Already more than 25 years active in German Ambient- / Industrial music scene and also not at all an unknown project on our website here – but Spherical Disrupted have tarnished themselves perfectly from my personal music radar so far. Actually it has been their brilliant remix for Villaborghese available on their last “Remixed” release earlier this caught my interest. Nearly unbelievable that this one-man project of Mirko Hentrich has made it to such a huge amount of releases in its discography as well as with plenty of live performances on some highly recognized Industrial-/Noise-events like “Maschinenfest”, “Elektroanschlag”, “Schlagstrom” and/or “Summer Darkness”. this all has brought a high level of recognition.

Secondly, the foundation of the own managed Audiophob label in 2004 (with Mirko being the co-founder – Carsten Stiller of Alarmen represents the other responsible half...) and with projects like Mandelbrot, Zero Degree (also being active on ant-zen...), Wesenberg (yes, the rather Experimental-oriented solo effort of Krischan Jan-Eric Wesenberg – better known for his being in Rotersand or Straftanz and well recognized as one of the best producers / studio magician for mastering processes), or the Swiss-based duo of Skalpell, was at least a clever initiative to provide a professional audio resource.

The history of Mirko under his main project Spherical Disrupted once started in 1995 and so during the heydays, when underground music projects normally recorded tapes. Same it was also with Spherical Disrupted and the tape “Zerschellt, Zersplittert”, the very first release of this project. Thanks to this release, it was the right time to celebrate this anniversary and to give the listeners an overlook to some rare available recordings, highlights out of the long discography, long-out-of-print compilation appearances and also the possibility to invite some guests / friends for contribution purposes.

Therefore the fitting title “25” for this output, initially released during the end of the last year as a special 3CD box. Actually, this special box-set consisting of a carton box, three CDs in two digi-packs, three inlay prints, and as a special gimmick a "Granite hardware remix kit" (two stones), strictly limited to 100 hand-numbered exemplars only, is completely and long-time SOLD OUT. Both the CD albums, “25 - Past” (2 CDs) and “25 – Future” (1 CD) now can be purchased directly via the Audiophob website, several mail order services, or at Bandcamp.
I personally prefer to review this release as being as a whole item and so I will spend attention to both albums separately.

“25 (Past)”
As already mentioned above, the double-CD “25 (Past)” offers new and revamped versions of past recording, rarely available compilation appearances and remix contributions for other projects (Bloody Dead And Sexy, Experimentum Crucis, Yipotash, The Trial, KiEw, Mimetic Dancing, The_Empath, Xabec, Mandelbrot, Still Patient?) taken out several epochs during the 25 years. A lot of this tunes have been available on strictly limited, out-of-print releases, mostly on tapes for example, and do see the light to be pressed on CD format for the very first time. Some of them have been completely unreleased so far and to collect all of these old recordings, to polish and to transform them into the present was surely challenging.
For statistic nerds I recommend to have a detailed look to the website of Mirko, www.disrupted.de, under the tab “Oscillation” you can find a table with every track recorded is listed there alphabetically and where it has been released before. Move then towards to Discogs to explore the wide ranging release catalog of Spherical Disrupted.

Musically, Spherical Disrupted acts mainly in the wide field of Electronic-based Dark Ambient music. Mirko produces a relatively static form of dark and at times noisy Electronic music often accompanied with slow-stalking EBM-oriented beats and bassline work. The noise elements often occur through massive pitch shifting and filter frequency manipulations of changing in velocity, dynamic or harmony. There's definitely a high factor of a DIY mentality listenable, several tracks offer various FX manipulations seemingly live recorded and with a strong field recording behavior, “Solar Luminosity (Terminal Mix)” is a perfect example in this sense. One of the strongest moments I found in “Cavity Block (Not The :W: Master)” which reminds me on slo-mo Orphx combined with some lengthy tracks out of The Klinik / Marc Verhaegen's archives.
Another striking factor for the music composition process of Mirko seems to be his strong interest in astronomy as he often names his tracks after the discovery of remarkable objects and phenomenons out of this science area (“Through Homunculus Nebula”) .

The second CD out of this “Past” edition then offers us 9 remix contributions fabricated by Spherical Disrupted for foreign band projects and friends, as per listed above. Best and rather IDM-related Electronica entertainment I've found with the breathtaking remix on The_Empath and the track "Second Earth (Down To The Ground Mix)”, for sure one of highlights here. The overall sound outfit of Spherical Disrupted comes out pretty much abstract and provides a strong hypnotic impression, although it and there gets monotonous and offers at times unnecessary lengths too.
But generally Mirko's music is an oppressive sound outfit and to me additionally the ideal sound environment to confuse the neighborhood.

“25 (Future)”
As initially described above, the “Future” edition of this fascinating release offers at least completely new tracks, new remix contributions and for the first time guest vocal appearances. We have here the track “Basalt” with Tino Claus out of the TC75 / Amnistia fame and not only because of Tino's timbre this mid-tempo track with its nicely installed bass lines sounds quite comparable to Tino's TC75 recordings. Also Jana Komaritsa of the Russian Dark Industrial project Darkrad (among other recording for Audiophob or earlier for Cold Meat Industry...) offers the listener a haunting vocal performance on this mutually composed track.

Generally it comes the impression that the first 5 tracks of the newer compositions of Mirko show a tendency to keep the music a bit more accessible which in case of tracks like “Crust” or “Comet” can be noticed within a higher level of Electro-/EBM-like beat- and percussion-elements. On the opposite, tracks like “Pluton” or “Granit“ are drowning deeply into the Dark Ambient genre and rather focus to express the oppressive mood.

Remix contributors can be discovered excellently with Slovakia's Dark Electro-duo Disharmony and their very calm and catchy interpretation on “Comet”. Again, their ability to mix smooth synthesized, piano-sounding fragments with dense and darker-minded layers still thrills and impresses totally. Also Mr. Wesenberg gives a lighter-minded remix contribution on “Basalt”, the mutually composition of Spherical Disrupted with TC75.

Well, at least 225 minutes playing time of variable and thrilling produced Dark Ambient / Experimental music with the tendency to integrate a valid amount of Dark Electronica available on three CD's totally available for a price of two releases should be a good reason for a purchase. Yes, the 100 hand-numbered exemplars are gone and should become collectible rarities.