AGATE ROLLINGS: Lost Battle against Failure (CD on Agate Rollings)
This CD from 2012 features 42 minutes of pensive ambience.
Agate Rollings is: Alessandro Sgarito (on synth, guitar, effects, and atmospheres) and Stefano Gallone (on synth, guitar, bass, and soundscapes).
Atmospheric tuneage crafted with electronics and processed guitars.
The electronics are of a particularly rarefied nature, often deceptively hiding amid the mix as texturals or skittering through the flow as glittering bloops.
Some keyboards are utilized to introduce crystalline notes into the music's soothing resonance.
The guitars tend to dominate these songs, although not in any conventional way. Processed into languid drones, their sighing chords waft with an ethereal mien not unlike otherworldly breezes.
At the same time, an amount of the guitarwork remains general untreated, presenting as lazy chords strummed from the heart of a softly glowing fog. These riffs melodic, but pursue ambitions more on the harmonic side.
These compositions are extremely delicate, evoking moods of infectious relaxation. The gentle interplay of guitar threads establish a dreamy realm akin to a vaporous environment wherein the listener supplies substantial meaning to the songs, contributing definition from their own psyche.
NUMINA The Deception of Reality (CD on Hypnos Recordings)
This CD from 2012 features 75 minutes of pulsating ambient music.
Numina is Jesse Sola (on synthesizers, effects, samplers, and programming).
Sashaying tonalities generate haunting long-form harmonic structures.
Track one layers a series of quasi-orchestral texturals until the music fairly seethes with prominence. As these tones waft and sigh, their gentle interplay produces an enticing flow, which in turn is tantalized by peripheral electronics of a smooth mien.
Which flows right into the next piece, where the vaporous milieu adopts a subtle ringing quality as shimmering chords drift on high. These pulsations begin to rub against each other, forcing a contrasting friction into the mix.
Being the shortest song (at 9 minutes compared to the 12-19 length of the other pieces), track three pits atmospherics tinged with orchestral qualities with sweetly vibrating chimes.
In track four delivers an ascending character to the tuneage as the textures slide upwards, caressing each other and entwining to form fresh gaseous drifts. Auxiliary riffs slip into play, teasing the auralscape with some melodic elements.
The final piece adopts a more cosmic temperament with interstellar winds dogging gentle electronic sighs which rise into splendid prominence, whereupon the flow is attended by treatments designed to achieve an imminent omen, that gradually sweeps over the listener in the form of inspirational euphoria.
A grandly rewarding dose of pacific moods disguised as sweeping soundscapes of emotional definition.
CRAIG PADILLA & ZERO OHMS When the Earth Is Far Away (CD on Lotuspike)
This CD from 2012 features 64 minutes of cosmic ambient music.
Padilla plays: analog and digital synthesizers, sequencers, and genetically altered audio manipulations. Zero Ohms (aka Richard Roberts) plays Anasazi flute, Hawaiian nose flute, tinwhistle, wind-controlled synthesizers, field recordings, and scientifically mutilated sound processing. They are joined on two tracks by Skip Murphy (on synthesizers).
Pensive tones awash with celestial overtones.
The electronics flourish in a subdued manner, flexing atmospheric tendencies far beyond the atmosphere and evoking the milieu of an airless void full of promise. The textural flows muster to dominate the music, tempered by auxiliary instruments which lend a humanity to the vaporous vista.
Not all of the electronics are textural. Keyboards are profusely employed, but mainly to produce eternal sustains of chords which waver amid the sonic clouds.
The flutes add an earthy flair with their breathy sustains, tingeing the tuneage with a sacred disposition. The flutes adopt a winsome sound when accompanying a passage of breezy air currents.
While generally harmonic in nature, melodic touches periodically surface, and while they never really overwhelm, they do manage to craftily influence the tuneage.
These compositions form a seamless stretch which takes the listener on a cosmic journey in search of inner peace. The pacific tonalities serve to lure the consciousness inwards, while the embellishing instruments provide thematic guidance. The music drifts and undulates with a luxurious ease, maintaining a seductive quality throughout.
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