MAX CORBACHO[Max Corbacho has been creating Ambient Atmospheric – Electronic Music for over two decades, combining spiraling, synth-driven drifting harmonies with breathing, timeless soundscapes.][Ambient Atmospheric – Electronic Music - Soundscapes - Space Music]

THE OCEAN INSIDE – Review by MORPHEUS MUSIC

max — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:16:17 +0000

January 2013
Long-form drifting, beatless ambience.

STYLE
The Ocean Inside wells up out of silence in silken mists of tone that imperceptibly condense into an immense ocean of sound that surrounds you before you know it. The initial feeling is warm and softly wondrous; a sense of floatation is well established and you are immersed, carried willingly by tides unnoticed. Tracks segue seamlessly from one into another and so the experience is unbroken, constant, pervasive. Shifts in tone or character are subtle: brighter string sounds introducing currents of sharper intensity; deep atonal pads suggesting descent; choral hints inviting reverie. The seventh track on disc one eventually fades away into silence – allowing the final piece to stand somewhat alone – almost half an hour in length Towards The Bottomless Sea is a velvety minimal tidal impression of great delicacy drawing the meditative nature of this album to an impressive slow-motion conclusion. Disc two continues where disc one leaves off: further exploration of fluid enormity and buoyancy developing this restful opus into near-total absorption.

ARTWORK
A matt-finish double-disc digipack; The Ocean Inside is drenched in deep night blue hues throughout. The subtle panorama that is revealed when all three panels are spread out suggests a body of water of indeterminate extent. Touches of light dapple the lower parts whilst faint beams gently illuminate the higher regions. Text is unobtrusive: titles on the rear with track times alongside; credits on the remaining outer section. Within, nothing disturbs the smooth watery expanse of colour except a single repetition of the title.

OVERALL
The Ocean Inside is the eleventh solo album from Spanish ambient master Max Corbacho. Released via his own ad21 label, this double album sees Max demonstrating the tranquil immensity that this genre can encompass when at its best. The aural equivalent to a vast, vast colourfield painting, The Ocean Inside fills your mental space with densely saturated morphing zones that extend for almost two and a half hours in total. Most pieces are of medium length ranging from four minutes to almost sixteen; the recordings that conclude each disc however are of greater length – twenty-nine minutes thirty-one seconds and twenty-four minutes eight seconds respectively. Max himself says of the music: «More than two years ago I started this project from an Eastern concept that has always been present in my work: the analogy that exists between the mind as an ocean, with constantly changing waves at the surface, and the inner stillness and silence at the depths.» You can hear the music at Max’s official website where there are a range of purchase and download links.

THE RESONANT / Morpheus Music

max — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Morpheus Music & The Mall Magazine

MUSIC

Smooth, synthetic ambient zones. This is an album of immersive atmopheres without beat or melody, designed to set the listener adrift. Welling up like waves on the shore, washes of tone arise and roll one over another in constant succession – some deep and sonorous, some light, thin, others full of sonic detritus caught in the tide – percussive rattles like churning pebbles. Ever-receeding surges of sound drain back into the next wave. As the album pulls away from the shoreline the electronic ocean becomes dark and obscure in places, floating forms drifting by, heavy masses of tone heaving and pulling. Tracks blend one into another, the only indication of a progression usually being a lessening of intensity, a lightness as if surfacing momentarily. New tracks subtly intorduce fresh voices into the mix and some shifts of scale.

ARTWORK

Liquid ripples and solarised reflections fill two panels of the cover booklet in rich blues, turquoises, terracotta hues and dark shadows. The title text sitting in a heavy border of shadow near the base. On the reverse an ambiguous out of focus photo-image works as backdrop for the titles and an explanation of the project. Within we find a gear list, recording details and credits, some special thanks and contact information – this is presented on a white background with an accompanying monochrome reflection image.

OVERALL

For his third album, Max Corbacho presents four longform pieces ranging from just over six minutes to thirty eight minutes fifteen seconds. Designed for continuous playback – the tone is generally a serious one drifting somewhere in between warmth and cold. The concept behind the music is that of the «earth call» – what Max describes as «that feeling pulling us away from the cities to seek contact with the rock, the earth and water …». A strong sense of space with something of the viscosity of liquid pervades this album – the listener is able to feel suspended in sound, surrounded in all directions, afloat, immersed

VESTIGES / Morpheus Music Reviews

max — Wed, 01 Mar 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Morpheus Music & The Mall Magazine

STYLE

Gliding ambient serenity with hypnotic hand drumming. Max Corbacho’s first CD drifts over the listener like soft sand and silk, weightless wafts and gossamer veils of synthetic tone rising and falling in delicate harmony. The tone is light and dreamy, floatational and airy – atmospheric rather than oceanic, skybound rather than subterranean. The percussive content is confined to the first four pieces – here gentle loops comprised of organic beats with an ethnic flavour roll round evenly, trance-inducing, repeating until a part of the fabric of the environment. As the album progresses the introspective nature of the music increases – the beautiful Erosion lulling and spacious leading into the final three beatless tracks. The shadows pull in somewhat toward the end, Vestiges opening with a twilight moodiness that seems to open into a clear night – the listener a solitary presence in a vast panorama.

ARTWORK

Desert scenery, blue skies and windswept grass patches support a huge red rockmass transported from elsewhere. The craggy surface is engraved with an enormous square spiral – a hint of tribal mystery, a futuristic symbol calling to the distant past. The rear cover holds another desert scene where track titles and credits sit in a lightened oblong panel. Inside a two page booklet opens out to extend the front cover photograph – track titles fading into the picture at the far left. The innermost panels are black and white – another desert, pale and drained forming a backdrop to an explanation of the project.

OVERALL

The artwork on Vestiges intentionally places the album in the desert ambient genre – a style that Max Corbacho develops with considerable skill. The album was produced, written, performed, recorded and mixed by Max Corbacho, at Max´s Studios in Sabadell (Barcelona) in 1998. Released on Freerecords, the CD consists of seven mid-length tracks around six to eight minutes each totalling 53 minutes 54 seconds in all. This album will appeal to anyone looking for something buoyant and expansive with tribal beats and smooth synthetic polish.