Matt Howarth. SONIC CURIOSITY

This release from 2006 offers 72 minutes of calming ambience. Expansive tonalities conspire with dramatic electronics to generate lavish soundscapes linking abstract realms with human ambitions. Textures flow seamlessly, ascending to untold altitudes while simultaneously burrowing deep into the listener’s cerebellum. Ponderous tones swirl and coalesce while delicate embellishments waft through this sonic medium. Tenuous sounds gurgle softly in the distance, approaching to loom overhead as they evoke moody sedation.

Swaying from lobe to lobe, the harmonic streams connect instinct and deduction, blurring the distinctions between these ruminations with fragile structures of drifting resonance. Contemplation is urged into being, rousing cognitive associations between outer physicality and inner reflection.

While generally harmonic in nature, this music does possess a hint of melodic substance which remains meticulously just beyond clear perception, inciting the listener to reach past their peripheral hearing and discover an external psychic territory. This extraneous region is seasoned by luxurious electronic effects of subtle definition which suitably flavor the harmonic flow without interfering with the tuneage’s overall soothing efficacy.

Minimal substantiality adopts a greater proportion as the textural currents produce an infinite panorama of pensive disposition. Introspective passages are drenched with shrewdly crafted ambience that stimulates cellular memory, filling the listener’s mind with vast potential.

This music achieves a lofty presence very much in the vein of Steve Roach’s tranquil compositions.

Moontribe” is contains a collection of previously not published tracks, meant for collaborative projects that finally did not see the light, plus two totally new pieces. I must say it’s great Max didn’t put them on the shelf, as the music presented here is some pretty awesome stuff. It’s an impressive aural journey of 67 minutes through vast tribal-ambient territory in which organic soundscaping comes together with strong rhythmic counterpoints. Captivating tribal rhythms and moving groovescapes know how to pamper the ears. Max proves he can stand in his own right next to ambient-mastery of Steve Roach and alike. The music on “Moontribe” is heartfelt and left a deep impression on me. This bright and varied recording is an absolute must-have fort the fans.

Glenn Folkvord / Electronic Shadows

«Nocturnal Emanations is Max Corbacho’s fourth album, a seamless longform work of ambient soundscapes, subtle electronic-tribal rythms, and sampled sounds. While perhaps not the most innovative combination of styles and sounds (many artists create this kind of ambient music) it all comes together in a pleasant mix and with an uplifting spirit. The sampled sounds fit very well with electronic textures, wether they are jungle sounds or more abstract underwater impression.

For those who think that 73 minutes of ambient floating music is too much, there are a handful of tracks with subtle beats and rythms, such as on The slow and wandering dust where electronic sounds (not typical drum or percussion sounds) are sequenced into gentle beat patterns that gives the ambient pads support and a sense of dynamic movement. On Along the moonlit rift the rythm patterns are slightly heavier, probably sampled sounds and processed electronically, but still quite «light» and full of space. But the general feeling of the album is that of far-out ambient space sounds, firmly rooted in electronic territory, without the use of flutes, guitar or wind chimes. The sound quality is excellent too; a professional recording and production.

Nocturnal Emanations falls nicely between Steve Roach’s Early Man and Jean Michel Jarre’s Waiting for Cousteau (the title track) with many details to discover during repeated listening sessions.