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

Max Corbacho «Nocturnes II» CD

The beauty of magnificently immersing nocturnal landscapes of Aragón region in northeastern Spain is resurrected once more! Max Corbacho, the Spanish driftscaper par excellence has released the second chapter of «Nocturnes» series during April 2018 through his Silentsun imprint. «Nocturnes II» CD is packaged in an attractive glossy 4-panel digipak, featuring original cover photographs by Max Corbacho with additional layout work by Michael Rodriguez Pletz.

The opening «Celistia» track clocks over 23-minute mark and immediately takes the listener into awe-inspiring vastness, where undisputable, timelessly gliding and ebbing insignias of its sole purveyor meticulously coalesce with balmily glimmering nightly quietudes and inconspicuously permeating faunal symphonies. A journey through grandiosely barren horizons is fully unfolded, Max Corbacho again unlocks the gates to soulfully fascinating terra incognitas. Indeed, an epic listening experience awaits here! Shorter «Nocturnal Bloom» clandestinely soars into even more expansive grandness, a gracefully colossal realms owned by this Spaniard. It’s a pity not even a 4 minutes long ambrosial exploration is gone too fast. But no worries, almost 9-minute «Starlight Grace», as indicated by its title, steals the splendor with all its panoptically prodigious monumentality, free-floating spatial solitariness is exquisitely juxtaposed with surges of titillatingly mindscaping reverberations. Tenaciously monstrous, pure magic!!! «Heart Of The Night» is another rather ephemeral odyssey, yet intensely engrossing, where all hues of organic tapestries persistently amalgamate with voluminously undulating magmatic stratums. «Indigo Sphinxes In Dark Canyon», at 3:10 the shortest venture on the album, tightly keeps breathtaking tension of its predecessor, but an array of ear-bending piquant meridians steals the whole spectacle. I keep on delving deeply into staggeringly perplexing chasmal domains… «Timelapse» returns to relatively calmer terrains, but sonic metamorphosis seems to be unstoppable and surreptitiously nuanced scenario moves into a profoundly delightful monolithic vertex. Then through peaceful diminuendoing closing this spellbindingly transcendental circle. Big applaud, Maestro!!! 20-plus minutes long «Moon Apparition» delicately reveals the genius loci of these arid sceneries, where gracefully meandering panoramas of dronescapes precisely harmonize with genuinely shimmering nocturnal field recordings and transitorily trenchant climaxes. Tranquilly enveloping conclusion!

No matter if entering enthrallingly overwhelming skylines, nebulously extraterrestrial spheres, mysteriously labyrinthine inner zones, spectacularly subaqueous depths or majestically monumental architectural masterpieces, Max Corbacho always delivers the very best of his virtuosic soundcarving, a rewardingly abundant momentum of tremendously sophisticated wizardry in sculpting powerfully transporting opuses. With gem like 70-minute «Nocturnes II», but also with «Source Of Present», «Nocturnes» and most especially with recently released «Horizon Matrix» (out since November 30th, 2018), Max Corbacho is triumphantly chasing quintessential milestones such as «Ars Lucis» and «The Ocean Inside». Once again, bravo, Maestro!!!
Richard Gürtler (Jan 13, 2019, Bratislava, Slovakia)

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…

Max Corbacho ~ Nocturnes II (Silentsun, 2018)

Conocí a Max Corbacho con su disco The Ocean Inside. Por entonces quedé impresionado por la profundidad y la belleza de sus composiciones, y por la maestría artesanal que revelaba el resultado final de su trabajo. Lo más importante es que los paisajes sonoros de ese viaje imaginal a las profundidades del océano interior fueron envolviéndome y empapándome cada vez más a través del tiempo, convirtiéndose para mí en una obra esencial del ambient actual, y su autor, en una figura referencial y fuente de inspiración. Por lo cual he seguido cada uno de sus discos subsiguientes con mucho interés y anticipación. Desde entonces y antes de este Nocturnes II, ha habido cinco, y todos se han mantenido fieles a ese lenguaje tan personal de Max, tan lírico y contemplativo, así como a su excelencia como artífice de paisajes sonoros.

Pero lo que vuelvo a encontrar en esta segunda entrega de la serie Nocturnes es esa emoción especial, ese brillo o esa conexión que viví con The Ocean Inside. Este es un gran disco que vuelve a confirmar a Max como uno de los grandes de la escena del ambient mundial. Soy consciente de que serán necesarias muchas escuchas para ir penetrando en sus abismos, pero ya puedo intuir ese algo especial que me hace volver a él una y otra vez. Esta música es increíblemente relajante. Tal vez es eso, que aquí reencuentro al Max Corbacho más atmosférico y expansivo, ese que me subyugó con una pieza tan alucinante como «Towards the Bottomless Sea». Esto lo noto especialmente en los tracks primero y último, «Celistia» y «Moon Apparition», que son los más extensos, pero el tono se mantiene a lo largo de todo el disco. Es como disolverse en el espacio, como contemplar la anchura del cielo estrellado, de horizonte a horizonte, y perderse en la abierta infinitud de su bóveda. O como flotar en un no-lugar, sin límites, iluminado por la suave luz de la luna, o de una luminaria interior. Porque su música siempre me habla del mundo de dentro, del espacio interior. Y la noche que explora en sus Nocturnes es tal vez esa noche del alma, una que sólo ella percibe, acaso ante la belleza de la noche exterior, tan poblada en este disco de sonidos grabados de su natural y viva expresión. La magia es adentrarse en ese mundo en la soledad de tu escucha. Esa apertura que ofrece la música es un regalo, siempre de agradecer. La música es un portal a otros mundos, o esa es la música que a mí más me toca y me transporta. Gracias a ella y a su autor por tan gratas experiencias.

Review by http://dreamfolk.blogspot.com.es/2018/05/max-corbacho-nocturnes-ii.html

The strong 20-minute «Celistia» kicking off the 70-minute album already propels the listener into mesmerizing higher spheres along a trail of nocturnal environmental sounds where the veil of night shimmers through beautifully. It’s an ambient expanse full of meditative, powerful, graceful, serene, and luminous splendor evolving slowly but surely before the mind’s eye even when some of the tracks next in line prove much shorter.

As Max wrote in his press notes he treated this recording as a mysterious and serene world that slowly awakens to unfold a previously hidden magic and that’s stirring the subliminal «Heart of the Night» and «Indigo Sphinxes…» most clearly. «Timelapse» picks up the uplift drift again with textures morphing into infinite depths where after the 20-minute «Moon Apparition» brings along an intense immersive closing to this slow breathing ambient space with imminent organic currents.
«Nocturnes II» is a very well accomplished achievement.

Welcome to another journey into the silky darkness of the night with Max Corbacho as he unleashes Nocturnes II for his fans to devour and enjoy. Nocturnes II was released on April 20, 2018 and from the first notes of Celistia which clocks in at a hefty 23:13 the listener knows that this is going to be a special journey that will leave them wishing for more when it finally comes to a close after the last track called Moon Apparition closes out the album. Nocturnes II to me encapsulates the slow breathing and mystical aspects of those darkest hours of the night when all is quiet in the world and the only thing that breaks that silence are the sounds of crickets, birds or animal calls as they wander the landscape when humans have retreated to the warmth of their beds until daylight once again returns the world to them.

With Nocturnes II Max has created a soundscape that is shadow-encased but in a way that is inviting and urges us to step into the shadows ourselves not in a fearful way but in an intimate way by embracing the darkness that surrounds us at night. Max has outdone himself with Nocturnes II and has given us a masterpiece of music and sounds that will be played over and over again in the coming months. The lush quality of this music and the ethereal mindset that it puts the listener into are perfect for creating a relaxing atmosphere that is filled with deep, dark passages that are appropriate for some serious introspection and contemplation. According to the liner notes Max has woven into the fabric of this music crickets and other night sounds that he recorded live for inclusion in this project. Max has used these sounds in a subtle way to accent the music and to help create the deeper reality that one finds when sitting in the night and listening to the natural sounds that are only hints of what lies beyond our vision within the darkness that envelops us at night.

Nocturnes II shows us that Max Corbacho is adept at crafting long ambient pieces that he expertly weaves into a cohesive work that carries the narrative forward from song to song. With variations and nuances Max is always able to move the listener forward deeper into a state of tranquility, deeper into the velvety darkness that is where the music on this album originated from. Max’s instincts in regards to the choice of music and the production and mixing of this album are impeccable. He shows us that he is an artist who knows his abilities and is more than capable of using his talents to craft a wonderful album like Nocturnes II. This album has 7 tracks and runs close to 70 minutes in length which is more than enough time to immerse yourself into the night that Max has presented to you on this album.

If you were thinking about giving Max’s music a try then I would recommend that this album is a good place to start. The recording quality for this project was top notch and was a sonic delight to listen to. Nocturnes II is an enchanting work of art and a captivating narrative filled with shadowy and slow moving images created by Max’s expert usage of sequencing, synthesizers, samplers, looping devices and atmospheres. This album will give you a new appreciation for what these electronic devices can deliver when put into the hands of a skillful artist like Max Corbacho. Do yourself a favor and go get your own copy of this latest release by Max. Highly recommended by Ambient Visions.

Reviewed by Michael Foster for Ambient Visions