THE CIRCULAR RUINS

Conjunction

DataObscura/Databloem (2003)

Those who claim there is nothing new under the sun being created in electronic music need look no further than the exemplary work of Anthony Kerby, recording as The Circular Ruins.

I was impressed with the first Circular Ruins effort, Confluence, which presented a series of fascinating, buzzing soundscapes with some very spirited and creative drum programming. Last year, Kerby returned with his absolutely essential Realm of Possibility which is, in my opinion, one of the strongest modern electronic music albums to be recorded in the last five years. That particular disc showed an artist who seemed to be birthed fully formed, having fully digested influences as varied as Namlook's various Fax releases, classic Klaus Schulze, not to mention a hodgepodge of wholly original sonic mulchery that would not be out of place on a Mego records release. And, impressively, Kerby manages to maintain what I feel to be most important--a sense of playful experimentation without pretention.

Databloem, the Dutch label responsible for releasing Realm..., has started a sublabel devoted to CD-R recordings--DataObscura. The first DataObscura release is the sprawling new, two CD-R, Conjunction. The scant liner notes proclaim this to be the "dark side of the ruins" but I believe this to be more of a play on Pink Floyd imagery and the numerous Namlook/Schulze collaborations than any statement of artistic temperament. In fact, those who have enjoyed Namlook and Schulze's interstellar meanderings (as well as both artists solo) will find much to enjoy in the two discs of Conjunction. Both discs, titled "penumbra" and "umbra" reflect an increased attention to the classic work of the artists I've mentioned--something I've not heard in previous TCR efforts. Not to worry, this is no neo-Berlin School hackwork, nor does Kerby display Namlook's penchant for reliance on nifty instrumental gadgetry for album length tracks. This is solid, listenable, dramatic e-music, with a very distinct classic edge.

The "penumbra" disc is sonically the lighter of the two. It is a collection of deep, pulsating songs; occasionally interrupted by eerie samples, electronic phasing, and strange chirping "mulchnoise." The first track "Evening of Innocence" even has a smoky upright bass line, lending an almost jazz feel. Part of the strength of Circular Ruins material is the sheer attention to microscopic detail. One feels as if one is inside the machine, while at the same time still acting as audience to the vast sonic tapestry performed. Track four, "Oblique Strategies," abandons the cool, downtempo atmosphere, for an almost electro-sounding beatscape. It's great stuff, conjuring images of a quick craft flittering across a city-dotted landscape.

"Penumbra" is more song oriented than past Ruins material--each track stands well on its own, though it's clear that all the tracks belong together. The highlight of disc one is unquestionably "Subtle Instructions" which has an electrical pulse matched with beautiful synth tones. The tones gradually take over, creating an electric, cinematic feel--this is the sound of labyrinths of electric high-tension wires, strung wide across a broad country. Follow the instructions, find the right wire, and you just might find the center of the maze, where all high-tension mysteries are revealed.

"Umbra" cools down, and we enter the subterranian portion of our journey. Deep drones are complimented by a fat bass vibration that filters down into the floor of the earth. Follow this with "Haunted"--which sounds as if it truly is haunted by past Schulze work--an almost mellotron sounding suite that melds seamlessly with the signature Ruins sonic vocabulary. The disc continues to grow more nebulous, more mysterious, as we enter the space that is completely shadowed, the umbra. Decomposing synth tones, dramatic sequences, and a sense of urgency all meet us in this dark place. "A Forgotten Divinity" reminds us that umbra and penumbra are both aspects of shadow; just what is it preventing light from shining through? We drift on a deep, smooth drone, with only a vague hint of roil beneath--we may never know just what is obscuring the light. Finally, "Hunger" opens the landscape back up with that luscious "sort-of-mellotron." This is no throwback to bygone days of e-music, this is a new beast entirely.

While Conjunction is not the perfect, focused jewel Realm of Possibility presented, it is still sterling work by one of neo-ambient's newest practitioners. For those who can't reconcile their love of ambient-techno (and more modern forms of e-music) with recent nods to classic seventies work by neophyte artists, Conjunction should prove to be the perfect tonic. In fact, this double CD set makes a terrific counterpoint to Christopher Short's Duende--a similar ultraspace journey in a somewhat lighter tone. Nevertheless, The Circular Ruins creates another two hours of fascinating, addictive electronic music--no matter where your tastes lie on the ambient/electronic spectrum.

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FREESCHA

Slower Than Church Music

Shingle Street (2002)

Freescha are a duo from California who produce the sweetest kind of downtempo electronic ditties. Their newest album is called What's Come Inside of You--which is a fantastically listenable imaginary soundtrack to a sci-fi porno--but I've chosen to review their previous CD Slower Than Church Music for its sort-of obvious ambient content.

...Church Music begins somewhat surprisingly with an erzatz-Autechre, Chiastic Slide-era crunchy noise breakdown. This is something of a musical pisstake for Freescha, however, because this one and a half minute grind gives way to some of the most beautiful Boards of Canada-inspired electronic music I've heard. Some have criticized newer electronic acts who follow Boards of Canada's lead in creating that wistful style of electronics that made Hi Scores and Music Has the Right to Children so listenable and popular. Perhaps this displays a lack of musical originality on the part of these newer artists--though I prefer to think of it as a welcome style of music that, when done well, is perfectly luscious and welcome in my record collection. Alongside Arovane's Tides, I feel that the work of Freescha comes closest to capturing what made BoC so very exciting when they began making music.

What separates Freescha's music from mere mimicry is their focused attention to melody and surprise in the space of individual tracks. While Boards of Canada's work is driven by a large amount of short, sometimes throwaway, tracks, Freescha choose to populate their albums with fewer tracks and more progressive, Brian Wilson inspired, downtempo songs. A great example of this is the track "Boogy Foot" which begins with a sauntering cymbal stomp, stops abruptly midtrack, then begins again in an entirely different mode, this time with a faster tempo and a dramatic melody. The last track on Slower Than Church Music, titled simply "Church Music" is absolutely the highlight. It begins quietly with jangling, processed gong or chime sounds, giving way to a reverent organ-like tone. This gradually opens up into beautiful rainswept chords and an extremely slow beat. Broken melodies filter in, and eventually the tempo swells to a somewhat faster pace (though by no means fast). Somehow, Freescha manage to squeeze a synth choir of angels to bring you right up to heaven with their artificially-[intelligence] sweetened church music. Yes-ah, in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy ghost, you will be hitting the repeat button on this one till judgement day.

Freescha's command of melody is more practiced than Boards of Canada's, which makes each track instantly recognizable, not to mention listenable. In fact, I've found myself returning to the sugary (but not too sugary) songs of Freescha far more than my copy of Geogaddi. There's something distinctly "analog" about the proceedings from the pulpit here, creating a warm, summery feel that is hard to beat--let alone get out of your head.

If you could somehow break down music into mixable liquids, I would say that Freescha is something like a martini with equal parts Beach Boys-Californitronica and Boards of Canada childlike simplicity (perhaps with a little BBC Radiophonic Workshop or Kraftwerk olive at the bottom of the glass). This makes for an intoxicating record, and hangover free! Amen.

Available from Shingle Street records (who have no website), but you can get it through Freescha's site or Darla. Move quick, because this one's limited to 500 copies--something tells me in future days wackos on.ebay will be shelling out their IDM-burnt allowances for it.

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PSYCHETROPIC

Heat

Microrelease (2002)

Todd Fletcher first came to my attention with the CD Star which was a very fine ambient/electronic effort with a lot of sonic surprises over its length. I enjoyed Star partly because of its rich sonic palette, but also because each cut was unfettered by a particular musical style's confines. It's clear Fletcher enjoys a wide span of e-music, and is unafraid to try a little bit of everything--joyfully, everything he tries sounds both professional and practiced.

Todd's side-project, Psychetropic, focuses on a less traditionally ambient terrain. Heat, the second Psychetropic album, is a stunning--and familiar--surprise; the kind of surprise I'm learning to expect from Fletcher's music. Over ten tracks, Fletcher all but discards the progressive ambient tracks of Star in favor of a neo-electro sound that would not be out of place on a Defocus, or (dare I say it?) early Warp records release.

(A little background on my tastes as a music lover: when 1993-4 rolled around, a small cadre of artists releasing records on Warp began promoting a sound that came to be called Intelligent Dance Music. The flagship compilations, Artificial Intelligence I & II swiftly became America's first glimpse at this exciting and very modern style of music (thanks to a US distribution deal through WaxTrax/TVT). These AI releases were a bombshell to my music tastes - I'd always loved techno, but here were guys releasing music decidedly not for the dancefloor, and much more suited to the bedroom music fanatic.)

This brings me back to Psychetropic. With a different label and release date, Heat could easily fit aside seminal early releases by the Warp roster. Mind you, some of the impact is lessened by the fact that this CD was released in 2002 and not 1993. But, frankly, not nearly enough music was created in the early days of the genre--before the artists responsible decided to move on to different musical pastures--to have diluted this seminal sound. Fletcher's music is so compelling that you hardly care when the disc appeared. The disc immediately grabs you with the first track's fine synthwork, electro-percussion, and almost Depeche Mode melody. You hit track three, "Intricate Magenta," and the album really takes off. If I'd heard this track without knowing it was Psychetropic, I would immediately peg it to be an unheard B12 cut from Electro-soma. (That B12 record is on my top ten favorite albums of all time, and I don't believe I can give a higher compliment.) It's all here: soothing synth waves, propulsive electro-beats, Detroit-inspired atmospheres. I don't know if Fletcher is familiar with many of the original Detroit masters (he told me that he had never heard B12), but many of the tracks here wouldn't be out of place on a Stacey Pullen or Carl Craig plate. This stuff is just that fantastic.

Listening to Heat was akin to traveling back in time to when Detroit techno inspired IDM was the height of musical sophistication in many listeners' homes. Unquestionably, some of the synthwork is indistinguishable from classic work of that era. This is an incredible feat for Fletcher--making an older, very recognizable, type of music, while not being guilty of simple rehash. This is listener friendly, highly polished music. And if track five, "Heat [darkmachine mix]," wouldn't give classic Reload tunes a run for their money, I'll give up my CD collection here and now. The final track, "Particle Sea" ends Heat in a very classic way--with the fabled downtempo, near ambient track that often ended classic IDM works. To say it's perfect would be an understatement; this is right up there with Kenny Larkin's impressive work on Azimuth, as well as recent work by Peter Benisch, most specifically Soundtrack Saga.

I've got to stop because I'm starting to gush here. Heat has pushed every nostalgic button I've got for the bygone days of early "IDM" (it's a hated term in the electronic music community, but it still describes the genre best). I dare a listener to put this disc on and not check the liner notes to make sure the label really isn't R&S/Apollo, or A.R.T. As I've written, Todd Fletcher has managed to surprise me yet again--music so steeped in classic sound has never sounded better. More fanatic listeners might find the sound too derivative of older work, or worse, ten years out of date. This is a ridiculous sentiment--Psychetropic takes a sound from a now-gone time, making it fresh and new. Even now, I imagine myself seventeen years-old, tooling down the highway, listening to Polygon Window, Azimuth, and ... Heat? Fantastic work, and I hope the music keeps coming.

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JEFFREY KOEPPER

Etherea

Air Space Records (2003)

Jeffrey Koepper is a new artist to me, though according to his press release he has been making electronic music since the 1980s. His first solo CD, Etherea came as quite a pleasant surprise for me. Jeffrey has an analog synth collection to die for, and he's unafraid to use all of it--I've a feeling gearheads will enjoy this music on a completely different level than I am capable of. Even if you are musically ignorant, as I am, you will find more than enough to enjoy in these sublimely textured seventy-two minutes.

Take a deep breath of Etherea, and you will find yourself entranced by carefully woven sequences, light, warm atmospherics, and cascading, slow melodies. The first track, "Between Dreams" marries slow sequences with "breathing synth" lines, creating an effect not unlike entering the dreams of the title. The track builds sonically, gradually introducing some rich bass tones and electronic percussion, reminding me strongly of many tracks on Thom Brennan's Mountains album. As we'll hear, much of Etherea would not be out of place on a Steve Roach or Brennan CD. This is not idle copy-catting--Koepper does it just as well as these two classic artists. So well, in fact, that I feel his tracks are often indistinguishable from similar work by those I've mentioned. A perfect example of this, track two, "Distant Light," sees Koepper operating in the desert ambiance of Roach releases like Quiet Music and Western Spaces (minus the quite newage sounds from Kevin Braheny). I also detect a very pleasant similarity to A Produce's epic track "A Smooth Surface." It's easy to imagine drifting off to sleep with this track, or perhaps gazing upon a static landscape that appears to shift ever so slowly the longer you look at it.

Koepper's interest in rhythmic sequencers comes to the fore during tracks three and four--both recall flighty drifts along azure skies or crystal-clear ocean surfaces. Track three, "Timeless" reminds me of Michael Hoenig's classic work; sequenced and possessing a liquidity unusual for this electronic sub-genre. "Spiraling" follows these two tracks, reminding the listener that ambient drift can be very, very trippy as well. Fantastic spiraling synths swirl about the listener, rather like a momentary drop in altitude, following the warm air currents of the total album. Fans of David Parsons' atmospheric driftwork will enjoy "Silent Age" as Koepper pilots us ever higher to more mysterious terrain--is that subtle phasing I hear? Perhaps there is an ancient settlement resting atop the mountain range we drift above, but it is difficult to say whether or not it is inhabited. Track seven, "Passages," was a slight misstep for me; the sequences were a bit too metronomic and familiar. I found that they detracted from the fine atmospheres of the track, instead of propelling them forward over the six and a half minute duration. Tracks eight and nine follow a similar slowly sequenced, and fairly static mien, working as a slow, pleasurable drift into the climax: "While We Sleep." Unquestionably, "While We Sleep" is one of the strongest atmospheric floaters I've heard since Jonn Serrie's classic "Stratos." Almost fourteen minutes of enthusiastic abandonment on waves of hypnogogic ether. This track stands alongside classic ambient atmospheres in its depth, foggy ambiguity, and sheer beauty. The misty ambience is almost palpable. It's quite easy to imagine oneself in nearly any introspective situation hearing this track and feeling an overwhelming sense of pure mind-drift--certainly a calling card of the best ambient music has to offer. Frankly, this final tour de force is worth the price of admission alone.

As a totality, Koepper has created one of the most intriguing and professional-sounding debuts I've ever heard. Also of note is the added cache of crisp, clean Steve Roach production work on the disc. This is the kind of release that will appeal to fans of both Berlin School electronic and the light stratospheric forms of ambient music, rather like Craig Padilla's fine Vostok. I cannot recommend Koepper's CD highly enough to fans of Roach or Thom Brennan. As a whole, the music, professional packaging and art, and the excellent production make Etherea an ambient debut not to be missed. I've a feeling this is an artist to expect great things from in future.

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SAUL STOKES

Fields

Hypnos/Binary (2003)

It's been a while since Saul Stokes' last solo CD, 2001's Abstraction. That disc, cobbled together from live material, was a living mass of curling wires and tones, splayed out in complex patterns and rich atmospheres. Since that time, we've heard a greater focus on rhythmic work from Saul, exemplified by Thermal Transfer (with Vir Unis) which operated in quasi-techno pulsescapes. It's a great disc, rather like orbiting a distant planet at great speed, waiting for an inevitable fiery decay into the atmosphere. And what Sci-fi dork doesn't like an album with a track titled "Replicants in Orbit"?

And now, Fields. From first listen, it is apparent Stokes has taken the length of time necessary to push his signature style forward, creating a completely new and fresh perspective on the hand-built synth sounds we'd heard on previous efforts like Outfolding. Though previous albums focused more on inspired, improvisational synthscapes, Fields is aligned to a composed, rhythmic style only hinted at before. One need only listen to the first few moments of "Noise Coast" to find Stokes operating with melody and texture approaching musicality from a completely different direction than before. "Noise Coast" features lush synthbursts that subtly oscillate, leaving sonic afterimages throughout the track. This is Stokes announcing his arrival into the new millennium.

Track two, "Furioso" begins in a downtempo manner with snappy percussion and an urban sounding synthwhine--this is as close to jazz as Stokes gets, featuring a pretty piano backed with some expansive synth. There's also a strange ball-bouncing effect way in the background that reminds me strongly of the final track on the Namlook/Biosphere collaboration Fires of Ork 2. Track four, "Imiye" is a standout, with close-to-real drum sounds, gorgeous, billowing synths, and twanged melodies--all the while accompanied by those intriguingly odd hand-crafted synth sounds. The next track "Iris ... My Observatory" is familiar, having appeared on last year's Portraits compilation. I never got a chance to review that disc, so here's my chance to at least touch on a part of it. For me, "Iris ..." sums up Saul's recent work. Still the fascinating synth sounds, but with greater concentration of downtempo grooves, and a new luster that seems to be derived from ambient or minimal techno. The end of "Iris ..." has a melody that is melancholy and joyful all at once--and isn't this the effect all of the best music has on us? "Fields," the title track, in turn sums up Fields, the album, beautifully. The double meaning of "fields" comes into play, where Stokes conjures up both thick green vegetation surrounding, and a bright cityscape dotted with visible electric motion. So many ambient/electronic works have a tendency to focus on urban dystopia, but Stokes has a positive, naturalistic outlook which is quite refreshing. Perhaps it was not his intention while creating Fields, but Stokes has enabled a type of musical urban renewal; all bright gleaming buildings and clean, busy streets. Suddenly the city around took a brighter, uplifted tone as I listened to the CD in midtown Manhattan. This uplifted tone gradually floats higher, into "The Bright Tones (Even Brighter)." Here is the culmination of the album, a lengthy track with still more positive, progressive rhythmic ambience. And that sequence at the end is just fantastic, really ending the CD with a blissful soar across the glowing skies of the megalopolis, headed for more celestial terrain.

Throughout the record, Stokes plays with unusual rhythms and off-kilter melodies; all while remaining quite listenable. In fact, this is some of the most "mainstream" electronic music I've heard out of the Hypnos camp thus far. I wouldn't be surprised if this music appealed to a broad spectrum of electronic fans, and not just us dyed-in-the-wool ambient junkies. The sounds are so well produced and lush they are almost tangible. Every detail is easy to separate from the rest, never descending into a murky sonic mess. Honestly, I just love everything about this album, which represents, for me a perfect blend of abstract electronics and luxuriant ambience, not to mention the intoxicating corona of near-IDM percussives. Stokes has crafted a gem here; one I'm steadily hitting the repeat button on, nearly three weeks later. In its way, this is paradigm-shifting work; I hope to find other artists branching outside their chosen styles, taking what they need, and crafting new forms accordingly. Exemplary work from a major talent.

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FÖY

Mandala

Zero Music/Atmoworks (2003)

Here's a disc that came out of nowhere for me. "Northern European" artist Föy follows the "faceless techno artist" cliche of producing work without any hint of identity on the part of the creator. There is little to no information about Föy anywhere on the internet or on this release. The CD-R comes with simple, pretty black and white artwork in a slimline jewelcase. Other than stating that Föy creates "microsounds/textures/pulsescapes" there is no hint as to who Föy might be. Why am I so curious as to the identity of the mysterious Föy? It's really quite simple. Föy's Mandala is one of the best new artist releases I've heard in a very, very long time.

Mandala is called an EP by the folks at Zero Music, but, clocking in at just over forty-five minutes, crams an entire world of fascinating, melodic sound environments in a relatively (for neo-traditional ambient artists) short span of time. In an age where a CD isn't satisfying to some listeners if it is under seventy minutes, Föy creates (with the help of James Johnson) a delicate, powerful statement in under fifty. Not only does this show a mastery of restraint, but it also proclaims an artist who knows exactly what he is doing--keeping the listener hitting the repeat button of his or her CD player, all the while wishing there were forty-five more minutes of this masterful ambient music.

I don't think it's hyperbole (ok, perhaps a little bit) to say that Mandala could very easily be the CD Tetsu Inoue never released when he decided to move from the smooth post-techno sounds of Organic Cloud and Electro Harmonix (with Jonah Sharp) to the much more difficult and experimental terrain of Slow & Low. Mandala is a fascinatingly layered recording, featuring organic and electronic atmospheres, treated piano (which sounds suspiciously like Johnson's work--he appears on this CD, so perhaps this is his contribution), chiming repeated melodies, vaporous synth textures, and glitchy drum programming (albeit at a very slow (and low) tempo).

If you could distill James Johnson's modern updating of Eno-inspired ambient music and inject it with the unobtrusive sonic trickery of many modern Clicks + Cuts artists (minus the artistic pretension to favor extreme lack of listenability) you would have Mandala. I find my brain struggling to pay attention to any one aspect of this release--am I more interested in the gaseous ambient sounds in the background, or the stuck-in-your-brain melody that pervades much of the length of the disc? Is the playful piano (think of certain passages of the Johnson & Thompson release Forgotten Places) more interesting to me than the oddly vocal-like chopped up samples? It's an intriguing melange; I found my brain skipping from moment to moment trying to take in the sheer attention to layering and nuance. Indeed, Föy has crafted an addictive perfume that reminds one of many lovers all at once; each equally beguiling, but which do you prefer the best?

The final track, "Meditatie"--could Föy be from Germany?--discards the percussive remnants and bassy pulsations to favor a drifting, ethereal, floating feeling. We are on a mist-shrouded lake, with our feet upon the gunwales of our rowboat. Occasionally the shore quietly presents itself to us, trees and plantlife alternately obscured and unobscured. Are we really so close to land at all? Has this watercraft finally abandoned gravity to float unfettered above the ever-so-slowly turning earth? Have we shorn our commitment to solid form in favor of a more insubstantial existence?

In all, Föy (and Johnson) have created a work that has hit the nail on the head for me. Not many releases by new artists strike such powerful chords in my mind like Mandala has. Somehow, the mixture of newer and more familiar sounds and textures presents just the right amount of alchemical blend to this listener's ears. I especially enjoy the attention to often percussive manipulation of sounds (in a very controlled manner) along with the terrific ambience; not many artists in the neo-traditional ambient genre are able to pull this off with such aplomb. This is an utterly fantastic release, which I can give my highest recommendation without the shadow of a doubt. This will unquestionably be on my 2003 "best of the year" list. Fine work, Föy, whoever you are....

An <a href="http://www.atmoworks.com" target="_blank">Atmoworks</a>/<a href="http://www.zeromusic.net" target="_blank">Zero Music</a> CDR release.

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VIDNAOBMANA & DAVID LEE MYERS

Tracers

Klanggalerie (2003)

I have to give credit to the Dirk Serries, aka vidnaObmana. Aside from keeping me beguiled for the almost ten years I have listened to his music, he has tirelessly been unafraid to reinvent his sound and work with other unusual talents. This year alone we have seen the stunningly different Spore, which is rather like the aural equivalent of a Lucio Fulci movie. Now, in the vein of his past collaborations with Asmus Tietchens and Serge Devadder--two artists who operate in a somewhat more untraditional style of experimental sound--vidnaObmana chooses to release a record teamed with David Lee Myers (formerly known as Arcane Device). It's both a likely and unlikely collaboration. While vidnaObmana's recent work has nowhere near approached the harsh, gritty textures of Arcane Device's work, the early vidnaObmana was definitely rooted in a similar type of industrial noise. Dirk Serries has clearly chosen to return to earlier, harsher musical roots (and both Tracers' and Spore's sounds reflect this return).

With that said, Tracers, while containing experimental touches that might alienate a less adventurous vidnaObmana listener, is a surprisingly cohesive, thematic, and engaging listen. Perhaps these are my own fears coming into play--would Serries discard his traditional ambient leanings in favor of a tougher sound with more "indie cache"? I'm glad to write that just the opposite is the case. Serries and Myers have aligned their two sounds to such a symbiotic purity that only their respective strengths appear, with neither style taking prominence over the other.

Tracers is divided into eight sectors; each piece drifting into the next, though clearly the tracks are separate but bonded compositions. In a rare way, the cover art by Myers describes the music within rather perfectly. It features a three by three square of nine images on both sides of the CD case. Each image features a shaded background and strange metallic "squiggles" that reflect this background in a strange, warped fashion. It can be said that the vidnaObmana atmospheres are this nebulous background, ranging from dark to light, becoming a constant backbone to each sector of this recording. Myers's contribution is a sometimes jagged, sometimes curved presence in the foreground; creating its own unreadable space, while at the same time reflecting and distorting vidnaObmana's backgrounds. Certainly it is difficult to ignore the foreground feedback and fluttery electronic noises from Myers. But it is just as difficult to discount the vidnaObmana atmospheres, often dark and cloying, but so vast that Myers's contributions seem like lone buoys amidst a roiling sea. The two sonic images meld into a completely immersive totality.

By the mid-point to end of Tracers, the listener has been plunged into a bizarre world of metallic creatures, grazing in an angular, multi-jointed and alien fashion on silvery artificial plantlife that seems to grow in ominous architectural formations. Sector seven even contains the beautiful, harmonic fujara (now a vidnaObmana mainstay) bringing a rapturous, cathedral-like feel to all of the territory explored on the record.

In all, vidnaObmana and David Lee Myers have crafted a unique addition to both of their catalogs--spooky, subterranian, alien, vast, not to mention deliciously deep. It may take a few listens to fully discover and appreciate the sonic terrain, but I found the trying well, well worthwhile.

Available on CD in a limited edition of 500 copies on <a href="http://www.klanggalerie.com" target="_blank">Klanggalerie</a>.

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