Author: harald

Well-known as a master of minimal techno, Steve Stoll expands his sound further into the ambient/experimental realm. 4/4 beats are missing and his approach is quite different. The influences come from his urban environment and range from Ambience/Industrial to Dark Environmental and combine a perfect minimal mixture into a new organic-electronic sound.

CD tracks:

1. Intuition (1st Movement) 8.14
2. rnd.ply. 3.38
3. Atonal Memory 2.30
4. Ballet Mechanic 3.05
5. Intuition (2nd Movement) 6.44
6. Unionsquare 3.09
7. Navigation of k 5.31
8. Data Clouds (Into the Nature Pt.2) 4.18 Radiodiffusion 5.02
9. Dockstader 2.26
10. Epilogue (?) 5.44
11. Dust Ver.1 5.09
12. Chance-Meeting 2.57
13. Suguni 2.55

Russia’s Electronic Music formation surprise us with their fresh Ethno Chill sound. As the first and best chill-out group of their country whose last release on FAX even featured Brian Eno fills the listener with enthusiasm. A fresh combination of oriental instrumentation combined with chill-out beats that bear no dogma, no superficial “cut’n’click” hunting. Everything sounds warm, logical and full of Russian soul. A perfect addition to the team of Valery Alakhov and Igr. Ver is the Sitar, Flute and Duduk instruentalist S. Gasanov whose lush and soulful melodic lines communicate with the synths, beats and samples of Valery and Igr just perfectly.

CD tracks:

1. Phantom Ships and Strange Voices 7.59
2. Invisible Assailants 5.17
3. Encounters with Aliens 7.14
4. Spontaneous Human Combustion 7.05
5. Levitation Flight 7.28
6. Lightning Pictures 5.55
7. Miraculous Provisions 3.38
8. Electric People 3.54
9. Practical Witchcraft 5.48
10. Spectral Mutilators 7.35

From a voyage to Africa Bill Laswell brought with him two things: Some DATs full with material for an Ethnic oriented collaboration and – a *cold*. After a day with Bill in the studio coughing his way through the recording sessions Pete felt that he had the cold as well…a strange virus and nobody was safe from it…within days the whole FAX environment had a cold and so the whole production process was slowed down. This influenced this Electronic Sonata as there was automatically “more time” to re-listen to the elements being used and FABiA Kuhlmann had her recording debut with a nadhaswaram intro. This virus was special… in the evening you felt like Dark Ambient at 0.5 BPM and in the morning nothing could be energetic enough…a quite different and vivid music found its way to the CD. African and Indian music on and off…beats on and off…monochrome soundscapes…quite a virus…

This follow-up CD is in the same context as the predecessor, yet it is more: A big compositional work of both artists in one block over 71 min. long (with a track marker every 5 min.) which slowly evolves from deep chill, 0 beat space meditation to slow melodic interludes, back into darkness into some subtle and subtonal beats. A piece filled with constant evolution in tone, timbre, and spectral movement. It is a special journey through Deep Galactical Chill-Out that is worthwhile taking the time to listen to it from the start to the end…to let us take you to the Shades of Orion.

When Klaus and Pete first began to collaborate it was a great day for the Chill-Out and Techno world–one of the founders of Space music and Ambient from the 70’s collaborating with one of the 90’s Trance, Ambient Ethno-Techno and Chill-Out innovators. With each successive CD these artists created their own successful style in the field of Space Chill-Out. Klaus’ sequences, strings and Moog solos combined with Pete’s electronic rhythms, athmospheres and melodies. From “The Dark Side of the Moog IV” on legendary producer Bill Laswell occasionally joined the project with his extraordinary dub bass and the climax of the Series so far was Klaus and Pete’s concert in Hamburg 1999 released (“The Dark Side of the Moog VIII”). “The Evolution of THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOOG” not only shows some of the best moments from their collaborations so far (remastered), but also it’s a CD that stands own–it evolves from track to track and unfolds this outstanding musical piece without interruption. 78+ minutes. Track listing: Intro 0.12 I – Wish You Were There (excerpt) 3.32 II – A Saucerful of Ambience (excerpt) 15.01 III/3 – Phantom Heart Brother 5.25 III/4 – Phantom Heart Brother 6.17 IV/7 – Three Pipers at the Gates of Dawn 2.39 IV/8 – Three Pipers at the Gates of Dawn 8.45 V/8 – Psychedelic Brunch 8.03 VI/6 – The Final DAT 10.28 VII/6 – Obscured by Klaus 7.57 VIII/2 – Careful with the AKS, Peter 1.09 VIII/6 – Careful with the AKS, Peter 8.42

Refers to the feeling you get when touching an artefact that was made more than 7,000 years ago, in this case stone rock carvings in the Cheviot hills in Northumberland. Spread out across the top of the hills lie huge stone tables carved with many petroglyphs weaving in and out of each other. The sites where you find the carvings are all places with fantastic views across the hillsides and lowlands. Places of great beauty and serenity. There is a sense of “being out of time” at these sites. You are separated from yourself and instead feel a sense of being part of a greater whole. A spirituallity, if you will. The sense of a connection with our ancestors and being part of a continuity. looking backwards and forwards ..a long view across. – Robin Storey

Between 1990 and 2008, Thomas P. Heckmann produced and recorded several hundred tracks, released countless singles and CDs and made his name in Techno / Electro / Minimal / Industrial / EBM / Ambient / Acid and so on, but this series on FAX consists of the tracks that, for whatever reason, were never released, but were favorites of Heckmann and the people around him. These tracks show the other side of Thomas where his influences are the 60s and obscure music, a side which has not been heard since the mid 90s via his Drax project. So take a seat, dim the lights, get a fancy drink and listen openly to the little gems and analogue escapades from the man and his instruments!