[ Hypnos Forum ]

Chillwave is the calm and subtle subgenre of 80s inspired Synthwave.

There's some amazing electronic music to be found within this genre that I think certain members will appreciate, especially those who posted in the "Downpipe" thread.  8)

Here are a couple of carefully selected tracks. A great Youtube channel for this music is Electronic Gems.
Any more fans of Chillwave or Synthwave in general?

Downtown Binary - Lost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdQLWg2E1fg

Home - Resonance (I think this is considered the classic track that more or less started the Chillwave movement)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GW6sLrK40k

Yuutsu - Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxoqm05c7yA

Unfound - Promenade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1hChZS9Hew

A.L.I.S.O.N - Space Echo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPldcjlv3_Y

Saint Seduce & Winston - Sedna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmT2dgjZ6bk

Downtown Binary - Paradox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKVoLBLfmrg

Wouldn't it be great if these guys team up again?
They're practically made for each other. Well, not in that way, but as artists. ;)
Make it happen! 8)

A golden oldie.
With respect to the other artists featured on the terrific 1998 compilation "The Ambient Expanse", the finale from Steve Roach is quite something else. https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/track/the-eternal-expanse-2

I've been listening to this piece many times during the last year. Also while commuting, working etc. A few reviewers found it a little bland and uninspired. They are not hearing it. It takes time to get into.

It's one of the most dynamic and richly layered pieces Steve has composed. I'd call it a "tone painting". While it lingers in the same harmonic zone, the key is in its subtleties. There's a feeling of ebb and flow, of space and expansion that I've rarely heard elsewhere. Near the end, sound becomes pure emotion. Truly majestic.
Play it LOUD!

Any suggestions for pieces with a similar feel (that are not by Steve Roach)?

First let me say that Steve Roach will always be one of my favorite artists in music. However, recently all that talk on his website, album descriptions etc., is starting to annoy me. It has annoyed me before, but it seems to be getting worse. It's so full of adjectives and hyperbole and it's not exactly modest either.

I understand that promotion is necessary and I appreciate the enthusiasm and effort that is put into these writings, but for "outsiders" these texts (which are copied by other sites) may actually be a big turn off. For a lot of people it may appear like a whole lot of new age bla bla.

Honestly, Steve, if you are reading this, I love your music, it means more to me than I can put into words, but when you or your associates talk about your music, I think a more humble and objective approach would serve your music better. Your music stands on its own. It doesn't need all those fancy words and descriptions.

I know this is an impossible task but you could always give it a try. :)
Individual tracks only (collaborations and tracks that span an entire disc can be included).
I was able to make a top 20 somehow (took me 2 hours).

1. Dream Body (Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces)
2. Altus (The Magnificent Void)
3. The Spiral of Time's Fire Burns On (Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces)
4. In the Heart of Distant Horizons (Part 2) (Atmospheric Conditions)
5. The Other Side (Dreamtime Return)
6. Infinite Shore (The Magnificent Void)
7. Sense (Blood Machine)
8. Touch (Soma)
9. Fires Burning (Fever Dreams II)
10. On This Planet (On This Planet)
11. The Memory (Empetus)
12. Cloud of Unknowing (The Magnificent Void)
13. Arc of Passion (Arc of Passion)
14. Thunder Walk (Dream Tracker)
15. Journey of One (part 1) (Journey of One)
16. Deep Hours (Well of Souls)
17. Opening The Space (Fever Dreams II)
18. Travel by Moonlight (The Road Eternal)
19. Lifeforming (Kairos)
20. Neural Connection (Blood Machine)

Anyone else excited about this movie?
Michael Stearns and Lisa Gerrard doing the soundtrack.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770802/

Check out this review:

Quote
The greatest visual experience that my eyeballs have ever witnessed.
19 September 2011 | by rosielarose (Toronto) – See all my reviews

I just saw a screening of Samsara at the TIFF, at the brilliant TIFF Lightbox theatre.

Wow.

A film that took 5 years to make and co-ordinate. Shot in Panarama 70mm, across 26 countries, needing major government and regulatory clearances, having to wait for certain seasons or lunar phases to get the light to hit the way director Fricke wanted...carefully strung together with a massive 7.1 surround sound design and music score from Michael Stearns, Marcello de Francisci, and Lisa Gerrard (of Dead Can Dance).

The 70mm negative has been digitally scanned and oversampled at 8k resolution (much like the 'Baraka' Blu-ray); the TIFF Lightbox theatre installed a brand new Christie 4k projector (Christie Projection Systems rushed the projector before its release to the market specifically for this event) making it the first true 4k screening of it's kind.

From sweeping landscapes to time-lapse sequences of the night sky and from exclusive looks into the processing of food to the consumption and effects it has on the human body, Samsara is nothing short of astounding. Modern technology, production lines, and human robotics are juxtaposed against a backdrop of deserts, garbage mounds as far as the eye can see, and traffic congestion in modern centres. The time-lapse footage is simply transcendent. In fact, I caught myself questioning the reality of some of the landscape vistas and night skyline montages...they looked so hyper-real that I thought they must have come from a CG lab somewhere. Simply astonishing. The richness, depth and clarity of colour and image achieved within the processes utilized gives birth to the most beautiful visual meditation that I have ever witnessed.

As one film journalist noted, "That Samsara is instantly one of the most visually-stunning films in the history of cinema is reason enough to cherish it, but Fricke and co-editor Mark Magidson achieve truly profound juxtapositions, brimming with meaning and emotion. It sounds preposterous, but it's true: In 99 minutes, Samsara achieves something approaching a comprehensive portrait of the totality of human experience. If you're even remotely fond of being alive, Samsara is not to be missed."

If you ever come across the chance to see this film in a decent theatre, run, and let your eyeballs (and earholes) feast upon its brilliance.

Dunno why I post this here but I thought it might interest some.

These days is the celebration of Chopin 200th birthday (they are unsure about his birthday being 22 february or 1 march). The Polish composer and piano god.

It's quite a big event in the classical music world, with special recitals and even music marathons all over the world.

I've been listening a lot to his music in the last months and I am in awe. This is simply some of the greatest melodic and passionate music ever made. So for those who are interested and don't really know his music, here is a small personal selection of recommended recordings played by the best of the best pianists.

My favorites are the Etudes. Originally meant as technical exercises, they are also musically very interesting and imaginative. Here is a bunch of 'm played by pianist Pollini who set the standard in playing them.

Etude 10/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMM6h9Yf348&fmt=18
Etude 10/3 ('Tristesse')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcDb8-aX26U&fmt=18
Etude 10/12 ('Revolutionary')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2vLEQno9Ks&fmt=18
Etude 25/1 ('Aeolian Harp')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRqynzR_8Ts&fmt=18
Etude 25/11 ('Winter Wind')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJMIIxm1bGo&fmt=18

Some other pieces:

The famous 'Fantasie Impromptu': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa0Z6g1XJkU

The famous Grand Polonaise Op. 53: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZFilY0KBF4

The great Ballades.
Ballade 1 (featured in the movie The Pianist)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR7eUSFsn28
Ballade 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_PBTGfhWD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLyumz2jMZY

Nocturne 9/1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZbuA7r17uk&fmt=18
Nocturne 27/1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAcAWWU_0mE

Prelude 28/24 ('The Storm'): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71oCexIXk9Q

but there is much more to explore... enjoy!

'The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice'

Check out this impressive teaser

http://raisondetre.coldmeat.se/

Sounds very promising if you ask me. Really looking forward to this.

Since 10 years (I'm now 28) I've been a fan of electronic, ambient music. While my preferences change over time, there are a number of artists that I keep enjoying no matter what. One of my absolute favorites is Steve Roach, who I'm sure a lot of you hold in high esteem as well. Lately I've been giving Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces many spins and I'm particularly enjoying the deep and beautiful soundworlds of disc 2: Labyrinth.

In recent years I've been developing another passion for music, namely classical music, more specifically piano music. Thanks to Youtube and a pianoforum I discovered a lot of beautiful piano music, great composers and performers (pianists). I mostly prefer music from the romantic/late romantic period and early 1900s, by composers such as Chopin and Rachmaninoff, who wrote beautiful, atmospheric, emotional music. I even started playing the piano myself (having a background in keyboard playing).
These days I'm really enjoying the works of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, who's music I feel is very imaginative, atmospheric, mysterious, ethereal, 'spiritual'... It still has the melodic touches of the romantic period, yet it is more colorful and 'free in form'. Read more about this composer here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin

I haven't met anyone in real life or on the internet who shares the same deep passion for both types of ambient and classical music. True, ambient and classical music may seem totally different and unrelated, yet I've always felt there was some kind of connection between my favorite music in these two genres.

Today, while listening again to 'Dream Body', perhaps my favorite piece from Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces, I was reading some more reviews of MC&SS at steveroach.com, one of them by 'Hannah M.G. Shapero':
http://www.steveroach.com/Press/review.php?id=247

QuoteFor MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES he has chosen to use mostly notes and harmonies which can be found in the work of composers like the late Romantics of Europe and Russia, and the French "Impressionists" as well as more recent composers such as Aaron Copland and even the French avant-garde composer Olivier Messiaen. Most important for Roach's MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES is the exotic music of the late 19th century Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, who created a huge "mystical universal chord" on which he based many wild works.

You can imagine I was quite astounded to see mention of Scriabin at Steve Roach' website, but actually it also made sense at the same time, because I know both their music so well.
I don't know if Steve Roach himself was inspired by Scriabin, or that only the reviewer made this connection, but for me it was a moment where my specific taste in music completely fell into place. Fantastic.

Just something I wanted to share with you.


(If you're interested, here's some of my favorites of Scriabin:
Sonata No. 2 Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ2LIOYXmRY
Etude Op. 2 No. 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSsKJIzwapA
Etude Op. 42 No. 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xudZ3J4EeoQ
Etude Op. 8 No. 11: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS5f_f7_7xs
Etude Op. 8 No. 12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWqZRu-lyZg&fmt=18
His later works such as the later sonatas are even more 'free' and 'experimental' in nature and also become atonal.)

If there's one genre where the music can be related to imagery, surely it must be ambient for its 'visual' qualities.
The idea is to find pictures that you think are somehow fitting for the ambient piece. With google image search and some creative search terms you can find plenty of nice pics.

To prevent a messy and bandwith-heavy topic I suggest only to post the links.

Brian Eno & Harold Budd - First Light
http://bovitz.com/photo/traditional/jpgphotos/2004/sunrise/sunrise_mist_hart_bar.jpg

Brian Eno - The Lost Day
http://www.fineartphotoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/barn_sunset_stalbert800.jpg

Tetsu Inoue - Chill In Chill Out
http://spiritinsight.net/images/bridgetoheaven000.jpg

Steve Roach - On This Planet
http://parkerlab.bio.uci.edu/pictures/photography%20pictures/Eureka%20Dunes,%20Storm%20at%20sunset,%20Death%20Valley%20N.P.jpg

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3iD86hSpc
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd3OVdqzT8M

Here's a piece of Russian choir music by Rachmaninov:

Rachmaninov - Deus Meus (Alla Breve) - 1890

Pavel G. Chesnokov - To Thee We Sing

Pavel G. Chesnokov - To Thee We Sing

I don't care for the words and religious meaning. But I listen to all music with an 'ambient ear' so to speak... and I couldn't help notice its distinct ambient qualities. Slowly moving, relaxing, otherworldly harmonies. Wow. In a way, this is the ultimate ambient music. :)

What are the grandest, most expansive, majestic and full sounding soundscapes ever? :)
Tracks that make you feel small and insignificant... like drifting in an endless void, or being swept away in a cosmic storm...

something like
Steve Roach - Altus
Raison D'etre - Metamorphyses Phase IV

My vote goes to:
Rachmaninov - Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini - 18th variation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMv_xGuQA08

This rather famous moment in music starts at 1:30 to 4:20.


Inspired by the favorite dramatic piece of music topic ;)
http://www.hypnos.com/smf/index.php?topic=838.0

Any news about this artist?

I have Encounter and The Lost World and enjoy them.
Also Planetary Unfolding on mp3 only, because I can't find it anywhere. Possibly the greatest electronic album ever, IMO.

What else would you recommend and is he ever going to release new material?