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)

The Spanish Maestro of deepest sonic meditations is back again with his latest aural cathedral entitled «Source Of Present». As a reviewer, even if it’s just my free time hobby and passion, I should maybe stay more objective, however, many of you might have known and it’s no secret that I have been always utterly fascinated by Max Corbacho’s soundworlds. I am simply unable to hide this and when a new album by Max is announced, every time I am looking forward to it just like a small kid for his fave candy. Of course «Source Of Present» CD, created during 2015-2017 and released at November 10th on Max Corbacho’s own Silentsun label, was no exception. How could it be? The album comes as a 4-panel digipak with glossy cover image created by the artist himself, while the layout duties are handled, as usual, by Michael Rodriguez Pletz.

«The Beginning Of Remembering» is not only the opening, 24 minutes long opus, but to be straight, also one of the most monumental epics Max has ever carved and undoubtedly one of the most jaw-dropping compositions since his ultimate milestone «The Ocean Inside» released at the end of 2012. How can I resist when such gargantuan driftscape invades my listening room? Ultra tenebrous and voluminously humming, yet gracefully multidimensional stratums swiftly steal the whole, breathtakingly immersing scenario. However, warmly spellbinding vistas clandestinely permeate as well and persistently juxtapose with tiding ear-blowing transcendental meridians. I am loosely gliding across the unfathomably subterranean Eden, enter now and experience this pure magic!!! «Soul Of The World», clocking to 7-plus minutes mark, maintains its monstrously engrossing splendor, but this time more illuminating as the sweeping vastness is insistently amalgamated with flamboyant range of sheets, both intricately mindscaping and balmily titillating. «Echoing Shade» promptly dives into magnificently expansive deserted solitudes, holding the unmistakable southwest signatures of no one else but Max Corbacho’s iconic guide. Panoptic serenity at its most majestic!!! «Transparent Phenomena», at 4:17 the shortest piece on «Source Of Present», rides on the wings of abundantly scenic and thrillingly overwhelming immenseness, where colossal drone layers continuously resonate, counterpoint and dazzle with ear-tickling glimmers. Nearly 19 minutes long title composition «Source Of Present» unfolds in absolute stillness and then calmly extends into an awe-inspiring panoramas of sheer atmospheric delight, incorporating own myriad of floating, reverberating, twinkling, glimpsing and crescendoing insignias masterfully reinforced by superiorly prodigious flickering mirages reminiscent of the master. A huge dose of sonic ambrosia is offered here!!! The closing 13-minute track «On This Journey» ceaselessly reveals and tightly keeps on the path of incredibly sublime sceneries, perpetually magnified by sweeping and ebbing vertexes, eternally enrapturing and staggeringly transporting. Evanescing tranquil horizons inconspicuously sneak in and are as much spectacular and soulfully exquisite as its quintessentially billowing and tenaciously monolithic companions. Gorgeously enigmatic finale!

Although the amount of influential earmarks is to my taste a bit stronger at some stages, Max Corbacho returns with almost 74-minute «Source Of Present» masterwork, as well as with the previous «Nocturnes» album, to the ultimate pedestal celebrating all geniuses of powerfully engulfing atmospheric soundforging. That’s the place where he has already stood after sculpting unquestionable magnum opuses such as «Ars Lucis» and «The Ocean Inside». And this position fits to him more than perfectly! Bravo, Max, you fully deserve this!!!!

Richard Gürtler (Jan 01, 2018, Bratislava, Slovakia)

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)