MAX CORBACHO[Max Corbacho has been creating Ambient Atmospheric – Electronic Music for over two decades, combining spiraling, synth-driven drifting harmonies with breathing, timeless soundscapes.][Ambient Atmospheric – Electronic Music - Soundscapes - Space Music]

THE OCEAN INSIDE – Review by Ambient Visions

max — Fri, 22 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

It is often the case that artists who are the most well-known or who have been around a genre of music the longest are the ones that everyone wants to review and I will be the first to admit that time sometimes constrains me as what I can listen to and review for Ambient Visions. There are times that I wish that I had a staff of writers for AV so that all of the music that we receive gets a fair share of the spotlight on the site. Max Corbacho is one of those that I have neglected over the years and I wanted to start to atone for that lack of coverage by reviewing his last album which came out in 2012 and is called The Ocean Inside. Max Corbacho was born in the southwest of Spain in the province of Badajoz which makes it even more important that those of us in the U.S. get to know the name and appreciate the great ambient music that Max creates and releases. The ambient community is not bound by the artificial borders of the world anymore. When it comes to the music that we will appreciate and listen to the internet has created a borderless, open community of music lovers and creators that speak to each other in the universal language of music.

The Ocean Inside is actually a double release so that it has the equivalent of 2 albums contained in the digital download of this project or two CD’s if you are buying the physical product from Max. With a title like The Ocean Inside you would be right to guess that the music contained here would be vast in nature as well as dark and mysterious in the way that the sounds are woven together. The music listeners will find on this album is the equivalent of space music but from an earthbound perspective. We often forget just how profound and mysterious that the oceans that surround us really are. We look at the surface of the water from the comfort of a boat bobbing on the waves drenched in sunshine while below us lies depths that very few have ever descended to explore. Max has captured that quality in the compositions that make up these two discs. With a total of 14 songs that runs for 2 hours and 27 minutes it is very easy to immerse yourself in this environment and feel the cold depths of the water close in around you as you continue to sink ever deeper into the pitch black that seems to go on forever.

Max has created points of light in the darkness so as to make the journey into the depths a little less like dropping into a dark bottomless hole and gives the listener some light as if it was filtering down from the surface through hundreds of feet of water. Not enough to call it bright but enough so that once your eyes adjust to it you can vaguely see some things nearby. The Endless Flame is one of those lighter spots as it sheds a dim light on the music that had come before like Offshore Currents which expressed the darker side of the ocean depths. The music that Max composed for this release is quite intense in nature as the synths offer up wave after wave of deep emotions that continually wash over the listener from beginning to end. The first album in this set closes with a 29 minute descent entitled Towards the Bottomless Sea which leaves behind the feeling of waves as you drift ever downward and leaves the listener with the sensation of floating and drifting in the dark completely enveloped in the stillness that is very noticeable in this piece. Max has done a great job with this song as it caresses the listener with a velvet touch that is very soothing and calm and would be a great song to set up as a loop and go to sleep by.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the title at this point because I do believe that the ocean Max is referring to is not a physical ocean that we see when we go to the beach but the ocean that lies at the heart of each one of us within our minds and spirits. The title The Ocean Inside speaks to me of a journey of exploration to the darkest unexplored depths that exist within each of our hearts. While it would be easy enough to think more in terms of the dark waters that we have all seen videos of as diving bells sink for miles into the abyss of the physical ocean I think that Max has taken us on a journey to show us that the depths of who we are rarely see the light of day and that if we were to actually dive into those depths it would be very comparable to having dived into the deepest part of the ocean.

On The Ocean Inside Max has taken his listeners on a sonic journey that is comparable to the farthest reaches of space or the depths of the oceans or that infinite space that lies within each of us and allows you plenty of time to float and explore that space while his music acts as beacon in the darkness to let you know that all is well. The music you will find on these two discs is a mysterious enchanting work of art and the results are very impressive. Max has shown that he is a highly talented musician and that through his music he is more than capable of translating the many shades of the ocean whether that ocean lies without or within into a musical canvas filled with the spacious sounds that he has created for this album. The sound quality is impeccable and that convinces me that we will be hearing from Max Corbacho for many years to come. Definitely recommended by Ambient Visions.

Reviewed by Michael Foster, editor Ambient Visions

THE OCEAN INSIDE – Review by Paul Rijkens / iO Pages

max — Fri, 31 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The Spanish musician Max Corbacho has grown into one of the absolute masters in ambient/spacemusic. His albums are like an ocean of peace and tranquillity. Well, oceans are the central concept on his double album The Ocean Inside. Max sees the mind as an ocean with constant changing waves. In his music he goes as deep as a bottomless ocean. He has the gift to create a wonderful carpet of sounds with what seem a few sounds and only a little shifts in atmosphere. That is a wonderful thing. In this kind of music, a lot of musicians are active who produce only sounds but no atmosphere and certainly not music. Corbacho does! The first seven pieces of the first cd are one continuous whole of the most beautiful sounds that Max creates with a pallet of synthesizers and samplers. The sounds are soft and fine. They really are like the ocean but I can also imagine a journey into the mind when I listen to the music. Especially Web Of Eyes sounds nicely full. Towards The Bottomless Sea, that is almost a half an hour long, is even softer and also very imaging. This approach is carried on on the second disc with Dive In. Here, the tracks are also continuous. Awaken is an excellent composition here. Deeper Into The Ocean, the last track on the album, goes deepest in my opinion with great repetitive and slowly moving sounds, comparable with the early music of Steve Roach. You need to open yourself to this absolutely fantastic music. If you do, The Ocean Inside is a tremendous experience.

Website: www.maxcorbacho.com.

Quando Brian Eno ebbe l’intuizione dell’ambient music, le idee si indirizzarono dapprima verso gli spazi definiti (aeroporti, stazioni, etc.) ma furono probabilmente i musicisti ambient statunitensi ad espandere il concetto dello spazio da «ricoprire» facendolo passare da uno ampio ma comunque con dei confini, ad uno vastissimo che non poteva non riguardare gli elementi fondamentali della nostra natura. L’oceano era uno di quegli spazi che pur non avendo il requisito infinitesimo del cosmo, era comunque una delle forze più espanse della terra. Su quest’argomento la musica ha sempre avuto un riferimento, ma solo l’ambient music si prestava ad una descrizione sensitiva più verosimile della realtà sonora: al di là dello sfruttamento ricevuto come musica di riflessione e relax e dell’ambiguità suscitata dall’argomento, versioni «serie» che poggiassero sulla considerazione che si potesse simulare un’esplorazione delle profondità oceaniche non ne vennero fatte poi molte. Uno dei tentativi più riusciti che io ricordo di entrare nella imprescrutabilità delle acque profonde è stato quello profuso da Robert Carty in «Oceanic Space» che strutturò un’intero album dedicato all’argomento (con una lunga traccia «concreta» in cui si raccolgono suoni marini), ma è indubbio che moltissimi musicisti, anche fuori dal genere ambient, si siano avvicinati al tema (in forma non organizzata) conservando la loro prospettiva stilistica. La recentissima pubblicazione di Max Corbacho rientra in quello sforzo musicale teso ad una completa compenetrazione dell’ambiente di viaggio sotto il mare che mira non solo ad una semplice simulazione sonora che faccia godere l’ascoltatore di momenti rilassati di benessere ricostruiti con un «drone» sintetico, ma che faccia rivivere un nuovo senso del viaggio sottomarino, che cerca di catturare l’animo «biologico» delle acque e dei suoi abissi, risultato ottenuto attraverso un lavoro musicale pazientoso tendente all’abbinamento delle due preposizioni «increspature dell’oceano»/»sfaccettature del suono». «The ocean inside» ci fa perdere la memoria del tempo come in un buon film di fantascienza, e attraverso le sue minime e calcolate variazioni, è un colossal sugli effetti pseudo-psicologici provocati da un attento ascolto delle turbe marine: correnti che suscitano idee, spazi di mare inperlustrati che evocano ricordi; sembra di assistere ad un documentario in cui chi prende la parola è il soggetto che si racconta, che sembra allontanare il desiderio di spiegare abusi e soprusi degli uomini e dichiara la propria funzione, ne riconosce la propria importanza e lancia messaggi di spiritualità. E’ incredibile come tutto questo possa essere fatto da un uomo con un semplice sintetizzatore.