Expansive, drifting ambient zones – beatless, minimal. The series of compositions on Breath Stream are smooth, flowing sonic states that fade seamlessly one into another creating an unbroken listening experience. Airy drones and steady velvet washes gently rise and fall in graceful slow motion, the sound thickening into harmonious even tone in places, then dispersing into almost atonal enormity. At times the intensity of the music drops down low as if the listener were increasingly isolated, distant, remote – or perhaps simply more profoundly at rest, wholly immersed and almost motionless. Beguiling effects burble or flutter on the peripheries, little motes and flickers some barely perceived, sonic breezes drifting through the aural space.

MOOD

The most pervasive mood here is one of almost blissful submission – a captivating serenity imbued with a sense of enveloping immensity. The track titles effectively draw together strands of galactic isolation and deeply personal inner experience – The Great Breath, This Luminous Space, No Day nor Night, Pure Being. Max’s music suggests the tranquil euphoria of being suspended weightless among morphing luminous nebulae, warm clouds of shifting colour, beautiful dreams and faintly recalled memories.

ARTWORK

The Breath Stream jewelcase is a deep, dark spacey blue package. Initially the main image appears as a view of infinite space – closer inspection reveals a horizon, one bright spiralling arm laid out like a flat plain stretching away into the distance. Above starlike clusters form further spirals, spirals of spirals – clusters of imaginary galaxies. Similar visuals fill the rear cover – an unobtrusive tracklist hanging in the upper left quadrant – times alongside. The two panel insert opens to display a closer view of the front cover image – here focussed on the foreground – a little like a glass bottomed boat to the universe. Information is minimal – credits to the left a quote from Vietnamese Monk Thich Nhat Hanh to the right – «Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.»

OVERALL

Breath Stream builds upon the solid foundation laid down by Max Corbacho’s previous release The Talisman. Coming now as the eighth release from this rising Spanish ambient star – the new album exhibits a formidable depth of sound unveiled with masterful restraint. Much of the music arose from long improvisational sessions utilising Max’s collection of hardware synths, catching those moments of magic – selecting and arranging the most absorbing passages into unbroken flow. The album is to be the first of a series of digital releases, offering downloads at iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic and Napster, among others, and, also, full CD quality downloads through the well respected new download platform www.musiczeit.com. Catch some samples at the Musiczeit page.

WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM

If you enjoyed The Talisman then Breath Stream will take you further into the rapture and beauty of Max’s enormous musical space. This is a release for fans of warm, inviting, minimal ambience with the soft sonic density of Thom Brennan, Numina and Steve Roach. No beats – just infinite space – effulgent, dark, rich in colour, perpetually black.

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

Stéphan Geschiere, independent reviewer, Holland

«Wow, what a impressive release Max did! It was really worth waiting for. Knowing Max’s other well received releases ‘Vestiges’ and ‘Far beyond the Immobile Point’, this one is ‘even’ more overwhelming to me.. The 4 pieces takes you into new ‘enlightning’ places… The opening piece ‘Remote Sensing’ starts with long stretched breathing sounds and .. then after 10 minutes it changes into a some darker -incredible- powerfull space (but which is never forced). It sounds / feels like a approaching desert storm of an unknown

measure & power. I haven’t heard such an endearing sound in some time…wow..

After this giant storm we gather into a cristal-clear, serene and very silent out-stretched place. A place of loneliness as well as a place where a feeling of warmth embraced you. Quite ‘visceral’ to me! Remarkable, but while writing this review and hearing those pieces at

the same time, I realize how well the titles describe those ‘images’. ‘Magenta beauty’ has a similar feeling. I really like those metallic-like floating sounds. The final piece, continues the beautiful shimmering warm waves of sound with an excellent, entrancing rhythm-pattern, into -I wish- a never ending place… Definitely a ‘very’ inspired, oh so..subtle album which give each listen something new… Max’s travels to such -quiet- places as the African Sahara Desert, los Monegros in Aragon, province Lleida and Cap de Creus (which was also a inspiring / inviting place to Salvador Dali) in Catalonia brings him to new levels of psychically awareness, so to be heard. Highly recommended..

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