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

Peace, all the best!!
Max Corbacho

One of my dreams came true!!! Yeah, definitely as this long-form piece was originally released during the spring of 2015 as a digital download only, in shorter 58-minute version. As far I remember, it was just before «Splendid Labyrinths» CD was officially introduced. «Future Terrain» has immediately received a lot of positive feedbacks from many drone ambient connoisseurs across the globe, so when Max Corbacho made the deal with Vitaly Savisko, the driving force behind Moscow based enthusiastic GS Productions label, no wonder I was one of the happiest guys on the planet, eagerly awaiting a glass mastered edition of this dronescaping gem!!! Released January 10th, 2017 in a limited edition of 100 copies, the CD comes in a really elegant matte 6-panel digipak featuring original cover image rendering by 3D artist Lee Griggs with additional image treatment, cover design and layout by visual artist Michael Rodriguez Pletz, who has already worked with Max Corbacho on «Splendid Labyrinths» cover. The mastering duties are handled by Ian Hawgood.

With pressing the play button on my CD player, I am immediately carried away into awe-inspiringly immense sceneries fastidiously displayed by ultra immersing cover images. Thrillingly unfathomable free-floating drifts are meticulously magnified with gargantuan humming magmas. Utterly expansive amorphous horizons persistently keep on billowing and transmuting from desolately magnificent into heavenly multidimensional graciousness, while spellbindingly monochromous drone gurgles constantly reawake, permeate, cascade and climax through ear-bending transcendental glimpses. Cinematic magnitudes inconspicuously pervade across and join this exquisitely staggering and disastrously thick drone scenario. Shifting from gracefully monumental «Ars Lucis» majesty to intensely abysscaping «The Ocean Inside» zones, from tremendously engrossing «Splendid Labyrinths» enigmas to breathtakingly monolithic «Future Terrain» meridians. An all-inclusive heavyweight aural spectacle unfolds all its atmospheric magic here, masterfully amalgamating perpetually enveloping spheres of spatial solitariness and mysterious infiniteness with vigorously crescendoing ear-blowing reverberations and spectacularly helixing, yet sweepingly panoramic vistas, here and there intriguingly augmented by glancing monstrous calmness. Yes, 74-minute «Future Terrain» precisely explores some of the most essential symmetries between profoundly embracing endless spaciousness and prodigiously tenebrous zones.

Unmistakable audible insignias of Max Corbacho are relentlessly glimmering through this powerfully transporting journey, exhibiting some of the most nebulous, lower end graced domains this Spaniard has ever carved during his stellar, nearly 20 years long recording career. Balmily colossal realms are virtuosically juxtaposed by sonorously devastating stratums, enter now «Future Terrain»!!! Huge thanks to Max & Vitaly for this physical edition!!! So guys, and what about «Deep Time»…? Oh, and not to forget, Max Corbacho has just announced two days ago the release of long awaited «Nocturnes» album, no release date is set yet, but the album is at the pressing plant already, so definitely keep an ear to the ground!!! Max Corbacho is one of the undisputable masters of the deepest sonic meditations!!! And by the way, since November 2016, there is available also extended digital version of legendary «Indalo» collaborative album, now credited to Max Corbacho only, with additional two tracks, each clocking to 20 minutes.

 Richard Gürtler (Apr 09, 2017, Bratislava, Slovakia)

 SPLENDID LABYRINTHS – Max Corbacho
maxcorbacho.com

I am a fan of the music of Spanish musician Max Corbacho. In these times of hurry, bustle and nervousness, there are fortunately still artists who can make a contribution to a little relaxation. In 1998 his first cd Vestiges appeared. On this he sounded a bit like a descendant of the American ambient master Steve Roach. He worked with his equally talented Bruno Sanfilippo. Over the years, Max has increasingly developed his own sound which reflects peace and calmness. It is the perfect mixture between ambient and space music. Splendid Labyrinths contains music he has made over the last two years. The structure and approach is similar to that on the album The Ocean Inside. I was quite impressed with that album and this is no different with Splendid Labyrinths. On six tracks he again manages to create a great atmosphere. We don’t hear much melody lines, it is about soundscapes. And if there is some melody, like in the opening track The Flowing Path, it is processed very subtle in the music. This Flowing Path is a beautiful title that fits the music perfectly. It is uplifting but sometimes has a slightly dark touch. For instance, this is the case in Towards The Center and Earth Womb. Sometimes Corbacho manages to frame its music with soft effects, such as Wave Of Reflection. Towards the end of Shaping The Endless the music becomes softer. This is just another great title. This splendid music leaves me with wonder. Splendid Labyrinths is available as a CD and download.

©Paul Rijkens, Dutch progressive rockmagazine iO Pages

 FUTURE TERRAIN –  Max Corbacho

 (GS PRODUCTIONS)

  I have described Max Corbacho’s music as an ocean of calmness. The music of the Spanish composer and electronic musician is excellent suitable for seeking and finding tranquillity. Corbacho says Future Terrain is a remote sci-fi futuristic landscape. I can only agree with that. He created the music in 2015 while working on the sessions for his album Splendid Labyrinths. Earlier, it was only available as a download but it is also out on cd now. And rightfully so because Future Terrain again contains ambient music of great class and beauty. In comparison to his other albums, this album shows one continuing piece of music of almost 74 minutes. The result is great. You hear long held chords that go deep, very deep. There are moments when the music becomes softer and softer until at a certain moment it almost seems to fade away. But then the fine synthesizer sounds swell again and continues Max in a loop. At about an hour this reaches a magnificent climax, after which soft tones take over again. This is music that the listener must undergo. You will have to sit down for it. I don’t recommend it while doing the dishes or something. Corbacho is a master in creating this kind of fantastic atmospheres. I have a big admiration for that.

©Paul Rijkens, Dutch progressive rockmagazine iO Pages

Greetings to all. Indalo is here again!!  Waiting for all the new music to be revealed, and for those who have asked for the relaunch of Indalo for a long time, the digital edition is now available here in my Bandcamp store. In the coming days, it will be launched on all digital portals, Spotify, and all other Streaming services.
Indalo is a record taken from an old collaboration with my friend and composer Bruno Sanfilippo. Released in 2003 as a CD, for several years this work has been unavailable in any format, both digital and physical, in spite of being habitual in the schedules of radio stations like Heart of Space, Star’s End and others. After continuing receiving many requests from fans during all this time, and in response to this demand, Indalo will be available as a digital release through maxcorbacho.com. To further improve the experience and rediscovery of this work, two unreleased tracks have been  added to the original seven in the Bandcamp download. These two tracks were created during the year 2002 and presented as candidates to appear on the album. In the end, they were not selected and have remained hidden all these years. Today, I think the addition of these two forgotten tracks add interest to a work that many of my new followers do not know, but I think they will like it. The album, by express wish of Bruno, is credited only and definitely as a solo album by Max Corbacho in a new and redesigned cover art. Hope all you enjoy this music. Order the Digital Download direct from Bandcamp.
This is all for now, please keep in touch, I hope to send you more news soon!

All the best,
Max Corbacho

Always primal, universal, and profound! 

Max Corbacho creates a wall of sonorous sound, that transports the ‘listerner’ through aural corridors, where ease abides, and no mythical ‘Minotaur’ lurks within the corridors to crash the party. Corbacho’s lastest effort is simply entitled: «Splendid Labyrinths» it delivers on all fronts, as one would expect from a an artist of this magnitude. If your unfamiliar with Max, he’s an ambient ‘titan’ to say the least. Much akin to fellow artists like Thom Brennan, Telomere, and Michael Neil. His back-catalog is rife with numerous musical projects dealing with both the metaphysical realms, along with universal concepts such as: space, time, and eternity. My favorite cuts occur within the middle of the CD: «Earth Womb», and «Wave of Reflection». You travel down, and twist through corridors of thought, into the realm of deep inquiry, where self-illumination awaits the curious wayfarer. Corbacho’s stuff is always primal, universal, and profound! A highly recommended addition for your ambient library.

Review by eTripper.

Em 2012, Max lançava «The Ocean Inside» (ouça aqui), que iria se tornar meu companheiro desde então até os dias de hoje. Nele, o atravessamento percorre com excelência a simbiose entre som e visão; as sonoridades verdadeiramente criavam imagens. Era um «exame» do oceano interno que as pessoas carregam; como ele é afetado pelas interferências da superfície, e não havia dualidade simples naquele disco – era tudo complexo e intrincado demais, porque carregamos um peso invisível mais denso que a água.

Então, durante três anos eu fiquei aguardando o que Max poderia fazer de novo e, usando um trocadilho infame, como ele poderia sair das profundezas do oceano e lançar alguma coisa que pudesse soar tão «necessário» quanto aquele disco. E o que parecia improvável aconteceu. «Splendid Labyrinths» é a única continuação possível que seu antecessor poderia ter (em 2015, ele também lançou «Future Terrain», disco com uma única faixa, de cinquenta e oito minutos).

Aqui, os elementos mais «soltos» estão lapidados de forma que parecem querer se desgarrar sempre do ambiente principal criado por Max, mas eles estão presos, eles têm que confrontar o eixo central do disco.

A progressão dos elementos não vai eclodir, ao contrário da maioria dos trabalhos de música ambiente, em uma imersão clímax, em que cada detalhe é reunido em uma sinfonia final. A imersão é o principio de «Splendid Labyrinths», todos os retornos estão nessa introspecção.

Eu tenho o palpite de que Max quer exigir mais dos seus ouvintes e ser visto como um artista que não vacila perante questões mais «complexas». Prova disso é a falta de ideia de como «mensurar» as justaposições. Qual som é o que? Qual é o principal fio condutor? São perguntas que Max não está com muita vontade de responder. Ao contrário, ele prefere destrinchá-las em ambivalências constantes e descontínuas.

Essa combinação de elementos produz efeitos semelhantes a labirintos dentro de outros labirintos, parece que o reencontro é necessário, pois ele provoca surpresa e espanto. Toda essa imersão talvez fosse só conceito e só teoria se a principal tática de Corbacho não fosse os acontecimentos organizados pelo corpo sonoro que não oferece saídas. Alguns sons são tão objetivamente bonitos que Max teve que trabalhar «ao contrário»; ou seja, descobrir maneiras de uns não se digladiarem com os outros, mas coexistirem em movimentos constantes e lentos de atração-repulsão.

Não há um estado permanente e por isso as passagens caracterizam um evento; é, sobretudo, um acontecimento! Um deslumbramento! O irônico é como estamos em um jogo de opostos, pois não há saída em «Splendid Labyrinths», e estamos deslumbrados com algo que efetivamente não proporciona um fim.

Esse disco é, sobretudo, reflexo de uma dúvida constante. Mas Corbacho não se lamenta por sua indecisão; ele caracteriza suas angústias com desdobramentos sonoros que apelam pra sons eletrônicos, microfonia e outras técnicas pra revelar sua matéria-prima principal; o aprisionamento no incerto.

Por tanta incerteza, que os movimentos de transe organizam a ideia de caos em espaços vazios e desregulados. É desse encontro entre a falta de uma necessidade (sentido) e a urgência por expressão que os labirintos são criados. Pode-se dimensionar toda a vida e exuberância desses sons rivalizando com os obstáculos que Corbacho cria; é que em seu mundo claustrofóbico até a prisão merece ser descrita com esmero. Ele está preso pelas suas incertezas, mas elas com certeza não o limitam e provavelmente é o oposto! É entre o mórbido (a representação de um mundo morto, sem possibilidades) e o fascínio com essa ausência que temos os trechos mais representativos de «Splendid Labyrinths».

Sob um domínio de sons que, de algum modo, parecem íntimos, que podemos digerir coisas tão pesadas e essenciais, em que o ambiente equaciona e sem dualismos simples cria imposições tão fortes e ambivalentes – tudo é denso e passageiro. Todos os sons que saem desse disco têm um potencial, eles não só resgatam o ouvinte de uma passividade pra atirá-lo em uma espiral decididamente confusa e nebulosa em que podemos atravessar sensações muito além de um abstracionismo teórico. É como se o terrível se potencializasse tanto que todas suas continuações fascinassem pelo aspecto enigmático.

A obcecação de Max reside em explorar lugares conhecidos cada vez sob uma nova perspectiva. Como se a própria vida fosse elaborada de breves retornos e cada um destes exigissem novas abordagens e novos enfrentamentos. Pra Corbacho, é impossível atravessar o mesmo lugar da mesma maneira. A dissolução de elementos orquestrais em uma «sinfonia» etérea, os layers que amplificam a sombra desses instrumentos – se Max cria um reino fantástico pra respostas impossíveis e saídas inexistentes, deve isso a um imenso apuro e paciência em que se baseiam suas longas projeções oníricas.

Durante toda a audição do álbum, pode-se correlacionar tanto os elementos sonoros das músicas quanto as referências aos títulos, pois «Splendid Labyrinths» é o desdobramento dos cantos mais sinuosos pra atravessar e, ao mesmo tempo, estabelece uma relação de repeito gigantesco por essas localizações. Max não quer apenas iluminar o que está escondido, mas almeja também representar sua dúvida perante o submerso; é, então, uma perseguição impossível ao que não pode ser revelado.

Não há término nas canções desse álbum e nem poderia existir; cada música é uma justaposição dos elementos sonoros anteriores e elas basicamente reverberam no mesmo timbre e no mesmo ambiente onírico – elas não iludem o ouvinte com falsa realidade, elas alteram o ouvinte com diferentes perspectivas do «real». É um mundo demasiado vivo e confuso.

Isso não é música ambiente pra «relaxar», as possibilidades criadas pro Corbacho exigem enfrentamentos, atravessamento; é como uma semente que só pode brotar de quem habita a dúvida e o incerto. É um campo de tensão em que tudo se contorce e tudo volta. As paisagens sonoras criadas por Max reconhecem a incapacidade de uma perfeição, enquanto trabalham pra uma produção imagética sempre viva e fluída, todas as representações em «Splendid Labyrinths» transpiram perguntas, é um álbum denso que aprisiona o ouvinte em suas movimentações.

A aptidão de Max sempre foi indubitável. Mas a partir de 2012, com «The Ocean Inside», ele tem mirado em construções que desafiam envolvimentos unilaterais, com sons verdadeiramente bonitos que mantém uma áurea de mistério e incompreensão.

PUBLICADO POR FERNANDO AUGUSTO LOPES, NO DIA 7 DE OUTUBRO DE 2015

www.botequimdeideias.com.br/flogase/resenha-max-corbacho-splendid-labyrinths/