ALPA WAVE MOVEMENT: Cosmology (CD on Groove Unlimited )
This release from 2003 offers 65 minutes of versatile electronics.
Alpha Wave Movement is: Gregory T. Kyryluk.
Two of the nine tracks herein were recorded live in Connecticut, May 2003, with Christopher Cameron on additional synths on both, and Jim Cole on harmonic voice on one.
Kyryluk exemplifies the versatility of electronic music with this release, offering excursions into everything from rhythmic to ambient to space. The CD begins with hyper sequencing, laced with synthesized guitar-like strains that resound with stellar vibrance. This is followed by one of the live pieces, which slowly transforms pensive atmospherics into rhythmic sequencing of energetic disposition. The next track is also live, and displays a sparkling ambient clarity that utilizes Cole's ethereal non-lyrical voice to exellent application, generating a sedate voyage through the amorphous Orion Nebula. For the next few tracks, the style fuses relaxation with mercurial melodies, employing crackling electronics and sweeping tones and nimble tempos. After this, there's a return to brooding ambience for a while, punctuated by ompelling instances of vibrancy. A brief finale features a union of machinery and void that tempers ominous undertones with traces of implied grandeur.
Despite the varied nature and temperament of this release, the music distinctly exhibits a compositional precision that is rich and rewarding for all involved.
It goes without saying that on a release entitled "Cosmology", the songs all explore interstellar mediums. Kyryluk's dedication to these regions shows with utmost clarity and reverence.
For reviews of more AWM releases, go here.
CAN ATILLA: Waves of Wheels (CD on Groove Unlimited)
This CD from 2003 offers music which was originally released as a rare CDR in 1998, and is now available in remastered form with additional material, featuring a total of 78 minutes of energetic electronic music by this talented Turkish synthesist.
Many electronic musicians find powerful inspiration in the music of Tangerine Dream, generally focusing those influences on TD's Seventies period style of lushly sequenced music. Atilla, though, deviates from that model with this release, seeking to pay homage to other styles explored by TD during their long and varied career, specifically from the late Eighties and early Nineties.
Joining Atilla on these tracks are: Cenk Eroglu on guitar, and Meric Demirkol on saxophone.
Dense layers of crystalline keyboards are laced with lively chords and heavenly textures. Charismatic riffs explode with verve and determination, echoing within the craniums of the audience long after the CD has finished playing. There is little use of cyclic patterns; instead, Atilla pursues a constant accretion of variations, keeping the melodies active and relentlessly evolving.
Thrillingly vibrant guitar, emphatic sax, and dynamic percussion add greatly to this expansive magnificence. The guitar licks soar with fiery splendor, catching the audience's collective breath with each successive escalation of enthusiasm. Sustains are tirtured to produce monstrous pinnacles of ecstasy. The saxophones are vivacious and steeped in celestial glorification. The rhythms evoke a potent fervor, propelling the melodies with appealing tempos of great distinction.
Exuding a pleasantly insistent quality, these melodies churn with passion and cerebral impact. A transcendental glory permeates the tuneage, infinitely satisfying and rewarding.
NAVIGATOR: Airwaves (CD on Groove Unlimited)
This CD from 2003 offers 73 minutes of sequencer-driven electronic music of the highest order.
Navigator is: Kent Eskildsen, Tony Anderson, and Jens Peschke. The German band Ramp contribute an ambient intro to one track.
Besides a bevy of enticing sequencers, expect hordes of dynamic keyboards and ethereal synthesizers, along with energized E-perc and space guitar. Atmospheric textures become crowded with gregarious keyboards establishing uplifting chords and sweeping sonic panoramas. Electronic effects abound, oozing through the mix like glistening audible honey.
At times, languid atmospherics fill the airwaves, gradually swelling with more demonstrable elements until the sky is brimming with hyperactive liveliness. Tasty sequencers twist sounds into unconventional-but-glorious sonic miracles, which often function as non-impact rhythms, coaxing the melodies to even greater velocity. A chugging dedication overwhelms this music, urging everything forward with significant purpose toward a shimmering horizon of bliss.
The guitar is superb, crisp and astral with its impassioned outcries. The riffs scrape the ceiling of heaven, raining sparkling rapture on the eager audience. These outbursts of stellar brilliance leave no cellular molecule untouched, vibrating fluids and bones alike with their assertive magnificance.
"Blizz", an 18 minute epic, embodies every one of these spectacular aspects, delivering a blazing euphony that will delight even the most jaded audiophile.
CONRAD SCHNITZLER: Gold (CD on Marginal Talent)
This release from 2003 features 63 minutes of eccentric electronics originally recorded 1974-1978.
As a renowned electronic composer for over three decades, Schnitzler is often considered the grandfather of modern electronic music. This was the man who convinced Tangerine Dream and Kluster to go electronic during the early Seventies. His solo recordings are hihly sought after by serious EM audiophiles, making this previously unreleased album a wondrous glimpse into his early works.
Concrete electronics is the keynote here. Vivacious blooping and watery gurgling abound, punctuated by sharply contrasted notes that tantalize the backbrain with their shrill resonance. Xylophonic embellishment provides a chittering diversion that wanders throughout the seamless flow of tunege. While textures establish an expansive drone, injected sounds generate costant distractions that inevitably create a flow of their own, sending the melody soaring and plummeting with unexpected frequency. These unpredictable deviations are usually quite amusing.
A momentous diversity exists among these compositions. One passage can be ponderous and brooding, while the next could explode with bass percussives and squealing diodes dedicated to smirking sentiments, followed by a track that explores variations of vibration focused on a central hissing buzz that ricochets wildly to an external theme. One simply never knows what to expect will happen next, yet what does occur is always engaging.
Despite the often atonal elements, however, melodies are vital, cerebral and languid and sneakily hyper at times.
For more information on Schnitzler and his music, go here.
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