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

by eyes cast down on April 28, 2011

I think Max Corbacho is driven by a love of life’s great mysteries. His music is fully informed and animated by this, by (as I’m hearing it) a quest for something transcendent, something far beyond our conventional, mundane states of being. I believe that, in this respect, Max is a kindred spirit to Lucette Bourdin, whom I recently featured here. In its feeling of reverence, its quest for purity, Max’s music often reminds me of Steve Roach’s magnus opus, Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces.

Max recently re-released his second album, Far Beyond the Immobile Point, originally released in 2000. Two key features of this new, remastered version are (1) Max was able to segue all the tracks together, so we get to enjoy it as an unbroken flow, and (2) two bonus tracks. This all-synth, beatless, deep-ambient album now includes nine pieces, totaling nearly 75 minutes.

Any one of Max’s albums is evidence enough of his talent, commitment and maturity as an artist. Even this early in his career, Max’s sound-sculpting skills are clear, and goosebump-exciting to hear.

Primigenial Frontier is an ideal opener, capturing the entire album’s essence. It’s far away and vast, soothing and chilling. Everything is strangely illuminated, deep and still. A boundless intelligence, patient and probing, is suggested. “Primigenial” means firstborn, original, primary – and this feels just like that. We’re on the threshold of the unknown (and perhaps unknowable). It’s not even drift – this is a mesmerizing standstill. “Tantalizing” is the best word I can conjure for it. One just wants to behold this, with no need to move or look elsewhere.

Our journey proceeds through the unnerving, yet tempting Predawn Darkness, with its ominous, tectonic roars, to The Threshold, which can be a gateway to whatever the listener dares. Mystery, knowledge and the great power that comes with it, are all beckoning.

Soundless Sign is enigmatic and still, a mystic vision of expansion and depth. The bass sounds like our frame of reference dropping off below, as spacetime flies away from us in all directions.

This all brings us to the title track, by far the album’s longest piece at over 23 minutes. A wonderful glassy, shimmering and chiming, over a thrilling depth. Glorious, luminous chords slowly flying past. We have travelled a long way – where are we? Look within for the answer.

Delightful bursts of living light dispel the murk; exhilarating and sobering. There is so much we don’t know and cannot know, so much we can’t even imagine, but how can that matter when we are given so much? Our vision – our sense of what is possible, despite so much unknowable – is expanding. The final few minutes settle us right here, in an unimaginable fertile vastness, as we reconcile with that unknown.

The two bonus tracks, which conclude the album, both have striking titles. Ancient Transition instills a sense of eons past. What changed, and what of the ancient ways was lost in transition? Hundred Miles of Emptiness is calm, but not serene – still, but foreboding. Mysteries remain, and there is no presumption of answers here.

Far Beyond the Immobile Point is thrilling, ecstatic, beautiful and joyous to hear.  Highly recommended!

Bert Strolember, Sonicimmersion

This is the second release of Spanish composer Max Corbacho, presenting a collection of seven non-rhythmic, highly atmospheric ambient space tracks, so taking a different road than was heard on his nice debut «Vestiges».

The inspiration for «Far beyond the Immobile Point» actually came from the first chapter of Umberto Eco´s novel «Foucault’s Pendulum». Eco’s poetical vision of the universe presented in his work inspired Max to do a much more introspective and contemplative work. The music breaths far more abstraction and the lack of rhythm and percussion reinforced his vision of remoteness in the universe.

Overall, the quiet, slowly expanding and flowing music breaths a beautiful sense of darkness but remains accessible all the way.
«Invisible Jewel» is of a lighter nature and is strong piece of harmonious textural spacescapes drifting by.
The album, which is especially suitable as night music, concludes with the 20-minute title track, a great floating tour-de-force into the grandness and serenity of the cosmos surrounding us.

Recommended, especially for fans of Steve Roach.

P.S. In March 2011, «Far Beyond the Immobile Point» was re-released as a digital download, which included two unreleased bonus tracks («Ancient Transition» and «Hundred Miles of Emptiness») recorded at the same time of the intial recording of the album. In addition, all gaps between the tracks have been fixed, resulting in a seamless atmospheric ambient experience as originally intended by the composer.

Max Corbacho composed The Talisman between 2004 and 2006 which is essentially made up of a series of beautifully arranged, atemporal, and ocassionaly improvised ambient recordings that all share the artist’s passion for creating atmospheric and deeply contemplative sounds and textures.

Armed with his undeniably perceptive inspirations and imaginings, Max worked tirelessly (particularly with his Korg Triton and Z1) to produce a magnificent album that ranks very highly in the league of major post-2000 contributions to the genre.

» In the planning stage, I have developed an intense activity in deeply programming new sounds in my habitual equipment, my beloved Korg Triton & Korg Z1, and sound processing outboard expansion units such Reverbs and Delays, as well some other esoteric gear. I have tried to create all the songs of this work «inside» my synthesizers exclusively, inside this deeply isolated world, an amniotic-like innerspace that develops in the synth and multieffects circuits, without insert any «external» element except for the voices in the first song. Also, I have experimented more and more with long, spacious reverbs and looping treatments «.

There isn’t one track on this album that I don’t like; all of which, have been carefully crafted with a sense of passion and appreciation that Max has managed to interpret and transform into the kind of waves and peaks we love. Watch out for the incredibly effective use of delay and loops that are blended subtely with some truly enjoyable pads and sweeps.

The Talisman Max Corbacho’s sense of what’s vital in creating and inspiring moods based on a love of life and it’s very important that you share that sense immediately.

Colin Lynch

]]> 384 https://maxcorbacho.com/paul-rijkens-e-dition-magazine/ Fri, 03 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000 https://maxcorbacho.com/paul-rijkens-e-dition-magazine/ Leer más]]>

Paul Rijkens, E-dition magazine

The Spaniard Max Corbacho is a master in creating atmospheres. It is not the first time that I have put my admiration for his music in writing, for «The Talisman» this will not be different. Stronger: in my opinion with this album he has created his best work until now. Armed with modern synthesizers like Korg Triton and Z1, he makes wonderful stretched sounds that together form a magnificent moody image. But the music absolutely not sounds if he uses the presets from these instruments. The cd has eleven tracks but they all flow into each other in an intriguing way. Corbacho’s sounds are warm, intense, deep but also accessible. Actually, he goes further where Steve Roach, apparently a great example, has started long ago. It sounds like a text of an advertisement or tearsheet but I can’t help it because you must undergo this music like a warm glow. Tracks like «Reborn To Expansion», «Three Circles», «The Talisman» (especially this one) and «Cellular Memory» are absolute masterpieces in this ambient/space-area.

For me personally the music of Max Corbacho is the absolute top in this genre at this moment.
It seems a pleasure for me to see this man live some time.

Paul Rijkens

Ambient Soundscapes from Spain: an interview with Max Corbacho

Max, what were your first steps in music…. how did you get involved in electronic music?

During a long time, my first favorite groups were the big dinosaurs of the symphonic rock, Pink Floyd, Yes, Kansas, Genesis… and kindred bands. Besides, I felt a growing need to do this music myself. I bought my first instrument in those days, a Spanish guitar, which was followed by an acoustic guitar and then an electric one. For some years I played the electric guitar in several rock bands. Little by little, my love for the guitar began to calm down as my interest moved to other types of music, especially the ancient music, baroque in particular. I also began to listen to the classic artists of EM such as Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and some Americans like Richard Burmer. One night as I was visiting the house of a couple of friends, I found a cd with a beautiful photography of the American desert among their discs. I’d always liked those places, I usually visit them in Spain. I played the disc and in seconds I felt like «this is what I’ve always looked for and I’ve just found it». That was the first time I heard the music Steve Roach, Michael Stearns and Kevin Braheny and the cd «Desert Solitaire». To me it was my start in the electronic music…

How would you describe your music? Some called you «the Spanish Steve Roach» after they heard you first album….

I think that my music rises out of a desire to recreate what happens in nature, the endless source of visual and sonic richness. I try to figure out the mystery that makes us admire the beauty of natural surroundings, its simplicity, mystery of repetition etc.

I try «to amplify» the sounds, the textures of natural environments in the space and in the imagination, to discover zones that though they exist, they are not evident at first.

Thus, I don’t try to imitate real sound landscapes, my intention is rather to produce events, textures and phrases that are analogous in the richness of possibilities and variety of shades. I also intend to transmit that organic richness, the same emotion, reverence and passion that I feel for life, the world, the people…

Yes, some people call me the Spanish Steve Roach, but I honestly believe that Roach’s quality is so big and unique, of such impact in the music of our days, that any comparison is useless. His influence is evident in my music and in that of thousands of artists in the whole world. I hope to continue learning from him for many more years.

Can you tell us something about each of you albums, how they were made, what concepts you had in mind…

I made my debut «Vestiges», with few resources but a lot of patience. As a declaration of principles, I formed my musical direction with it: atmospheric environmental sounds with driving electronic percussion.

It was privately produced and stayed unnoticed for more than a year, until Cliff Tuell (Steve Roach’s webmaster) accidentally entered my web site and listened to the audio clips. From there on, and due to the positive comments of fans in the US I began selling my cds. My second album, «Far Beyond The Immobile Point», was an attempt to find another occult face of my music. It would have been easier to do compose another «Vestiges», which would have sold even better for sure, but I decided the new album should be something completely different. «Far Beyond … » was inspired by the first chapter of Umberto Eco’s novel «Foucault’s Pendulum». Eco’s poetical vision of the universe presented in his work inspired me to do a much more introspective and contemplative work. The music breaths far more abstraction and the lack of rhythm and percussion reinforced my vision of remoteness in the universe.

With «The Resonant Memory of Earth», I returned to the basics of «Vestiges». My passion for natural, desolate and remote places always inspired me. With a succession of quiet sounds and harmonies I recreated my feelings on these environments. It was a very emotive work for me, it coincided with a journey to the Sahara desert in Morocco where I explored the corners of my mind in search of answers.

«Nocturnal Emanations» was a new exploration of dark and desolate territories. Here, the magic mutation of the natural forms inspired my synthesizer grooves and sequences It was a new form of composition that I had never tried and that I’m still exploring. I began to generate a series of sounds obtained from field recordings, samples, etc. From then on, I started to morph all the sounds that, as seeds, were growing and transforming into something totally different, though preserving the characteristics of the initial seed. The grooves were treated in the same way.

«Indalo» was the first work with my friend Bruno Sanfilippo. He had just come from Argentina and that was the moment we met. We traveled together to Almeria, the desert south of Spain. The place astonished us and we decided to do something to reflect its nude beauty. I believe this disc is probably the darkest of my career, but it has a supernatural beauty.

And finally there’s my last work «Moontribe», a collection of both new and past pieces. Perhaps it’s here where I have developed more deeply my passion for morphing groovescapes and the surrounding atmospheres. It has coincided with the arrival of new equipment into, and it can be considered as a disc of transition, probably of what is forthcoming.

In this work I basically present a few compositions that were intended for collaborations. These collaborations were not produced due to different reasons, but one day, revising my tracks, I decided to use them in my new project. Fortunately everything began to take form and I completed it with adding three new pieces. I am very satisfied with the final result, especially its variety and richness.

Do you set yourself certain goals when composing new music or putting together an album?

Yes, I always try to improve and explore new ways in every new work. The artistic creation is a mental state that makes us feel life in all its intensity, but to come to this mental state everything must flow calmly. I practically try to revive all my experiences lived up to the moment, the ideas then flow and the mystery of the creation takes place.

How did you meet Bruno Sanfilippo?

When Bruno arrived at Spain, he contacted a record company in Barcelona to distribute his music in Spain. There he heard about me as it was the label where I had edited «Vestiges». We met each other and we decided to join our efforts in the diffusion of our respective careers. A great friendship was born out of this professional relationship.

What made you both decide to start your own record company ad21 music? How’s the company doing so far?

Releasing not dance-oriented electronic music is really complex nowadays. The distribution channels are rather complicated and sometimes you lose the control on what you do because there are few economic resources. The big record companies do not have this problem (though they have others), they count with a great structure and they work as refined companies where everything, even the smallest detail, is under control. This is not what generally happens in the small record companies, where the artist is inevitable damaged in the end. Today, private release seems to be one of the few alternatives that’s left for us. Furthermore, the internet and the piracy have changed the concept of releasing and selling music. We are in a deep moment of change and a classic conception of a record company does not work in these days. However, Bruno and I decide to start this venture; it is not easy due to the infinite details one must bear in mind. We’ve edited «Indalo», Bruno´s «Ad Libitum» and my own album «Moontribe» under our record label «ad21music». In all it was quiet exhausting since the three cds appeared at the same time. But, looking back on it, it’s an experience that was worth the effort. We will try to continue releasing our music through our label, but we will also consider releasing music of other musicians. The contact is always interesting and besides, every company record has its particular network that provides a general idea of the market.

What contacts do you have with other e-musicians? Is there anyone you’d like to work together sometime?

I usually contact many artists to exchange opinions and trade our cds. I remember one of the first was Jeff Pearce; I had edited «Vestiges» and he kindly commented the curious coincidence that the name of one of his disks was also «Vestiges». We exchanged our same titled cds and I discovered a great artist. Until then, I had never heard about him or his music. There were many other artists after him. We have even started a collaboration with Amir Baghiri; it’s on hold for the moment but it will probably come out some day.

I also have close contacts with musicians of the Barcelona scene, such as Dom F. Scab, John Lakveet, Odracir Lavid, Sergio Koval, etc. No doubt I’d like to work with many other artists, especially with the followers of the «Californian» school that I feel stylistically closer to.

Max, what’s your opinion about today’s electronic ambient music, how do you think it will develop?

There are two questions to analyze here: the artistic and the commercial one. Artistically, we are living a great moment, there are loads of artists doing big works and this is a good thing. The genre is evolving towards new forms and new ideas are born every day. Certainly, the technology encourages this bloom.

The other issue, the commercial one, seems to move in the opposite direction. The enormous amount of new music, ambient, space, electronic, etc. and the almost total oblivion of big means of diffusion of this genre make it very difficult to survive to it. I visualize this as two big waves, two big cycles evolving very slowly and, in any moment, maybe will coincide in a point, since everything is a cycle. I believe we must be ready for the moment we might benefit from the cycle.

What musical plans do you have in mind for the near future?

Right now I’m working on two new works. One continues the Techno-Tribal wave of «Moontribe», with new grooves and soundworlds.

The second one is a project that is called «The Talisman». I have been working on it for two years and it will probably take its definitive form somewhere this year. There will be no percussion on this disc and it will be my more atmospheric work until now. Part of this material was heard at my recent concert in Barcelona with Bruno Sanfilippo. For that occasion the pieces were accompanied by grooves, but in their final version they will be purely atmospheric.

You just mentioned the recent concert with Bruno Sanfilippo last February. Was this your first live-concert, how did things work out? Did you make any recordings of it?

Actually I had performed live before and I knew the pressure and the nerves before a performance. This was my first performance as an electronic musician and I’m quite satisfied with the outcome. Part of the success was due to having shared the work with my friend Bruno Sanfilippo.

In addition to this, we have relied on the collaboration of an excellent team of technical personnel, especially our visual effects technician did a great job.

All the pieces played at the concert were performed for the first time. Some of them are destined for new projects, others will be processed again to create new forms. Bruno and I first recreated the essence of «Indalo», our collaborative cd. Then each one has done a solo part with new tracks. We are planning to publish sound clips, video clips and photos of this event on our own web pages.

Website: www.maxcorbacho.com

Max Corbacho’s Moontribe is a heady collection of ethno-cyber-ambient rhythmic soundscapes that makes my blood race even while its darker elements cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up!

Hauntingly beautiful yet also shadowy and foreboding, the propulsive combination of ethnic beats with fractal and skitch rhythms on the opening “Suntribe” are buoyed by flowing washes of synthesizers. Obviously, comparisons can be made to either tribal or groove-oriented Roach recordings, but one could just as easily compare parts of this to psychetropic’s china radio sunshine. However, this is neither imitative nor derivative. The echoed booming effects that open “Out of Nothing” yield to kinetic fractal beats wedded to sensual primal rhythms (faint rainstick and rattle sounds surface now and then) along with a slurping sense of viscosity later in the track.

On the song “Distant Dwellings” the pulsing rhythms are unique, as least to my ears, consisting of bassy pulses and metallic skritches, which when mixed with ethereal high-pitched synths and low dronish chorales results in an imaginative propulsive trip across an alien landscape, teeming with a cybernetic lifestream coursing underneath you as you glide overhead. By the song’s end, though, the rhythms are gone, replaced by nocturnal sound effects and a flowing series of drones and washes. “Unknown Radiance” is a relatively rhythmless song, consisting of echoed animalistic sounds, heard as if from within a cave, along with deep slow washes of EM/spacemusic analog keyboards. “Across the Spectrum” returns the album to frenetic fractal/skitch beats as these are folded in slowly over the patient spacemusic textures. The beats eventually become pronounced and even oppressive (purposely), intermixed by what sounds like exhalations from an exhausted runner. The album concludes with the opus-length (nearly twenty minutes) title song, a slow excursion into dark soundscapes, a la Robert Rich from A Troubled Resting Place, although with a heavy dose of primal rhythms at its start, courtesy of more processed percussion on stone, stick, and hand drums. Percussion is deeply echoed and panned, so this song (if not the whole CD) would benefit from being played in a quiet dark room on a superb sound system. Most of this last track contains drifting mixtures of tones, drones, sounds, and alien effects in a miasma that both comforts the listener (somehow, Corbacho has instilled a sense of warmth in the music) and also creates a vague feeling of uneasiness. It all winds down slowly (maybe too slowly, as your patience may start to wear thin, although to the artist’s credit, he keeps things interesting even as the assorted elements evaporate one by one).

I’m sure people who have digested all of Steve Roach’s, vidnaObmana’s, and Robert Rich’s recordings could hear more similarities than I did on Moontribe, but I found the CD to be more than individualistic enough to keep me interested and entertained. I especially liked the blend of different percussion, beats, and rhythms that Corbacho used throughout the recording. Engineering is excellent, as mentioned above. For my money, while not as compelling as Terra Ambient’s The Gate, this album certainly deserves a spot on the same shelf. If darkly tinted ethno-tribal ambient, with some deep cosmos spacemusic thrown in for good measure, is your thing, Moontribe should prove to be a good purchase.

Bill Binkelman

WIND and WIRE

http://www.windandwire.com

– How did this collaboration between two musicians that on paper develop, if not antagonistic, at least different styles arise?

Max: Our first personal encounter was through Free Records, label where I edited my first CD Vestiges. When Bruno arrived to Spain they told him there was this crazy man who also made ‘special’ music for their label. We met and, personally, when I heard Bruno’s music and we talked about our passion for it, I knew we were soul mates. In the summer 2002 we made a trip to the south of Spain, to the supernatural and silent Natural Park of Cabo de Gata, in Almeria to be precise.

Bruno: We loved the place with its weird landscapes and all. We took pictures and audio samples of bugs and other curious things. Being marvelled with this place, we decided to create music that reflected how this place made us feel. The result was Indalo. It was an interesting fusion where we both moved away a little from our usual style, and that turned out to be a good thing, even nourishing!

– Listening to the song you include in MDEA vol. 8, under which lines did you decide to work together? Was there any previous planning or it came up improvising?

Max: There had been some improvising sessions and also an exchange of tracks that later on were treated and processed by each in his studio.

Bruno: Yes, both things have happened. I had never worked in this way. You brainstorm the ideas, like ‘splashing a canvas’, until, little by little, the work begins to shape up. When various ideas are presented we choose our next step. The truth is that you have a good time doing it and we enjoy the outcome. We like to think Indalo has elements from both of us

– Each of you are about t release new albums, in both of them you can clearly see an evolution in the sounds. Bruno’s music in Visualia is more and more luminous and environmental (except for the intro in part 5 that connects mysteriously and anthropologically with the Mexican Jorge Reyes or the American Steve Roach for example), while Max’s, in Nocturnal Emanations, deepens more in the cave like and earthly sounds. Lets just say that while Bruno is looking at the sky Max is looking at the depths of the planet and the thickest cosmos. I’d like you to comment, separately, on the motivations and changes in these new works, and insist on the fact of how you joined your strength in the same direction.

Max: I believe that these two works, Visualia and Nocturnal Emanations, are closer than between Bruno’s Suite Patagonia and my The Resonant Memory of Earth. Anyway, notice how in these two we talk about nature as the argumental base of the albums. In the new records, the approach is given by the use of the atmospheres and textures, we both bet closer to the ‘ambient’ concept. It is true that Bruno’s music has a ‘sacred’ component that invites us to look up to the sky –your appreciation seems accurate to me. And my music also tends to be cave like and earthly landscapes. But you should never forget there’s no earth without sky.

Bruno: I agree with Max. Besides, the album Indalo is our musical version of the volcanic atmosphere of Cape Gata and its strange beauty. It is also true that the colour of the sound changed but it is quite possible that every musician composes a work in relation to what he is living at that moment. It also lies in the huge ocean of its own memory. It seems to me that there’s nothing static, even less in our restless minds. As you can see, Max’s sound has evolved too. But anyway, there are artists who like to linger on known places.

– Bruno, Visualia is a very different to Suite Patagonia. The expansive character, almost movie-like, and the musical production of Suite Patagonia turns into a much more introspective record in Visualia, it’s less melodious and much more armonic with a minimalist character.

Bruno: It is pretty clear, basically, Suite Patagonia is more symphonic and poetical. On the other hand, in Viusalia I see the slow swirling ambience, it has other kind of depth. Let me see… I would say it’s an introspective CD, in a way I try to make the music awake those images that are hidden in our memory as if they were unconscious whispers. At least that’s from where I wrote it. But I still don’t know how people is going to react, it’s too new. The work may invite us to move to a timeless inner dimension, promoting the imagination and fantasy, I hope.

– There are great creations in Visualia, Visualia III for example. We are facing a visual, touchable and descriptive music. How do you develop that capacity to describe images, which are different for each listener, with music?

Bruno: Honestly, I’m really happy that you liked the album. Well, at least Visualia III looks like it. Thanks!

Each composition in the album is represented by an image by Janet Parke, an US artist that makes some drawings with very inspiring fractals. We sensed with Janet a very strong aesthetic bond between our works. But as you said, each listener makes his own visual trip. I don’t know how it happens. Of course, every artist is interested in the effect of their work, that his art provokes a certain emotional effect. Visualia contains interwoven pieces of a continual but almost imperceptible transformation. They appear, in different planes, countless sounds of organic texture that may create reminiscences of the earth and its inhabitants. I believe Visualia isn’t hard on the ears but I don’t believe it’s for listening it in the kitchen while you are making macaroons either.

-Max, you’ve always been labelled as the follower of advanced student of Steve Roach. Anyway, throughout your recordings you can clearly see your personal contributions to that sound that evolved form the American space to what it is today. From my point of view, your music is more lyric and organic than the one from the American master. They are very personal and hard to explain details but how would you explain your musical evolution from the arrogant Vestiges up to today?

Max: First of all, I’d like to thank the great American masters like Rich, Roach, etc because they showed to a whole new generation the way to the unexpected moment.

As regards my evolution, you can analyse it basically through two aspects. First, my personal, psychic growing as an individual evolution, and continual discovery of the surrounding world (trips, personal experiences, etc). I think this conditions me extraordinarily, and the growth and enrichment is translated into the music. Secondly, as son of the time I had to live in, technology pushes me to experiment and search for new roads and new frontiers to explore every day. I often have the feeling – I talk about this in Nocturnal Emanations script – that my music shifts as a live organism and, at this point, this evolution points to a greater abstraction, as if the elements of which it was made of at the beginning , as in Vestiges, were dissolving little by little, mixing and flowing really slowly, creating new structures and textures in an eternal mutation.

– Max, where would you say your music stands in a physical plane? In the cosmos, the depths of the earth, half way?

Max: In «Far Beyond the Immobile Point» I tried to recreate the poetical universe in which Umberto Eco situated his pendulum, in the remotest place of cosmos. Up to now that was my only incursion to ‘the space’. Now I stay half way. I’m interested in the earth as the scenery of my music. I have the constant need of escaping from the city and feel that surface. I prefer lonely places where the man doesn’t disturb the silence. Perhaps this is an echo from my early years which took place in a lonely farmhouse in Badajoz province. A place where time goes by slowly, where the view gets lost in the horizon and the word ‘space’ makes sense.

– You both are musicians that have always shown interest in the ethnic and tribal things. Bruno made that pretty clear in the master piece Suite Patagonia. And Max has always incorporated in his sounds chamanic percussion. Up to what point do you feel incorporated to the ethnical musical world?

Max: I’ve always felt an absolute fascination for the ancestral cultures and, of course, by its music. In Vestiges, as a declaration of principles, the first piece, Desolada, already presents those powerful ethnical percussion. I’m still investigating into that kind of music so as to enrich myself with all that wisdom and magic in involves. Now, I’m fascinated with the Bereber music. Recently, I was able to hear it live on a trip to Morocco. I was so impressed by it that I now have a fusion project with some of its elements. Due to the evolving process of evolution I was talking about earlier, that is the dissolution of the basic element that make up my music, also the percussion are more abstract every time. For example, the ones in Nocturnal Emanations are basically tribal grooves that have been conveniently treated so as to acquire a synthetic quality but keeping the root and ethnical character.

Bruno: I’m attracted by the idea of composing incorporating sounds of different cultures. I believe that the purity of its fragrance contributes with a strong emotional content. I also believe that part of its ‘visual’ things in my music has to do with that evoking to the sonorous origin of the man. I also use the timbric of the synthesiser trying to create an ocean of latent images. I’m convinced that the ‘sonoric psico-ambients’, so to name them, will be more developed in the future music.

– Is there something you would like to say apart from all the things I would have liked to ask but I didn’t have time to?

Max & Bruno: We just wanted to thank your interest in our music. Your questions have been interesting and pleasant to answer. I hope we can enjoy, for a long time, your prestigious magazine and its CDs.

Ambient artists Bruno Sanfilipo and Max Corbacho merge their considerable talents for Indalo, a brooding, eerie, powerful excursion into dark ambient soundscapes peppered with occasional ethno-tribal rhythms, filled with primal sensuality, and laced throughout with palpable mystery and ancient ritual. Use of echo drenched in moisture and field environmental recordings of nocturnal creatures lends the recording a distinct mixture of subterranean and deep jungle evocations, a juxtaposition which works amazingly well and is one hundred percent cohesive. The album opens with the 22-minute title track, a long expansive slowly developing piece, filled with deep rumblings, cavern-like sounds that are both animal and mineral in sonic characteristic and higher pitched whistling melodic drones, similar in character to spacemusic. Percussion, of the type normally associated with ethno-tribal ambient, infiltrates at the midpoint of the track, played with energy and passion amidst rising and falling swells of drones and washes, but the beats don’t stick around long, replaced by warm glowing electronic waves and a scattering of environmental sounds.

Six other tracks fill the rest of Indalo with everyting from burbbling fluid effects (heard at the start of «The Agave emerges on the dry earth») to spacious vast washes and drones floating over deep but subtle thunder-like rumblings to swirling almost oppressive drones counterpointed by organic-electronic pulses on «Lava Atmospheres» to «Cabo de Gata» which begins somewhat calm and placid with rattles shaken on top of the relatively quiet synths, but building into a dense multiple-layered drone that seems to be everywhere all at once. «A lucid dream of strange landscapes» has an air of desert desolation as the night creatures come forth and the air cools from the overpowering heat of the day and the full moon reveals a landscape carved out of rock and sand and cast in dark illusive shadows.

Indalo is not a recording that can be completely appreciated if played in the background where some of this album will come across only as so much drones and synths. The astute listener will either listen to this on excellent speakers in a dark quiet room or at least use headphones to fully absorb the subtle complexity of the mix. Indalo is highly charged with atmosphere and mood, so the more you can immerse yourself in the sounds from this CD, the more seductive you will find the recording to be. At times, the mood of the CD is actually peaceful (such as the majority of the closing track «Signs of former experiences»), albeit not syrupy sweet or ethereal, but rooted in the lack of noticeable tension in many places.

This CD is an easy recommendation to fans of this subgenre (darker drone ambient music) unless the person is so averse to some tribal elements (which are few and far between) that even a hint of their presence would ruin the experience for them. While the CD can be a tad monochromatic at times, as long as you don’t expect it to startle you or invigorate you, you’ll be thoroughly satisfied with this album.

review by Bill Binkelman