[ Hypnos Forum ]

I happened upon this self-titled CD by Audela (on Plague Recordings) in El Hypnos Store-O under the "closeouts/last copies" section.  Man I'm glad I got this. This is one awesome disc. Highly recommended if you like: Oophoi, Tau Ceti, Viridian Sun, etc.  Spooky, mysterious outer space headtrip.  Apparently the inspiration for the music was Jupiter's Great Red Spot.  Check out the amazing cover art, too!!! The disc itself is a photo of Jupiter, nice!  This was limited to 222 hand-numbered copies.  Don't know much about this artist but  will be investigating more for sure.

I discovered this artist via doing some research on Procyon-X (see my post on his excellent "Ghost of Orion" CD), and found UMOS's music is as amazing as the name of his project.  The artist is from New Zealand and style-wise, like Procyon-X, this artist appears to align his work with the "dark astral ambient" genre as opposed to the "ambient space music" category, although some self-descriptions found online referred to Klaus Schulze, Eno, T. Dream, which makes sense once you hear the music.  His one album so far, "Lost in Cosmos," fuses deep floating space synths, neo-classical elements, and doom metal via some menacing grungy guitars that weave in and out of the mix.  If you liked Oophoi's "Celestial Geometries," Lustmord's "Black Stars," or some of the more cosmic Cyclic Law releases, you will probably be into this.  It's dark ambient space music but maybe less abstract and more melodic/structured than those mentioned above.  Apparently his album was originally released on CDR but will now be reissued shortly on CD.  I am definitely ordering this when it comes out.  I'd be interested in opinions about this music, so check out his myspace page, search "undiscovered moons of saturn" in myspace music.  3 nice long track samples available. 

"Airforms" is a very good disc of ambient minimalism which reminds me of Eno's sound installation recordings.  Anyone familiar with this artist? He appears to be more of a "sound artist" than "ambient musician", and judging from his website and a couple interviews online the "art" he does is (to me anyways) pretentious modern art, in that the methods and/or explanations of how the art was created seem to be more important than the end result.  On "Airforms" low-end electronic drones are mixed with processed breathing sounds.  It was created for an art installation in which concrete is poured over balloons.  Anyways, photos from the installation make for a very esoteric cover art for this Line/12k album, which was limited to 600 copies.  Bottom line: I like this sound art release, but I don't foresee filling up my music collection with too much more of it.  :-)

I picked up this CD at Aquarius in San Francisco. Excellent synth-based space music, the artist I believe is from a dark metal band and this is a side project.  The label is Paradigms Recordings from the UK, notable for releasing a wide variety of styles like metal, goth, ambient, etc. This is a pressed CD e.p. (about 30 min. length) and comes in a DVD case with some nice cosmic artwork.  Limited to 500 copies. I think the label's website has sound samples.  Highly recommend this one to Forumites...

Any opinions on this compilation? There's a Mathias Grassow track on Disc 3. Other artists include Franz de Waard and Gianfranco Grilli (remember him from Amplexus?) The only review I could find (on Discogs) described it as "weird." Could be a good thing. :-)

Found a copy of Mirror's (Andrew Chalk/Christoph Heeman) much-touted debut "Eye of the Storm" on Discogs and on the first couple listens I couldn't get into it, but this morning at 3:45 a.m. (can't sleep) it's sounding damn good.  Super quiet desolate windy drones with reverbed metallic clonks.  I had the same reaction to Andrew Chalk's Faraway Press discs but on closer repeated listening they really grow on you with their extreme subtleties and micro-sounds (headphones listening recommended).  I'm curious now about Mimir, Christoph Heeman's other project.  Anyone here familiar with their stuff?

Any appreciators of this fine dark ambient label? My first taste was Gustaf Hildebrand's excellent "Primordial Resonance," followed by the even more excellent Tholen disc.  Both, especially the Tholen, have a decidedly cosmic/space vibe that would appeal to spacemusic lovers.  They are quite drifty without the unwanted aspects of general weirdness/doom and gloom/harsh noise of some of the artists in this genre.  Another good cosmic/space disc on the label is "Starscape" by Gustaf Hildebrand.  Svartsinn's "Traces of Nothingness" is a nice release, also, not really space music per se but it is subdued dark ambience.  Coming up for a spin on my CD player shortly is Northaunt "Horizons," Kammarheit's "Starwheel," and Visions' "Lapse." Will have to get Sinke Dus disc next, the sound samples are very nice.  The packaging/artwork on this label has been uniformly excellent I must say.

I've seen all the posts on the Forum about this artist and was curious so today at Aquarius Records I picked up one of his 3-inch CDR's called "Before Long, Before Anyone, the Stars Will Be Walls in My Mind."  Comes in a nice little jewel-case with a quite stunning cover art.  Put it on in the car and my god, low and behold, this is some of the damned finest beautiful guitar drone work.  I paid $10.98 for these 18 minutes and damn, it was worth every penny.  I discovered later this was limited to 100 copies and is sold out according to Students of Decay, which released this.  I guess there were 2 others (3-inch CDR's) on SoD that are also sold out.  I then scrambled to order "Wild Light of the Moon" (ltd. 200), and it's on the way.  Any other info./suggestions on this artist?  I was hard pressed to find any decent articles/interviews online. 

I put off investigating Bianchi's work as the little I'd read about him it sounded like he was a "harsh noise" artist.  Thanks to his Silentes album "Testamentary Corridor" and another Silentes disc w/Nimh called "Secluded Truths," both of which are very good ambient (albeit leaning towards the experimental side), I'm looking to investigate other releases.  Judging from his liner notes, he seems to be a real character, creating these impossibly obtuse statements (e.g. "Narrating of posteriority of future in this schizophrenic urbanity, my inner sensibility was touched by the extraneity of my spiritual expression from stereotyped and rhetorical religiousness, so devoted to the human uselessness and easily dazzled by the formal solemnity"--from the "Secluded Truths" liner notes). Any fans here?  Recommendations for other MB titles?   

Received this yesterday from El Hypnos Store-O and this is one gorgeous guitar drone album.  Totally pastoral, peaceful, and mysterious all at once.  The feeling I get from this music is like discovering some hidden natural place, untouched by human hands.  Highly recommend this one to fans of Alio Die, Oophoi/Umbra label, and other like-minded organic ambient artists.  I am in awe this was recorded in 1977!  Incredible stuff.

Hello, yesterday I was surprised to find in a local record store a new Rudy Adrian disc, "Desert Realms," on Lotuspike.  After the first few listens, I am somewhat underwhelmed.  Similar to Moonwater I guess, ambient floating stuff with flute on some tracks, no sequencers.  Big problem I have is it doesn't make me think of desert landscapes!  A lot of the sounds seem borrowed from "The Healing Lake."  Good album but if you have his previous albums like Twilight, Healing Lake, Moonwater, etc., may be somewhat redundant.  At the same time also picked up the Lotuspike disc by Craig Padilla/Zero Ohms, "Path of Least Resistance," which I was hesitant about a couple years ago due to reading it had woodwind instruments on it but they are very subtle, and this has some first-rate cosmic sequencer music and a big Tangerine Dream-inspired sound.     

Is this label as great as people are saying it is? I dunno, my first introduction so far is Yagya's "Will I Dream During the Process?" This is a nice album, yet I can't help but think this artist borrowed in a BIG WAY from territory already tread by David Moufang aka Move D during the last five or six years--the fluid grooves, glitchy sonics, vaporous melodics, etc.  If I heard this without being told who it was, I would immediately say Move D.  Track 6 sounds like Gas meets Deepchord/Echospace/Modell. Sending Orbs' website has very few sound samples from its releases, think there were only two in-print CD's where you could sample tracks.  Anyways, this Yagya thing is nicely produced, very derivative IDM/ambient that leaves me completely cold.  Am I missing something?   

Any Aube fans here? These two reissues, both double CD's, look interesting, but I'm wondering how "noisy" they are, some of his stuff is pretty harsh. 

Just heard about this today.  He was 65, passed away 9/15 from cancer.  A true space rock icon, and I'm sure inspired many an ambient musician.

Anyone have "Inner Path," a new Nextera release by Mathias Grassow and another (unknown to me) artist?  I notice Soleilmoon has it but Ye Olde Hypnos store does not.

Borrowing from the last topic by Infraction on ECM/Touch cover artwork: what are some of your favorite covers on ambient CD's?  A few that come readily to mind for me:

Steve Roach-Origins (by photographer William Lesch, amazing stuff)
Oophoi-Celestial Geometries (original Arya/Amplexus version)
Numina-Sanctuary of Dreams
Harold Budd/Cocteau Twins-The Moon and the Melodies
Harold Budd/Brian Eno-The Pearl
Alio Die/Saffron Wood-Corteggiando le Messi

2 amazing Atmoworks releases I just received from Hypnos HQ--Steve Brand "Soulspiral" and Igneous Flame/Achromus "Halo."  Brand's disc is some of the most cosmic music I have heard in my life, this is an essential album and at the top of my list for Best of 2008 to date.  I was totally transfixed from start to finish.  I cannot wait for his upcoming (September) Atmoworks release.  "Halo" is a sublime, deep space drone fest of cosmic proportions (again).  Definitely on my best of list this year. Hats off for the gorgeous cover art on both of these as well!!!

Really sad to see Backroads Music closing down after all these years.  I've been ordering from Lloyd for 15 years and in my book he is the undisputed king of ambient retailers, so much great music discovered via his help over the years.  Guess I'll be shelling out the cash now to the Hypnos store more often. :-)

Bought the first five DCD reissued remasters and for the most part sound quality is noticeably better than the originals.  These are remastered, pressed in Japan on gold discs (Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs) and are hybrid SACD, in mini-album jackets with full lyrics and previously unseen (at least to me) photos of Perry and Gerrard, along with other members of the original early line-up when they were more of a "band." Nice. I believe this run is limited, and the "standard" releases will soon follow (jewel cases, standard discs).  The first two: "Garden of the Arcane Delights" e.p. and "Dead Can Dance" get a much-needed volume boost, deeper lows, and cleaner sound. Excellent. "Spleen and Ideal" and "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun" (arguably their two masterworks) benefit from the same improvements.  More in your face and put the sub-woofers to a good workout.  Strangely, "The Serpent's Egg" sounds exactly like the original. Not sure why, maybe I am imagining this. Would be interested to read other opinions if anyone else noticed this...??? or opinions in general on these reissues.   

There is a new Rapoon CD available from the Rapoon site, on a small Russian label.  Haven't seen any reviews/comments yet.  Anybody have this? It's called "the Library of the Dead." Sounds like a fun CD...

I just discovered this Japanese space-rock outfit, Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (great name!) via their album "Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under the Stars." Very Hawkwind-ish, with trippy electronics and blistering guitar solos.  In a more ambient vein, AMT member Kawabata Makoto's "Hosanna Mantra" is a tribute of sorts to Popol Vuh's "Hosianna Mantra," wherein he weaves ambient guitar drones, looped sitars for an Ashra-like effect.  These are both on the Important label, which releases a lot of experimental/noise projects.

I noticed this CD has not had its own thread started, although available now from the Hypnos store.  Nobody's talking, and inquiring minds want to know....

Kenji Siratori's "Callous Cell" on Oophoi's Umbra label continues the label's quest for excellence in ghostly, dark, ethereal ambience.  I was surprised how good this is, as all I knew of Siratori was that he was a "noise" artist from Japan and sci-fi writer.  While some of the disc is quite dark, it has some incredibly ethereal, beautiful passages as well.  Definitely worth picking up if you are an Umbra/Oophoi fan. 

I've discovered two really great ambient spacemusic labels recently.  The UK label Ambientlive releases cosmic space music with an experimental edge in the tradition of Stearns, Schulze, TDream, and the retro/Berlin School sound of RMI, Redshift, Free System Projekt, etc.  Syngate is a German label releasing music in similar territory although a bit more melodic and accessible.  Some excellent artists to investigate would be Syn, 4m33s, Peter Tedstone, Ebia, and Erik Seifert, if you like the retro/cosmic/analog sound. 

I just picked up a couple Silentes CD's that are quite good--Hall of Mirrors (Amon, Nefelheim and Nimh collaborative effort), spooky and dark, Oophoi-like with a more experimental edge. And Nimh's "Missing Tapes," which I think people into Zoviet France/Rapoon's "fourth world" sounds would enjoy. Cool stuff.

Hello, does anyone have the Umbra release by Kenji Siratori and the compilation "Other Side of the Sky"? Haven't seen any reviews of these. Thanks.