Second collaborative work between Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana, after the double cd "Well of Souls" (Projekt 1995). I'm really not that familiar with their production, so I honestly can't comment on possible differences or evolutions/involutions in their sound. Anyway, I guess a conoisseur will be able to recognize their style: ritual ambient merging impalpable drones (the first part of "Isolation"), melodic suggestions and percussive parts with a distinct ethnic feel ("Strands", the second part of "Isolation"). The result is great for meditation if taken with the right mood; personally speaking, I find this extremely well done, but lacking some kind of emotional characteristic to really catch my attention from start to end. So the result sounds a bit cold to my ears.

First full-length cd (12 tracks, 68') for Luis F. Seixas a.k.a. Sci-Fi Industries, after the CDep "Dead people on stylish chairs" issued by This.co some months ago. What immediately strikes while listening to "Architectural Development" is the incredible improvement in the musical proposal of this young Portugues electronic artist. His sound palette is richer, there's more variety within single tracks and in the whole work, and most of all the sound quality itself is so much better that in "Dead people...". It's like every single beat (which sounded quite minimal in the ep) has now a kind of depth or arrangement of his own, and a sense for layers composition prevents tracks from becoming repetitive or static. The final result is a mature and totally enjoyable mix of techno, breakbeat, electronica and IDM falling somewhere near Warp-like projects, with hypnotic rhythms and elegant, nocturnal melodic patterns. A great album which absolutely deserves recognition and distribution outside Portugal.

Somnambulant Corpse/Death Aesthetics has been putting out some quality cd-r's and 3" cd-r's by newborn or more known projects, like Tugend, Bestia Centauri, Dead Reaven's Choir and Survival Unit, plus a good tribute compilation to H. P. Lovecraft. Axone's debut 3" ep (3 tracks, 19') is topped by this sentence: "Self-directed evolution is within our collective power. All that stands in our way is an obsolete ideology". "Manifest Destiny" is an ecstatic drone with manipulated vocal and instrumental (orchestral or hymn-like, I'd say) samples; quite ambient sounding and, much unlike the rest of the ep, even peaceful. "Psychogenetic Terror" changes the whole atmosphere with dark industrial thuds and clankings, a heavy distorted drone close to death industrial fields, sparse noises and even crickets (!) in the ending. "Casus Belli", my favourite track, merges a gloomy synth drone with death industrial rhythms, plus a menacing low-pitched voice; sort of a cross between Allerseelen and Brighter Dead Now. Good stuff for an ep, I'd like to hear him on a longer run.

This is a CD-R limited to 50 copies, issued in the Verato Project series (other cds by Ovum, Eeyow Karoom - see archives -, Bernd Spring etc.) in november 2001 - I'm partly guilty of the delay in reviewing, apologies. I: Wound is a German sound artist who has worked for previous releases with ethnic field recordings, mainly from India. This concept release couldn't be more different: a 75' "soundscape of footage news on the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks", that's it, 9-11 all the way. Recorded on the very same day and mixed two days later, the tracks are divided into two main sections, "The southern tower" and "The northern tower", and are basically overlayed recordings from live sounds, tv broadcasts, etc. If anything, it gives an idea of the confusion and the panic following the attacks, but also - and this is probably a fruit of the year which has passed - a portrait of the sickening media/political celebration of civilian death, the enormous quantity of words shed for a terrorist attack against the holy temple of democracy, while there are hundreds of un-filmed and "secondary" wars all over the world no one ever talks about (let alone asking justice or reparation for them). Slavoj Zizek writes in the liner notes: "the ultimate truth of the capitalist utilitarian de-spiritualized universe is the de-materialization of the 'real life' itself, its reversal into a spectral show". I think it sums it up quite well.

I haven't heard from Paolo Di Cioccio since his great album "Images" (at least a couple of years ago, I'd say) but now theis contemporary Italian composer and master of Theremin ceremonies (you might know him from his work with Theatrum Chemicum) is back with a new work of love (which by the way comes as a really beautiful white digipack with blurred images in primary colors that perfectly match the disc's contents). "Logos" (the highest form of knowledge in Greek philosophy) is an awesome concentration of cosmic electronics, classical elegance, esoteric atmospheres. The interaction of Theremin with his other primary instrument of choice, the oboe, present us with estranged sonic images of timeless beauty. Graced by soft rhythm textures of 309 and warped by synthetic patterns of moog, mellotronium and other vintage and non-vintage gear, Paolo Di Cioccio's music is a gateway to eternity and a voyage through time and space, closing the gap between ancient and modern and bridging Vangelis, Vidna Obmana, Artemiy Artemiev, Stockhausen and others in a unique time-bending and intimate research along a starry milky way leading to unknown places. You can hear his experience in scoring visual material reflect on his songwriting and the extreme visionary appeal that a record like this has only further enhances the evoking of images. In one song Di Ciccio even pushes the boundaries of his unique ambient/classical/cosmic electronic music stepping into a new dimension of Mego-ish minimalistic experimental techno made of up-tempo pounding beats, vanishing samples sparkling the tense atmosphere and traces of oboe floating around in the air with a nonchalance that stands opposite to the post-modern picture that the rhythmical repetition is drawing out. But that's just a brief parenthesis... By the time you get to the closing track, it'll be set back to tranquillity.