FULL HARVEST MOON (12 October 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ALQUIMIA

COATLICUE "GODDESS OF THE EARTH"


Original Issue: 1992 Musica Onirica (MOCD 002)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from All Music Guide:

Latin music is fused with futuristic electronics by Mexican-born Alquima. While her basic tracks feature vocals and piano, Alquima enhances her recordings with layers of looped vocals, electronic processors, sound effects, samples, synthesizers, gongs and bells.

The result is a sound that combines the musical traditions of Latin America with influences of rock, pop, avant-garde, classical and improvisational music. According to Audion magazine, "Alquima aims to dazzle, entrance , relax and excite, and, does so on all counts."

Alquima's debut album, Coatlicue: Goddess of the Earth, released in 1992, featured a nine-part title track and five individual pieces. Her second album, Wings of Perception, released in 1995, was inspired, by what she told an interviewer, "my experiences in the Yucatan region of Mexico, the mysticism of the ancient temples and my reading of the works of Carlos Castaneda."

Alquima recorded her third album Dead Tongues in 1996 with Mexican composer Jose Luis Fernandez Ledesma, who played Fender Rhodes, synthesizers, percussion, voices, shells, flutes and electronic sounds. The daily Mexican newspaper called Dead Tongues, "the best Mexican album of its kind this decade." Alquima divides her time between studying music and mysticism in London and composing and recording in her own studios in London and Mexico City.

Craig Harris

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from New Gibraltar Encyclopaedia Of Progressive Rock:

Alquimia is from Mexico, though she now lives and records in the UK. Her music is inspired by Mexican/Central American occult and pagan influences, including Mayan religion and Carlos Castaneda. I have several of her albums, and they vary quite a bit from one to the next. Most of them have in common a "tribal" feel with lots of hand drums, rattles, wood blocks and other ancient-sounding rhythmic devices.

Coatlique is her first and her most experimental album (of those I've heard at least). There are those who might say "this isn't music at all!" This is more along the lines of sound collage, though she sings with a vocal timbre somewhere between Gilli Smyth and Enya, from ethereal and lofty to trancing chants. The tribal drums and percussion are most prevalent on this album, along with an array of synthesized groans, klangs, hissing and percussive sounds designed to elicit emotions ranging from elation to skin-crawling.

This is an excellent album and should be of interest to most prog fans who don't need too much melody to satisfy them. Those who only like symphonic or neo-prog style progressive music will probably be bored.

FULL COLD MOON (21 December 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

NERELL LOREN

LILIN DEWA


Original Issue: 1996 Soleilmoon (DFX 26) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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from http://home.earthlink.net/~lnerell/ldreviews.html:

Option May-June 1997

Nerells' chops as both a synthesizer expert and a student of the gamelan allow him to explore the border region between electronics and one of the world's most highly developed acoustic orchestras -- not that this hasn't been done before. But Nerell takes the gamelan into ambient realms, where-as many of the other fusions of Western musics with gamelan have turned on gamelan's rhythmic elements, Nerell uses gamelan in combination with synths, but also electronically morphs the gamelans into subtle, delicate resonant spaces, where just traces of the originals loop through the composition. At times reminiscent of Jon Hassell and the darker soundscapes of Steve Roach, Nerell's music shows a delicate touch of great beauty, and his understanding and love of gamelan never leave you feeling even the hint of appropriation. John Baxter

Alternative Press May 1997

(four fingers out of five meaning: well done).
Nerell is an American who became spellbound by Bali and Java's gamelan music after a chance encounter with it 15 years ago. He merges field recordings of said music with his own studio manipulaitons (via synths and samplers), but only skilled ears could tell which is which. Nerell's tools include various Indonesian gongs, rain-stick, dholak and slenthem.

Lilin Dewa should strike a resonant chord with Westerners receptive to contemplative musics, even if they don't have a clue about gamelan. The moan-and-groan drone of Galungan has ritualistic overtones that induce an uneasy, peaceful feeling, like being isloated in a desert, Borobudur 4AM is akin to Paul Schutze's cinematic take on Souteastern Asian ambience. Muted chanting and cricketsong add to the song's mesmerizing chill. Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze is one of the most gorgeous and euphoric peices of music since Don Cherry's "brown Rice" (1975), conjuring the image of a stately glide down an Indoesian river. Dave Segal

Interface version 4.1

It seems as though everytime you turn around, Portland-based Soleilmoon Recordings puts out another batch of reissues, collections, anthologies and new releases that transcend the usual glut of meaningless industrial anthem rock, and define a whole other, more sincere world of ambient sounds and settings. Quickly becoming the grandfather of Industrial World Music, Soleilmoon must rank at the top of the list for any aficionado of textual sound canvases and internationally-mixed keyboard cacophonies. This latest batch of exceptional ambient releases all arrived at my door within the last few months, and they are collectively better than the junk-mail singles collections substituting for albums that clutter major labels, release schedules for an entire year.....Nerell and Muzlimgauze offer enchanting forays into the realm of world music with their new releases....all are superior and recommended trance music for the thinking man. Anais

Camera Obscura

Nerell, originally awakened by Tangerine Dream's Rubycon, also took an early liking to gamelan music, tape manipulation, and electronic sound generation. He's been known for his work with Steve Roach, Djam Karet, Kronos Quartet, Paul Haslinger, and others. Why he's taken so long to release his first solo is a mystery, but some artists only do things when they consider the time is exactly right. Lilin Dewa is a slow, brooding, swirling, mysterious quintet of nighted murals. A cross between Vidna Obmana, Alain Kremski, and a somnabulistic Steve Reich, it demands liquid patience from the listener and displays a debt to Harry Partch that only the initiated will understand. It also requires a breadth of experience, attention, and, at least initially, non-judgementalism. The opening track, Irama, is deceptive, seeming somewhat more minimal than necessary, and perhaps a tad paradoxically World Music-y in this fad-time of politically correct obeisance to imaginary social demands from art (of all things). It is, however, a preparation agent and owes no uncivil subordination to current contexts and trends. It slows the listener and thickens the listening environment, and is important to the fourth track, Hiasan (Ornament), which contains very subtle information and is an epic (20:00) of quietude, joining such masterpieces as Eno's 2/2, John Abercrombie's Still, and a much-too-small body of sublime quiet-art. It also has latencies of the On Land work.

The closer, Borobudur 4AM, carries on Hiasan's mission, but as terrenely alien electronics within a rain forest (the ambients were recorded at Borobudur, in Java, site of the largest Buddhist stupa in the world) counterpointed by a distanced ceremonial event. And neither Nerell nor the label indicate whether there was an intention for the bird song and insects to act as natural music, but they do, giving a bit of an exposure to the coincidental experience of nature as an unrecognized music "form". Given the savantry displayed and Nerell's immersion in the culture (he played in-country with native bands) bounced against his American birth, I'd wager he knew exactly what he was doing yet got more than he intended. The degree of identification with this environment is almost unsettling, creating the transference for the wet loamy fecundity of the jungle to seep slowly into the listener's bones......through the ears.

This cd will not be for everyone, of course. It requires more than a modicum of culture and serenity of mind and spirit. Many who essay it unprepared will soon be clawing to crawl out of their skins and toss on some Metallica. But, for the connoisseur, it will sit on the shelf of outre musics for slightly twisted ears. And once you've finished listening, the answer to my curiosity (as to why he took so long to go solo) should become obvious. Marc Tucker

Exposé No. 14, Winter 1998

Here is a composer who has been busy working to put Indonesia on the map as the next landing point in the trek in search of inspiration. In his music Loren Nerell has always shown the explorer spirit, and Lilin Dewa reflects the fruits of his study of ancient and rare forms of Balinese gamelan. This he uses as source material to create ethnic-drone hybrid material that you could safely say has precedence in Brian Eno's seminal On Land. Reference points to the techno-tribal or Berlin-style space music directions taken on his previous cassettes (not to mention other influences such as Harry Partch) are scant, if existent at all, on this (his third) release. Far and away the standout track for me was the evocatively titled, Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze, with its simple but very effective hints at gamelan. Such a beautiful blending of authentic instrumentation flanked by a synthetic layering - you wish it would go on much longer. Hiasan is a sedate meditation constructed around motives played on the kempul (a row of highly vibrant, tuned Javanese gongs). If their resonance seems to beckon one to the imperial courts of Jogyakarta, then the Roach-like drone of Galungan bids one to stay and soak in the ceremonial atmosphere the work evinces. Voices and flute creep into the menacing admixture ever so subtly. The ambient drone supporting Borubudur 4AM is based around field recordings made near the Borubudur temple in Java. It is the next best thing to being there I'm sure, but given its fifteen-minute length you might wish for the intrusion of some more prominent instrumentation. The CD closes there, however, leaving us to ponder what may follow. That this one-time Djam Karet collaborator has few peers in the subgenre lends a sense of limitlessness which I hope Loren will exploit further in the future. Mike Ezzo

Wind & Wire Issue 7 July/August 1998


Genre: Gamelan (Ambient/Trance/World)

Music that invites the deepest of listenings are few and far between when one reviews music as much as I do. Loren Nerell's recording Lilin Dewa is music that merits it, though. Seldom do I hear a work that almost literally jumps into my head and says, "Listen, dammit. I have something important to say." But, after hearing just the first several minutes of this CD, listen (and very intently) is just what I did. It was time well spent.

Lilin Dewa could very well be the sequel to Robert Rich's superlative 1989 recording, Rainforest. Both are heavily influenced (and in the case of Loren, very directly so) by the gamelan music of Bali. To put this CD in the same league of Robert's is, coming from me, very heady praise. To me, Rainforest is a literally essential CD and may be Robert's best work. That Lilin Dewa stands toe-to-toe with it and even expands on some of that release's work is quite a feat.

Using an assortment of Indonesian gongs and kempuls, Balinese suling and gambuh, plus many other instruments that not only do I not know what they are but probably can't even pronounce them, along with wonderful synth and sampler textures, Loren has produced a work of feeling, mystery, depth, and beauty. I want to submerge myself in this CD and let my mind drift away to distant lands. This is not ambient music in that it should not be ignored. Or, if you treat it as such, you are missing the point. Which is not to say that you can't play this in the background. God knows it's beautifully unobtrusive at times. But, be prepared to pay attention and allow the music to work its magic on you.

The album opens with Irama which uses gongs and percussion to sound a steady rhythm which should immediately make those comparisons to Rainforest evident to anyone who knows the recording. But on the next cut, Galungan, the CD shifts gears abruptly into trance and drone-mode. Galungan, per the liner notes, is a ceremony practiced in Bali to commemorate the beginning of a new year. The ceremony must be very spiritual because this is not "Auld Lang Syne!"

With the exception of the third cut, Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze which is just over six minutes long and is a wonderful excursion into dense polyrhythms, the other four songs are all at least ten minutes long (one clocks in at twenty minutes!). This is music that breathes. It is patient and develops over time. For example, the last two songs on the CD are wonderfully evocative and atmospheric. But the listener must commit themselves to really listening to this music. Again, this may not mean sitting still. It depends on how skillful a listener you are. For me, I simply had to pay attention to this music.

Loren is deeply committed to gamelan music and has spent the better part of this decade studying it first-hand. Lilin Dewa is a recording that shows what happens when an artist becomes not just inspired but even consumed by his or her love of music. Loren has created a work deeply enmeshed with this other culture. I admire not just his craft and his devotion, but also his conviction. For those interested in gamelan music and/or recordings that truly draw the listener into the experience of the music, I recommend spending some time with Lilin Dewa. Bill Binkelman

Dreams Word

I always love it when an artist successfully blends different styles of music into a unique listening experience. Combining modern dark ambient and ages old gamelan music may not seem an easy task, but in the hands of Loren Nerell, it feels that way on Lilin Dewa. Dark drones open Irama, but are soon joined by metallic chimes of ancient instruments. Beginning slowly, the beats gradually pick up speed and musical intensity. Just when it seems things will build to a crescendo, the music slows down again. Ah, but wait, here it goes again. Irama rides a musical wave up and down, then finally crests and falls. On listening, the musical pattern seems deceptively simple, though it is probably not easily achieved. Primitive influences continue with Galungan, an 18-minute journey into long forgotten cultures, again blending traditional instruments and synthesizers, this time with chants added as well. I must confess to a Western world bias against too much chanting in my music, but it is not too distracting here, and definitely fits with the overall mood.

Each of the five tracks range from ten to twenty minutes, with the exception of the six-minute Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze, named for the four primary materials used in the recording. This is a fascinating sound collage, and should appeal to fans of Steve Roach's albums Artifacts and Origins.

The CD is beautifully packaged, with detailed liner notes explaining how Lilin Dewa came into being, including the meaning, intent, and recording method behind each song. For example, it is explained that the 20-minute Hiasan is based on small knobbed gongs, called kempuls, which are featured. This minimal piece very effectively uses ancient instruments in the same way modern ambient artists use synthesizers to soothe and relax the listener.

Lilin Dewa rewards both passive and attentive listening, though I highly recommend the latter, to fully appreciate all its nuances and subleties. Though it seems like many are going for a tribal ambient sound these days, something about Lilin Dewa is very refreshing and original. Recommended, especially for fans of ambient with tribal overtones. Phil Derby

EOSTRE (21 March 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

13TH TRIBE (THE)

PING PONG ANTHROPOLOGY


Original Issue: 1992 Review (rere 174 cd)

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

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1 Dream Hunters 10:02
2 Hawaiian Office 1 4:32
3 Khazar 4:43
4 Can-nibals I 5:28
5 Lofoten Part II 6:18
6 Can-nibals II 5:43
7 Ping Pong Anthropology 4:33
8 Hawaiian Office II 2:45
9 Exhausted Pipes 13:55

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from All Music Guide:

Ping-Pong Anthropology defies categorizations. Two members of the 13th Tribe, German Werner Durand and Norwegian Erik Balke, perform on invented instruments, mostly wind instruments without finger holes, which are actually assemblages of PVC tubes of various lengths. The third musician, Brazilian Silvia Ocougne, provides cyclic rhythmical structures on prepared guitar. Percussionist Pierre Berthet appears as a guest on three tracks. Durand and Balke play games of "call and response" (reproduced in stereo, they do sound like a ping-pong game) over Ocougne's cycles, each one moving at his/her own pace, periodically losing the others and catching up on them.

This process creates soft, unreal, slow-evolving textures belonging to both meditative and avant-garde music. Because of its ritualistic patterns and similarities between the Tribe's devices and such autochthonous instruments as the didjeridoo, the Alp horn, or even the pan flute, this music has a distinctive exotic quality. Somewhere between the Andes and Australia probably lies an island where the 13th Tribe's music may be used for the religious ceremonies of a postmodern civilization.

François Couture

FULL STURGEON MOON (5 August 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ROACH STEVE & STEARNS MICHAEL & SUNSINGER RON

KIVA


Original Issue: 1995 Fathom (HS11056-2)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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1 Passage One (2:27)
2 East Kiva - Calling In The Midnight Water (13:42)
3 Passage Two (1:59)
4 South Kiva - Mother Ayahuasca (15:13)
5 Passage Three (2:12)
6 West Kiva - Sacrifice, Prayer, And Visions (17:27)
7 Passage Four (2:00)
8 North Kiva - Trust And Remenber (9:42)
9 The Center (2:33)

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from All Music Guide:

Ron Sunsinger, a Native American tribal artist and musician, joins two space music pioneers on Kiva, an atmospheric re-creation of sacred tribal ceremonies representing the directions of the Four Winds.

For the Southwest tribes, a kiva is a circular subterranean structure used for ceremony and ritual; other tribes may use a canopy of trees, the circular space of a Sun Dance, or a cavern. For this recording, Sunsinger obtained, with permission, field recordings of traditional ceremonies. The musicians then brought the kiva space into their music studio. Each wind direction is preceded by an atmospheric passage of chanting, nature sounds, and rattles. "East Kiva: Calling in the Midnight Water" features chanting with the rattles and rapid drumbeats of a peyote ceremony. The space music continues the ceremony to an expanded heartbeat, with horns signaling breakthroughs of thunder strikes. A more celestial space is heralded by organ tones and crickets. Hearing the overlapping layers of sound and the progression allows the listener's mind to travel, while still being connected to the ceremonial music and rhythms.

Ghostly voices usher in the passage to "South Kiva: Mother Ayahuasca." Here, breathy whistles and a hypnotic twang of a stringed instrument begin a trance that takes off on one of the most dramatic space blastoffs on record. It climaxes through shouts and ceremonial purging, a sacred song, and whistling; the organ/chanting drone background is very trippy with its sonic infinity pattern of organ tones, chanting, jungle birds, and distorted drumming. "West Kiva: Sacrifice, Prayer and Visions" includes the powerful powwow drumming, singing, and stomped bells of the Native American Sun Dance. The space music collides sounds and rhythms -- a dizzying and hallucinatory clash of reality and illusion.

The music then "passes out" and takes the listener on a voyage through a sonic tunnel where all time is suspended. The final "North Kiva: Trust and Remember," recorded in a cavern, thunders with resonant drums and the growls of the didgeridoo. This recording is an excellent introduction to space music and the shamanic experience. You'll find it's not a free ride.

Carol Wright

HALF MOON (medioriental musick)

RAPOON

VERNAL CROSSING


Original Issue: 1993 Staalplaat (STCD 082)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

...lay back your head and drift...

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1 The Same River Once (10:35)
2 Sonol (2:41)
3 Yi (3:40)
4 Rains (6:02)
5 Bol Baya (9:07)
6 Dahina Ta (6:12)
7 Anatapurrah (7:47)
8 Vernal Crossing (11:16)
9 Yi-Tun (7:17)

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from The Wire:

Moving over to Rapoon (from Loop Guru), we've still got our ethnic trousers on but the spiritual vibe is less, shall we say, 'positive'. In fact listening to Rapoon late at night on your on can be pretty scary. I tell myself that it's just tablas fed through some kind of delay but the skin on my cocoa keeps shuddering...

The opening track is almost cheerful, tablas and rattles loping along in front of a long melody played by some sort of wind-up-the-chimney sound. Even here there's an ominous undertow. It's as though the music is heard from a car stranded in the desert with it's radio still playing.

The other tracks seem to be based on pulling Indian music to pieces - small drums play lonely abandoned patterns; fragments of voice float in and out on magic carpets of echo; buzzing clouds of drone spin from ear to ear; distant cries well up from the horizon...

Rapoon work against the usual sense of well-being engendered by Indian music to produce a menacing and fascinating piece of work. If you enjoyed being scared by :zoviet france: you should know that Rapoon is Robin Storey, one of their founding members.

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from i/e Magazine:

Former :zoviet*france: member Robin Storey continues his probing of the techno-tribal interface under the pseudonym Rapoon.

Vernal Crossing is more concerned with the exploration of esoteric rhythmic structures than the previous Raising Earthly Spirits, but it's still long on atmosphere and experimentation, and every bit as fascinating.

Storey combines the cut-and-paste sound designs of his former cohorts with the modes of Hassell, Roach, and mysterious, far-flung cultures in the realization of these multi-faceted works. As "Bol Baya" whips itself up into a frenzy of futurist gamelan and whispery electronic underpinnings, Storey then changes gears and abruptly enters a Middle Eastern / William Gibson twilight zone with "Dahina ta" or travels along a dirt road of tape loops and struck percussions during the surreal "Anatapurrah".

Gauge your acid drops as you embark on Rapoon's hallucinogenic

HALF MOON (medioriental musick)

HORTOBÁGYI LÁSZLÓ

TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF AMYGDALA

Original Issue: 1991 Erdenklang (91349) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

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1 The Ritual Of Maháparinirvána (8:44)
2 Legend Of Yrch (4:48)
3 The Márg Of Excessus (10:05)
4 Hypotaxis (5:11)
5 Kyrie Bhajan (1:24)
6 The Inanis Mantra (2:33)
7 Bhairaví (7:26)
8 Anankhe Gat (5:59)
9 The End (2:07)

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from Erdenklang:

"Traditional Musik of Amygdala" offers you an imaginary journey throughout the entire Amygdala Empire in the spirit of the ethno-musicology expeditions at the turn of the century.

"Traditional Music of Amygdala“ is a musicological-sociological fiction with a great past in human culture concerning ceremony of alienation and death, wrapped in rituals and mysteries.

Amygdala (corpus amygdaloideum) is to be found in our brain; hidden there are human "behaviour“, genetically inherited and the instinctsystem formed by culture and environment. The world is being totally reorganized by the modern industrial societies with their overhelming superiority in technology and dynamic expansion, and all the traditional cultures which are alien to their technologically "homogeneous“ societies are doomed to extinction.

Therefore a real possibility exists that the traditional cultures will out before they can get into "world-culture“ circulation. With this mystical, futuristic pictures László Hortobágyi by no means describes an apocalyptic mood. He sensitizes our cultural (listening) consciousness by transporting, in his stories and music, Asian culture images into socio-political surroundings of the future.

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from Amazon:

Lâszlô Hortobâgyi - is a Hungarian avant-garde musician and the godfather of "Gâyan Uttejak Society" - an Eastern European society dedicated to the study of oriental music. His music is heavily influenced by North Indian music, but often incorporates a wide variety of instruments, vocals, and arrangements from around the world and from various time periods.

In one of his interviews Lâszlô noted that he sees music as time travel, and his album "Traditional Music Of Amygdala," released in 1991 proves just that. It is a ethnographical, mythical, musical journey to the fictional empire created by the eccentric mind of Lâszlô Hortobâgyi. The name of the album according to the press release comes from Corpus Amygdaloideum located in human brain - "hidden there are human "behavior", genetically inherited and the instinct system formed by culture and environment." Taking this as a starting point, Lâszlô Hortobâgyi creates an entire fictional Amygdala culture, complete with fictional geographical locations, religion, philosophy, etc. Lâszlô Hortobâgyi tells us about Amygdala in nine out-worldly tracks accompanied by fascinating notes written by Lâszlô himself.

"Traditional Music Of Amygdala" is a bizarre, yet beautiful combination of Indian classical music, modern Western computer arrangements, with an occasional vocal or instrumental touch of unidentifiable origin. It's a fantastic music journey that is worth every dollar you spend on it.

Maxim Eremine

ALCHEMICAL MOON (transformation musick)

VOICE OF EYE

TRANSMIGRATION

Original Issue: 1995 Cyclotron Industries (CYCI CD - 333)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

The first time (it was 1995) that I listened to this work, I was completely blown away...and the same nowadays!

Voice of Eye declared that: All sound sources are acoustic in origin, then processed through little black boxes to warp time and open the listener's perception.

Well, if these are the results, we all should buy a couple of these 'black boxes' and apply them to our auricles during everyday activities. Our boss voice would sound a lot better... ;-)

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1 Transmigration (Bardo I) (19:22)
2 Transcendence (7:35)
3 Sirens (Bardo II) (6:16)
4 Tempest (5:39)
5 Garden Of Earthly Delights (4:45)
6 Oblivion (Bardo III) (23:51)

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from (the late) Electric Shock Treatment:

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from Spyderbites:

I waited a long time to hear this; it was worth the wait.

An all-acoustic recording which attains utterly surreal soundscapes. For 67.5 minutes, the tracks of Transmigration document the soul's mysterious afterlife journey, taking the listener through unbelievable sonic realms.

Not too many ethno/tribal influences really, though Transcendence pairs densely quivering violin strings with pounding jungle drums, which are eventually joined by tweedling Middle Eastern flute. That track segues into the blaringly resonant drones of Sirens (which I first fell in love with as part of the 3-Disc Storm of Drones comp).

Other notable passages include the multitudinous ghostly moans of the opening track, the whirlwind stratospherics of Tempest, and the murky festivities of Garden of Earthly Delights. Speaking of murky, it certainly gets that way in Oblivion (Bardo III), the almost-24-minute-long closing piece. Swirling soundclouds obscure everything else, eventually receding to leave a pristine silence which leads to further encounters I won't divulge here.

Find out for yourself, if you can find a copy.

BUE MOON (musick by request)

SCHÜTZE PAUL

STATELESS

Original Issue: 1997 Big Cat Records (ABB1000 CD - as part of Driftworks box)

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

Following Duck comment on Thomas Köner's Nuuk, many of you requested the Paul Schütze album which is part of Driftworks boxset. Here you have it :-)

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01 Go (4:23)
02 Cool Engines (7:00)
03 The Drowning (4:04)
04 Homage (8:59)
05 Mirror (8:30)
06 Slow Glass (9:57)
07 Green Evil (9:38)
08 The Black Lake (4:27)

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from The Wire:

Paul Schütze's "Stateless" is the more propulsive of the four (Driftworks boxset works), and the most texturally vigorous. Over the last few years of Ambient exploration he's built up a meta-orchestra of sounds that cast away beyond the dimensions of traditional musical resources.

It's as he'd trawled through the repertoire of classical and ethnic instruments and straitened the sounds out of their traditional vocabularies, subtly interweaving them with synthetic timbres and electronic murmur. Defamiliarized, they are reconvened into a web of sonic calls, shaken free of many of the historical stratifications grained into the parent material.

The rhythms are full of body: swinging Fourth World pulses drawing on the loose thrumming grooves of Miles Davis, Eno and Byrne, as much as on gamelan, dub and ethnic percussion. In "Go" a lilting bassline with an uneven signature propels an amalgam of cymbals, steel drum tremolos, panpipes, flutes and what sounds like ukulele and revving cars over a sweeping drone.

Matt Ffytche

BLACK MOON (the dark side of musick)

REYES JORGE

COMALA

Original Issue: 1986 Producciones Exilio (LEX 001)

Reissue: 1989 Mundo Music (MMCD 8801)

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

1 Comala (11:33)
2 Adios Mi Acompañamiento (2:39)
3 Hekura (1:58)
4 Nadie Se Libra En Tamohuanchan (6:05)
5 La Diosa De Las Águilas (3:06)
6 El Ánima Sola (6:35)
7 Mi Sombra Empolvada (3:46)
8 Nadie Supo De Dónde Venía (5:10)
9 El Hechicero De La Dicha Tranquila (4:10)

from Amazon:


The album Comala is inspired on the surrealistic novel Pedro Paramo by mexican writer Juan Rulfo. It's a short story where "Rulfo's characters emerge gradually from a landscape of death and decay, as his tale offers testament to the enduring integrity of the human soul."

The music is designed to submerge the listener in a state of consciousness where boundaries between life and death disappear and the use of acoustics and chanting will transport you to Rulfo's mythic Comala.

The remarkable use of pre-hispanic instruments and real native american ritualistic chanting mixed with futuristic sounds and synthesizers creates an atmospheric limbo of the afterlife.

The old woman chanting is Maria Sabina, a Mazatec curandera / high priestess that used to conduct ceremonial mushroom rituals in the 60's and 70's. Maria Sabina lived in Huautla de Jimenez, a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico.

John Lennon, Peter Townshend, Mick Jagger, and Bob Dylan are some of the celebrities who traveled to Huautla, seeking the spiritual guidance of Maria Sabina.

In any case, Jorge Reyes work of art combines past and present, the old and the new and transports the listener to a world that exists only in a space in time called Comala.

Juan Ramirez

FULL STRAWBERRY MOON (18 June 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ZOVIET FRANCE

WHAT IS NOT TRUE

Original Issue: 1993 Charrm (CHARRMCD17)

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

I've been often asked about my favorite-all-times-album; as you can imagine it is somewhat impossible provide a credible answer to such a request; when one's has listened to thousands of records it is a true nightmare trying to put them in any sequential order.

Without any doubt the same question, formulated once a day for one year, would receive 365 different answers.

Anyway Zoviet France's "What is not true" is for sure one of my favorite because it is made of my own essence - dark, ritual, ethereal, esoteric, mysterious - and has provided me with excellent out-of-body-experiences during all these years.

One record that MUST be present in every DEEP LISTENER's collection.

1 Public Service Announcement
2 Not Just What To Say
3 Cyclonic Sub Alien

from group website:

:z*f:'s live masterpiece, combining samples and atmospheric electronics into a work of what Phil England described as "unreserved beauty" (The Wire July 95). The extended, awe-inspiring Cyclonic Sub Alien, which accounts for two-thirds of the total duration of the CD ends the disc as it began - with a distant Shipping Forecast - over an endless, shifting drone: a truly transcendental experience!

from Trouser Press:

The far superior (respect to "Vienna") "What Is Not True" assembles three long tracks from shows in Sheffield and Nottingham into a work of album-like cohesion. The 54-minute closer "Cyclonic Sub Alien" is a masterpiece of shifting drones that develop slowly into an ungodly cavern of noise before ending with the ghostly floating voices of a distant broadcast. Magnificent head music, to say the least.

Scott Lewis / Jesse Simon

FULL PINK MOON (20 April 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

TUU
ALL OUR ANCESTORS

Original Issue: 1994 Beyond ( RBADCD 9)

Reissue: 1995 Waveform (85102-2) Buy it here!!!

Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

1 Triple Gem Of Wisdom
2 All Our Ancestors
3 House Of The Waters
4 Stillpoint In Motion
5 Rainfall
6 Illumination
7 Shiva Descending

from Amazon:

Put your headphones on, adjust the levels to achieve maximum results, close your eyes, open your heart, breathe deeply and take in all the sensations this disc will provide you. Light a stick of incense while you're at it; it'll enhance the experience. When you listen to this disc you embark on a transcendental journey from within.

This is music with an Eastern flair, complete with water drums, clay pots, flutes (Chinese and Bansuri) , chants and various percussion instruments that are blended with samples, synths and loops for an otherworldly experience. Although it is heavy on the Eastern vibe, like meditative monks dancing through your head, the universal appeal of this ambient world music goes beyond religions into the realm of spirituality.

This is a good disc to listen to focus your attention within and reach out to the world around you. It is extremely peaceful, relaxing and not in the least bit boring since the exotic nature of the instruments holds your attention quite well. This music shadows the distant past, the unknown future and the mystery of life. Recommended as a backdrop for those meditative moments in life.

Enrique Torres