McKenna, and tuba master Tom Heasley."

OK, I'll admit to never having heard of most of those performers, but then I'm not up-to-date on present-day jazz. It looks like a fun event, and aside from the Hypnos/Heasley connection, something worthwhile. The event flier even has a picture of Roy Hargrove looking extremely relaxed, sitting in front of a window in a mostly-transparent shirt, so I'm sure the ladies will be there in large numbers. For those interested, call to reserve tickets at 1-800-840-4880. Proceeds benefit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.

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2001.05.31 ECHOES radio, the nationally syndicated daily show, continues its steadfast support of Hypnos artists with another upcoming Jeff Pearce feature, as announced in their recent email update regarding June features:

Tuesday 6/5*, Saturday, 6/9**, Sunday, 6/10**, Sunday, 6/17*
JEFF PEARCE RIDES THE LOOP
Jeff Pearce has been entrancing listeners with his textural,
ambient guitar orchestrations since his debut album, Tenderness
& Fatality (Windchime).  His collaborations include work with
Jon Jenkins, Kevin Keller and Vidna Obmana.  Although he often
sounds like multiple guitar players and a synthesizer, Jeff
makes all of his music on one electric guitar in played in real
time with no overdubs.  Through a sophisticated system of looping
and sound processing, however, he transforms himself into an
ambient orchestra.  From his home in Indiana, Jeff Pearce comes
to the Echoes studio to reveal the sonic architecture behind his
music and latest albums, To the Shores of Heaven and The Light
Beyond (Hypnos).

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2001.05.29 There's nothing quite like a lovely 4-day weekend to allow a guy to R&R the illness right out of his tired body. Ahhhh, the relief!

And that rest was well-timed, because this is going to be a doozy of a week. Never before has Hypnos released more than 2 CDs in a single month. Well, this month, it will be 4 CDs! In fact, this week alone, Hypnos will have 3 CD releases. Golly!

Hot off the presses by Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) is Mother Sunrise, the first Hypnos CD by either artist. Of course, I could go to great lengths explaining what this CD is all about, or I could just do the simple thing and copy & paste the press release for this wonderful new CD:

Artist:    Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium)
Title:     Mother Sunrise
Catalog #: hyp2130
UPC #:     75390-71259-24

HYPNOS RELEASE:  Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) - Mother Sunrise

Italian ambient sound master Alio Die (best known for his previous
collaborations with ambient & experimental artists like Robert Rich &
Vidna Obmana), and younger Italian newcomer Opium, collaborate under the
project name Sola Translatio on their first project for Hypnos, MOTHER
SUNRISE. Combining an entrancing mix of natural recordings (water, wind,
soil, forest) and electronic textures, MOTHER SUNRISE conveys a descent
into the natural world at its grittiest, most organic, and most truly
"alive."

Usually ambient & atmospheric music is primarily electronic, or perhaps
utilizes guitars or other acoustic instruments, with electronic treatments.
While this recording does integrate such conventional instrumentation in
part, it derives its truly unique flavor through the liberal use of
natural "location" atmospheres (recorded in the Far East as well as
Italy), as well as organic percussive elements.

Opium is a newcomer, mostly unknown in the ambient & atmospheric music
scene, but Alio Die (especially through his excellent collaborations
with ambient stars Robert Rich and Vidna Obmana, but also through his
proprietorship of the Hic Sunt Leones label on which most of his solo
material has been released) is one of the increasingly respected &
beloved artists of our genre.  Taking a truly unique and personal
approach to this work, Alio Die arrives at a sound which is distinct --
truly rich, complex, and substantial enough to bear repeat listening.

TRACK LISTING:

1 Superior Spells
2 Sadness and Armony
3 Mother Sunrise
4 Awaken Spirits
5 Lullaby for the Desert Moon
6 Entrance Through a Self-Portrait
7 Floating Energies
8 Undercurrent in Castevoli

So, you say you want to see the cover artwork? Well, look here.

And so very distasteful do I find the idea of the Hypnos label resting on its laurels, that I will announce the next two Hypnos releases, Silence Speaks in Shadows by Paul Vnuk of Ma Ja Le, and Where the Earth Meets the Sky by Tom Heasley. More news tomorrow on these, though that's not to say that these will necessarily be released tomorrow.... just that there will be more information.

Those of you in a huge hurry to add the Sola Translatio disc to your collection may proceed at once to the Hypnos Online Store, where it has been added to the catalog, despite its non-appearance on the front page. Do a search for "Alio Die" or "Sola Translatio" or even pull down the "Hypnos label" category to find it. Tomorrow or the next day you will see a new "Hypnos Recommends" section on the front page of the Hypnos store, where not only will Mother Sunrise see a proper introduction, but a lot of great new (and back-in-stock) CDs by Alio Die and related artists on his Hic Sunt Leones label, will be featured as well.

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2001.05.22 At the time of the "Oh my gosh, I almost died of the flu" update of 5/18, having felt well enough to sit at the computer and type another update, I assumed I'd continue to recover and would have my little life back in order by the weekend. Silly me! Whatever insanely horrible flu plague this is that's going around, it really hangs on. I still feel every bit as lousy as I did on the 18th -- still so weak that it's an effort to sit up straight, actually, so I'm currently typing from a slumped position -- though there's some comfort in at least not being utterly incapacitated as I was on the 17th.

Oh well, enough self-pity. A bit of further news on the Hypnos/Cascade project as mentioned in those last two updates: it looks like the name might change, though the idea remains mostly the same. So it's still safe to assume that you'll see the new Paul Ellis and Dweller at the Threshold albums before too long, issued on a label somehow affiliated with, or part of, Hypnos. The other stuff, the names and details and so on, will be explored in more detail by those involved, and announced as things solidify.

One bit of news that I can mention now is that Dweller at the Threshold will be performing in Portland July 28th at the Old Church (the venue where Vidna Obmana and Steve Roach performed a memorable and well-attended show in November 2000). I've heard an interesting name who might also be performing at the show, though I don't know yet whether that's definite so I won't mention it here until I do know. If that person is participating, then it would definitely be the first live performance by that artist that I have heard of.

Also there is some preliminary talk about this performance being the start of a regular (though possibly somewhat irregular as well) concert series at Portland's beautiful Old Church. Viridian Sun may be involved in one of the upcoming shows, but there is no date or actual certainty of such a subsequent show... just talk and my idle speculation! But it's exciting.... over on the Hypnos Forum there has been much talk about the need our genre has for more performance venues and concert series. Perhaps this is the birth of a new series, a sort of opposite-coast little cousin to the Gatherings series in Philly?

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2001.05.18 Ugh... a NASTY flu has had me messed up for the last two days (the 5/17 update below was written the previous evening, so I just had to upload it yesterday, which was about the most I could manage in my condition). Horrible fever, the shakes, dizziness, wobbly knees, all that good stuff.

Back in the saddle again, now. Mother Sunrise by Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) should be done any day now.

Several long-awaited projects seem to be getting ready to happen soon. There's the Hypnos/Foundry co-label, the more recent Hypnos-Cascade deal, my own long overdue album Fabrications, a lot of Hic Sunt Leones stuff that's been out of stock for a long time on the Hypnos Online Store is now on the way from Italy (including three titles never yet listed in this catalog).... even the old idea of the Hypnos T-Shirt seems like it may happen fairly soon.

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2001.05.17 Just received the following update from Dave Fulton (M. Griffin collaborator on the Hypnos CD The Most Distant Point Known, and member of Dweller at the Threshold) .... which reminds me, I also had an announcement to make! OK, Dave's announcement first, then mine:

Whats happened to DATT? New Personnel, A New Show, A New Label,
A New Album, New Solo Works!

New Personnel>>> Paul Ellis has returned!

A New Show!>>>>  July 28th at the Old Church in Portland Oregon.
                 Details Soon!

A New Label>>>>  A new label run by Paul and I tentatively called
                 Cascade will be a Partnership with Hypnos Recordings.
                 Will release material from DATT personel and other
                 fine performers in the classic EM form and beyond.
                 More Details Soon!

A New Album!>>>  Is in the final weeks of completion. Should be our
                 best yet, Check the MP3 page for a sample soon. New
                 Solo Works> Paul has just completed his new solo work
                 "Into the Liquid Unknown". I will be mastering it in
                 the next week or 2. This is Paul's most mature and
                 powerful work to date. It will also kick off our new
                 label, It will be our first release! To make this
                 clear DATT is John Duval, Paul Ellis, Dave Fulton.
                 This is going to be another fantastic summer! I will
                 keep you informed as events unfold.

OK then, my own announcement (which has been basically revealed above) is that Hypnos will be involved in a project which has been hinted about for a while here, as well as on the Hypnos Forum. In this case, a new entity will be created, a cooperative label called Hypnos-Cascade or something like that. The Cascade imprint will be the work of Dave Fulton and Paul Ellis -- both members of Dweller at the Threshold (though Paul quit briefly last year, so if you saw DATT in the Gathering in Philly, Paul wasn't part of the group then) as well as known solo artists in this genre, and will be primarily oriented toward releasing their own group and solo works, though it will also be quite active in releasing CDs by some of the other groups and individuals working in the styles of "classic EM" or "Berlin school" or what might also be called sequencer-based, mid-tempo music. I know that many Hypnos listeners also have a fondness for this style, and many of the titles on the Groove Unlimited label (which works mainly in a classic EM mode) have been quite popular sellers at the Hypnos store. So while this is a change, and an exploration of a different area, I think is has some similarity to what Hypnos is all about, and will create a good synergy.

Also remember that a Hypnos/Foundry co-operative label entity (obviously, a co-label or sub-label arrangement with The Foundry) is in the works, from which the first releases should be seen in a few months.

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2001.05.16 Some items that have recently been out-of-stock, short-term or longer-term, are now back in at the Hypnos Online Store. These include James Johnson's Unity and Lost at Dunn's Lake (with Stephen Philips), Steve Roach's Vine, Bark and Spore, Ashera's Colour Glow and Cobalt 144, and all the recent Amplexus stuff by Oophoi & Tau Ceti, Matthias Grassow, and Amir Baghiri.

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2001.05.15 Recently posted to www.signumpress.com, an online periodical covering the topics of art, music, media, culture, and other curiosities, you'll find a new feature on the Hypnos label and some of its artists.

This fairly lengthy feature/interview is especially interesting in that the writer/interviewer comes from a background well outside the usual ambient/space/experimental music scene. It's nice and somewhat refreshing to read an outside perspective, even if I do come off as sort of a hyperactive geek.

Anyway, visit the Signum web site (linked above) and click on the "Ambient Chasers" feature (not sure what that title mean actually), and if you enjoy it, send your emails of praise to the writer (Jay Horton) and Signum Editor (Tiffany Lee Brown) to let them know their attention paid to Hypnos was not an utter waste.

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2001.05.09 So much stuff is cooking at Hypnos right now, it's a bit scary. Two CDs have been released in the past month or so, three more CDs are currently being pressed (an all-time record for Hypnos), and there's no shortage of "coming soon" projects on the horizon.

Here's a little sneak preview of the cover artwork for the three upcoming CDs:

Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) | Mother Sunrise
Paul Vnuk Jr. / Ma Ja Le | Silence Speaks in Shadow
Tom Heasley | Where the Earth Meets the Sky

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2001.05.06 Hey, a SUNDAY update.... what's the world coming to? This evening, added some new titles to the Hypnos Online Store, several of which are "hot" items many of you have been asking about.

First, Blood Machine by Steve Roach & Vir Unis. This CD is released on the Green House label, which previously released Vir Unis's two excellent (and very popular at the Hypnos store) albums The Drift Inside and Aeonian Glow. Blood Machine follows the same path established on the previous Roach/Vir Unis collaboration, Body Electric, and is also somewhat similar to Roach's solo album (to which Vir Unis contributed rhythmic elements), Light Fantastic. It's priced at $14.99 and is available now.

James Johnson & Stephen Philips Lost at Dunn's Lake is back in stock, for those of you (and there were many!) who had ordered it in the past 1-2 weeks and found it unavailable.

The first Alpha Wave Movement/Jim Cole collaboration, Bislama, is also now in stock. The price is $13.99 and it's issued on COle's own label, Spectral Spiral Music. An excellent merging of AWM's electronic atmospheres and rhythms, with Cole's overtone vocals.

Many of you have asked for the self-titled debut CDR by Bering Sea, an "atmospheric pop" or "drone rock" group headed by Hypnos artist David Tollefson. Though this is definitely NOT ambient music -- it's more song-oriented, and there are even vocals on two tracks -- the Tollefson guitar sound is definitely recognizable, and those who enjoy the "shoegazer" style will probably really enjoy this. Just don't buy it if you're expecting Near and Far 2!

Aussie ambient musician Ashera has been one of the more popular artists at the Hypnos store this past few months, especially his recent release Colour Glow (which, incidentally, is still out of stock until a new shipment arrives from down under soon). But I do have in stock about a dozen copies of an earlier 2-CD Ashera release, Ambient Selections, which is a collection of earlier works. It's a double CD, more than two hours worth of music, at a single-CD price of $13.99.

While Robert Rich's Somnium was the first DVD release sold here, of course it was a music recording, and not a video. Now for the first time Hypnos offers a video DVD for sale -- it's Kaleida, a collection of abstract motion graphics, with music by Spacecraft and Giles Reeves. It's priced at $24.99.

Lastly, we have a few copies of Vidna Obmana's Subterranean Collective 2CD set on the Projekt label. This set collects most of three out-of-print Vidna Obmana classics: Parallel Flaming, The Spiritual Bonding, and Echoing Delight.

And while this isn't a NEW item, there's a temporary special price on Jeff Pearce's To the Shores of Heaven, to celebrate the release of The Light Beyond. Even a year later, Shores continues to be one of our top sellers, and it's not often you'll find a "sale" price on one of our top 10 items, so take advantage of it now if you don't already own this modern classic of ambient music. It's $10.99 for a very short time.

Most of the above will be found in the "Hypnos Recommends" section of the Hypnos Online Store, but not the Bering Sea or Vidna Obmana CDs, or the Kaleida DVD, so you'll have to hit the "search" button (or look in the "Misc A-L" and "Projekt label" sections) to find these.

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2001.05.03 It's been a while since I've recapped what has come recently & summarized what's coming up next for Hypnos, so today's news update will be something like that. 2001 has already been an amazing year for Hypnos, and it's not yet half-over. In case you missed something, here's a thumbnail rundown for the year to date:

+ First Hypnos release Digitalis by Markus Reuter, German-based touch guitarist.

+ First Hypnos DVD release, Robert Rich's Somnium, which also has the distinction of being the longest continuous single piece of music yet commercially released.

+ Smile on the Void, the first new solo album from A Produce in 5 years, and his first solo release on Hypnos.

+ Jeff Pearce's third Hypnos album (and the follow-up to his highly acclaimed To the Shores of Heaven), entitled The Light Beyond.

Of course you can read more about these items elsewhere (the reviews page, the Hypnos Forum, etc.) so I've just covered these quickly. That gets us up through today.... but a lot more stuff is coming very soon, and throughout the rest of 2001:

+ The first album by Italian duo Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) will be released by Hypnos in mid-May. It's called Mother Sunrise, and there's also a possibility of future releases by Alio Die and his various collaborations and projects.

+ Coming in late May, Silence Speaks in Shadows, the first Hypnos CD by Paul Vnuk Jr. of Ma Ja Le, a duo that released a collaboration Imaginarium with Vir Unis on the Canadian labe Mirage, and also more recently issued a limited-edition live CDR with Hypnos artist James Johnson, on Johnson's other imprint, Zero Music.

+ Also coming in late May (I told you a lot of stuff was coming soon!), Where the Earth Meets the Sky, which is the Hypnos debut by Tom Heasley, an experimental tuba player with a background in jazz and free improvisation. Obviously Tom is not yet known as a figure in the ambient/experimental genre surrounding Hypnos, but his work struck Robert Rich (who recorded and mastered the album) as being unique, special, and appropriate to what Hypnos is doing, so he passed it along to me. It's a truly deep, organic, and beautiful album and I'll take great pleasure in bringing it to the Hypnos audience.

+ After that will be Vidna Obmana's 2CD special edition Soundtrack for the Aquarium, which is a remastered version of his original, obscure, long out of print work for the Antwerp Aquarium (disc one) along with a never before released live recording (disc two) of the same material, recently compiled and mastered as a bonus for this release. Many Vidna Obmana fans have been clamoring for a taste of his more minimal, "pure" ambient style of Trilogy or River of Appearances, and those fans are going to love this one. I guarantee that this will become the favorite Vidna Obmana album of many listeners -- it's that good!

+ Fabrications by Hypnos founder M. Griffin (the person typing this update), the long delayed follow-up to Sudden Dark is actually quite close to being complete. It is a simple-yet-deep textural recording, a many-layered collage of location recordings which have been heavily treated and processed electronically so that they no longer much resemble the source. I have pledged to myself and to my millions (OK, more like dozens) of listeners that Fabrications will be released before I do any further work on other personal projects or collaborations. So you will almost certainly, finally, see it this summer.

+ Speaking of Griffin collaborations, substantial work has been done on Viridian Sun's third release. In fact, all the material has been recorded, and the sorting/editing process is going on now. This third album, as yet untitled, continues the "abstract improvisation" direction of the first two Viridian Sun releases, with a changed sound due to the different instrumentation. The new Viridian Sun utilizes looped and processed guitars (Tollefson) and bass guitar (Griffin) -- no more synthesizers, at least this time! Hence, the sound is a bit more gritty and organic, yet still smooth and deep.

+ Saul Stokes has just begun work on his fourth album, Fields. There is still no definite date as yet, but it's projected for late summer or fall.

+ Other albums planned for this year include Athlit by Italian artist Oophoi, Proton Jelly by Jeff Karsin, an album by Robert Scott Thompson, and another long-delayed project, the "various artists" compilation Never Time.

That gets us current with recent, upcoming and planned releases. I should also add on the subject of general label "business" activities, Hypnos is currently exploring three different, concurrent possibilities with regard to new label, sub-label or "imprint" activities. Some of these have been mentioned, or at least hinted at, in the past, but not much more can be said until one or more of them are a bit more definite. Some of the biggest requests or suggestions that I receive from Hypnos customers are as follows: 1) "The same stuff, more of it, please," and 2) "Release more rhythmic, electronica-style or IDM music," and 3) "Release some more sequencer-based, Berlin school, or classic E-music style music."

The first one is already in the works -- as you can tell, Hypnos will release over a dozen CDs this year. As for the others, we will have to wait and see, but there is a very strong chance that Hypnos will be involved in bringing you some new, different kinds of music in the near future. These will coincide with a gradual stylistical expansion of the selection of music at the Hypnos Online Store.

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2001.05.02 In the time-honored tradition of passing off another's press releases as one's own news, here is some information about another upcoming Echoes radio feature on Robert Rich:

Wednesday May 9, Saturday, 5/12**, Sunday, 5/13**, Sunday, 5/20*
ROBERT RICH: TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DRONE
Robert Rich is one of the most expansive composers on the techno-tribal landscape,
but when he's not creating sensual melodies and rhythms, he makes a music designed
to inhabit your dreams.  In the early 1980s he gave all night sleep concerts and
every so often he goes out on the road encouraging audiences to tuck themselves in
and drift away.  He's just put out a definitive recording of the sleep concert
experience, a non-stop seven hour music DVD called SOMNIUM (Hypnos).  We're going
to revisit a 1996 feature with Robert Rich where he woke up to talk about his sleep
concerts.

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2001.05.01 Though Jeff Pearce's CD The Light Beyond was actually released yesterday, it was not prominently added to the Hypnos Online Store until today, so I didn't make a general, public announcement of the release until just now. It was actually on the store's listings if you REALLY wanted to look for it (search for "Pearce" or scroll through the entire catalog listing), but now it's listed front and center on the "Hypnos Recommends" section on the index page.

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2001.04.30 Excellent good news today!

But before I get to that... I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates lately. It seems like about once every month or two, this news page has one of these ".... sorry it's been so long since the last update...." notes. Anyway, I think today's news will more than make up for that. This page will be buzzing with info in coming weeks, so much stuff do we have planned, and coming soon.

Today, Hypnos is pleased to announce the latest by Jeff Pearce, The Light Beyond. His followup to the beloved & highly-acclaimed 2000 album To the Shores of Heaven, The Light Beyond shares its predecessor's basis of smooth, guitar-based atmospheric clouds, both dark and light. But The Light Beyond explores more abstract, open- ended and free-form compositions, with one track almost forty-four minutes in duration, in the midst of three shorter pieces.

This may be Pearce's most developed and sonically complex work yet, a fact that is truly amazing considering that The Light Beyond was entirely improvised in the "Star's End" studios of WXPN radio in Philadelphia. One man with a guitar and some electronic processing boxes has created, in real time and for the benefit of a live listening audience, work of a substance and depth, not to mention sonic richness, that ranks with his finest studio-recorded works.

Listeners who loved Pearce's previous work -- in addition to To the Shores of Heaven there were Daylight Slowly (also on Hypnos), Vestiges, Tenderness and Fatality and The Hidden Rift, as well as Pearce's collaboration with fellow Hypnos artist Vidna Obmana, True Stories -- will find in The Light Beyond the next phase in Pearce's evolution.

There will be other updates and news later this week with regard to other upcoming Hypnos releases (which have been moving forward in the past 12 days despite the lack of news updates here) and other label & artist-related activity.

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2001.04.18 Lately this pages seems to be nothing but copied-and-pasted press releases having to do with upcoming performances and radio features by Hypnos artists. Here's the latest, this time in regard to Robert Rich's feature on Echoes Radio:

A quick reminder: tonight (tuesday April 17) on Echoes, Robert Rich in a
Living Room Concert, playing solo piano. (Some stations may air this on
Sunday, April 29)

Robert has done a few sets of piano music when on tour, those of you lucky
enough to have caught him at The Gathering last year were treated to one of
those.  But he has never recorded his piano improvisations, and is not
likely to do so.

We rudely dropped-in on him with very short notice, and so Robert is a
little self-conscious about not being in absolutely top-form, but we think
he did a great job.

more info:

http://www.echoes.org

there's a picture of robert in his studio, at the piano at:

http://www.echoes.org/feature.html

sorry, I should have zoomed back to get more of the studio especially the
big honkin' modular for you gear heads...


Jeff Towne
Co-Producer, Echoes
jefft@echoes.org
http://www.echoes.org

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2001.04.17 Yet another news update relating to James Johnson's "Gathering" performance upcoming this weekend in Philadelphia (from Chuck VanZyl, Star's End Radio host and over-seer of the Gatherings):

hi everybody,

i wanted all of you to be aware of something very special that will be
happening this saturday night here in philadelphia. our own james johnson
will be coming into town to present us with the best he has to offer in the
way of his own very personal music. at the gathering, james's introspective
synth stylings will be contrasted by intricate rhythmic developments and
pulse. presented in the serenity of a 150 year old church sanctuary, this
concert should prove to be superb.

opening for james will be prana, baird hersey's octet of overtone singers.
in contrast to james and his collection of the latest technological
advances in music synthesis, prana use only their voices to create a
gentle, evocative and singular listening experience.

you the listener are of the highest significance at the gatherings. your
presence at these events makes them more real and both performer and
attendees come away with significant tangible experiences. i hope you will
make it a point to come out to this concert and witness james johnson at
his best and be among friends.

thanks!

-chuckv

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2001.04.16 Ah, the pleasures of tax time. The past week has been a blur of adding machine tapes, big spreadsheet calculations, and friendly Turbo Tax Advisors with their helpful comments. My apologies for any delays in communication or order fulfillment this past week, but the beast that is the Hypnos tax return filing is almost complete, and things will be (relatively) back to normal soon.

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2001.04.13 A news update from James Johnson on the subject of his upcoming Gathering performance in Philadelphia (seems like every other Gathering performance these days features a Hypnos artist!)...

JAMES JOHNSON AND PRANA TO PERFORM AREA DEBUTS AT THE GATHERING
Sonic explorer James Johnson and overtone singing group Prana will make their
Philadelphia area debut at the Gathering on Saturday, April 21st, 2001. In his
music, James Johnson attempts to reflect the essence and energy projected by
natural environments. Expertly rendered, his music is transportive and engaging.
"Multiple lush layers entwine and softly swirl in big amorphous swells." (AMBIENTRANCE).
The music comes across as organic because, along with computer based software
synthesis and sampling technologies, Johnson also uses traditional acoustic instruments.
Johnson's recorded output consists mainly of introspective ambient soundscape
albums, but his Gathering concert will present a range of energy; from sonic
drift to focused rhythms. A ten year veteran as live performancer, Johnson has,
"quite a few rhythmic pieces that I use live. Some are quite trancey and evolve,
twist and turn, while others offer more of a familiar song-like structure." In
addition to manipulation of electronic timbres, Johnson's music also offers dynamics.
"The dynamics of my live set ranges from subtle percussion, to powerful rhythmic
lines. It's nice to incorporate these as transition pieces and breaks between
the more subtle atmospheres. It keeps the performance engaging." Prana is an
eight voice singing group headed by Baird Hersey. The octet emits what is referred
to as the Higher Voice, an enigmatic overtone produced when the mouth and throat
are shaped into a resonating chamber for the harmonics of the normal voice. Prana
produces deep and calming meditations with only Tibetan cymbals, reverberation
and voices. The music is a shared search between audience and performers and
fuses breath, listening, space and sound. Their album Waking the Cobra is used
widely throughout the yoga and holistic health community. The Gathering with
James Johnson and Prana will take place on Saturday, April 21st, 2001 at 8:00pm
in the church sanctuary of St. Mary's Hamilton Village, 3916 Locust Walk, on
the Penn campus in Philadelphia, PA. Admission is $20; $10 for full-time students
with proper ID. All ages welcome. Advance tickets are available on-line through
Ticketweb and at any TLA Video outlet. For more information, please access the
Gatherings website or call (610) 734-1009. Gatherings are live concerts featuring
musicians from the ambient, electronic and space music worlds. For more information,
please access: http://www.thegatherings.org

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2001.04.12 A news update from Vidna Obmana related to an upcoming performance this summer:

Event info:

Parkhöhle im Park an der Ilm,
(Nähe Liszthaus)
99423 Weimar
Germany
doors open: 8.00 pm ­ 3.00 am

tickets: box-office for evening performance or at :
laborNEUN
Michael Pfefferkorn
Tröbsdorfer Weg 9
99428 Nohra OT Ulla
Germany
Tel: 0049 3643 77 90 88
Fax 0049 3643 77 90 93
mail contact for ticket ordering for this special event:
vidnaobmana.concert@laborneun.com

internet: http://www.vidnaobmana-concert.de.vu

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2001.04.09 A quick self-correction -- the upcoming Vidna Obmana album will actually be called SOUNDTRACK FOR THE AQUARIUM (2CD special edition), not "Music for the Aquarium." Soundtrack, not Music.

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2001.04.06 OK, no more "almost" -- Jeff Pearce's new one, The Light Beyond, is finalized and will start pressing on Monday, and should be expected to be ready at the end of April. You can preview the cover artwork here.

Not far behind it will be Mother Sunrise by Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium).

Early response to A Produce's Smile on the Void is starting to trickle in, and it seems that listeners are every bit as excited about it as I had hoped. My own first response to SOTV was that it was very fresh and vital sounding, and some of you seem to agree. This will definitely be one that appears on many "best of the year" lists when 2001 is in the rear-view mirror.

Lastly, just wanted to thank Bill Fox, host of "Emusic" on WDIY radio, for presenting Robert Rich's 7-hour "sleep concert" epic DVD, Somnium on the air in its entirety this week! I'm told that Allan Bogle will be doing the same thing on WEVL radio next Monday.

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2001.04.04 Just a bit of a follow-up on part of yesterday's message. It looks like the new Jeff Pearce album The Light Beyond will be ready to go to the manufacturing stage any day now. It should be released at the end of April or possibly early May.

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2001.04.03 A whole bunch of little things are churning and happening.... several CDs in the "almost ready" category to go along with the three releases by Hypnos in the past six weeks. The CDs you'll see in the next couple of months include:

Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) MOTHER SUNRISE
Jeff Pearce THE LIGHT BEYOND
vidnaObmana MUSIC FOR THE AQUARIUM (2CD special edition)
Paul Vnuk Jr. / Ma Ja Le SILENCE SPEAKS IN SHADOW

Also it looks like two upcoming Hypnos releases will be Athlit by Italian drone/minimalist Oophoi, and the tentatively-titled Hypnos debut Where the Earth Meets the Sky by Tom Heasley.

Most of you know Oophoi, but Tom Heasley is almost certainly a new name for most Hypnos listeners. Tom is a classically-trained tubist (that is, he plays the tuba) with a widely varied musical background -- free jazz, and a great range of experimental work in addition to more conventionally "musical" music. Tom's recording was brought to my attention by Robert Rich, who mastered the then-untitled recording of tuba atmospheres and thought (despite how strange the term "ambient tuba" might sound to some) that it would be a great Hypnos recording. Robert was right. Once I myself got over the issue of "tuba?!" I quickly saw what Robert saw in the recording -- a deep, restrained sonorous richness, and a very nice divergence from the usual "synths and samplers" sonic palette common to our genre. This one still isn't a definite deal, but looks likely and should see release soon (in time for a festival Tom will be playing in Monterey in June).

Again, I'm fully aware that 99.9% of you have never heard of Tom before, but I'll gradually help you get to know more about what he's all about. Take my word for it, though -- put aside any preconceptions you may have about the tuba as an unlikely instrument for beautiful, restrained ambience. If you like the Hypnos sound, you'll like Tom's work.

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2001.04.02 Didn't post any news on 04.01.... does anybody else get tired of seeing 99% of the web sites in the world do lame April Fool's Day spoofs?

Ahem. All right then, back to the news.

I was about to announce that French ambient music fans should look for an interview with Saul Stokes in the next issue of Via #4, but it turns out that this interview, conducted by Via founder David Fabre, will appear (translated into Italian) in esteemed Italian magazine Deep Listenings.

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2001.03.31 There was a mistake with the RealAudio clips listed for the new A Produce album Smile on the Void on the Hypnos Online Store. The clips for Markus Reuter's Digitalis were displayed instead. If you stopped by, listened to the clips, and thought, "That doesn't sound much like A Produce," please go back and take another listen. Sorry for the confusion.

Also, it looked like the Saul Stokes limited edition CDR Edge of the Forest was out of stock and likely to remain that way indefinitely, as Saul is getting ready to move again. Luckily I was able to obtain another 5 copies, so it's still available for a short time. The limited edition is not truly sold out, so it'll be readily available again eventually, after Saul has moved and set up his new studio. For the moment, these last few copies are all we'll be able to offer.

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2001.03.29 Finally! The latest by A Produce, Smile on the Void, is ready to go. Long in the works, and delayed at the last minute by pressing errors necessitating that the entire batch of CDs had to be re-done to eliminate a tiny little "blip," the final hurdle has been cleared and the CDs are here. This one is definitely worth the wait, though.... a truly luscious, deep and rich sonic stew. Available by the time you read this at the Hypnos Online Store for $11.99.

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2001.03.28 Recently announced by Echoes Radio (note: this is not directly related to Robert's Somnium release or other Hypnos activities, but may be of interest to many of you)...

Tuesday 4/17*, Saturday, 4/21**, Sunday, 4/22**, Sunday, 4/29*
A LIVING ROOM CONCERT WITH ROBERT RICH
We know Robert Rich for his lush synthesizer trance works, full of organic textures,
wood flutes, and glissandos of lap steel guitar.  But unlike most synthesists, Robert
is also a gifted pianist.  He's never recorded any solo piano, but we'll hear him
spontaneously create two solo excursions in his home studio.

Also, Smile on the Void was supposed to be ready yesterday but it looks like it will be this afternoon. I'll post the announcement and add it to the Hypnos Online Store when it's ready.

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2001.03.27 Stereophile magazine, an audiophile or "hi-end hi-fi" interest magazine, has posted a feature story on Robert Rich's Somnium DVD on their web site, here.

Another Robert Rich interview in support of Somnium has appeared on the Ambient Visions web site. The direct link to the interview is here.

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2001.03.26 Tomorrow should see the release of A Produce's Smile on the Void as long promised in this space.

The last of the "closeout" stuff on the Kranky label is now gone from the Hypnos Online Store. Too bad, because it's a very fine label with some great music, but nobody was buying it. So it goes.

Other news.... it looks like a near-certainty that the next addition to the Hypnos label catalog of releases will be Athlit by Italian ambient/drone artist Oophoi. Actually there's supposed to be an umlaut over the second "o," so I guess I'll have to expand my knowledge of international character codes. Here we go, "lower-case latin o with diaeresis" or ö or "alt-0246." Oöphoi. Hope your web browser's default font knows how to display that. Maybe I'll just keep saying Oophoi, American-style.

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2001.03.20 Some of you may recall that Robert Rich's Somnium DVD, released last week, was expected to be released at about the same time as A Produce's long-awaited Smile on the Void. And you may have been wondering, "hmmm.... what ever happened to that A Produce album?" The answer is that the discs had an error in the pressing stage, and we're having them re-done.

The good news, just received today, is that it won't be too much longer. Probably about a week from today, it'll be ready.... and it's a great one!

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2001.03.23 Wow... Robert Rich's Somnium DVD is selling like gangbusters. We were a bit worried that demand might be more limited and sales more gradual due to the DVD format, and the fact that maybe 7 hours worth of continuous music might sound to some like a twenty-course gourmet meal.... too much of a good thing. But the response so far has been overwhelming, so much that the mail order operation here hit a bit of a hiccup and some orders placed this week took a day or two longer to process and ship than usual. Things appear to be just about back to normal now.

Another factor complicating things here is that the latest four releases from the Amplexus label have been enormously popular, and this great popularity has unfortunately coincided with some difficulty obtaining more copies of those items. So not only has the release of Somnium caused an unusual flood of orders, but many of said orders include one or two Amplexus items that have held things up a bit. So if you're thinking about ordering the latest by Matthias Grassow, Temps Perdu?, or oophoi/Tau Ceti, just be advised that the delay could be a week or longer.

Early next week, more news on the pending release of A Produce's wonderful upcoming CD Smile on the Void, as well as updates on other forthcoming Hypnos titles through the spring and early Summer. Lots of great stuff is on the horizon, including the Hypnos label debuts of several very fine artists.

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2001.03.20 Some of you may recall that Robert Rich's Somnium DVD, released last week, was expected to be released at about the same time as A Produce's long-awaited Smile on the Void. And you may have been wondering, "hmmm.... what ever happened to that A Produce album?" The answer is that the discs had an error in the pressing stage, and we're having them re-done.

The good news, just received today, is that it won't be too much longer. Probably about a week from today, it'll be ready.... and it's a great one!

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2001.03.15 First-like, Spacecraft's latest album Summer Town is now in stock, after the false-start announcement a week or so ago. Available at the Hypnos Online Store for $13.99.

A new third poll is being created for addition to the Hypnos Polls page later today or tomorrow. Nearly 100 votes have been cast for the first two polls -- surely a pitiful number compared to the polls on cnn.com or espn.com, but a nice display of interest and opinionated-ness by our valued listeners.

One other thing that hasn't been mentioned in a while: the Hypnos/Foundry project. Some of you may remember seeing mentioned in this space a plan to make the excellent Foundry label a part of the mighty Hypnos New World Empire. That plan has idled for a while as The Foundry founder (foundryfounder?) Michael Bentley re-tooled a new "look" for the Hypnos/Foundry line of stuff, to identify it as different from both main-line Hypnos stuff and previous issues by The Foundry.

Good progress has been made, and recently a package of artwork and recordings related to the first three planned Hypnos/Foundry CDs arrived at Hypnos HQ . It's beautiful stuff, quite varied and yet with a consistency of presentation similar to what you have come to expect from the Hypnos label itself. These materials most definitely promise some wonderful things to come for the Hypnos/Foundry alliance. The first issue bearing this imprint should be available some time in the spring or early summer (for those of you in the wrong hemisphere, that means something like May or June).

Listeners unfamiliar with previous releases on The Foundry label should expect a merging of experimentalism with musicality, yielding a brew both challenging and rewarding. You may of course check out the web site at www.foundrysite.com.

We're excited about what's coming up, and if you care about music, you should be too!

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2001.03.14 So far, response to Robert Rich's Somnium (7-hour sleep concert DVD) has been very strong. Early orders on the Hypnos Online Store at the introductory price of $22.99 have been very heavy, and we appreciate the support. Robert also reports that orders direct through his web site are also quite brisk. All orders placed at the Hypnos store prior to about 10 PM last night were shipped this morning.

Also, the 12k label CD by Komet, Rausch, has been out of print for a few months, and the last copy in the Hypnos inventory was sold this week. So it's gone! With 12k label stuff, make sure to snap it up when you can, because every title is limited to 500 copies.

Once again I wanted to mention a new feature, the Hypnos Listeners' Polls. Votes are pouring in steadily, and I'd like to create a new, third poll, but I'm too busy dealing with orders for Somnium to think of anything. Email your suggestions for new polls to mgriffin@hypnos.com and you will be heard! Make your opinions known to the Hypnos Imperial Dictatorship (me) and possibly influence the future course of this great entity that is Hypnos.

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2001.03.13 Surprise! Earlier than expected, Robert Rich's Somnium (7-hour sleep concert DVD) is ready! This evening it will be available on the Hypnos Online Store at the introductory price of $22.99. Please note that this price will last for a short time only, and will go up to $24.99, so purchase right away if you want to get this deal. For those who are unclear about the format of Somnium: it's an ordinary DVD-video disc, playable in regular, garden-variety home DVD players, as well as DVD-rom drives on you PC or Mac. It does not require (and in fact is not compatible with) a high-end DVD-audio drive. The DVD-video format was used because it enabled us to store 7 hours of continuous audio on one side of one disc -- no breaks in the program... no need to change discs or wait for a changer to swap from disc 5 to disc 6, for example. It is a stereo program, not 5.1 surround.

Technical questions aside, Somnium is a re-creation of Robert Rich's famous "sleep concerts," which began during Robert's time at Stanford University. These sleep concerts have been much discussed, but few current fans of ambient/space music have actually attended them. Consequently, a lot of speculation and mystery has grown about the "legendary sleep concerts." Now you'll have an opportunity to stretch out in the dark and listen to some of Robert Rich's finest deep, subliminal ambience.

The Hypnos Listeners' Polls, as mentioned in yesterday's update, have received an encouragingly positive response so far. Something like 40 votes were cast in the first day alone. It's sort of like the Hypnos Forum, except you don't need to register, and your opinions are expressed as "multiple choice" only.

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2001.03.12 First, I spoke too soon about having Spacecraft's new album Summer Town being available at the Hypnos Online Store. It will be there soon, just not quite yet...

Also, just this morning, I introduced a new feature to hypnos.com, something I've been wanting to do for a while -- the Hypnos Listeners' Polls page. You can go there to cast your vote, express your opinion, and re-shape history according to your own deranged fantasies. OK, that last part might be overstating it a bit, but you get the idea. There's only a single poll so far (inspired by a popular new topic on the Hypnos Forum), but I'll be adding new ones quickly. In fact, if you have any ideas for interesting polls, let me know by emailing mgriffin@hypnos.com.

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2001.03.07 This week Hearts of Space radio (one of the most prominent and widely-distributed syndicated radio shows of any format) featured a track from Griffin & Fulton's The Most Distant Point Known.

Also, the other major, nationally-syndicated radio show in our genre, Echoes, is repeating their feature on vidnaObmana, details as follows:

Tuesday 3/6*, Saturday 3/10**, Sunday 3/11**
VIDNA OBMANA-FUJARA ILLUSIONS
Vidna Obmana is Belgian ambient composer Dirk Serries.  A disciple of Steve
Roach, Vidna Obmana works his own techno-tribal designs mixing synthesizers
with organic instruments including the Eastern European fujara
flute.  Vidna Obmana comes by to play his flute and talk about his music,
including his latest CD THE SURREAL SANCTUARY (Hypnos).

Next, I posted 8 new reviews, all culled from Eric Prindle's excellent ambient & atmospheric music reviews site, formerly known as Ujamaa's Ambient Experience. The reviews were for the following titles:

M. Griffin / Dave Fulton - The Most Distant Point Known
Robert Rich - Sunyata
James Johnson - Entering Twilight
Saul Stokes - Outfolding
Jeff Pearce - To the Shores of Heaven
Robert Rich - Humidity - Three Concerts
David Tollefson - Near and Far

The items mentioned in yesterday's update have been added to the Hypnos Online Store, but some may be lacking descriptions and/or cover graphics as yet.

Lastly, I wanted to link to the audio clips for Markus Reuter's DIGITALIS directly on this page, in case some of you are too lazy to click across to the Audio clips page.

Sample RealAudio clips from DIGITALIS: Swallowed Cold + Toward the Invisible World + Forces Tending to Unbalance + Into the Invisible World + The Invisible World + A Massive Glowing Three-Axis Cross + Demonic Interference + Radiating Blackness + Angelic Interference + Beyond the Limit of the Fire + Whole + Holy

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2001.03.06 Today, added 3 new reviews for The Most Distant Point Known (in my unbiased opinion the greatest CD in the history of the universe) to the Hypnos Reviews page.

Also, found some items that have been sitting around Hypnos HQ for a few weeks, and and never got added to the the Hypnos Online Store. They will be added later today. These items include:

LAND (feat. Jeff Greinke) - Archipelago
LAND (feat. Jeff Grienke) - Road Movies

Also some new items will be added:

Spacecraft - Summer Town
Steve Roach - Early Man (2CD edition)

Take a gander at that there Hypnos Store a little later today.

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2001.03.05 (later) The hypnos.com mail server was down for a few hours earlier today (Monday), but appears to be working again. If you sent a message this afternoon and it bounced back to you as undeliverable, please re-send it now.

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2001.03.05 Now available: Markus Reuter's Hypnos debut, Digitalis. Here's the official announcement that was posted on Friday:

HYPNOS RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT: Markus Reuter - Digitalis

The first Hypnos release since November, and also the label debut by Markus
Reuter. Based in Germany, Markus is a member of Europa String Choir, an
instrumental group whose recent work has been released on Robert Fripp's
DGM label. His two previous works in the ambient genre (as 1/2 of
Centrozoon, and with Ian Boddy) were released on Boddy's DiN label, and
both items have been very popular items at the Hypnos Online Store.

Markus's instrument is the Warr Guitar, a tap-style 8-stringed instrument
which is played less like a true "guitar" and more like a Chapman Stick.
The sound, especially on Digitalis, goes through heavy electronic
processing, with the result that (like fellow Hypnos label guitarists Jeff
Pearce and David Tollefson) he ends up with a very un-guitar-like sound,
but with a "feel" and style of playing that sets it apart from
keyboard-played electronics. DIGITALIS has a fairly bright and vivid sound,
as compared to the smooth and mellow tones of Pearce, or the heavier,
sometimes challenging sound of Tollefson. Still, the end result is abstract
and definitely "ambient!"
It is now available for purchase from the Hypnos Online Store at a price of $11.99. RealAudio format sample clips will be available this evening.

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2001.03.02 Digitalis by Markus Reuter is finished I'll be picking them up at the pressing plant today. It should be available for purchase this evening from the Hypnos Online Store at a price of $11.99.

I think this new one will be a surprise for some people. Markus's instrument is the Warr Guitar, a tap-style 8-stringed instrument which is played less like a true "guitar" and more like a Chapman Stick. The sound, especially on Digitalis, goes through heavy electronic processing, with the result that (like fellow Hypnos label guitarists Jeff Pearce and David Tollefson) he ends up with a very un-guitar-like sound, but with a "feel" and style of playing that sets it apart from keyboard-played electronics. Digitalis has a fairly bright and vivid sound, as compared to the smooth and mellow tones of Pearce, or the heavier, sometimes challenging sound of Tollefson. Still, the end result is abstract and definitely "ambient!" Audio clips will be available soon.

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2001.02.28 Posted new reviews at, of all places, the Hypnos Reviews page.

There are new reviews for such CDs as:

Altara by A Produce & M Griffin (2 new reviews)
Near and Far by David Tollefson
Entering Twilight by James Johnson (6 new reviews)
The Most Different Point Known by M Griffin & D Fulton (4 new reviews)
Humidity by Robert Rich (3 new reviews)
Sunyata by Robert Rich (2 new reviews)
Daylight Slowly by Jeff Pearce
To the Shores of Heaven by Jeff Pearce (5 new reviews)
Landscape in Obscurity by Vidna Obmana
The Surreal Sanctuary by Vidna Obmana
The Contemporary Nocturne by Vidna Obmana
Outfolding by Saul Stokes (4 new reviews)

In the course of entering these reviews, I was amazed to discover the fact that of Star's End Radio's list of "significant releases of 2000," amounting to 32 releases in the year, 8 of those were from Hypnos! It was a verrry good year.

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2001.02.27 Shouldn't be too much longer until Markus Reuter's Digitalis is finished and ready to sell. Of course, as usual, it will be available first (and probably also cheapest!) at the Hypnos Online Store.

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2001.02.25 Not sure what has caused the increase in interest & activity over at the Hypnos Forum during the past month or so, but it's nice to see. Lots of discussion about a variety of topics.... everything from the very music-related and Hypnos-specific (such as the debate as to which artist(s) should be added to the Hypnos roster -- click here to visit that section directly), to more whimsical topics like people from all over the world talking about "Where We Live."

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2001.02.20 This update (been another week already -- what ever happened to daily updates, Mike?) will basically echo the previous one, with a tiny news update or two.

It has been very satisfying to finally get the three long-pending projects off my desk and into the manufacturing channel. Digitalis (Markus Reuter) is in the middle of the pressing process, Smile on the Void (A Produce) just went to pressing last week, and Somnium (Robert Rich's fourth Hypnos release and the first DVD project by either Rich or Hypnos) is in the pressing process as of this week.

Now begins the process of work on some new, fresh projects. Of course, some of these (Mother Sunrise, Proton Jelly, The Light Beyond) have been in discussion for a while, but now the work starts.

In fact, a bit of progress has been made on my own Fabrications recently, though of course this one's been in the works for so long that I'm thinking of calling up David Sylvian or Bryan Ferry for tips on finishing albums in a timely manner...

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2001.02.13 Ahhhh.... a week without any computer breakdowns or web server failures.... pure bliss!

So it's back to the dirty business of trying to catch back up again. Many emails to answer and orders to send out. The usual apologies and excuses apply, and if you're one of those waiting, I hope to satisfy you soon.... that is, as much as possible within the bounds of what a record label and mail order company can offer!

Good progress has been made at getting some of these pending CD releases moving along. Markus Reuter's Hypnos debut Digitalis will be ready before the end of the month, and A Produce Smile on the Void and Robert Rich Somnium should follow soon after, at the very beginning of March.

As for what else is coming soon:

Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) - MOTHER SUNRISE
Paul Vnuk Jr. / Ma Ja Le - SILENCE SPEAKS IN SHADOW
Jeff Pearce - THE LIGHT BEYOND
Jeff Karsin - PROTON JELLY
Vidna Obmana - MUSIC FOR THE AQUARIUM, SPECIAL 2CD EDITION
M Griffin - FABRICATIONS
Viridian Sun - untitled third album
Robert Scott Thompson - untitled Hypnos debut
That about sums it up for now, though there are a few other things in the works and still being discussed, such as partnerships with other labels, and possibly a Hypnos sub-label. As you can see, 2001 looks to be an absolutely massive year in the evolution of Hypnos.

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2001.02.06 The Ambient Visions web site has just posted an interview with yours truly (Hypnos papa Mike Griffin aka "M. Griffin" for those of you who don't know the true identity of the person posting these news updates) today. If you want to look, it's here: http://www.ambientvisions.com/hypnos.htm. The feature is really more about the Hypnos label than about my bad self, but that's as it should be. Thanks go to Ambient Visions for the support and attention.

It's also worthwhile to check out the rest of the Ambient Visions site while you're there. In fact, they just posted a review of Outfolding by Saul Stokes.

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2001.02.05 Surely by now you're tired of hearing about technical problems here in Hypnos-land.... if not, you haven't been reading all these updates the past month.

Anyway, now that the various PC struggles have been resolved and everything's working on that front, over the weekend the Hypnos Online Store had some problems with corrupted databases, and thus was offline most of Saturday (Feb 04). This interruption delayed the in-process update to the Online Store (including the upload of dozens of new titles, as well as the new "Hypnos Recommends" front page for February), but the main thing is that the store has been fixed and everything has been put back into the usual ultra-efficient and superlatively streamlined form. The update will follow very soon.

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2001.02.02 More progress being made. Markus Reuter's DIGITALIS is complete, and ready for manufacturing. Take a look at the cover, if you like.

As mentioned in the previous update, Robert Rich Somnium and A Produce Smile on the Void are just inches from the finish line as well.

I'm in the process of adding new titles to the Hypnos Online Store, as I also mentioned yesterday. It's taking some time because there are so many new additions. The total number of titles now in stock is getting close to 500!

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2001.01.31 Ain't technology grand? All week, Hypnos HQ has been a whirlwind of hard drive swaps between machines, network cables strung across the room, big stacks of software and driver installation CD-Roms scattered everywhere. Finally, the new PC is doing just about everything we need it to do. And, irony of ironies, once the new PC was set up, configured and rolling along smoothly.... the old PC started working again. Well, that's actually a good thing, I guess, even though it means the old PC really was repairable and the new PC wasn't necessary. Anyway, so much for my technology woes.

It's been a while since regular news postings have appeared here, so I'll quickly summarize what's up with Hypnos, both the label and the mail order division.

With regard to the label, usually I try to arrange a steady flow of new CD releases so that they come out evenly spaced, about one new CD per 3-5 weeks. Ever since the move last September into a new residence and Hypnos World Headquarters, that steady flow has been thrown off, and what we've had instead has been a surge of several CDs all at once, then nothing for a few months, then another surge, then nothing.

This isn't the end of the world, of course, but it's less than ideal. For one thing, it's harder to work on 2-3 CD projects at once, especially if they're all at roughly the same stage at the same time. For another thing, it disrupts the expectations of the listening public (that's you!) and radio DJs and magazine reviewers are confused when they see several Hypnos promos all at once. In other words, it's easier to promote a CD as a unique and important "event" when you're not trying to promote OTHER projects at exactly the same time as different but also unique and important events.

Another lull in CD releases is about to pass. Several long-awaited projects are so very nearly finished that at least three of them will likely be in the manufacturing stage within the next week. The CDs in that "oh so close" category include A Produce's Smile on the Void, Markus Reuter's Digitalis, and Robert Rich's seven-hour "sleep concert" DVD Somnium.

The good news is that the release of these projects, somewhere in the last half of February, should not be followed by another lull. In fact, there are another half-dozen projects at various stages of completion following close behind. This encourages my belief that it may be possible to return to a smooth & steady release schedule this year. In fact, 2001 should see more CD releases than any previous single year. Several other exciting new projects are lined up, by such artists as Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium), vidnaObmana, Jeff Pearce, Paul Vnuk (Ma Ja Le), Robert Scott Thompson, Jeff Karsin, Viridian Sun and others!

On the topic of Hypnos mail order, and the Hypnos Online Store, a big stack of new arrivals have yet to be added to the catalog listings. These should be added either tonight or tomorrow, and will also entail an update to the very popular "Hypnos Recommends" section on the front page of the store.

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2001.01.25 New PC arrived today, and it's actually much nicer than the old one. Hmm, maybe this isn't such a bad thing, being forced to upgrade. Still installing software and configuring hardware and peripherals but soon Hypnos HQ will be back to normal.

There's been a big surge in activity this week on the Hypnos Forum so if you haven't taken a look yet, or haven't checked in for some time, go take another look. We're having a barrel of laughs over there.

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2001.01.23 Since hypnos.com doesn't have a "links" page I wanted to take a moment to draw attention to a relatively new web site dedicated to reviews of music at least partly related to what Hypnos is all about. It's called the Incursion Music Review, and the web site is here.

Their latest installment includes two reviews of recent Hypnos releases, The Most Distant Point Known and The Contemporary Nocturne.

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2001.01.22 Yet another stinkin' PC crash yesterday, hence email confirmations for orders shipped Saturday and today won't be sent until probably tomorrow (Tuesday). Sorry about that, but the important thing is the CD, not the confirmation email, right?!

And to think I had whittled the email backlog down from 120 to under 70....

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2001.01.19 My email backlog has grown uncomfortably large again, despite my best efforts. I'll keep plugging away at it, but if you're one of the 120 or so people whose emails to me at mgriffin@hypnos.com have not yet been answered, please accept my apologies!

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2001.01.18 Finally got around to posting the text of a Hypnos feature article from Resonance Magazine (formerly a NW regional music/culture mag, which has since grown into a national music/culture mag). You will find it in the "Interviews and Features" section of the Hypnos Reviews page.

Also, today posted many, many, MANY updates to the other Reviews archives for individual CD releases. While one of my New Year's resolutions is to advise visitors, in updates such as this, as to which specific releases include such updates, in this case it amounts to literally every Hypnos CD released during 2000. Some of the releases (for example To the Shores of Heaven have as many as six new review/blurb postings!

It is with pride that I note that every Hypnos CD released during Y2K appeared on at least a couple of "Best of 2000" lists! And I haven't even posted the "Significant Releases of 2000" list from Star's End Radio (which you can find at www.starsend.org... so here is that list (thanks to Chuck VanZyl):

Significant Releases of 2000 (non-ranking order)

Max Corbacho : Far Beyond the Immobile Point
Biosphere : Cirque (Touch)
Roedelius/Story : The Persistence of Memory (Seventh Chance)
David Parsons : Parikrama (Celestial Harmonies)
Vir Unis : Aeonian Glow (Green House)
Ashera : Colour Glow
Sean Washburn : Wave Mantra
Steve Roach : Early Man (Timeroom)
Robert Rich : Sunyata (Hypnos)
Vidna Obmana : The Contemporary Nocturne (Hypnos)
Steve Roach/Vidna Obmana : Circles and Artifacts (The Contemporary Harmonic)
Arc : Radio Sputnik (DiN)
M Griffin/D Fulton : The Most Distant Point Known (Hypnos)
Harold Budd : The Room (Atlantic)
Jim Cole & Spectral Voices : Sky (Spectral Spiral)
Steve Roach/Jorge Reyes : Vine - Bark & Spore (Timeroom)
Rudy Adrian : Kinetic Flow (Groove)
James Johnson : Entering Twilight (Hypnos)
Christian Hoy Knudsen : Hav (Council Of Nine)
Jonn Serrie/Gary Stroutsos : Hidden World (Narada)
Saul Stokes : Outfolding (Hypnos)
Kubusschnitt : The Cube (Neu Harmony)
Exuviae : Echoes In The Emptiness (Green House)
Michael Stearns : Within - The Nine Dimensions (Earth Turtle)
Jeff Pearce : To The Shores of Heaven (Hypnos)
Free System Project : Pointess Reminder (Quantum)
Ian Boddy/Chris Carter : Caged (DiN)
William Orbit : Pieces In A Modern Style (Maverick)
Centrozoon : Blast (DiN)
Robert Rich : Humidity (Hypnos)
David Sylvian : Approaching Silence (Shakti)
Syndromeda : Birth Of A Black Hole (Groove)
Vir Unis : The Drift Inside (Green House)
Vidna Obmana : The Surreal Sanctuary (Hypnos)

Out of 34 "significant" releases this year, eight are from Hypnos!

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2001.01.17 As promised, track listings and cover artwork for the next 4 Hypnos CDs:

Track listing: Robert Rich - SOMNIUM

01 Somnium (one continuous track, approx 7 hours duration)


Track listing: A Produce - SMILE ON THE VOID

01 smile on the void
02 night curve
03 the big sleep
04 visions
05 inner sanctum
06 i woke up dreaming
07 spirit room


Track listing: Markus Reuter - DIGITALIS

01 swallowed cold
02 toward the invisible world
03 forces tending to unbalance
04 into the invisible world
05 the invisible world
06 a massive glowing three-axis cross
07 demonic interference
08 radiating blackness
09 angelic interference
10 beyond the limit of the fire
11 whole
12 holy


Track listing: Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) - MOTHER SUNRISE

01 superior spells
02 sadness and armony
03 mother sunrise
04 awaken spirits
05 lullaby for the desert moon
06 entrance through a self-portrait
07 floating energies
08 undercurrent in castevoli


Perhaps you're asking "Where are those cover images you promised?" Well, in order to inspire people to visit the Hypnos Forum, I've posted the location of an "update" page, which includes not only these track titles but also the cover graphics, on the Hypnos Forum. Look in the "News and Updates" section, and browse around to the other sections, too, while you're there.

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2001.01.16 Though it may be "invisible" to the outside world, good progress is being made on several pending Hypnos CD releases, and while nothing has been released since vidnaObmana's The Contemporary Nocturne early last November, we're about to spring a number of hot new items on the world in the next few months.

Stay tuned for album cover artwork and track title listings for albums by A Produce, Markus Reuter, Robert Rich, and Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium).

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2001.01.15 Made a few updates & changes to the Hypnos Forum today, simplifying the format. Activity there has dropped off a bit over the past few months, so the goal is to make it clearer and easier to navigate. Take a look if you haven't stopped by in a while.

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2001.01.14 In the last update, forgot to mention a couple of other upcoming Hypnos projects, neither of which I have discussed too much recently, so I'll talk a bit about them.

First (though not necessarily to be released before the other), from Paul Vnuk Jr./Ma Ja Le, his first project on Hypnos Silence Speaks in Shadow. This is a wonderfully subtle combination of location recording, postproduction manipulation, and ambient synth textures. It's similar in general concept to Modell & Mantra's Sonic Continuum (one of the great overlooked and underappreciated albums in the history of Hypnos), but has a sound all its own. It's minimal and placid, but also complex and ever-changing. Probably will end up being released in the spring or early summer.

The other project I forgot to mention is a very significant one, as well. It is vidnaObmana's Soundtrack for the Aquarium 2CD Special Edition. This combines an ambient soundscape recording created by vidnaObmana for the aquarium in Antwerp (disc one) along with a live recording of this same piece, recently re-mastered by vidnaObmana himself (disc two). This double-CD special edition will be available at a very fair price for two hours worth of music, and represents some of the finest minimalism by the Belgian master.

More information on both these titles will be made available soon.

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2001.01.31 Ain't technology grand? All week, Hypnos HQ has been a whirlwind of hard drive swaps between machines, network cables strung across the room, big stacks of software and driver installation CD-Roms scattered everywhere. Finally, the new PC is doing just about everything we need it to do. And, irony of ironies, once the new PC was set up, configured and rolling along smoothly.... the old PC started working again. Well, that's actually a good thing, I guess, even though it means the old PC really was repairable and the new PC wasn't necessary. Anyway, so much for my technology woes.

It's been a while since regular news postings have appeared here, so I'll quickly summarize what's up with Hypnos, both the label and the mail order division.

With regard to the label, usually I try to arrange a steady flow of new CD releases so that they come out evenly spaced, about one new CD per 3-5 weeks. Ever since the move last September into a new residence and Hypnos World Headquarters, that steady flow has been thrown off, and what we've had instead has been a surge of several CDs all at once, then nothing for a few months, then another surge, then nothing.

This isn't the end of the world, of course, but it's less than ideal. For one thing, it's harder to work on 2-3 CD projects at once, especially if they're all at roughly the same stage at the same time. For another thing, it disrupts the expectations of the listening public (that's you!) and radio DJs and magazine reviewers are confused when they see several Hypnos promos all at once. In other words, it's easier to promote a CD as a unique and important "event" when you're not trying to promote OTHER projects at exactly the same time as different but also unique and important events.

Another lull in CD releases is about to pass. Several long-awaited projects are so very nearly finished that at least three of them will likely be in the manufacturing stage within the next week. The CDs in that "oh so close" category include A Produce's Smile on the Void, Markus Reuter's Digitalis, and Robert Rich's seven-hour "sleep concert" DVD Somnium.

The good news is that the release of these projects, somewhere in the last half of February, should not be followed by another lull. In fact, there are another half-dozen projects at various stages of completion following close behind. This encourages my belief that it may be possible to return to a smooth & steady release schedule this year. In fact, 2001 should see more CD releases than any previous single year. Several other exciting new projects are lined up, by such artists as Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium), vidnaObmana, Jeff Pearce, Paul Vnuk (Ma Ja Le), Robert Scott Thompson, Jeff Karsin, Viridian Sun and others!

On the topic of Hypnos mail order, and the Hypnos Online Store, a big stack of new arrivals have yet to be added to the catalog listings. These should be added either tonight or tomorrow, and will also entail an update to the very popular "Hypnos Recommends" section on the front page of the store.

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2001.01.25 New PC arrived today, and it's actually much nicer than the old one. Hmm, maybe this isn't such a bad thing, being forced to upgrade. Still installing software and configuring hardware and peripherals but soon Hypnos HQ will be back to normal.

There's been a big surge in activity this week on the Hypnos Forum so if you haven't taken a look yet, or haven't checked in for some time, go take another look. We're having a barrel of laughs over there.

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2001.01.23 Since hypnos.com doesn't have a "links" page I wanted to take a moment to draw attention to a relatively new web site dedicated to reviews of music at least partly related to what Hypnos is all about. It's called the Incursion Music Review, and the web site is here.

Their latest installment includes two reviews of recent Hypnos releases, The Most Distant Point Known and The Contemporary Nocturne.

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2001.01.22 Yet another stinkin' PC crash yesterday, hence email confirmations for orders shipped Saturday and today won't be sent until probably tomorrow (Tuesday). Sorry about that, but the important thing is the CD, not the confirmation email, right?!

And to think I had whittled the email backlog down from 120 to under 70....

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2001.01.19 My email backlog has grown uncomfortably large again, despite my best efforts. I'll keep plugging away at it, but if you're one of the 120 or so people whose emails to me at mgriffin@hypnos.com have not yet been answered, please accept my apologies!

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2001.01.18 Finally got around to posting the text of a Hypnos feature article from Resonance Magazine (formerly a NW regional music/culture mag, which has since grown into a national music/culture mag). You will find it in the "Interviews and Features" section of the Hypnos Reviews page.

Also, today posted many, many, MANY updates to the other Reviews archives for individual CD releases. While one of my New Year's resolutions is to advise visitors, in updates such as this, as to which specific releases include such updates, in this case it amounts to literally every Hypnos CD released during 2000. Some of the releases (for example To the Shores of Heaven have as many as six new review/blurb postings!

It is with pride that I note that every Hypnos CD released during Y2K appeared on at least a couple of "Best of 2000" lists! And I haven't even posted the "Significant Releases of 2000" list from Star's End Radio (which you can find at www.starsend.org... so here is that list (thanks to Chuck VanZyl):

Significant Releases of 2000 (non-ranking order)

Max Corbacho : Far Beyond the Immobile Point
Biosphere : Cirque (Touch)
Roedelius/Story : The Persistence of Memory (Seventh Chance)
David Parsons : Parikrama (Celestial Harmonies)
Vir Unis : Aeonian Glow (Green House)
Ashera : Colour Glow
Sean Washburn : Wave Mantra
Steve Roach : Early Man (Timeroom)
Robert Rich : Sunyata (Hypnos)
Vidna Obmana : The Contemporary Nocturne (Hypnos)
Steve Roach/Vidna Obmana : Circles and Artifacts (The Contemporary Harmonic)
Arc : Radio Sputnik (DiN)
M Griffin/D Fulton : The Most Distant Point Known (Hypnos)
Harold Budd : The Room (Atlantic)
Jim Cole & Spectral Voices : Sky (Spectral Spiral)
Steve Roach/Jorge Reyes : Vine - Bark & Spore (Timeroom)
Rudy Adrian : Kinetic Flow (Groove)
James Johnson : Entering Twilight (Hypnos)
Christian Hoy Knudsen : Hav (Council Of Nine)
Jonn Serrie/Gary Stroutsos : Hidden World (Narada)
Saul Stokes : Outfolding (Hypnos)
Kubusschnitt : The Cube (Neu Harmony)
Exuviae : Echoes In The Emptiness (Green House)
Michael Stearns : Within - The Nine Dimensions (Earth Turtle)
Jeff Pearce : To The Shores of Heaven (Hypnos)
Free System Project : Pointess Reminder (Quantum)
Ian Boddy/Chris Carter : Caged (DiN)
William Orbit : Pieces In A Modern Style (Maverick)
Centrozoon : Blast (DiN)
Robert Rich : Humidity (Hypnos)
David Sylvian : Approaching Silence (Shakti)
Syndromeda : Birth Of A Black Hole (Groove)
Vir Unis : The Drift Inside (Green House)
Vidna Obmana : The Surreal Sanctuary (Hypnos)

Out of 34 "significant" releases this year, eight are from Hypnos!

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2001.01.17 As promised, track listings and cover artwork for the next 4 Hypnos CDs:

Track listing: Robert Rich - SOMNIUM

01 Somnium (one continuous track, approx 7 hours duration)


Track listing: A Produce - SMILE ON THE VOID

01 smile on the void
02 night curve
03 the big sleep
04 visions
05 inner sanctum
06 i woke up dreaming
07 spirit room


Track listing: Markus Reuter - DIGITALIS

01 swallowed cold
02 toward the invisible world
03 forces tending to unbalance
04 into the invisible world
05 the invisible world
06 a massive glowing three-axis cross
07 demonic interference
08 radiating blackness
09 angelic interference
10 beyond the limit of the fire
11 whole
12 holy


Track listing: Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) - MOTHER SUNRISE

01 superior spells
02 sadness and armony
03 mother sunrise
04 awaken spirits
05 lullaby for the desert moon
06 entrance through a self-portrait
07 floating energies
08 undercurrent in castevoli


Perhaps you're asking "Where are those cover images you promised?" Well, in order to inspire people to visit the Hypnos Forum, I've posted the location of an "update" page, which includes not only these track titles but also the cover graphics, on the Hypnos Forum. Look in the "News and Updates" section, and browse around to the other sections, too, while you're there.

+

2001.01.16 Though it may be "invisible" to the outside world, good progress is being made on several pending Hypnos CD releases, and while nothing has been released since vidnaObmana's The Contemporary Nocturne early last November, we're about to spring a number of hot new items on the world in the next few months.

Stay tuned for album cover artwork and track title listings for albums by A Produce, Markus Reuter, Robert Rich, and Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium).

+

2001.01.15 Made a few updates & changes to the Hypnos Forum today, simplifying the format. Activity there has dropped off a bit over the past few months, so the goal is to make it clearer and easier to navigate. Take a look if you haven't stopped by in a while.

+

2001.01.14 In the last update, forgot to mention a couple of other upcoming Hypnos projects, neither of which I have discussed too much recently, so I'll talk a bit about them.

First (though not necessarily to be released before the other), from Paul Vnuk Jr./Ma Ja Le, his first project on Hypnos Silence Speaks in Shadow. This is a wonderfully subtle combination of location recording, postproduction manipulation, and ambient synth textures. It's similar in general concept to Modell & Mantra's Sonic Continuum (one of the great overlooked and underappreciated albums in the history of Hypnos), but has a sound all its own. It's minimal and placid, but also complex and ever-changing. Probably will end up being released in the spring or early summer.

The other project I forgot to mention is a very significant one, as well. It is vidnaObmana's Soundtrack for the Aquarium 2CD Special Edition. This combines an ambient soundscape recording created by vidnaObmana for the aquarium in Antwerp (disc one) along with a live recording of this same piece, recently re-mastered by vidnaObmana himself (disc two). This double-CD special edition will be available at a very fair price for two hours worth of music, and represents some of the finest minimalism by the Belgian master.

More information on both these titles will be made available soon.

+

2001.01.11 Boy, when you get out of the habit of posting daily news updates, sometimes it's hard to get BACK in the habit. It's not that there's nothing new going on. In fact, if anything, there's more cooking right now than at any time in the history of Hypnos. Right now, there are no less than six upcoming projects "cooking" and at various stages of completion & readiness.

Projects you will see soon include:

A Produce - SMILE ON THE VOID (his first solo release on Hypnos)
Markus Reuter - DIGITALIS (his first appearance of any kind on Hypnos)
Robert Rich - SOMNIUM (7 hour sleep concert DVD)
Sola Translatio (Alio Die + Opium) - MOTHER SUNRISE
Jeff Pearce - THE LIGHT BEYOND
Viridian Sun - (as yet untitled third album)

Projects that are still planned but have not moved forward recently:

Jeff Karsin - PROTON JELLY (his first appearance on Hypnos)
M Griffin - FABRICATIONS
Richard Bone & Kit Watkins - (as yet untitled collaboration)
Robert Scott Thompson - (as yet untitled first Hypnos release)
Various - NEVERTIME (third Hypnos compilation project)

Some of these have taken a bit longer than expected to put together (particularly SMILE ON THE VOID and DIGITALIS), but that's how it goes in this crazy bizniz! The result is that you'll see a flurry of CDs and a DVD from Hypnos in the next few months.

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2001.01.05 The last couple of weeks have seen a near-complete lack of updates to this web site, though I have been busily processing incoming orders, and answering at least a few emails. I'm ready to climb back on the horse, now, and resume updates, additions and revisions to hypnos.com.

For starters, a few changes have been made to the "Hypnos Recommends" titles on the Hypnos Online Store for Jan01, and a few new titles have been added. There are a few other new treats, recently arrived, which I'll be adding to the store over the next few days.

Also, on this page, there will be some updates as to various kudos, accolades and other sorts of virtual applause, being heaped upon Hypnos-type music. It has been very gratifying and tons of fun to see all the Hypnos items making the "best of year" lists issued by all the different DJs, reviewers and "layman" listeners. 2000 was a great year for Hypnos CDs, certainly the best yet, but 2001 promises to be every bit as snazzy. Stay tuned!

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