Echo of Longing – a descent into darkness (Corbacho, 2019, Boyce review #1)
Those familiar with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may enjoy a sense of déjà vu when listening to Echo of Longing, the latest (2019) release by the modern Spanish composer Max Corbacho. This may not necessarily be the comparison Corbacho had in mind but, to my ears, there is a real discovery of a sonic harmony between these two compelling works of the imagination.
Since its original publication, Heart of Darkness has been considered by most literary critics to be the first definitive modern novel of early 20th century fiction. It tells the story of a ’European’ descent into madness upon a steamboat along the Congo River into the primal beating heart of Central Africa. Likewise, its musical counterpart, Echo of Longing, takes the listener on a journey into darkness – not the darkness of delirium, but into the hidden darkness of the human psyche. And it is an extraordinary journey.
The journey discovered on Echo of Longing is divided into three distinct stages of exploration. The first and title track (‘Echo of Longing’) is the steamboat journey along the Congo itself. The soundscape slowly increases in volume in a way that suggests it has emerged up through the subconscious for an indefinite period of time before the listener is fully aware of she/he is already part of the actual composition. A multi-layered harmonic of sounds whose constituent parts are almost recognizable, but always remain just out of reach. As the steamboat slowly meanders its way into dense tropical forests which are both familiar, on one level, and totally outside modern humankind’s experience on another: savage, primal, and eternal. The track slowly coagulates into a number of spikes and pitches of arresting sounds, adding a sense of anticipation to the growing sense of what is going to touch the listening next – in the same way the steamboat never knows what it will encounter around the next bend of the river. The listener is a captive passenger heading deeper into an unexplored soundscape.
The second track, ‘Embryo of Drones’, immerses the listener into dramatic opening vistas of discovery. Spikes of sound pitch upwards and overlap into distinct pinnacles of sensory experience (imagine slow cresting waves of sound) – in much the same way the steamboat discovers the extraordinary Mr. Kurtz in his remote waystation, succumbed to a surreal juxtaposition of ancient nature and primitive tribal rituals, all fleetingly glimpsed. Yet, ‘the horror…the horror’ of the denouement within the book is reassuringly kept at bay by the assured passage Corbacho provides the listener. He is an old hand at the tiller of sound. We float past – and upon – these extraordinary aural events towards a brighter horizon, not left stranded to our fate in the darkness!
The final track, ‘The Noble Beyond’, is a slow burn back towards consciousness. As the steamboat backtracks upriver towards (?) civilization, so too does Corbacho carefully haul the listener up from the depths of the subconscious and back into the reassuring light of reality. Where dark sounds threatened, now an increasingly overlayered soundscape of light encourages us on the last leg of our journey. Quite simply, there are beautiful passages of sound to encourage that all’s well with the world – a world of hope. Finally, to disembark from our journey, somehow refreshed, exhilarated and feeling positive – yet, secretly looking forward to our next trip into the very heart of imaginative darkness on the good ship Corbacho.

About a month ago I reviewed Max Corbacho’s other release from 2018 titled Nocturnes II; it, like this, is a dreamy soundworld filled with beautiful sonic textures flowing gracefully over one another, eliciting a number of sensations and emotions that flow freely and change from one minute to the next, a dense fog of shimmering sound that opens out in all directions, fantastic multi-faceted chord sprites that color parts of the surrounding space in bold hues and pastels, limited only by the imagination. The listener can fall through open space escaping the limits of time and traverse through something of a sonic wormhole, hearing the fabric of everything passing in numerous dimensions. The effect is beautiful, sometimes cold, other times warm, with layers of gentle sounds morphing out of nothing, full of majestic shimmering nuances and expansive chords that reach out to and beyond the horizon, and decaying into interstellar fog. The listener can easily get lost within it all, and in fact should. Total immersion is the best way to experience this – lights out and hadphones on. Technically, there are five tracks listed on the CD cover, but the sound only fades to black at one point after the 28 minute opener “Quantum Cathedrals”, with the remaining four cuts (accouting for nearly 45 minutes) all joined together in smooth crossfades, the pieces just get a little quieter at the junctions. Now I have to say that I’ve listened to both Horizon Matrix and Nocturnes II at least a dozen times each, probably more, and I find it difficult to say exactly what the difference between the two is; This one is probably more up-front and colorful in the nature of the sonics presented, while the former may be a mite more muted, dark and discrete, but both share a vast and abundant world of sonic beauty, and both are discs that the listener could easily put on endless repeat and absorb for hours on end – and I have done so with both.

The ambient genre has never been more alive, it seems, than today. Decades after its birth (to the degree that a date of origin can be fixed), recordings continue to pour forth at an amazing rate. Recent releases by long-standing practitioners Erik Wollo, Steve Roach, and Max Corbacho provide a good representation of how things currently stand and show how artists associated with the genre individuate themselves while staying true to the fundamental principles of the form. Philosophical themes relating to time, space, and infinity are common to all three, and though indexed tracks are present, each assumes the character of a long-form meditation. Wollo’s distances itself from the others, however, in excluding synthesizers; everything on his outing was created using electric guitars, EBow, and harmonizers.

Like Infinite Moments, Max Corbacho’s Horizon Matrix unfurls at a stately pace, with in this instance the material flowing without interruption through five parts; similar to Wollo, he also draws from philosophical concepts, with temporality as the guiding principle and inspiration coming from Plato’s characterization of time as a “a moving image of eternity.” It’s a somewhat more pure ambient-electronic production than Wollo’s, however, for the fact that the Barcelona, Spain-based Corbacho created all of it using sequencing, samplers, and synthesizers. The epic, twenty-eight-minute opening piece, “Quantum Cathedrals,” establishes the album’s tone with crystalline synth textures that alternately undulate and whistle. Everything moves in graceful slow-motion, which, coupled with softly shimmering atmospheres and organ-like textures, bolsters the luminous character of the material. Also like Wollo’s recording, the parts in Corbacho’s do form a cohesive whole yet also exhibit differences, the shift from one part to the next clearly discernible. After “Quantum Cathedrals,” the sound field expands to billowing proportions in “Temporal Horizon,” with tidal washes surging dramatically and high-pitched tones offset by stormy undercurrents. The intensity rises yet again with the immense, reverberant swells of “Beyond the Light Storm” before culminating in an epic climax in the fourth part, “Into the Ocean of Time.” Much like the material on Corbacho’s previous releases, there’s little that’s earthly about the expansive soundscapes on Horizon Matrix, which give the impression of being located in a realm outside the space and time of human experience.
January 2019

I’ve been following Max Corbacho since discovering his debut «Vestiges» in 1999. It opened a world of passionate ambient sonic splendour unravelling until this very day. A highly atmospheric, enchanting, vibrant and expansive ambient-space is found on the five tracks making up the 73-minute «Horizon Matrix», an alternate aural dimension even tapping into the infinite occasionally. While composing grand opener «Quantum Cathedrals» Max even realized he was re-entering the same sacred, far away spaces of his 2009 recording «Ars Lucis». The full recording is an imminent, vast canvas of fluid patterns, ethereal soundscapes and profound liquid textures interacting and melting seamlessly while releasing its imaginative yet delicate sonic perfume through its leaves. Here, immersion comes naturally as the listener is surrounded by the continuous ebb/flow and gentle shifts of rich, harmonious pads caressing the heart and mind. However, great dynamics and intensity surface on the stellar «Into the Ocean of Time» without abandoning the ethereal thread.

Most of all, «Horizon Matrix» is another example of high-quality freeform ambient dwelling in the void, opening up endless vistas while any sense of place has dissolved. Highly recommended for aficionados like myself who love to submerge in immensity…

I always wanted to write few lines on this masterwork, so now it’s finally the right time. But first of all, I must say this is not the newest work of Max Corbacho, in Barcelona based composer. Max has released at the end of December 2010, «Deep Time» download only album, but since I am a die-hard fan of physical CDs, I would rather focus on this CD album. Before you enter the sonic worlds of Max Corbacho, you are confronted with cover artwork of the medieval rose window of the graceful Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis. And what about the music? «Ars Lucis» is the most serene and peaceful work Max Corbacho has ever done. Listening to opener, «Light-Matrix Portal», is like standing in the choir of this cathedral and exploring all the architectural monumentality, gracefulness and magnificence. The music is very minimal in its structure, sounding really quiet and slow-motion floating, but its effect is enormous, just like the cathedral, it’s monumental, graceful and magnicifent. «Light-Matrix Portal» is undoubtedly one of the most tranquil, immense and impact compositions I have ever heard in ambient music!!! This lyrical beauty and spaciousness weaves through the whole album, even if divided in 7 pieces, the overall feel is like one long-form continous composition. All based on floating meditative soundwalls, ocassionally enriched by some swirling, emerging and fading-out sounds. But always appearing in very elegant and fragile texture. «Narthex», «Pillar Ascension», «Transept Sapphire Glass» or «Choir Ecstasy» can’t be better examples, but I could easily mention here also last two remaining pieces. «Ars Lucis» is mysteriously beautiful, amorphous and captivating composition presenting Max Corbacho in the deepest and finest end of the pure atmospheric soundscape genre. Bravó Maestro!!!

Richard Gürtler (Bratislava, Slovakia)