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review by Dene Bebbington Now this is embarrassing, I must be one of the few EM fans on the planet not to have heard any of the music by Michael Garrison. Yet, here I am reviewing a tribute to one of EM's pioneers who sadly died too young. The artist roster on the two CD set To the Sky and Beyond the Stars is practically a who's who of names recording ambient and EM music today. I won't list them all (there are 26 altogether!), suffice to say the music goes from the ambience of Numina, through the spacemusic of Jonn Serrie, passing by the retro of Redshift, to the bristling sequences of Wave World. In particular, fans of sequencing will doubtless find this compilation to be a treasure. The first disc gets underway with "Crystalline 94" by Redshift, taking us back to the heady days of 1970s Tangerine Dream this piece is chock full of mellotron, background galloping sounds, flutey melodies, spacey choral effects, and sequencing. A few tracks in and we get to Axess who delivers another pumped up track in "The Pilgrim Soul", this time the sequencing is augmented by drum effects and superb emotional melodies. The penultimate track on this disc is specifically named for Michael Garrison. The artist Something Completely Different starts his piece "Adagio for Michael" slowly with cosmic wind sounds and a melody containing hints of Vaughn Williams's pastoral Greensleaves. Then a little way in it all changes so that the pace picks up as sequencing is joined by electronic ripping sounds performing a syncopated melody. On to the second disc. After a slightly retro sequencing based track by Dom F. Scab we encounter Wave World's upbeat foot tapper "Tirzan Sundance". Bright happy melodies keep this jaunty piece moving along while a percussive sequence and other synth effects form a backdrop. Up next is my favourite piece on the album - "Within Worlds" by Numina. This is a contrast to what has gone before; Roachian drones that have a eulogistic edge swirl around as a metallic sound like hammering into an anvil forms a rhythm. Finishing off this disc which contains several lively pieces is the more sedate "Requiem" by Cosmic Hoffmann. As one would expect from the title this is a sombre (not too sombre though) piece, it's played by synth lines of varying tones that sometimes verge on the eerie. As compilation albums go, To the Sky and Beyond the Stars is excellent and should adorn the collection of any serious EM fan. It's not often that you get so many big names in the electronic music business on one album. Buying it also helps a good cause since part of the proceeds go to the charity mpower: musicians for mental health. |
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