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 MORPHEUS MUSIC

max — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:16:17 +0000

January 2013
Long-form drifting, beatless ambience.

STYLE
The Ocean Inside wells up out of silence in silken mists of tone that imperceptibly condense into an immense ocean of sound that surrounds you before you know it. The initial feeling is warm and softly wondrous; a sense of floatation is well established and you are immersed, carried willingly by tides unnoticed. Tracks segue seamlessly from one into another and so the experience is unbroken, constant, pervasive. Shifts in tone or character are subtle: brighter string sounds introducing currents of sharper intensity; deep atonal pads suggesting descent; choral hints inviting reverie. The seventh track on disc one eventually fades away into silence – allowing the final piece to stand somewhat alone – almost half an hour in length Towards The Bottomless Sea is a velvety minimal tidal impression of great delicacy drawing the meditative nature of this album to an impressive slow-motion conclusion. Disc two continues where disc one leaves off: further exploration of fluid enormity and buoyancy developing this restful opus into near-total absorption.

ARTWORK
A matt-finish double-disc digipack; The Ocean Inside is drenched in deep night blue hues throughout. The subtle panorama that is revealed when all three panels are spread out suggests a body of water of indeterminate extent. Touches of light dapple the lower parts whilst faint beams gently illuminate the higher regions. Text is unobtrusive: titles on the rear with track times alongside; credits on the remaining outer section. Within, nothing disturbs the smooth watery expanse of colour except a single repetition of the title.

OVERALL
The Ocean Inside is the eleventh solo album from Spanish ambient master Max Corbacho. Released via his own ad21 label, this double album sees Max demonstrating the tranquil immensity that this genre can encompass when at its best. The aural equivalent to a vast, vast colourfield painting, The Ocean Inside fills your mental space with densely saturated morphing zones that extend for almost two and a half hours in total. Most pieces are of medium length ranging from four minutes to almost sixteen; the recordings that conclude each disc however are of greater length – twenty-nine minutes thirty-one seconds and twenty-four minutes eight seconds respectively. Max himself says of the music: «More than two years ago I started this project from an Eastern concept that has always been present in my work: the analogy that exists between the mind as an ocean, with constantly changing waves at the surface, and the inner stillness and silence at the depths.» You can hear the music at Max’s official website where there are a range of purchase and download links.

DEEP TIME – review by Bert Strolemberg

max — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:41:07 +0000

With the album “Deep Time”, Spanish sound designer and musician Max Corbacho invites us to travel far back in time with a textural work, made up of an assortment of “primal sounds next to an almost palpable sense of the first formings of Order from the chaotic soup of antiquity”. Those looking for expansive, harmonic and richly layered soundscape tapestries won’t find it here, although the gradual sound progression has been preserved. The three long pieces on this disc feature lengthy and spacious dronescapes travelling the edge of time with a high sense of mystery, alienation and wonder. The primordial quark soup also incorporates various acoustic soundsources next to occasional shamanic flavours. The culmination of elements doesn’t make the imaginary and at times even nocturnal outcome on “Deep Time” an easy work of organic but still quality deep-ambient music.

ARS LUCIS – review by Hypnagogue

max — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:27:12 +0000

Max Corbacho returns with a long-form disc of his signature lighter-than-air drifts in Ars Lucis. Corbacho’s constructs float in higher registers, airy choral sounds occasionally lifted by a bass rumble updraft. This is, as the cover art suggests, a soundtrack for watching light filter through stained glass in a sacred space. Notes spiral angelically upwards in a slow dance, gracefully filling the air. There’s a delicate feel to the work here, as though a single touch would shatter it into glistening fragments. Ars Lucis is a disc that truly comes into its own when played as a low-volume loop, and it’s an ideal meditation CD. Although split into seven tracks, it plays as a seamless flow. The music here clearly resonates with Steve Roach’s influence on Corbacho’s style—I hear it in the slow-motion layering, the depth and soft elegance of sound that calls to mind the Quiet Music series. (I also hear hushed memories of Giles Reaves’ Sacred Space.) But influences aside, this is true-to-form Corbacho, with all the gentle beauty he’s exhibited in his past releases. It’s a welcome return from a talented ambient artist.

THE RESONANT / Phil Derby, Exposé Magazine

max — Wed, 17 Jul 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Phil Derby / Exposé Magazine

«mp3.com’s loss is Tony Gerber’s gain. As musicians leave mp3.com in droves following its restructuring in 2001, Gerber’s SpaceForMusic.com label is grabbing up a fair number of them. Gerber does a fair job of separating the wheat from the chaff with artists like Craig Padilla and Max Corbacho now in the fold.

Corbacho continues in the musical direction he forged on Vestiges and Far Beyond The Immobile Point, moving ever outward into the reaches of deep space music. Whereas Vestiges had some tribal elements, his next release was more expansive, and this CD continues that trend even further. Though technically four tracks, there is a continuous flow of 73 minutes of surreal soundscapes. Long slow synth pads, lush and thick, draw the listener in, with plenty of atmospheric touches and effects. «Remote Sensing» does nothing to dispel the notion that Corbacho is the «Spanish Steve Roach,» as this compares favorably with notable Roach works like The Dream Circle and The Magnificent Void.

Bright shimmering sounds meld with dark churning drones to great effect. The rich metallic character reaches its peak in «Magenta Beauty,» as the music conjures up vivid mental pictures. The 38-minute title track closes the disc out in dreamy style. The entire disc will send you into a deep reverie you

won’t soon want to leave.