Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

Gorgeous and breathtaking, The Talisman is pure floating space music of the highest caliber. Delicate drifting soundscapes pass effortlessly by. From the opening passages of “Amnios,” there is a metallic shimmer to much of the sonic textures. Layers upon layers of soft sounds are gently weaved together, one sliding smoothly over the top of another. Soft brushes of percussion occasionally appear, maybe an electronic twitter here and there, but such moments are few and far between. “Reborn To Expansion” is softer still, and a shade brighter, although the disc retains a certain enjoyable darkness throughout. “Connected Spirits” Things mellow out even further, if that’s possible, on “Connected Spirits” and “Three Circles.” Low resonant drones rumble along in “Garden of Revealed Flame,” and I imagine a descent into a deep, dark cavern. Thunder-like undercurrents continue on “Ruby for the Sun,” churning restlessly though still quite soothing in their own way. The title track majestically enters, dramatic without being showy, powerful yet understated. “The Endless Knot” coolly mixes dark ambient with deep space; imagine if Steve Roach’s The Magnificent Void collided with “Moogetique” from Klaus Schulze, and it might sound something like this. Shimmering higher glassy timbres tinge “Wind’s Gallery.” Throughout The Talisman, melody and rhythm are virtually nonexistent, leaving only vestiges of music behind. The end result is velvety smooth and very good.

© 2006 Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

Morpheus Music & The Mall Magazine

MUSIC

 Smooth, synthetic ambient zones. This is an album of immersive atmopheres without beat or melody, designed to set the listener adrift. Welling up like waves on the shore, washes of tone arise and roll one over another in constant succession – some deep and sonorous, some light, thin, others full of sonic detritus caught in the tide – percussive rattles like churning pebbles. Ever-receeding surges of sound drain back into the next wave. As the album pulls away from the shoreline the electronic ocean becomes dark and obscure in places, floating forms drifting by, heavy masses of tone heaving and pulling. Tracks blend one into another, the only indication of a progression usually being a lessening of intensity, a lightness as if surfacing momentarily. New tracks subtly intorduce fresh voices into the mix and some shifts of scale.

ARTWORK

 Liquid ripples and solarised reflections fill two panels of the cover booklet in rich blues, turquoises, terracotta hues and dark shadows. The title text sitting in a heavy border of shadow near the base. On the reverse an ambiguous out of focus photo-image works as backdrop for the titles and an explanation of the project. Within we find a gear list, recording details and credits, some special thanks and contact information – this is presented on a white background with an accompanying monochrome reflection image.

OVERALL

 For his third album, Max Corbacho presents four longform pieces ranging from just over six minutes to thirty eight minutes fifteen seconds. Designed for continuous playback – the tone is generally a serious one drifting somewhere in between warmth and cold. The concept behind the music is that of the «earth call» – what Max describes as «that feeling pulling us away from the cities to seek contact with the rock, the earth and water …». A strong sense of space with something of the viscosity of liquid pervades this album – the listener is able to feel suspended in sound, surrounded in all directions, afloat, immersed

]]> 360 https://maxcorbacho.com/nocturnal-ema/ Sat, 29 May 2004 00:00:00 +0000 https://maxcorbacho.com/nocturnal-ema/ Leer más]]>  

Beatless and rhythmic ambient zones full of shadow and the lush densities of night. Night sounds, night birds, crickets, low sonic breezes – the album opens with a strongly environmental sound. Gradually dense tonal blankets roll in, gurgling effects and low muted impacts, the stillness now stirred up into a slow winding eddy. The serene twilight pools that Corbacho creates here can be silky and smooth, lustrous surfaces reflecting dark tones – but there are obscure depths too, things heaving below in slow, slow swells. The third track ‘The Slow and Wandering Dust’ sees a soft rolling beat gradually creep in – a corporeal rhythm, natural, constant accompanied by waves of heavy saturated tone like the measured breath of deep sleep. Large pots and giant drum thumps provide the basis for another percussive piece on ‘Abandoned Wind’ – slow motion low, lulling, soporific.

This is a rich, liquid smooth world of dark curling colour, oceanic enormity. Tranquil and languid for the most part, yet uneasy shades well up at times, there are desolate spots, lonely and cold, suggestions of ambiguous lifeforms moving somewhere below or off to one side. The organic rhythms lift some tracks into meandering animation, quickening the stillness – but only just.

Purple-black scenery in a crepuscular gloom fills the front cover, the edges of individual rocks and crags picked out with a graphic grey outline creating a weighty solarisation effect. Vague, monochrome geographical imagery creates backdrops for the other panels – a tracklist on the back complete with track times. Inside the two page booklet is an explanation of the project and a verse from Indian poet Sri Aurobindo that was a chance finding during the creation of the music.

Max Corbacho’s Nocturnal Emanations was released in 2003 and appears on the website as the fourth release by this talented ambient composer. This is seventy three minute duration long form work developed through eight distinct tracks. Promotional material describes the album as one of «transparent synthwashes, developing through silent landscapes». The sound zones established are intended to be «almost hostile, sometimes underground, always stony, ancient». The approach taken was one «without any type of synchronism» so that «in this way the layers of synthesizers move freely along the whole piece «rubbing» harmonically some with others. A compelling composition that very effectively leads the emotions and senses in a beguiling night glide over quiet, abandoned terrain.

Nocturnal Emanations is for lovers of sonic scenery, lovers of low light, lovers of ambiguity. This CD will appeal to ambient fans that enjoy an organic sound and powerful atmosphere.

Ambient artists Bruno Sanfilipo and Max Corbacho merge their considerable talents for Indalo, a brooding, eerie, powerful excursion into dark ambient soundscapes peppered with occasional ethno-tribal rhythms, filled with primal sensuality, and laced throughout with palpable mystery and ancient ritual. Use of echo drenched in moisture and field environmental recordings of nocturnal creatures lends the recording a distinct mixture of subterranean and deep jungle evocations, a juxtaposition which works amazingly well and is one hundred percent cohesive. The album opens with the 22-minute title track, a long expansive slowly developing piece, filled with deep rumblings, cavern-like sounds that are both animal and mineral in sonic characteristic and higher pitched whistling melodic drones, similar in character to spacemusic. Percussion, of the type normally associated with ethno-tribal ambient, infiltrates at the midpoint of the track, played with energy and passion amidst rising and falling swells of drones and washes, but the beats don’t stick around long, replaced by warm glowing electronic waves and a scattering of environmental sounds.

Six other tracks fill the rest of Indalo with everyting from burbbling fluid effects (heard at the start of «The Agave emerges on the dry earth») to spacious vast washes and drones floating over deep but subtle thunder-like rumblings to swirling almost oppressive drones counterpointed by organic-electronic pulses on «Lava Atmospheres» to «Cabo de Gata» which begins somewhat calm and placid with rattles shaken on top of the relatively quiet synths, but building into a dense multiple-layered drone that seems to be everywhere all at once. «A lucid dream of strange landscapes» has an air of desert desolation as the night creatures come forth and the air cools from the overpowering heat of the day and the full moon reveals a landscape carved out of rock and sand and cast in dark illusive shadows.

Indalo is not a recording that can be completely appreciated if played in the background where some of this album will come across only as so much drones and synths. The astute listener will either listen to this on excellent speakers in a dark quiet room or at least use headphones to fully absorb the subtle complexity of the mix. Indalo is highly charged with atmosphere and mood, so the more you can immerse yourself in the sounds from this CD, the more seductive you will find the recording to be. At times, the mood of the CD is actually peaceful (such as the majority of the closing track «Signs of former experiences»), albeit not syrupy sweet or ethereal, but rooted in the lack of noticeable tension in many places.

This CD is an easy recommendation to fans of this subgenre (darker drone ambient music) unless the person is so averse to some tribal elements (which are few and far between) that even a hint of their presence would ruin the experience for them. While the CD can be a tad monochromatic at times, as long as you don’t expect it to startle you or invigorate you, you’ll be thoroughly satisfied with this album.

review by Bill Binkelman

Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

Although he has explored darker ambient before, as on the excellent Resonant Memory Of Earth, this time Spaniard Max Corbacho truly delves right into the source of things that go bump in the night – or in this case, drones that echo resonantly into caverns of infinity.

“A Spark of Deity” has crickets, low rumbles, restless churning, and all sorts of wondrous textures that reach out into the darkness. There is an undercurrent like slowly moving water, hints of noise that vaguely resemble percussion, otherwordly stuff. After this auspicious start comes the title track, bringing more remnants of dark memories, strands of dreams, images of caverns and precipices. This one floats a bit more, though dripping water or a shifting pebble occasionally become audible.

“The Slow and Wandering Dust” glides into sounds similar to Steve Roach’s fractal grooves – and a great groove it is. Bright shimmering synths float over the top, reminiscent of older Roach like Dreamtime Return perhaps. It rides the groove out for several minutes before settling down just a bit, though some semblance of rhythm continues to the end. The delicate floater “Abandoned Wind” is a beautiful counterpoint to those rhythms.

The deeply tribal “Along the Moonlit Rift” is another high point. “Deep, Ancient” says as it does, a sparse abstract selection that is yet another winner.
Dark ambient fans rejoice.

© 2004 Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

«The mood of Vestiges is consistently contemplative and serene, the tempo always slow-moving. It is perfect music for dreaming and relaxation, for taking inner journeys to that beautiful, windswept uncrowded place which only exists within our minds. There is none of the angst of the «dark-ambient» type here, but it isn’t over-sweet either. I find myself listening to it again and again, finding a bit of serenity each time».