Juno Reactor - Luciana

I agree with other reviewers that this extra-dimensional album is not for everybody. Those who have listened to a fair amount of ambient music will actually find this quite accessible but if you haven't then you might not make it through the first 10 minutes of it.

Juno fans, however, will bond with it and will instantly recognize familiar elements (like the moody chords towards the end of the piece) as a proto-Bible of Dreams sound that they were working out at the time.

My first impressions from listening to it instantly brought to mind the minimalism of a Kubrick film. Imagine a sole survivor locked in the engine room of a derelict space hulk who is starting to hallucinate or is being haunted by the departed souls of the crew members; all while their grip on reality very slowly unravels. Think 2001 meets the Shining and you've got Luciana.

Now that I think about it, the samples from High Energy Protons were lifted from 2001; maybe Watkins is a big Kubrick fan?

Anyway, for being nearly 15 years old I feel it has withstood the test of time quite nicely and I highly recommend it to ambient fans new and old or to Juno fans, like myself, who let this one slip by them all these years.

As a bonus for the DJ's out there (though don't quote me on it) I estimate this out to be around 135 to 140 BPM so the right portions of the album can be used as an intro or outro to a DJ set.

It’s hard to describe Luciana.

Roughly I would define Luciana (or Lu.ci-ana) as an immensely dark and abstract ambient experiment. Why an experiment? Few would have dared to stretch such a weird piece of music for more than an hour! Imagine yourself having been transported into another dimension in a totally different alien world. Luciana would make the perfect background.

This 61 minute long track has nothing which can be called as a melody, and there is not a single kick or not even a miserable dubby bass effect. Luciana is an immensely sinister and evil piece of music which I admit it’s quite an effort to listen it to the end. Everything is so alien here. It’s true that it’s completely beat-less and that there is not a single melody which moves you, but beware – this is not music for relaxing and sipping a cup of tea! You can feel that there is something really eerie surrounding you. I guess this music would also put you in the right mood before committing something you never dared doing…..but better stop here with this last sentence for God’s sake!

Perhaps the only familiar “thing” you will hear on this song is an occasional (seemingly female) vocal. I think this should have been used more. Towards the end you will hear a male voice speaking. This happens in the last 10 minutes where there is a lot of tension building up.

Seems a very hard release to find. Had to pay fifty euro for this on eBay but I don’t regret it. I’m sure that Luciana will grow on me even if bought some twelve years later.

Totally spooky! Listen to this in total darkness – let yourself being sucked into another world from which you might never return….:0)

Luciana came out in July 1994 and was, despite the cat number, the first release from the Inter-Modo label run by The Orb's Alex Paterson (who is also credited as a "collaborator" on this album). However don't come to this release expecting the energetic dancefloor psy-trance of High Energy Protons from the same era. Luciana started out as a special project originally composed as the soundtrack to an art installation by Norma Fletcher. It consists of a single hour-long track of what I'd describe as moody, minimal, industrial ambience with occasional alien noises, weird sounds and haunting human voices washing in and out.

I think it makes great atmospheric, quite dark, slightly odd, background music but be warned that the track does have a very repetitive nature with the same recurring elements and as such might not be to everyone's taste. Back in 1994 the reviewer for one UK record shop (rather frankly!) admitted in their mail-order catalogue that he gave up on the CD after 34 minutes because he "couldn't take any more and had to stop it"!