2024  | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

Max Corbacho’s «The Delicate Essence of Solitude» is a mesmerising journey into the depths of ambient electronic music, showcasing the Spanish musician’s mastery of vast soundscapes and evocative storytelling through sound. Across six movements, Corbacho weaves a tapestry of drones, ranging from low rumbles to ethereal high frequencies, creating a sense of immense distance and expansive vistas within the sonic landscape.

What sets this piece apart is its ability to transport listeners on a solitary expedition into the innermost recesses of the mind and psyche. Despite its title suggesting a cold detachment, the music exudes a warmth that reflects Corbacho’s Spanish heritage. It’s like a gentle embrace from the sun-soaked countryside, inviting and soothing rather than distant and alien.

As the music unfolds, it gently opens up the unobservable, revealing palettes of colour and sound that invite exploration and introspection. The use of repeated sound loops, symphonic chords, and evolving textures is a trademark of Corbacho’s style, creating an immersive experience that lingers in the mind long after the music has ceased.

«The Delicate Essence of Solitude» is not just a collection of sounds; it’s a narrative, a journey that envelops your thoughts, moods, and expectations. It emerges like a welcome from emptiness, much like the sun rising to warm the skin, gradually growing in strength and enveloping the listener in its subtle grip.
Personally, this piece stands out as one of his most heartfelt and strongest odysseys in sound since his acclaimed 2018 release, «Horizon Matrix.» It’s an imaginative and intoxicating sonic experience that resonates as audio thoughts in the mind, leaving a lasting impression and inviting repeated exploration. The return of a close friend, long missed yet always eagerly welcomed back into body, heart and soul.
Julian Boyce 15.04.2024

2024  | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

We have been waiting for the new Max Corbacho album as of a while now, and this hiatus has really raised the curiosity of many fans. The uncertainty has dissolved a few days ago when Max announced the release of the new album «The Delicate Essence of Solitude». Max Corbacho has always maintained a very high level of his production and the psychological sophistication of his ambient releases. The new album exceeds all expectations.

This album was created between 2019 and 2024. Fans of his music prefer vivid types of albums. The author of this review highly appreciates especially the «oceanic» albums, where we could, of course, include «The Ocean Inside», «Horizon Matrix» and above all, the magical record «Source of Present». Deep breaths of the synths, combined with stunning harmonic textures are the greatest assets of the new album.

The new album contains six quite diverse compositions. With the composition Primordial Flower, the album begins with a surprising dynamic, combined with a gentle sparkling sounds in the background. This interesting detail adds movement to the composition and at the same time acts as a gentle pull into the plot. It fully develops with the longest and very majestic composition on the album, The Intangible Essence. Everything we love about Max’s meditative yet powerful space music is present here. Sublime waves of synths cascade over each other, almost falling silent at some times to rise into an elegant crescendo. This track is the album’s carrying pedestal. Following the three tracks, two massive suites Mythic Shape and Oracle of Dawn with intermezzo Fragment of Dream, it continues to play with the dynamics, develops a feeling of a pleasant solitude (try to play it sometime while sailing on the sea or on a river, lake…). Sailing through turbulent waters subsides with the final calm coda of the track Soul Friend. Resting and accepting the weight of the world, acceptance and peace. That is the domain of the composition.

Max Corbacho’s work is full of surprises and refined processes, stylish turns and twists. But we will always recognize his unique imprint. His authenticity is undisputed, as is his sensitive ability to utilize the capabilities of hardware synthesis and effects. All of us who try to create our own music in the introverted ambient world can be deeply inspired by Max Corbacho. Masterpiece.

2024  | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

The long title-track continues the momentum of Equinox with synth waves that are pushed on the impact of the previous ones. The music drifts between the Cosmos and our ears with this opaque tint where the dark lets filter shades of lavender and orange, giving an impressive sound show where the abysses continuously whisper their chthonian charms. This sound show is as great as the 74 minutes of this ATMOSPHERIC TWILIGHT by the way. The slow and long movement is comparable to a mass of winds that roar like lava flowing from a volcano with their scarlet colors. These winds in suspension release fine laments that moan like ghosts lost in the cosmic immensity, creating this perfect balance between the atony of the movement and its latent charms of these chants that rise between the colors of the volcanic ashes. A little more and we would be in the abyssal spheres of Steve Roach’s Immersion series, colors and tonal life in more. With a little imagination, we can also define this movement as a mega space shuttle and its linear humming that escapes from its flaming grooves. But no matter where we place the setting of Atmospheric Twilight, Max Corbacho makes drift our emotions through the twists and turns of our past throughout the 45-minute track. The American meditative music sculptor is the most realistic point to compare and situate the Barcelona synthesist’s ambient, and sometimes abstract, works. And a track like Stillness Glow cements this comparison beautifully. The difference is the cosmic side that the musician-synthesist brings to the depth of his atmospheric textures, giving a wider range to his music. I like the sense of urgency that emanates from Stillness Glow with these waves that stand out like shadows to add a slight dramatic touch. A very nice track! But I like even better the slow movement, quite similar, of Dusk Awakes. The atmospheres, on a background of twilight color, have an even more accentuated depth in this title where translucent filaments escape and draw deformed arabesques. And the drones have a more musical texture here than elsewhere because of the outer thin layer of sizzle that surrounds them.

It is the charm of the meditative cosmic music of Max Corbacho! This art of nuancing his colors in order to insert lyrical movements without stanzas shines from everywhere in ATMOSPHERIC TWILIGHT. When you think about it, as long as it’s beautiful, well done and effortlessly tame, the Barcelona-based synthesist may be doing well to stay so anchored in his comfort zone…which becomes ours!

Sylvain Lupari (January 26th, 2023) *****

SynthSequences.com

Available on Max Corbacho’s Bandcamp

2023 |  CD | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

A most gracious, gentle evolving sound world of repose and contemplation lies at the core of “Equinox”, a 74-minute textural extravaganza by Spanish ambient-master Max Corbacho. Max already announced the recording at the end of May 2022 as a sound distillation from an idea created in 2019 that had taken definitive form in recent months as a serene, breathing, bright and positive long track.

Well, transcending in Mr Corbacho’s continuous long form expanse is another lovely and most satisfying undertaking with great sets of floating, longing and atmospheric pads. The latter evaporate pleasant rays of energy as the constellation of dreamful tapestries linger onward, occasionally even in a weightless, effortlessly manner. It’s simply another must-have for ambient/space aficionados.

2022 |  CD | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

Equinox, the latest journey into pure audio-emotion from Max Corbacho, the revered electronic soundscape artist from Spain. Max has a history of sublime, expansive music, experienced as though the listener is walking through a cathedral of light. In fact, his big open-space, sound textures are a trademark; music synonymous with stepping between the pillars of the Cathedral de Barcelona, feeling the sunlight from the stained-glass windows, moving through moments of tranquility and reflection at one moment. Of diaphanous energy at another. An equinox of equal discoveries: stillness and activity!
Equinox is his latest release, and the perfect example of Max Corbacho at his most powerful. I like to describe his music in terms of colours and landscapes. The longform piece, 1hr 14 minutes in total, begins with gentle tendrils of sound, like ripples across a lake, insinuating their ways into your headspace. Building in momentum and complexity over 30 minutes as current of sound takes hold of the listener. Soft streams of tenuous emotion build up, some stronger than others and and pushing to the front of the sound experience. The ripples become a gentle wind across water, coalescing into a heady mixture of equal moments of quietness and energy – a true equinox!
By midway, the sound is swirling in muscular currents and bright washes of light – in expressions of sound that cannot be described in words, only in a radiance of emotion to affect each listener in their particular flavour of feelgood. The same uplift as the simple joy of warm sun on your face, a fresh breeze, and a dramatic landscape stretching out to the horizon. Shut your eyes, experience without words the kaleidoscope of colours beneath your eyelids – these are Max Corbacho sounds made real.
As the music recedes in a gentle tide, as evening descends across this soundscape, the last 25 minutes leave the listener with an afterglow of fulfilment. Of carefree joy finally being granted. The streams and currents of sound pull back into mysterious realms. Until finally, we anticipate and then experience the return of absolute silence. And all is good with our world. A silence made so much more joyful by the extraordinary sound/vision from the creative source that is Max Corbacho.

2022 |  CD | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

At the moment of writing is our country in a cold and dark time, cold because of the temperature and the many rain, dark because of the short days but also because of the lockdown. We can therefore some warmth and positivism to use. Max Corbacho offers us through his music. The one from Barcelona electronic music artist is a specialist in creating the most beautiful synthesizer sounds which he layered on top of each other lays. This produces a serene and, at least for me, uplifting atmosphere on. In his early days, his music sometimes rhythms, albeit cautious; late today he who left behind. A Connection To The Wonder contains a trio numbers, varying in time between about thirteen minutes and almost forty minutes. The longest composition, the title piece, opens the CD. The song starts with gorgeous, Steve Roach-esque strings after which a very calm part entry does that all the time becomes softer. This track has to my opinion a bit like Roach’ masterpiece Structures From Silence. This Space Is Being Created I think it’s a great title to Max’ spatial music. About speaking to ambient specialists: the somewhat “rolling” sounds (I can do not describe it otherwise) and the structure that we hear here, I think a little bit towards the great album Planetary Unfolding by Michael Stearns. Quiet Renewal closes the CD with a series of very beautiful sounds. Max, thanks for this bright spot this dark time!

2021 |  CD | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

The title of this album is well chosen as it’s an entrance into a magical world of expansive, serene textural vistas and alternate realities. An abundance of velvet, overtly smooth evolving tapestries is already on display on the 39-minute title track kicking things off, an intimate symphony transcending through time and space with various beautiful ethereal nods and immersive elements surfacing and fading during the ride. Overall, it’s a walk into the light with subtle melodic parts where tenderness, a flash of mourning as well as a sense of awe shine through the notes.

On “This Space is being created”, atmospheres shift to a tad darker, nocturnal tone while we journey across the view into massive cosmic environs. Soft pads lead into “Quiet Renewal” where gentle textural chord progressions in Steve Roach-modus create imaginary warm rays of sunlight.

In all, these are calm, and most gracious resonations are suitable companions addressing the celestial beyond as well interior spaces.

2021 |  CD | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

With this third album, Max Corbacho completed the trilogy, which he began publishing in 2017. Its creation was inspired by night photographs, which he created during his meditations in Aragon, in the north of Spain. The strange rock formations fascinated him with their bizarreness, even the hauntingness that stood out especially in the night shots. That’s why he always chose these pictures for the covers of his three albums.

The latter, marked only by the Roman numeral III, brings six compositions, the main ones being the first and the last, which have roughly the same duration of about 20 minutes.

The first composition, Altar of Stillness, has been evolving into this form since 2003 through various reworkings. At night, everything seems a bit different, especially in a landscape with interesting rock formations. There are various ideas, often fears. However, this song does not evoke anything like that. It has a really apt name, because it is an immersion in the atmosphere of this landscape and thus itself. Corbacho chooses very subtle breaths and exhales of its electronic devices that literally caress you. To them are added mysterious sounds as if from elsewhere, from another world, the world beyond what is or is not seen. This makes the sacredness of this rest even more prominent. It is a very sensitive song that will literally embrace you and caress you with its tones.

Apparently, the immobility of the rocks given to them is expressed by the second, roughly nine-minute composition, into which the first passes. This is also expressed as Bonded from Beginning. The calm already established remains, only the color of the synthesizers has changed a bit and added to the bass tones. There is more weight and compactness in the composition.

Again, we move on to the next, shortest song, which lasts less than three minutes, Sleep Time Spores. She deviates a bit with her unusual sound creations and soon moves on to the fourth song of Lunation Sequence. At about night, Corbacho took into account all the influences that affected him, including the phases of the Moon.

He expresses it by the changing crystal tones and also by the kind of restlessness, the instability that is in them. Doesn’t that remind you of women’s moods, which are often influenced by the phases of the Moon? The song is almost ten minutes long. He continues later with such a sprawling of sound, a vague cluster from which tones or even a momentary melodic phrase occasionally peek out. But everything is hidden in the fog of sound.

We move almost silently to the fifth track Time Before Time. Not even a seven-minute song restores calm again, but there is something accelerated in it, it is not resting as if expecting what will follow. The color of the synthesizers is also a bit more aggressive, the phrases follow in quick succession.

In this spirit, we literally step into the last, over 20 minutes long song Skywatchers. I would express the feelings of this composition as a fullness, immobility and admiration for the greatness and grandeur of what we are witnessing.

Corbacho himself remarked on his three albums Nocturnes that the main feelings were silence, the shimmering light of the stars and the sweet scent of thyme that permeated all of Aragon.

My feeling from this album is that I might not document all the feelings, but convey only those that express just that silence, peace and admiration for the greatness and grandeur of this landscape.

☾

Genre: Ambient music, space music, atmospheric ambient, drone, soundscapes. Go to reviews.
2021 |  CD | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP

In 2011, Max Corbacho released “Lost Links”, a set of atmospheric and space music tracks that were shelved although they were composed initially to fit on a concept album, compilation or project that fell through. Those tracks are now found on the second disc of “Lost Links II”, so for a description of those, I refer to the original review. Well, there seemed to be much more unreleased, rescued, and abandoned pieces in Corbacho’s archive that now see the beautiful light of day as well. Here, another 74 minutes of enchanting, lush morphing and graceful slow-motion soundscapes divided over 9 tracks unfolds, completing the previous set very nicely.

These imaginary, dream-inducing textures make space and time dissolve effortlessly and are best cherished with quality headphones. I even dare say Max is surpassing Steve Roach by far on various deep atmospheric outings such as “The Present Miracle”, “Slow Rust”, “North Rose Alignment” and “Beyond Vaults”.

This release (the two-disc, deluxe 6-panel eco pack / digisleeve is limited to 200 copies) again proves Mr. Corbacho belongs to the league of best ambient composers around the globe. If you got a busy, stressful head, this is your ticket to slow it down and find balance again.

Genre: Ambient music, space music, atmospheric ambient, drone, soundscapes.
2021 |  CD | DIGITAL |  STREAMING  |  GO TO SHOP