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Buyer Rating: 100.0% positive (7 ratings)

Edward Artemiev - Solaris. The Mirror. Stalker - 09-Mar-08 09:35 AM
Buyer beware: almost none of this music is the original soundtracks from the fine films of Tarkovsky. Instead we have expanded and newly recorded electronic music that only bears a passing resemblance to the haunting sounds heard in the original movies. Apart from "Meditation" (which sounds to be the original music) it might as well all be considered new songs by another artist. Worse still, it sounds to my ears like sub-standard Tangerine Dream from the late eighties. A terrible disappointment.

Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return - 19-Jul-06 01:54 AM
Certainly one of the most important ambient releases of the last twenty-five years and most likely Roach's strongest and most representative work.

I remember the time and place I bought my copy (actually, my grandfather bought it for me), and, even after the first listen, it was nothing less than an introduction to a whole new world of sound and emotion. Dreamtime Return's effortless fusion of tribal and electronic instrumentation is ageless and doesn't sound at all dated, even on the neo-Berlin-School opener, "Toward the Dream," which gives me excited chills to this day. Each track blends seamlessly into the next and though this album is epic to say the least, it never becomes boring, static, or saccharine. The Aboriginal elements are tasteful and never exploitative like so many faux ethnic ambient and psy-trance releases from the early to mid-nineties.

I've been listening to this one for eleven years and it's always rich and powerful, the kind of music a person will live with for the rest of his or her life. An outstanding achievement.

Yagya - Will I Dream During The Process? - 14-Jul-06 03:21 PM
It was a real treat when this release was finally announced. I had heard there was a second Yagya CD in the pipeline due to be released on Mille Plateaux, but the label disappeared before it could happen. This may or may not be the record almost released, but it will not disappoint those who loved the Gas/Basic Channel sound in the nineties.

The musical concept is simple: almost overwhelmingly pretty synth washes and a funky 4/4 kickdrum underpins almost the entire record. It's the kind of music that makes you feel as though you're both floating and drowning at the same time. The bottom line is that if you enjoyed "Rhythm of Snow" you'll most likely enjoy this one, too. Certainly it is one of the most frequent plays in my home, since I got it.

The cover art is gorgeous!

Michael Mantra - Sonic Alter - 12-Jul-06 06:18 AM
A written-in-stone classic of ambient music. I remember first hearing an excerpt of this in 1994 on a Silent compilation and feeling that I didn't "get" it, but knew I needed to know more about it.

"Sonic Alter" still doesn't sound like anything else in ambient, other than, perhaps, some primordial childhood memory of listening through the floorboards to your mother or father vacuuming the living-room downstairs. The whalesong dates this a little, but I think the experience of listening to this record is still as strong, disorienting, and pleasant today as it was in '94.

Various - The Promises Of Silence - 11-Jul-06 04:20 PM
Even thirteen years later, it seems bizarre that this fine compilation was available in relatively mainstream record shops.

This audio document may prove to be the album that best introduced early ritual ambient to US ears. A more solid tracklist in this subgenre of ambient music can't possibly be found. Outstanding work by all artists involved and I can't think of a better way to dip into the microworld of modern psychoactive ambient music.

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