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]

BREATHSTREAM – review by Jeffrey A

max — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Max Corbacho has created yet another masterwork of atmospheric ambient music, both in terms of compositional and audiophile craftsmanship. These sensuous and expansive soundscapes are beautifully paced in their unfolding and find that delicate balance between calm stasis and developmental movement that the best works of the genre embody. One of the most interesting aspects of Max’s work is the periodic appearance of non-harmonic and analog pointillistic elements, almost like the tiny flaws that are intentionally built into gothic cathedrals. Unlike several of the other reviewers who have regarded these elements as distractions, I hear them as echoes of the great chaos that are the cosmological sea in which these creations arise. If you relax your mind completely and listen with open, unassuming ears, you can hear the great beauty that these fractal tones lend to a whole that is almost inexpressibly sublime. I heartily recommend that serious listeners download the 24-bit FLAC versions of these pieces, which allow the listener to hear many subtleties not apparent in a lower resolution recording. Absolutely stunning, setting a new standard even for this composer of enormous substance.

BREATHSTREAM – review by Richard Gürtler

max — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I remember that I was quite disappointed back in December 2008 when this album came out, not because of its sonic or visual content, but because of the fact it was available as download only release. Fortunately, nearly one year later, at Nov 1st, 2009, my dreams came true when a CD version of «BreathStream» was released. Definitely a great move for all aficionados of physical items like me!!! Spanish master of free gliding tranquil ambience ignites the departure of this odyssey with «This Luminous Space», a graciously floating washes, here and there gently emphasized by fragilely swirling distant space rumblings and serenely cascading through various movements, but always keeping within its deeply relaxing, elegant and mesmerizing mood. «This Luminous Space» takes you to breathtakingly wonderful immense places!!! «Act Of Light» unfolds with few sharper space effects and deep monumental drone, gradually evolving into colossally fascinating soundwalls and precisely interacting with more peaceful adagios. A really big one, an exciting journey into the infinity continues!!! «The Great Breath» is slightly more organic, but again colored with ever-changing magnificent dreamscapes. «No Day Nor Night» immediately excels at its grandiose and tranquil waves, washing over the listener’s head and navigating him/her into absolute sonic bliss. In the second half the composition is invaded by few disrupting moments, when some strange noises fly by, it’s a fascinatingly beautiful excursion!!! «No Form Nor Colour» is the longest piece, reaching nearly 16-minute mark, and a rather more active, continuously progressing texture featuring also few natural sounds, but still richly intense and expertly layered. «Temple Of Dissolution» is another masterpiece that promptly left me breathless with its grandiose, spiraling ambience, spectacularly evoking spatial emptiness and loneliness. Could be a «creme de la creme» of this album!!! A great moment of interplanetary exploration awaits!!! «Pure Being» is closing this utterly captivating and immersing audio journey with more euphoric, dreamy finale. Really gorgeous cover artwork magnificently displays this lifelong experience too. A giant performance by Max Corbacho, showcasing his bravura in creating pure atmospheric soundscapes, a landmark recording in space ambient genre!!! And «Ars Lucis» was yet to come…

Richard Gürtler (Apr 01, 2012, Bratislava, Slovakia)

BREATHSTREAM / Morpheus Music

max — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Morpheus Music & The Mall Magazine

Expansive, drifting ambient zones – beatless, minimal. The series of compositions on Breath Stream are smooth, flowing sonic states that fade seamlessly one into another creating an unbroken listening experience. Airy drones and steady velvet washes gently rise and fall in graceful slow motion, the sound thickening into harmonious even tone in places, then dispersing into almost atonal enormity. At times the intensity of the music drops down low as if the listener were increasingly isolated, distant, remote – or perhaps simply more profoundly at rest, wholly immersed and almost motionless. Beguiling effects burble or flutter on the peripheries, little motes and flickers some barely perceived, sonic breezes drifting through the aural space.

MOOD

The most pervasive mood here is one of almost blissful submission – a captivating serenity imbued with a sense of enveloping immensity. The track titles effectively draw together strands of galactic isolation and deeply personal inner experience – The Great Breath, This Luminous Space, No Day nor Night, Pure Being. Max’s music suggests the tranquil euphoria of being suspended weightless among morphing luminous nebulae, warm clouds of shifting colour, beautiful dreams and faintly recalled memories.

ARTWORK

The Breath Stream jewelcase is a deep, dark spacey blue package. Initially the main image appears as a view of infinite space – closer inspection reveals a horizon, one bright spiralling arm laid out like a flat plain stretching away into the distance. Above starlike clusters form further spirals, spirals of spirals – clusters of imaginary galaxies. Similar visuals fill the rear cover – an unobtrusive tracklist hanging in the upper left quadrant – times alongside. The two panel insert opens to display a closer view of the front cover image – here focussed on the foreground – a little like a glass bottomed boat to the universe. Information is minimal – credits to the left a quote from Vietnamese Monk Thich Nhat Hanh to the right – «Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.»

OVERALL

Breath Stream builds upon the solid foundation laid down by Max Corbacho’s previous release The Talisman. Coming now as the eighth release from this rising Spanish ambient star – the new album exhibits a formidable depth of sound unveiled with masterful restraint. Much of the music arose from long improvisational sessions utilising Max’s collection of hardware synths, catching those moments of magic – selecting and arranging the most absorbing passages into unbroken flow. The album is to be the first of a series of digital releases, offering downloads at iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic and Napster, among others, and, also, full CD quality downloads through the well respected new download platform www.musiczeit.com. Catch some samples at the Musiczeit page.

WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM

If you enjoyed The Talisman then Breath Stream will take you further into the rapture and beauty of Max’s enormous musical space. This is a release for fans of warm, inviting, minimal ambience with the soft sonic density of Thom Brennan, Numina and Steve Roach. No beats – just infinite space – effulgent, dark, rich in colour, perpetually black.

THE TALISMAN / Marius-Christian Burcea, Journeys to the Infinite

max — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Marius-Christian Burcea, Host of «Journeys to the Infinite

There are many ways to describe «Talisman» but the best way is to try it for oneself, and that is what this album is all about:

the experience of fragile vastness of our psyche. Max Corbacho provides mind altering soundscapes as each track connect us to Luminous Bliss. «Talisman» is an ambient opus invitating us to explore the inner fathoms. Excellent work