Hard-working and successful, internationally acclaimed and respected, pioneering but humble, Orlando-based spinner/remixer/producer and frequent traveller (airlines must love him) Chris Fortier is a leader in the progressive-house scene and an example to follow for many in the past and many to come (hopefully). I take my hat off for he is a great guy and an utterly active person (if more musicians, and I mean from every possible musical genre, would work the way he does, the music scene would be much stronger today!). He founded Fade records with Neil Kolo (they were the one who remixed the best-selling Sarah McLachlan single "Silence" by FLA's side-project Delerium; and they are also responsible for a Balligomingo remix - cmp review on these pages) as well as the internationally respected import DJ pool and promoter/booking agency Balance Promote Group together with Jimmy Van M (Eros Euphony/Freelance Icebreakers). Another huge name that has to be mentioned in conjunction with Fortier's is John Digweed, in fact this double mix CD comes out as the third chapter in his label's series "Compiled and Mixed". A selection of rare, exclusive, hard to find and even unreleased numbers by Universal Agents, Kolo, Dearboy, Steve Porter, Coco da Silva, Meat Katie, Angel Moraes, Jay Tripwire, BLH3 among others. Spacey yet solid avantguard house tunes with floating, soft, atmospheric and almost ethereal synth pads and reso lines, lots of vocal samples and snippets, progressive cutting-edge rhythmical repetitiveness, never commercial, always enjoyable. Relentless in his music as in his life. Great release. Came out a week ago (June 11th) in association with Pioneer records so hurry up.

Straight from across the Pacific Ocean, in the sunny home of ossies and the hopping kangaroos, this 1998 Australian duo (supported by a number of other musicians) called Devour Ensemble offers a contemporary, fresh and beautiful blend of classical, doom, new wave, baroque, dark and folkish/celtic music. Educated influences such as Nick Cave, Philip Glass, David Sylvan, Artemiy Artemiev, Zoar, Tom Waits, My Dying Bride, Gabor Csupo and many others immediately populated my mind... The band also mentions composers Gustav Holst, Antonin Dvorak and Michael Nyman to help give you a vague an idea. The five polished tracks flow harmoniously, seeking a sophisticated balance somewhere between the 4AD-style musical paganism with violins, string orchestrations and other acoustic instruments and the darker and swampy atmospheres of distorted doom metal guitars, slow and grand rhythmical peace and avantgarde experimentalism, sometimes coupled by a weird, displaced and upsetting but not annoying 80es rock and even sporadic blues influence.
Also important aspect of the Bridges-Cook core is their attachment to modern poetry: adaptations of works by deconstructionist pioneer e.e. cummings, convicted murderer Charles Schmidt Jnr. and Siberian-born Lithuanian Eugenijus Ali-Anka are used as lyrics throughout the pieces (male vocals and some ethereal female falsetto chants).
Devour Ensemble have self-released this well-produced CD EP on their own somewhat fictitious label Surreal Estate and they are now in the process of recording their upcoming EP "Wolverine". In the meantime you can order "The Moon's Bright 3rd" from the Chaos Music link reported above.

The thing I love most of working at the Chain D.L.K. project is that I've got the opportunity of discover new interesting acts which it couldn't be possible to listen in other ways. From far Estonia comes this label called Kohvi, a sort of eastern version of Warp but more focused on ambient sounds. Galaktlan project was created as a Taavi Laatsit's side project to Uni. Galaktlan was formed to perform on a very special underground party called "Night Alert", which took place in an abandoned military rocketbase hangar.
The mystical and deep atmosphere of this event was the reason why Taavi wanted to continue the Galaktlan project.
SININE PLATOO as stated into the label's website comes from Galaktlan's dream where he saw a plateau hanging in the void. Its affective quality can be paralleled with the one of "Solaris" by Andrei Tarkovski where intelligent plasma, capable of influencing people's thoughts, hovers above the planet's surface. The album has been released on 12" vinyl and on a CDr but this last one has got four bonus tracks "Foll", "Mina Kaheks", "Videoton" and "40000 Lampi" which expand a little more the dreamy vision that Galaktlan music is capable to create. Musically the tracks are multi structured where all the parts (which are mainly synthetic sounds with solid treated digital drum machine patterns) evolve creating a complex structure like if it's a web made of sounds. Emotionally the ten tracks are delicate and melancholic but without being sad. It could be the effect of living near a sea of ice... Taste it at the label's website where you can find the real audio files of all the tracks.

Very different from "Spite" (the album released at the same time) THE SEDUCTION OF MADNESS is a MCD which explore mental insanity bringing to audience three untitled suites which ends one into the other. Into twenty three minutes of obsessive orchestral sounds with percussions in evidence, Sophia creates a beautiful and visionary trip into the labyrinths of insanity. Like a soundtrack the work has got calm and violent moments which both create very well a sensation of "quiet terror", something inevitable which step after step is coming to catch you. Inspired by the Goya's painting titled "Saturn Devouring His Son" and by Pettersson's interests into psychology (in fact the CD has the same title of a Edward M. Podvoll's book which has got as second title "Revolutionary insights into the world of psychosis and a compassionate approach to a recovery at home") THE SEDUCTION OF MADNESS will have a deep impact in all the audience, even if you aren't an industrial music lover. Three tracks perfect for an emotional voyage into your deepest and hidden feelings.

Eeyow Karoom is a side project from Mr. Cosmo (Cosmonauts Hail Satan, IronManAvenga) based on power electronics. The CD contains twelve untitled tracks which their loops, exploding sounds and treated keyboard sounds create a nightmerish atmosphere. Each track has got a different approach and sounds so the listening isn't annoying. The effect created is able to deviate your attention from reality and even if you don't like disturbing noises you'll find it like the flow of a river of noise which sometimes is culling you and sometimes it's turbulent.