Only a few days ago, we described Dennis Huddleston as the «very model of consistency» for the regularity and consistently high quality of his 36 output. Much the same could be said of Max Corbacho, who’s been crafting ambient-electronic soundscapes since 1998. This second chapter in his projected Nocturnes trilogy certainly lives up to its title, its seventy minutes evocative of the unsettling stillness that sets in during the deepest hours of the night. Working with sequencers, synthesizers, samplers, and looping devices, the Barcelona-based producer spent three years bringing Nocturnes II to completion.

In the opening «Celistia,» one of two epics pushing past the twenty-minute mark, Corbacho couples drifting synthesizer washes with the quiet chirp of crickets to leave no doubt as to the time of day in question. Suggesting winds blowing across open fields, slow-motion whooshes accompany those washes to reinforce the image of a barren landscape, while the soft murmur of other creatures embroiders the crickets’ song with additional layers.

As much as the seven parts constitute an integrated whole, there are noticeable differences between them. «Starlight Grace» replicates the glacial unfurl of «Celistia,» though in this case the focus shifts from terra firma to the heavens, the move intimated by a greater emphasis on radiant textures that sparkle and shimmer in equal measure. «Heart of the Night» by comparison exudes the unsettling quality of a nightmare, if one more subtly disturbing than outright harrowing, while the second long-form soundscape, «Moon Apparition,» caps the release with one final deep space music plunge, even if the crickets’ return suggests the experience is originating from an earthly vantage point.

As he’s done on previous releases, Corbacho demonstrates here an undeniable talent for crafting expansive, luminous soundscapes. His music unfolds with patient deliberation, and the control he exercises in weaving his elements together is never less than impressive. Movements seem to generally slow down during the night hours, a phenomenon effectively conveyed by the recording’s serene, mystery-laden meditations.
June 2018

Extreme weather conditions have been a source of inspiration through the years for various ambient composers, just think of Robert Rich («Calling down the Sky») or Steve Roach («Slow Heat», «Storm Warning»).

With «Arte Magnetica» Spanish sound sculptor Max Corbacho delivers his contribution to the subject painting an aural panorama of lush textural expansiveness along slow shapeshifting farscapes echoing the impact and tranquility of long hot summer days. These absorbing, gently morphing and embracing soundscapes travel into the deeper end visiting darker corners on «Monolith» and «Telluric» while starting to resurge into the light gradually from mysterious depths and clouds of dense spheres on the last two tracks of «Arte Magnetica».
Nice going Max!

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.

Beatless and rhythmic ambient zones full of shadow and the lush densities of night. Night sounds, night birds, crickets, low sonic breezes – the album opens with a strongly environmental sound. Gradually dense tonal blankets roll in, gurgling effects and low muted impacts, the stillness now stirred up into a slow winding eddy. The serene twilight pools that Corbacho creates here can be silky and smooth, lustrous surfaces reflecting dark tones – but there are obscure depths too, things heaving below in slow, slow swells. The third track ‘The Slow and Wandering Dust’ sees a soft rolling beat gradually creep in – a corporeal rhythm, natural, constant accompanied by waves of heavy saturated tone like the measured breath of deep sleep. Large pots and giant drum thumps provide the basis for another percussive piece on ‘Abandoned Wind’ – slow motion low, lulling, soporific.

This is a rich, liquid smooth world of dark curling colour, oceanic enormity. Tranquil and languid for the most part, yet uneasy shades well up at times, there are desolate spots, lonely and cold, suggestions of ambiguous lifeforms moving somewhere below or off to one side. The organic rhythms lift some tracks into meandering animation, quickening the stillness – but only just.

Purple-black scenery in a crepuscular gloom fills the front cover, the edges of individual rocks and crags picked out with a graphic grey outline creating a weighty solarisation effect. Vague, monochrome geographical imagery creates backdrops for the other panels – a tracklist on the back complete with track times. Inside the two page booklet is an explanation of the project and a verse from Indian poet Sri Aurobindo that was a chance finding during the creation of the music.

Max Corbacho’s Nocturnal Emanations was released in 2003 and appears on the website as the fourth release by this talented ambient composer. This is seventy three minute duration long form work developed through eight distinct tracks. Promotional material describes the album as one of «transparent synthwashes, developing through silent landscapes». The sound zones established are intended to be «almost hostile, sometimes underground, always stony, ancient». The approach taken was one «without any type of synchronism» so that «in this way the layers of synthesizers move freely along the whole piece «rubbing» harmonically some with others. A compelling composition that very effectively leads the emotions and senses in a beguiling night glide over quiet, abandoned terrain.

Nocturnal Emanations is for lovers of sonic scenery, lovers of low light, lovers of ambiguity. This CD will appeal to ambient fans that enjoy an organic sound and powerful atmosphere.

«This is an evocative release where the melody, wrapped up in floating textures, goes through a universe of magic and mystery. The CD in general could be labelled as Ambient / Space Music.
However, the melodies and the rhythms incorporate elements of World Music, as well as Industrial traits. The music is slow, although it does not lack rhythm in certain themes or passages. The rhythmic structure of the music tends to be based on the percussion. The melodies are dense, unearthly, enigmatic».