Author: dave

Second CD release in the #OohWow series! This is a re-release of the wonderful compilation Soul of the Machine by Norken – with new music and slightly different tracklist. Ooh wow!

All tracks by Norken & Nyquist
Mastered by Árni Grétar
Artwork by Mason Verger

Music by Norken.
Thanks to Darren McClure for keeping me on the right track.
Recorded in Devon, England
Artwork by Nick Edell

Dedicated to our mothers Georgina Norris and Shirley Edell

Pushing beyond the plains of ambient perception, Urban Meditation takes us on a journey beyond the phantasmal realm and into deep-field electronics.

Originally created for The Waveform Transmitter’s Sunday Service, Urban Meditation (The Dark Side of the Mix) reworks material from previous and future releases to conjure a mix of hypnotic ambiance. Now available for the first time on CD and as a digital download, this is a collection of evolutionary and extraordinary electronica.

Having already released three acclaimed albums of ambient techno and IDM, Urban Meditation is now exploring the outer reaches of the cosmos.

The sounds are primordial, like long-buried artifacts transmitting from a dying space station. It is impossible not to be moved by the hauntingly beautiful, and languidly arcing layers of electronics and samples that seem to beckon the echoing void of deep space.

Urban Meditation is a shamanic sound collagist and astral explorer, entrancing us with his dense and opaque compositions that speak to our very souls, revealing us within their hypnotic pulses.
credits

2-CD mixed collection of Carpe Sonum tracks

CD 1
Autrax – Perle
2xirtam – Tidal Positions
Off Land – Redshift
Moss Garden – A Call To Prayers
Specta Ciera & Arbee – Forest Floor
Mick Chillage – Solitude (excerpt)
Ethernet – Arcana
Autumn of Communion – Leaving Island
Solipsism – Planes of Existence
Si Matthews – Sync Polarity
Aythar – Moon Landing
David Morley – Re-Volution

CD2
Thomas P. Heckmann – Introspective Two/Ode to a Friend
Dividenthal & Aumgn – Vackar
Sven Kössler – Kibo (excerpt)
Gapfield – Built From Amber
Deviazioni Cosmiche – Like Glass
Airwaves – Sunset Mists Distant Peaks
Nseven – Ambiesiac (Ambidextrous Remix)
Yamaoka – Duet
Lorenzo Montanà – Bloom
Krystian Shek – Sometimes Not
Lee Anthony Norris and Porya Hatami – Moon
Saafi Brothers – Multiverse

The late Oscar Menzel, who recorded as Airwaves, left a significant legacy that the electronic music community has routinely failed to acknowledge or come to grips with. An admirer and obvious colleague-in-spirit to pioneers Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Robert Schroeder, Pete Namlook, and so many other recognized synthi boffins, Menzel’s small but important catalog bristles with enough ideas to fill dozens of albums, accomplishing within a mere handful of recordings what lesser artists spend a lifetime attempting. The follow-up to his earlier Carpe Sonum issue Biomechanical, Multiverse represents his unreleased fourth work, and as part of his broader oeuvre, will undoubtedly go down as one helluva swan song. Utilizing a vast array of then-contemporary equipment—his gear list reads like a portfolio of the finest analog creations birthed by Moog, Korg, Ensoniq and Roland—Multiverse is a synth fetishist’s wet dream, a kaleidoscopic trip down the alleyways of both Menzel’s soundmakers and his hyperkinetic-embodied imagination. Gear aside, none of these pieces in any way act like demonstration tracks for would-be weekend synth warriors; there’s a devilish muse at work here, a symbiotic relationship between player and module, a literal man-machine. The high-energy photons Menzel prods from his devices are nothing short of astounding, the actual compositions bordering on revolutionary—never one to become merely a sum of his influences, Menzel literally ignites these dazzling excursions with a deft sweep of hand, diamond-sharp prisms fragmenting every blip, bleep, bulge, and blush into a million points of interplanetary light. Travelling the spaceways like no other, both Multiverse and the entire Airwaves catalog sports a cadre of visionary achievements that are utterly magical to behold.

Galaxies like grains of sand. Warm worlds and otherwise. The word for world is forest. Yes, all the aforementioned are titles of classic science fiction works (by Brian Aldiss, James Tiptree, Jr., and Ursula K. LeGuin, respectively), and all mirror the elegaic soundworlds conjured by Resilience. A collaboration between Carpe Sonum artists Eric “the” Taylor and Si Matthews, their debut Forgotten World indeed resurrects eons past and the lurch of gigantic beings stirring amidst the undergrowth. With synths the volcanic color of atmospheric rust, nascent pads and passing electronic rainshowers percolate through the twilight of the semi-ominous, semi-reflective title track, a snapshot of long-gone triassic still-lifes. “Rising Heat and Steam” makes the most of Pete Namlook’s desire to foment ‘environmental mood music’, and as such, is a work of the highest order, mildly unnerving oozes curdling amidst the irising filters of a thousand plangent synths. Both Taylor and Matthews have quite a refined artistic sense of drama, emotions that are at play throughout and set the stage for some post-Tangerine Dream majesty during the near-five minute orchestrated hush of “Sustain”. Those looking for a wonderfully vivid combination of the organic and synthetic, of the expansive and sublime, could do worse than spending a cool evening lost on Resilience’s stark and ever-evolving stage.

“Shared Fictions“ is heavily inspired by the science-fiction and fantasy genre that Gabriel’s been a fan of since his early youth. “Shared Fictions“ is about the ability of magical thinking, the power of imagination, and the beauty of creating from it.

The eight-track album opens with “Journey Within”, bringing a half time rhythm that morphs into a straight leftfield tech 4/4 bar and back, and that reflects the space within the notes that define a groove as well. Next up is the title track which moves on an electro breakbeat along with harmonic pads to produce atmospheric cinematic soundscapes.

“Stay In Wonderland“ combines an electro groove with a heavy low dub sub and a funky acid riff that filters through the midtempo arrangement and keeps the flow.

“Deep Focus” starts with sound design spaces that open for an organic more midtempo electro groove accompanied by a morphing baseline and digs deep into sonic space, ultimately floating into a straight but relaxed moving beat.

“City of Thoughts“ begins with weeping e-bow sound guitars and develops into a journey with a more urban feel by shining through optimistic and open major harmonies mixing downtempo chill out with funky electro beat.

“World Tree“ is composed of shades of trip-hop and dub, combining hand-played recordings and soulful programming into a beautiful cinematic trip.

The deepest track on “Shared Fictions” is definitely “Mythical Past” that cuts in 73 bpm through the track with a heavy dub bassline and a solid beat forming the backbone that keeps it together.

“Collective Dreamworld (Wonderland Mix)“ continues where “Stay In Wonderland“ ended–deeply floating acid baselines, tablas and electrofunk grooves are guiding through the track that completes the album.

CD version includes a bonus disc of beatless mixes.