Icebreaker International & Manual ‎– Into Forever

This is a masterpiece. Hands down. In my almost 40 years of listening experiences rarely if ever have I heard anything so moving and deep. Compared to what??? Sounds like what?? Is imitating or inspired by what?? who cares... this is brilliant and filled with so much emotion. It has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me as far as music is concerned.

As pleasant as this release is, it sounds completely unoriginal at best, completely ripped off at worst, once you make the obvious comparison to Eno's 'Apollo'. I was excited when I first heard 'Into Forever'. I sincerely like 'The Countdown' and 'A Turning'. Given the choice though, I'd listen to 'Apollo' every time. Despite 20 years seniority, 'Apollo' has better atmosphere, more soul, is more organic... 'Into Forever' sounds increasingly contrived with each listen.

Into Forever is an unearthly airy magnificent ambient release that throws you into deep space (yes I know that sounds plain stupid, but that’s how it is), although pulls you back into remote city life once and a while, especially by bringing some warmth and melody in the ice cold airy chords by means of Alexander Perls’ guitarwork. The other half of this project, Manual, needs no introduction and is known for his excellent work on Morr Music (label that not coincidently takes care of the distribution of this album).
The idea behind the album is to tell the story of the Antares, a device that will be launched in 2011 towards nebula XYZ where it will broadcast the audio contents of its CD in an infinite loop, after 5 lightyears of travel, hence the title.