Hypnos News
2008.07.16 (later)
Hypnos has recently initiated a partnership with the AtmoWorks label, which has converted over into digital
download sales only. Hypnos has agreed to create CDR versions of AtmoWorks releases, and to make
them available through our store for those AtmoWorks listeners who prefer a tangible disc rather than a
digital download. The first two releases under this agreement are now available for purchase from the
Hypnos Online Store.
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Jonathan Hughes - Circumflex
(Atmoworks category) (Price: $12.99) 2008. Jonathan Hughes' debut album for AtmoWorks. In Jonathan's words from the liner notes: "I'm a big fan of words in general, but specifically of words that evoke a certain feeling or image, but mean something completely unrelated. I\'m also a fan of the minutiae that makes up the language of various industries. The titles for all the tracks on Circumflex are typographical terms. To me, these particular words sound like they\'d be equally at home in a document from NASA as they would in a book about graphic design. I wish I could say that the titles had some deep connection to the music, but nope -- they just sounded cool." Jonathan has previously released acclaimed albums on The Foundry label including Trillium and the virtual collaboration project, Fluidities, where each track on cd1 could be played randomly with tracks from cd2. Track listing and MP3 preview files: Macron MP3 Caron Pica Dieresis Terminal MP3 Monoline Circumflex Ascender... (more/buy) | |
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Vir Unis/ Disturbed Earth - Drawn from the Well
(Atmoworks category) (Price: $12.99) 2008. Disturbed Earth and Vir Unis have teamed up to bring you a three long track journey into pastoral tones and ethereal shades of sheer atmospherics. Recorded in late spring of this year, these two artists trading tracks over the net, were so happy with the results, they've decided to record a series of albums with this process. Drawn From the Well is the first part of this collaborative series between these two. Track listing and MP3 preview files: Flicker Relinquish Velvet World... (more/buy) | |
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2008.07.16
Newly added to the
Hypnos Store, a reissue of a great, out of print Emit
label release by Gas (on the new Microscopics label owned by Gas aka Mat Jarvis himself)...
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Gas 0095
(miscellaneous category) (Price: $15.99) 2008. Gas 0095 was the debut album of electronic musician Mat Jarvis (High Skies) released under his Gas moniker. It was written, performed and recorded in his Nottingham studio during 1994 and released on Em:t Records (Emit Records) in January 1995. Gas 0095 has been remastered and released on Jarvis' Microscopics label.... (more/buy) | |
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2008.07.15
We've just received the first "official" review of Steve Brand's release, Bridge to Nowhere. Thanks to Bert Strolenberg of www.sonicimmersion.org for the review.
"Steve Brand is an US-based musician who previously released music in
the experimental genre using the name Augur. Brand considers music not
only a way of looking inward and expressing ones self, but a way of
reaching out to others and ultimately expanding the boundaries of the
world individually and collectively .
On the spacious sounding Bridge to Nowhere, the accessible ambient
music carries strong ritualistic elements with tribal influences. Part
one of the title track with thunderous undercurrents nicely takes off
with extended wordless vocals, uplifting, space textures, occasional
piano and flute sounds surrounding it. The following three tracks, all
clocking at 20 minutes, extend the hypnotic, dreamy state, as free
form soundscapes, moody piano, nature sounds meander forth in calming,
soothing realms, without getting superficial or new age for one moment.
This is quality ambient music with minimal elements that will be loved
by fans of Temps Perdu, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Mathias Grassow and
alike."
--Bert Strolenberg, www.sonicimmersion.org
You can purchase Bridge to Nowhere directly from Hypnos for $11.99 here.
2008.07.14
The audio clips posted last week for the new Tones for LaMonte release
by Forrest Fang's alter ego, Sans Serif, were not set up correctly at first but have now been fixed.
Track listing, with mp3 sample clips:
1. Alpha mp3
2. Omega mp3
3. Gamma mp3
4. Delta mp3
5. Theta mp3
6. (infinity) mp3
Purchase for $11.99 on Hypnos Online Store
2008.07.10
Time for another new release from Hypnos. We're very pleased to be involved in releasing new work by Forrest Fang, even if this is an experimental side-project of Forrest's, released under another name.
Artist: Sans Serif
Title: Tones for LaMonte
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)
2008. Sans Serif is an alter ego of Forrest Fang, the
talented multi-instrumentalist and composer whose most
recent solo album Gongland was released on Projekt in
2000. He has also collaborated with Carl Weingarten on
the album Invisibility released on The Foundry, as
well as contributing instrumentally to the works of other
artists such as Robert Rich.
Unlike the more traditionally structured and "musical"
work Fang releases under his own name, the Sans Serif
project is focused on minimalism. This project in
particular is a tribute to the influential minimalist
composer LaMonte Young, whose work was known for the
use of long, sustained tones and alternate tunings.
Tones for LaMonte bridges the two, related worlds
of avant-garde classical influence, and modern ambient
drone.
Track listing, with mp3 sample clips:
1. Alpha mp3
2. Omega mp3
3. Gamma mp3
4. Delta mp3
5. Theta mp3
6. (infinity) mp3
Purchase for $11.99 on Hypnos Online Store
2008.07.01
It seems to us like those of you who shop at the
Hypnos Online Store
love it when we get a new box of imported ambient music goodies. This time,
another great new release from a great new label (Glacial Movements, which
previously released stuff like Rapoon, Oophoi and Netherworld), this time with
the first recent work by Lull we've seen in quite a while.
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Lull - Like a Slow River
(Glacial Movements category) (Price: $15.99) 2008. Like a Slow River is a work characterized by sharp and minimal atmospheres, but also dark, cold and huge, such as big bodies of ice which slowly move, carried by an endless river. The five compositions of Like a Slow River reach the high expectations of the previous works, such as Cold Summer, Continue and the Murder Ballads trilogy with Martin Bates. With no doubt, this is the coldest and darkest work ever composed by this pioneer of industrial-ambient music. You all will be led to the oblivion of your existence....the freezing darkness of this glacial night is going to come down on your bodies and minds....you'll fall in your deepest sleep with the far echo of glacial runnings.... (more/buy) | |
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2008.06.30
The last Viridian Sun live performance was almost 10 years ago, but a new performance is
scheduled for this coming Thursday evening, at Someday Lounge
here in Portland.
The Someday Lounge blurb says all you need to know:
THURSDAY, JUL 3
The July installment of Hexasion will feature veteran ambient composers VIRIDIAN SUN
7pm, FREE!
The new Viridian Sun album will be released later this summer on Hypnos Recordings.
2008.06.25
A new interview with Hypnos artist Robert Rich was recently posted here. The interview covers Robert's recent works, particularly his latest collaboration with Ian Boddy, as well as some of his sound design and sample library work.
2008.06.24
Several Hypnos and HSS (Hypnos Secret Sounds) CD releases have received favorable reviews and online "mentions" (not as formal or official as a review) lately and I've been slow to post these, so a bit of catch-up in that regard will be happening on this news page...
"Robert Rich's Somnium...one if the Major Works in Ambient Music, a
work anyone even remotely interested in (drone) ambient should consider
buying."
----Peter van Cooten on the ambient@hyperreal.org mailing list
Purchase 7- hour DVD for $21.99 on Hypnos Online Store (or just follow the link to read more about it)
"I've just got Entering Twilight following your recommendation, it is light, slow, warm, minimal and
gentle. Funny thing is it fits my 'sunny morning' playlist better than the 'late night' one."
--Simon Bausch on the ambient music mailing list
Purchase CD for $8.99 on Hypnos Online Store (or just follow the link to read more about it)
More to come in the morning...
2008.06.23
In addition to the recent Steve Brand release on Hypnos Secret Sounds (see previous news
update) we've also added some of Steve's self-released recordings to the
Hypnos Online Store.
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Steve Brand - Awakensong (CDR)
(Steve Brand category) (Price: $11.99) 2007. Illusory landscapes, obscured glimpses and secret rituals in half-light. Soundtracks for awakening. Rattles, various flutes, medicine drums, udu, gongs, voice, keyboard textures, environmental sounds.... (more/buy) | |
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SteveBrand - Twilightmind (CDR)
(Steve Brand category) (Price: $11.99) 2007. Atmospheres and environments exploring the remote soundworlds of the twilightmind. Lost ceremonies, found archaeologies. Medicine drum, didg, gongs, voice, whirl tube, bells... (more/buy) | |
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Steve Brand - Cahokia (CDR)
(Steve Brand category) (Price: $11.99) 2007. A disc consisting of 3 long drifting soundworlds inspired by the Cahokia mounds complex near St. Louis, Missouri, the largest pre-Columbian ceremonial complex in North America. Medicine drum, voice, gongs, flutes, didg, pot shards, and keyboards... (more/buy) | |
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Steve Brand - Looking into the Other (CDR)
(Steve Brand category) (Price: $11.99) 2007. "Looking into the other is a heady, sometimes expansive, some ominous journey into tribal & ritual ambience utilizing bells, synths, flute, fiddle, various percussive elements, rattles and field recordings to create these involving sonic rituals and dramatic & evocative sound worlds." -musiquemachine.com... (more/buy) | |
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2008.06.12
Just added to the Hypnos Online Store, the latest from Hypnos Secret Sounds, and the first work on our label by Steve Brand.
Artist: Steve Brand
Title: Bridge to Nowhere
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (ltd cdr)
2008. Steve Brand has just recently started releasing music under his own name, after more than 20
releases in the experimental realm under the name "Augur." Now Brand has a number of recordings
scheduled for release on Hypnos, and also on the AtmoWorks label, and the first of these is Bridge
to Nowhere.
Brand's work has always had a ritualistic element,
and sound sources include: medicine drum, udu, rattles, various flutes, bells, conch shell, thumb piano, cora,
Indian fiddle, found, natural and handmade objects, voice, field recordings and keyboards.
Bridge to Nowhere is a spacious, slow-breathing exploration of a meditative state, and nowhere in
Brand's work is the ritualistic element more present than in this case.
Ambient music in general is often
considered to be "spacy" or conducive to altered states of consciousness in general, but this music
specifically seems exploratory, meditative, and even a bit "druggy" and strange. As fans of this music
ourselves, we particularly love it when an artist seems genuinely to have tapped into a reality outside our
own -- to have slowed down the world or distorted it, or viewed things through a prism or kaleidoscope.
The work of Steve Brand functions in this way, and we're pleased to be able to deliver this incredible,
no-side-effects sound trip, to Hypnos listeners!
Track listing, with mp3 sample clips:
1. Bridge to Nowhere 1 - (14:43) - mp3 clip
2. Breathing Light - (20:40) - mp3 clip
3. Bridge to Nowhere 2 - (20:00) - mp3 clip
4. Through the Lens of Love - (20:00) - mp3 clip
Purchase for $11.99 on Hypnos Online Store
2008.06.10
Here are a couple of new ones, from one of our favorite labels, Infraction, just recently added to the
Hypnos Online Store.
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Milieu - A Warm Wooden Hollow
(Infraction category) (Price: $14.99) 2008. Reviewed on forcedexposure.com "It's appropriate to consider A Warm Wooden Hollow to be the counterpoint to Beyond the Sea... Song titles are a bit darker, the feel of the music is evening dusk heading into night rather than a bright hopeful light. The soundtrack for a lonely weary traveler. It's the music of sitting next to the fire on a one man island -- strings strummed and carried out to the sea, drones in the distance. A piano played in slow motion -- a sonata for underwater listening. Released in an edition of 300 copies in a digipak." -forcedexposure.com... (more/buy) | |
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Parks - Umber
(Infraction category) (Price: $14.99) 2008. Reviewed on forcedexposure.com "Superb ambient with environmental interludes, cinematic minor key passages. Reworked and re-arranged in 2007 with a new tracklisting. Umber is released in an edition of 300 copies in a digipak." -forcedexposure.com... (more/buy) | |
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2008.06.05
Check out what a few people on the Hypnos Forum are
saying about the new M Griffin album, Fabrications.
Hypnos Forum member comments...
"This one was worth the wait. One of the most truly "ambient" recordings Hypnos has released, great listening for headphone-nauts.
I've heard the third solo album will be coming out in 2018, so everybody should have lots of time to wrap their ears around these gorgeous
micro-worlds of sound."
--"drone on" on the Hypnos Forum
"This is some gorgeously built, tripped out work! ...Vast, deep, and sounds lovingly well-crafted!! You have fashioned some dark ambient nectar of the gods..."
--"9dragons" on the Hypnos Forum
"Very nice! A windblown stream of strange sounds and vocal fragments, very atmospheric, and never straying far from the Almighty Drone. Highly recommended ...and use your headphones!"
--"Joe R" on the Hypnos Forum
"Very dense spooky concrete atmospheres that remind me in places of mid-period Zoviet France, but without the emphasis on looping. Some
industrial-like abstract sounds midway through, but nothing Merzbow harsh. Very nicely done."
--"ffcal" (recording artist Forrest Fang) on the Hypnos Forum
Fabrications track listing, with MP3 sample clips:
Water is Silver
Gravity
Behind
Air Sense Space
Devise
Sky is Glass Lit
We love it when people say nice things about our music -- and we also love it when people buy our CDs!
Hypnos Online Store listing, $12.99
2008.06.05
When we moved our web site from one server to another, it seems we "left behind" a number of mp3 sample clips
for some of our CDs. We know how important these sound clips are, if you're considering buying a CD... what
better way to decide if it's something you might enjoy, than to actually hear a minute or so from each track?
So, we're in the process of re-creating the sound clips for the albums that are missing the mp3s, a few at a time.
To give you even more incentive to give these a listen, we're also temporarily dropping the price on these, as the
new clips are added, so you'll save $2 on each of these albums for the next week or so, until we post another set
of mp3 clips for other albums, and and knock those prices down $2 temporarily.
The first four items include:
Viridian Sun - Perihelion
Sonic adventurers Viridian Sun follow up their daring, acclaimed debut, Solar Noise.
Perihelion goes in a slightly new sonic direction, but retains the intuitive, improvisational approach.
The focus remains on creating highly visual and evocative soundscapes, an ever-evolving construction of
loops and drifting background textures, both hypnotic and beautiful.
Track listing, including mp3 sample clips:
Epihelion mp3 clip
Axionsunburst mp3 clip
Elixir Sonic mp3 clip
Pelior is V mp3 clip
Voidvertigo mp3 clip
In Peril (Visium) mp3 clip
Spinning Timeworks mp3 clip
Ion Or mp3 clip
Perihelion mp3 clip
Read more, and/or purchase at special price
Jeff Pearce - The Light Beyond
Hypnos is pleased to announce the latest by Jeff Pearce, The Light Beyond. His followup to the beloved &
highly-acclaimed 2000 album To the Shores of Heaven, The Light Beyond shares its predecessor's
basis of smooth, guitar-based atmospheric clouds, both dark and light. But The Light Beyond explores more
abstract, open- ended and free-form compositions, with one track almost forty-four minutes in duration, in the
midst of three shorter pieces.
Track listing, including mp3 sample clips:
01. Migration of Souls mp3 clip
02. Across the Infinite Sea mp3 clip
03. A Farther Shore mp3 clip
04. The Light Beyond mp3 clip
Read more, and/or purchase at special price
Vir Unis & Saul Stokes - Thermal Transfer
The third Binary release, first ever collaboration between Vir Unis and Stokes, Thermal Transfer is also the most uptempo,
high energy recording yet released by Hypnos or its related labels. In fact, truth be told, this recording is the very reason that the
Binary label was created -- so Hypnos could bring you excellent electronic music, even if the style in question was too "hyperactive"
for the Hypnos label. The mp3 clip samples below should give you some idea why we're as excited about Thermal Transfer
as anything we've ever released.
Track listing, with MP3 audio clips:
01 Kinetic Center mp3 clip
02 Stroboscopic mp3 clip
03 Replicants in Orbit mp3 clip
04 Modea's Liquid Metal mp3 clip
05 Blurring Maguro mp3 clip
06 Surface Solair mp3 clip
07 The Burning Ground mp3 clip
08 Thermal Transfer mp3 clip
09 Blurring Maguro (interstitial Remix) mp3 clip
Read more, and/or purchase at special price
Ophoi - Athlit
The US debut of Italian drone-ambient artist Ophoi. He previously released some well-received works on the Amplexus label,
both solo and with Tau Ceti (who also contributes here). Many Hypnos listeners have asked for more deep, slow-moving
ambient drone material, and if that style is your cup of tea, you'll love this one. It's just short of 74 minutes, one massive
continuous ambience (though with four "index" points so you can navigate the CD more easily). There's space music
and then there's DEEP space music, and this one is deep, deep, deep. Put on the headphones and drift....
TRACK LISTING with mp3 audio clips:
Drifting into Blank Space - 16:40 mp3
An Ever-Changing Horizon - 10:30 mp3
On Wings of Light - 18:05 mp3
Lord of the Starfields - 28:31 mp3
Read more, and/or purchase at special price
As mentioned, these are all $2 off temporarily on the Hypnos Online Store, until we add the next batch next week.
2008.06.03
Hypnos artists Stephen Philips and Numina recently recorded a "live in studio" session at Numina's home studio, and it's being featured on Kite Radio on stillstream.com (that's an online, streaming radio service in case you hadn't heard of Stillstream before). Here's their announcement:
3 June 2008
Happy June! Yea Summer! :)
Some of you may know that I was out in Denver, CO a few weeks ago and
hooked up with my good friend Jesse Sola (Numina) for an amazing 4
hour live improvised jam session. We recorded most of it (about 3
hours) and plan to release some of the material via 2 CD releases.
One will come out on DDR in the next few weeks and the other we're not
sure about yet, but are guessing it will be sometime later this year.
Tonight on Kite Radio (http://www.stillstream.com) I will be debuting
the CD and playing some of the material from CD 1. This is all new,
very cool music you have never heard before.
The show starts around 10:00 pm EDT and I'll be playing the new collab
tracks starting sometime in Hour #2.
And while you're listening, why not join the chatroom, just go to
stillstream.com and follow the links to the chat.
See ya tonight
----------------------
Stephen Philips
Dark Duck Records
http://www.darkduck.net
Kite Radio
http://www.kite-radio.com
2008.06.02
It's been a long time since we've added any new items to the
"Used & Last Copy" section
of the Hypnos Online Store, but we're in the process of adding a lot of
new items. Some of them are CDs from our personal collection that we don't listen to any longer, some are old office-play copies that
we don't want, others are items we took in trade and just didn't play often enough to keep. We're swimming in extra CDs so we've got
to start selling off some of this stuff, and plenty of these are out of print or otherwise hard to fine.
Newest items are toward the bottom of the page.
2008.05.30
Here we have a batch of items newly added to the Hypnos Online Store, or in some
cases just reactivated after getting them back in stock... all from the wonderful Infraction label.
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Aidan Baker & Ultra Milkmaids - At Home With...
(Infraction category) (Price: $12.99) Canadian Aidan Baker\'s pastoral guitar work shredded to glorious bits by the French. Environmental recordings paint the background with various voices and distant church bells.... (more/buy) | |
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Colin Potter - See
(Infraction category) (Price: $12.99) 2nd edition. Limited to 200 numbered copies.... (more/buy) | |
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Adam Pacione - From Stills to Motion
(Infraction category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. Packaged in a mini-lp gatefold style sleeve with an inner booklet of photographs and video stills by Adam Pacione. Highly anticipated new release from Adam Pacione. Deluxe packaging. Stoughton style mini-gatefold with 16 page full-color booklet. Design and layout by Pacione. An age of virtual audio saturation, of pre-articulated sound. Expressivity, once an array of possible voices, is ever more probabilized. Originality, once primary criterion, is cast from the platform, problematized. Wondering, late in modernity's day, what does it take to make a noise that matters? A keen-eared recontextualizer, an alchemist who can make sound, found or unfound, to walk its own way, outside the ready-made parade. Adam Pacione is one such - new recruit to a group of like-minded musicians, kindred-spirits Brian Grainger (Milieu), Mike Bennett (Zimiamvian Night), and Kiln, who have brought the ferment from their sound stills to the Infraction table. That label is now streaming a vital strain of New Backwoods Ambient, this latest from deep in the heart of (Hurst) Texas -- experimental, but harmonically-inclined, apparently lo-tech, but substantially audio-cratic.(A.Lockett)... (more/buy) | |
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Northern - Drawn
(Infraction category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. Debut release from Canada\'s Northern. Northern is all about clean digital samples and warm tones. northern is all about lovely guitar meanderings and skittering textures. Perhaps it is the frozen nature of Canada\'s landscape or the endearing dismay of the season\'s discontent that has transformed us. Winter reminds us all of polaroid pictures and places that exist only in dreams.... (more/buy) | |
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2008.05.28 (later)
We've held off on announcing this officially, given the recent problems on the Hypnos Online Store... but everything is fixed now and this CD is ready to order. It's been a very long time coming!
Artist: M. Griffin
Title: Fabrications
Label: Hypnos Recordings
2008.
Originally announced in 1997 as the follow-up by Hypnos founder Mike Griffin to his debut Sudden Dark, Fabrications has been
reworked, abandoned, restarted from scratch, back-burnered, reimagined, and left frozen in carbonite. Among those who have followed Hypnos
from the beginning, Fabrications achieved a certain notoriety as the album always promised for release in the coming year, which never
quite arrived. 2008 is finally the year in which Fabrications is revealed, perhaps appropriate for the 10-year anniversary of its original planned
release date, 1998.
Generally known as an ambient minimalist, utilizing synthesizers for most of his work, this time M. Griffin took advantage of "real world" sounds,
captured with binaural microphones using a portable digital audio recorder.
For this release, Griffin built up collages of numerous location recording elements, including cars driving on freeways, people walking in long echoing
hallways, the ocean waves in Kona at night, a metalworking factory with heavy machinery crunching away, distant trains, and clothes driers. These
elements were manipulated, combined, worked-on and re-worked, and overlaid with looped spoken elements later created by Griffin in the studio.
The end result comes out something like the Zoviet France soundtrack to a David Lynch film, that is, a dark and dream-like collage of loops, spoken
fragments, disembodied whispers, and the echo of far-off machinery.
While ambient music recordings generally only include a few "layers," Fabrications has been painstakingly built-up over the years so
that all tracks are now comprised of dozens of layers, in some cases upward of 100. The result is incredibly complex, with ghostly remnants of
real, concrete sounds filtered one against another. Aural signatures of many real places combine to form sonic impressions of
a series of locations that do not really exist. These imagined, artificial locales are in effect, fabrications.
Track listing, with MP3 sample clips:
Water is Silver
Gravity
Behind
Air Sense Space
Devise
Sky is Glass Lit
Hypnos Online Store listing
2008.05.28
We've really enjoyed the recent releases of Evan Bartholomew's excellent new Somnia label, and have just added the 4th such
release to the Hypnos Online Store. Please note that these items
are limited, in special hand-assembled packaging, and that we ran out of the first release quickly (and it's totally unavailable now).
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Evan Marc + Steve Hillage - Dreamtime Submersible
(miscellaneous category) (Price: $15.99) 2008. "Diving deep with hypnotic rhythms, sub-aquatic bass pulsations and reverberant melodies, Evan Marc explores varying states of non-waking life on this release. his sensitive approach to sound design is woven perfectly with atmospheric guitar tones supplied by system7's Steve Hillage, crafting a unique and cinematic take on the dub techno paradigm." -Somnia Somnia004 track listing with MP3 samples: 1. mp3 clip 2. mp3 clip 3. mp3 clip 4. mp3 clip 5. mp3 clip 6. mp3 clip 7. mp3 clip ... (more/buy) | |
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2008.05.27
We're sorry it's taken so long, but we've just heard from the technical support
guys who have been working on the
Hypnos Online Store for the last
few days, that the problems have been resolved.
Our sincere apologies to our customers who had trouble ordering during this period.
The good news is, we have a bunch of new stuff to add to the store and announce soon... like tomorrow!
2008.05.21
We've been having intermittent trouble with the Hypnos Online Store today and while we troubleshoot the database errors, it may be necessary for us to take the store "offline" for brief periods. Thanks for your patience while we hunt down the cause of these error messages. If you do feel like trying to order, and find the store up & running, we've found that generally orders do go through just fine, despite the error messages, and security is still intact.
2008.05.20 (later)
Always one of the most popular artists on the Hypnos and Binary
labels through the years, Saul Stokes is also one we've been very
proud to "launch" into the ambient/electronica world.
His latest album, Villa Galaxia, will be released cooperatively by Binary
and Saul's own imprint Stokesmusic, in mid 2008.
We're very excited about this release, so we wanted to post a "teaser" announcement
here even before all the details were available! Stay tuned.
2008.05.20
Just when our last batch of web site and email problems were behind us, we're back to intermittent web access and completely dead email.
At this time, the main hypnos.com web site is functioning, along with the Hypnos Forum and the Hypnos Online Store. We're looking forward
to getting things back to normal as soon as possible, and we apologize to everyone for the inconvenience.
2008.05.14
Here's another new CD release, and another Hypnos Secret Sounds artist debut, this time Bathys by Darkened Soul.
Artist: Darkened Soul
Title: Bathys
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)
2008. Hypnos is pleased to announce Bathys, the first appearance on our label (in this
case, our Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint) by Darkened Soul.
The word "bathys" in Greek translates as "deep," and the rest of the titles here continue the Greek
language theme. It's the root of the word "bathyscaph" which is a submersible vessel for deep sea
exploration.
"Deep" is relevant here, as this recording collects resonant dark ambient sounds into aural mixtures
deep and spacious.
This aural journey is evocative of a subterranean trek through wet, metal-walled tunnels, with gritty
textures underfoot, and dripping sounds of water. Vague hints of machine-like sounds can be heard
churning away in the distance. Bathys by Darkened Soul is an exercise in resonant dark
ambient textures.
Darkened Soul is a psydonym under which Mike Soucy records dark ambient soundscapes. His previous
releases have been mostly self-released, though Hypnos followers may have seen his release Seasons
of Dark and Light on Umbra, the Italian label operated by recording artist Oophoi.
Track listing (with MP3 sample clips):
1 Eis Arthro Michani MP3 clip
2 Ateleiotos Agkareia MP3 clip
3 Mysteriodis MP3 clip
4 Trela MP3 clip
5 Ypexairesi MP3 clip
6 Bathys MP3 clip
Purchase for $11.99 on Hypnos Online Store
2008.05.08 (later)
We're pleased to be able to offer the second and third releases on the excellent new Somnia label (based here in
Portland, and operated by Evan Bartholomew) on
the Hypnos Online Store. Please note that these items
are limited, in special hand-assembled packaging, and that we ran out of the first release quickly (and it's totally unavailable now).
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Evan Bartholomew - Secret Entries into Darkness
(miscellaneous category) (Price: $15.99) "Evan Bartholomew brings another example of sonic storytelling to Somnia, moving from atmospheric float into pulsing minimal electroid rhythms. Fractaline analog grooves and micro beat construction establish a hypnotic base for a composed layer of ambient exploration to unfold. presenting a balance of analog moduler synth elements and complex dsp processing, Secret Entries into Darkness furthers Somnia's approach to cinematic modern music. 777 copies worldwide. soy ink on recycled paper, sewn, sealed in wax, signed and numbered." -Somnia Somnia002 track listing with MP3 samples: 1. mp3 clip 2. mp3 clip 3. mp3 clip 4. mp3 clip 5. mp3 clip 6. mp3 clip 7. mp3 clip... (more/buy) | |
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Emanuele Errante - Humus
(miscellaneous category) (Price: $15.99) \"Somnia proudly presents a new album from respected Italian ambient composer Emanuele Errante. Humus unfolds slowly through a symphony of organic minimalism, evolving and growing over a course of 11 tracks. classical flourishes adorn warm and inviting textural sketches, and subtle electronic manipulation pervades a humid ambient environment. Reich inspired microcosmic rhythms unfold and undulate beneath wide pastel landscapes." -Somnia Somnia003 track listing with MP3 samples: 01. mp3 clip 02. mp3 clip 03. mp3 clip 04. mp3 clip 05. mp3 clip 06. mp3 clip 07. mp3 clip 08. mp3 clip 09. mp3 clip 10. mp3 clip 11. mp3 clip... (more/buy) | |
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2008.05.08
Here are the latest releases, just added to
the Hypnos Online Store, from the wonderful new
German label Waterscape, which specializes in extremely limited 3" mini CDs of guitar ambience and other
guitar-based experimental sounds.
All these items come highly recommended, and supplies are very limited. Please note that these CDs are short in duration, usually just over 20 minutes long.
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Jason Sloan - Static
(Waterscape category) (Price: $13.99) 2008. "STATIC is a 22 min piece that is divided into two movements. The first is comprised of mostly organ sounds with a small amount of guitar, and the second is guitar only, which builds eventually into a wall of pure sound. One may be heavily reminded of Steve Roach\'s approach to space music. Highly recommended for space music fans and fans of shoegaze." - Waterscape Records... (more/buy) | |
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True Colour of Blood - The Cave of Knowlege
(Waterscape category) (Price: $13.99) 2008. "Eric Kesner is the man behind True Colour of Blood. The Cave of Knowledge is a 22 min drone. Kestner perfectly combines dark ambient moments with minutes of pure clarity. Like most of the Waterscape releases this is a pure blessing for headphone trips into a world of shimmering guitar drones and ambient soundscapes." - Waterscape Records... (more/buy) | |
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Taiga Remains - Descend from Ivory Cliffs
(Waterscape category) (Price: $13.99) 2008. \"Taiga Remains is Alex Cobb, who is also the man behind the Students of Decay Label in America. Descend from Ivory Cliffs is an almost 23 min drone-epic that mixes some of the most beautiful melodies your ear has ever listened to." - Waterscape Records... (more/buy) | |
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2008.05.07
Our web site and email problems are mostly fixed, though things are still a bit glitchy. We thank everyone for their patience.
2008.05.06
We've had some problems today with the web server, affecting all aspects of the Hypnos internet presence, but especially
the Hypnos Online Store,
the Hypnos Forum, and email to all hypnos.com addresses.
Our web server company is working on the problem and hope to have it solved soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!
2008.05.01
New items just added to
the Hypnos Online Store from the Databloem label out of The Netherlands.
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Mathias Grassow - Hightlights 1
(Databloem category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. Deep drones and tribal ambient. Cherry picked, re-mastered tracks from Mathias Grassow's rich archives ... (more/buy) | |
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Mathias Grassow - Hightlights 2
(Databloem category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. Deep drones and tribal ambient. Cherry picked, re-mastered tracks from Mathias Grassow's rich archives ... (more/buy) | |
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Mathias Grassow - Highlights 3
(Databloem category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. Deep drones and tribal ambient. Cherry picked, re-mastered tracks from Mathias Grassow's rich archives ... (more/buy) | |
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Mathias Grassow - Tiefweite Stille 2
(Databloem category) (Price: $13.99) "Atmospheres and drones flavored with tribal rhythms and Indian instruments." -Databloem Records... (more/buy) | |
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Mathias Grassow - Emerald
(Databloem category) (Price: $13.99) "Re-mastered from one of Grassow's lost masterpieces from the nineties Ethno-ambient soundscapes Long droning pieces with incredible deep mood, perfect for listening in a candle-flooded ambient, in a church, or in your inner psychic dome" Good for relaxation or meditation" -Databloem records... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.30
Another sure-to-please item added to
the Hypnos Online Store from the always-popular Oophoi.
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Oophoi - An Aerial View
(Glacial Movements category) (Price: $15.99) 2008, latest release from the fantastic new label Glacial Movement. Oophoi says: "When I've been asked to describe the Ice Age with an uninterrupted drone, I knew I wanted to avoid the cliches of the genre: dark rumblings, massive low frequencies, cold atmospheres. I had to describe with sounds the white landscape, the blinding light reflected by the frozen oceans, the abyssal silence.I have imagined myself in flight over this Sleeping Earth, a solitary winged-being surrounded by winds, air, water and ice. This led me to compose an airy drone with minimal variations and delicate tones, an homage to a pure, uncontaminated and remote land."... (more/buy) | |
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Also on the subject of Oophoi, it's been rumored that a large number of his Umbra & Penumbra label releases will be allowed to go out of print fairly soon, so we are stocking up to make sure we're able to offer as many of them as possible, for as long as possible. Those of you who are collectors of the wonderful output of this related pair of labels (for those who don't know, Umbra is the imprint for full-length albums and Penumbra is for shorter, EP-length discs) may wish to consider grabbing up the items you're interested in, before it's too late. And to head of any questions in advance, this applies to Umbra & Penumbra label items only, not Oophoi releases on other labels such as Hypnos or Faria or Nextera.
2008.04.29
We've been BUSYBUSYBUSY here adding new items to
the Hypnos Online Store. This time it's a series of
new releases on the Faria label.
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Troum - Objectlessness
(Faria category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. "There is a big gap between rational, verbal language and the pre-symbolic language of our emotional and unconscious mind. Music is perceived partly with our conscious mind, who can analyze it and reflect on it. On another part, it is perceived by our unconsciousness, by our primal consciousness that lies under the rational mind. The idea: Experimental music, especially that of a more droning character, can easier get in touch or be unconsciously connected with this primal state of mind. It is music that is linked with unconscious fantasies coming from a pre-verbal sphere of existence... the phase of life based on the dyadic interaction with the primal object, the mother. At this early stage, there’s no awareness existing of being a full separated Subject, and no other full separated Objects can be perceived. Inner and outer reality is the same. Spheric, droning, dissolving music is pointing unconsciously at this objectless sphere of existence. This release is dedicated to the idea of an especially formed pre-symbolic music. Artwork conception contain 4 cards and cover with art from english creator Pete Burn." - Faria Records... (more/buy) | |
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Calabi-Yau - Compactified
(Faria category) (Price: $13.99) 2008. "Calabi-Yau (called in the names of two mathematicians (Eugenio Calabi) and (Shing-Tung Yau )) spaces may be that microscopic shape, deep inside the hidden dimensions of string theory. There are many such spaces... According to string theory, space-time isn't 4-dimensional as you might expect, but 10-dimensional. Where are the extra six dimensions? One answer is that they're compactified: roughly speaking, rolled up into such a small space as to be unobservable at human scales. You are in the forest, it is night, and in a moment you are in space, exploring the phenomena, for which there is no explanation and knowledge in our day... And You hear the sound of loquacious water far away from You. The sky is in front of You…You can observe all the planets to be clearly. And there are plenty of animals around You, which You've never seen before, which are so close, that they are almost touching You. Thought is equal to movement, there is no difference between them." -Faria Records... (more/buy) | |
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Aglaia - Unprofaned Twilight
(Faria category) (Price: $13.99) 2008. "This is joint edition of Faria Records and Hic Sunt Leones. The fourth cd of Aglaia is born from the previous work but, in comparison with them, it develops a wider breath directly from the background’s sounds. The composition is softer and more refined. Again the sonorous world that here is explored is that one of the enchantment, of the mild sound fading. An unprofaned and inviolate twilight, where the different vibrations are balanced, without any sort of tensions. Time rolls by and space too. The sound is a natural matter and gives birth to an intense crepuscolar light. Listening to this music is like to see thousands of fine luminous rays, filtered through half-closed windows. A dance of dust in a never ending movement that catches the light around. With aglaia's sound we are in an electroacoustic microcosm full of vibrating signs. The first of the two long compositions suggests a natural and quiet landscape. The sound's mood is a sort of perpetual tinkling, wrapped up a voice coming from the space, that observes from afar. An harmonic accordance between different reality. The second, even though more intimate, is equally shining. Everything happens during a night where insects, spring-waters and moonlight match themselves together. A swarming midnight with underworld life." -Faria Records... (more/buy) | |
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Antonio Testa - Inframundis
(Faria category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. "Inframundis (inland universe, latin) is a research of stalagmites and stalagtites sounds mixed with textures and drones; It's a meditative record and it creates a balance between biosphere and technosphere. The cd gets free all its energies, its little/big sounds, its hidden atmospheres, and microharmonies. The sounds, music, make us come back to the past, offering us the view of a World. The sound evokes angelical moments between the imperceptible evolution of the sound of the sky and the ethnic roots, natural instrumental sounds creating atmospheres which evoke in our imaginary visions and images of the most far places. It is an alchemic project of ancestral sounds. Deeply rooted in our unconscious." -Faria Records... (more/buy) | |
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Faryus - Lucid Dreams
(Faria category) (Price: $13.99) 2007. "This album is devoted to a phenomenon of the Lucid dreams. A "lucid dream" is a dream, in which the person is aware that he or she is dreaming while the dream is in progress. During lucid dreams you have control over the dream characters and environment, as well as the ability to perform otherwise physically impossible feats. The feelings which you feel during lucid dreams are very similar to those available during a waking state. Often they surpass the \'usual\' with a saturation and intensity. This phenomenon has been researched by such well-known researchers as Stephen LaBerge, Robert Monroe, Carlos Castaneda, etc.. The 9th book of Carlos Castaneda - The Art of Dreaming explains more fully the events occurring within this album. The album is conceived as travel from the moment of falling asleep up to the depths of the infinite universe of the Dreaming: “Vivid Dream” - this is a dream, where colors and events are extremely bright. After awakening we never forget these dreams, it remains in the memory as a very exciting experience. It is the first phase of lucid dreaming and the beginning of our travel. We can then find Clarity, passing through the first gate of dreaming to enjoy the Lucid Dream. Opening infinite opportunities of the universe of dreaming we begin our "Free Flying" obtaining the sanctum sanctorum of the dreaming universe - to the World of Inorganic Beings". -Faria Records... (more/buy) | |
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Vadim Bondarenko - Smoking Music
(Faria category) (Price: $13.99) "Smoking Music was created in 2000-2004. Delicate made melodic ambient compositions. To creatе this album Vadim used keyboards, clarinet, samples and piano. It is a good listening for everyone who likes misty ambient music and the creative work of Brian Eno or Harold Budd." -Faria Records... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.28
Ambient artist A Produce is a long-time friend of the Hypnos label, and released
his newest album Smile on the Void on our label, in addition to the A Produce
& M Griffin album Altara just before that. One of the earliest A Produce
recordings has finally been released on CD, and we have it available for sale now
on the Hypnos Online Store.
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A Produce - The Clearing
(A Produce category) (Price: $13.99) 2008. Reissue of an early A Produce project, never before released on CD and somewhat of a departure from his later work. Trance Port is proud to release the final A Produce re-issue of his first album (1988), "The Clearing." "The Clearing" was originally released in 1988 in an edition of 500 LPs. At the time, AP considered it an album of conceptual space. It was also very much a transitional album, AP having gone from playing guitar in the dark dance band Afterimage in the early 80s to where he was headed musically and creatively in the 90s on up to the present. The notion of the Trance Port label also evolved in the early 80s, first as a cassette releasing label of what was evolving as the L.A. underground music scene. Many of the artists AP met during that time appeared on the two "L.A. Mantra" compilations issued on Trance Port during those years. Many also appeared on the tracks of "The Clearing" project. AP is thankful for those artists varied contributions on this album. It would not have turned out as well and as interesting a project without them. After release of "The Clearing" LP, A Produce began to drift into more space/ambient realms. Some of "The Clearings" original tracks have appeared on later compilations of my work. This is the first time the entire album has been rejoined as the whole it originally came from. An added lost track has been included on this CD release to complete the experience. For this release, all track tracks have been remastered by Loren Nerell and AP... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.27
This weekend we have another batch of featured items on Hypnos Online Store,
this time from the Neu Harmony label.
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Syndromeda - Metaphysical Experiences
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2005. "Some artists provide their best work earlier in their career but Syndromeda just gets better and better." ----Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Otarion - Faces of the Night
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2004. "The album takes us through a restless, dream filled night. We begin 'Nightfall' with eerie metallic shimmers, deep bass rumbles and haunting but also quite ethereal wordless vocal touches. It\'s an extremely impressive start, out of which rhythms and simply stunning melodies emerge. Beauty and power are mixed together in the perfect combination. Every track here is perfection, there is no weak link. It is one of my favorite CDs ever; truly a pleasure to review and goes without saying that I think it is an essential purchase.\" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Under the Dome - Bellerophon
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2002. "This is a stunning album. It contains those trademark UTD style sequences as found on their first but it also shows a great deal of maturity, light and shade if you like. Equal attention is paid to the atmospheres and textures which balance the stormers. It also comes over as something of a concept album, right down to the early sci fi imagery of the artwork (think of Forbidden Planet). To get the most out of this album when you first get it keep it on constant rotation, playing it time after time- if your woofers are up to it that is. There is greater depth to the sound here than I have ever heard before.\" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Under the Dome - Wot No Colin?
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2003. "This is one hell of a powerful CD! It combines tracks from both the Hampshire Jam 2 and National Space Center performances, played completely live without any pre-recorded backing. There are two new numbers plus the sequencer-dominated tracks from \'The Demon Haunted World\' and \'Bellerophon\', most of the pieces running into each other without a break. Indeed it is a sequencer fest to end all sequencer fests! If you are a fan of retro sequencer music, this CD is absolutely essential. If you haven\'t tried Under The Dome before, this is an excellent place to start.\" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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The Omega Syndicate - Analogue Waves
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2004. "There is Berlin School, then there is Hardcore Berlin School, and then there is this! Xan and Dave Gurr, the guys behind he Omega Syndicate, really don\'t seem to care what some people might think. They like sequencers of the good old-fashioned style, subtle as a brick and don\'t see why you shouldn\'t crank them up, (and up and up)! Why should there be a limit to the number of sequencer lines you can have anyway? They let rip and just keep going. I mean, there are three tracks here averaging over twenty-five minutes each, one over half an hour with hardly a moment to catch breath. The sounds they choose are all so mid to late seventies, but of denser proportions than I have heard from anything actually coming out of that period. These guys are having enormous fun doing what they love doing, and this fun is infectious. It certainly left a smile on my face throughout the entire album.\" --Reviewed by DL from Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Syndromeda - Creatures from the Inner
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $16.99) "This is a double CD of epic proportions containing the most mature but also intense compositions from Syndromeda to date." -reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.24
We're proud to announce our latest release on the Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint, Huronic Minor by Matt Borghi.
Artist: Matt Borghi
Title: Huronic Minor
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)
2008. We here at Hypnos have long enjoyed Matt Borghi's subtle atmospheric ambient music, and believed it deserved
more attention. Many of Matt's CDs are out of print, and we've agreed to re-issue a series of our favorite
recordings on the Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint. The first of these Matt Borghi reissues will be Huronic Minor.
Simple, restrained, and artful, these recordings deserve to remain in print, and we hope these reissues will
help introduce more of today's ambient music listeners to the work of this important artist.
Track listing (with MP3 sample clips):
1. Leaving the Gates of the Open Harbor
2. November's Peculiar Calm
3. Gray Dawn Illumination
4. Point Aux Barques
5. The Longest Night
6. Red Sky Morning
7. Brooding Dark Waters
8. Distant Harbor
9. Silent Moor
"...drifting ambient music par excellence. Matt's forte is similar to that of Stephen Philips' - the ability to meld subtle synthesizer shadings and drones into mesmerizing cloud-like tone poems.
I never got bored with this CD, although if a non-ambient fan would listen to it, he or she might think the sound was monotonous. But that is true ambient musics appeal. A startling shift of
abrupt change calls attention to the music, thereby making it "non-ambient." Huronic Minor is that rarest of ambient releases, i.e. a joy to listen to in silence and be consumed by or equally
effective played softly in the background as a sonic antidote for one's own confused or stressed out world so to speak. However one listens ton this highly recommended recording, the
CDs worth and artistry are unmistakable. Added recommendation emphasis if you live near the Great Lakes or a fishing port on the Atlantic Ocean."
--Reviewed by Bill Binkelman, Wind and Wire (www.windandwire.com)
"The album speaks of grays and blues, reds and yellows and serenity and confusion. The juxtapositions are ambiguities as Matt teases listeners and baits them to decide where to go with the drift.
The soul becomes the guide as Matt provide only provides the vehicle. This gentle set provides essential sonic exploration and meditation!"
--Reviewed by Jim Brenholts, Author, Tracks Across the Universe
"I think Huronic Minor is brilliant, and if I may say, completely different from your previous effort For Running Time.
I don't know what to play first. I will surely chose two or three longer pieces and give them airplay."
--Reviewed by Vladimir Jovanovic, Inner Space Radio, Croatia
" Borghi has crafted a superb collection of dark drones, bruised wanderings, and ravaged ruins, glimpses of a psyche's attempts to deal with nightmarish realities.
This is rainy-day fog shrouded doom-cast netherworld music. Fans of Roach, Robert Scott Thompson, 1980s Robert Rich "sleep tunes," and all such "melting brain" music will enjoy this!
Recommended release."
--Reviewed by John W. Patterson, EER reviews
Hypnos Online Store listing -- price is $11.99
2008.04.23
One of our most popular and best-selling releases ever, Somnium by Robert Rich, sold out its initial pressing of 2,000 copies late last year. We've gone ahead and pressed another 1,000 so if you missed out the first time, you can still own a copy of one of the landmark works in ambient music.
Artist: Robert Rich
Title: Somnium
Label: Hypnos/Soundscape DVD
2001. Back in print as of April 2008!
For those
who are unclear about the format of SOMNIUM: it's an ordinary DVD-video disc, playable
in regular, garden-variety home DVD players, as well as DVD-rom drives on you PC or Mac. It does
not require (and in fact is not compatible with) a high-end "DVD-audio" format machine. To put
it another way, it's a DVD-video with music only, no picture (aside from the menus). The
DVD-video format was used because it enabled us to store 7 hours of continuous audio on one side
of one disc -- no breaks in the program... no need to change discs or wait for a changer to swap
from disc 5 to disc 6, for example. It is a stereo (two channel) audio program.
Technical questions aside, SOMNIUM is a re-creation of Robert Rich's famous "sleep concerts,"
which began during Robert's time at Stanford University. These sleep concerts have been much
discussed, but few current fans of ambient/space music have actually attended them. Consequently,
a lot of speculation and mystery has grown about the "legendary sleep concerts." Now you'll have
an opportunity to stretch out in the dark and listen to some of Robert Rich's finest deep,
subliminal ambience.... seven hours worth, uninterrupted!
Ready to purchase now, 7 hours of music playable in any DVD player, for $21.99, here:
Hypnos Online Store listing
2008.04.22
Here's another batch of items new to the Hypnos Online Store,
this time from the Darla label.
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Windy & Carl - Antarctica: Bliss Out vol. 2
(Darla category) (Price: $11.99) "Time slows down, your heart rate drops, the massive sound of Antarctica as slow, heavy and breathtakingly beautiful as a glacier envelopes. Here Dearborn, Michigan\'s King and Queen of etherea follow their critically acclaimed second record The Drawing of Sound with a solid ambient epic. 47 minutes. 3 songs." Review from Darla Records... (more/buy) | |
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Fuxa - Venoy: Bliss Out vol.5
(Darla category) (Price: $9.99) "The nortious kings of Michigan space rock captured at the peak of their partnership. an interstellar trip via soundcraft in two overtures of soulful electronic bliss. Music for floating above the Earth's atmosphere or at least at home in a big cushy chair with your favorite libation." Review from Darla Records... (more/buy) | |
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Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - Before the Day Breaks
(Darla category) (Price: $13.99) "After The Night Falls and Before The Day Breaks are not ambient. Both are instrumental, absolutely beautiful and as emotionally charged as any previous work from either artist. The pair of albums complement one another, each track with its twin on the companion piece, the two conceived as experiments in the dualities of music and emotion. As with all classic recordings from the Masters the listener desires repeated listening to absorb their full sonic implications. This is soulful music that allows one to find that place within where peace and perspective are achieved. It moves effortlessly to erase the chatter of modern life and inspire meditation on things important. It may help the listener better see their way forward." Review from Darla Records 1. How Close Your Soul 2. A Formless Path 3. A Minute, A Day, No More 4. She is My Weakness 5. Outside, Silence 6. Hidden Message 7. I Returned Her Glance 8. My Monochrome Vision 9. Turn on the Moon... (more/buy) | |
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ISAN - Digitalis
(Darla category) (Price: $10.99) "English duo of Robin Saville and Antony Ryan make beautiful sounds, picking up their signals from deep space, like pulse coded informational rhythmic tone clusters of synthetic extraterrestrial folk music of cellular activities, breathing, bubbling, and fizzing with life. All instrumental, seven tracks, bringing to mind; Cluster, Microstoria, To Rocco Rot, and even grand daddies Kraftwerk. -- George Parsons, DREAM Magazine. At home. The synthesizer sounds great, warm, embracing, lively, almost alive. But what\'s that noise, that strange hiss? You open up the main wooden cabinet. You suddenly realize that this synthesizer once was alive. It used to be a bug\'s family living room. The hiss and the buzz is caused by, now long dead, little bug kids who glued themselves to the filter circuits and who tried to play table tennis on the A-C-adaptor. \"Should I clean the inside? Should I get rid of the cracklings?,\" you ask yourself. No way, you like what you hear. This keyboard is alive. Its good that way. You close the door and start recording... If our mutual friend found beetles in his synth, ISAN'S equipment must be inhabited by proper salamanders, pattering constantly over circuits, stumbling over wires. Robin and Toe, the two mates operating this 'Integrated Services Analogue Network' (ISAN), appreciate the salamander\'s help and dedicated this whole album to their little friend. A couple of years ago, they both met in Leicester, discovered a common interest in "using dodgy old keyboards to make a dodgy old noise" and started recording together. Mixing the simple beauty of melodies generated with analogue keyboards and the bumpy, quirky rhythms old drum machines create when you switch them on, ISAN produce some of the most irresistible pop anthems the whole family can hum along to." Review from Darla Records... (more/buy) | |
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Hammock - Raising Your Voice...Trying to Stop An Echo
(Darla category) (Price: $13.99) "Raising Your VoiceTrying to Stop an Echo is the anticipated follow up to Hammocks debut, Kenotic, a record that All Music Guide described as in every way a contender for classic status in the Shoegazing genre. Although cherished in Shoegazer circles, Kenotics two months charting in CMJs Radio 200 and high profile appearances during NBCs 2006 Olympic Coverage and on NPRs All Songs Considered, Hearts of Space, Echoes and Musical Starstreams revealed that Hammock was also causing a stir among tastemakers and fans of Ambient, Post-Rock, Drone and Electronic. The duos eighteen newest tracks will do little to change that cross-genre appeal. Raising Your VoiceTrying to Stop an Echo is characterized by the duos hallmark: thick curtains of cascading electric guitars that merge into pure expressions of hope, stillness, joy and loss. Accompanied by strings, piano, ethereal vocals and an occasional undercurrent of percussion, these beautiful, layered guitar washes range from whisper-soft minimalism to moments of driving, slow-burn intensity. Simply put, Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson make music that is filled with human passion and emotion. Welcome to this winters new soundtrack. \"a perfect combination of the swirling, amorphous beauty of ambient music and the passionate pulse of electronica." -Brian Baker, Amplifier Magazine... (more/buy) | |
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Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls
(Darla category) (Price: $13.99) "After The Night Falls and Before The Day Breaks are not ambient. Both are instrumental, absolutely beautiful and as emotionally charged as any previous work from either artist. The pair of albums complement one another, each track with its twin on the companion piece, the two conceived as experiments in the dualities of music and emotion. As with all classic recordings from the Masters the listener desires repeated listening to absorb their full sonic implications. This is soulful music that allows one to find that place within where peace and perspective are achieved. It moves effortlessly to erase the chatter of modern life and inspire meditation on things important. It may help the listener better see their way forward." review from Darla Records Track list: 1. How Distant Your Heart 2. Avenue of Shapes 3. Seven Thousand Sunny Years 4. She is My Strength 5. Inside, a Golden Echo 6. Open Book 7. And Then I Turned Away 8. The Girl with the Colorful Thoughts 9. Turn Off the Sun... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.21
These arrived some time ago, and were added to the Hypnos Online Store,
but we're just getting around to mentioning them... here's a great selection of the available releases from the incredible
Canadian dark ambient label, Cyclic Law. These CDs are are great examples of beautifully packaged deep ambient, perhaps
darker than most of what we sell here at Hypnos, but never abrasive or too aggressive. Fans of Lustmord or Sleep Research
Facility or Lull should enjoy these. Also, Cyclic Law artist Svartsinn will be appearing on the upcoming Hypnos
compilation CD, Message from a Subatomic World.
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Svartsinn - Traces of Nothingness
(Cyclic Law category) (Price: $13.99) The 3rd offering from Norway\'s Svartsinn could be acknowledged as the end of a trilogy, the first opus \"Devouring Consciousness\" was an album containing stories made during what the artist explains as being some difficult and rough times. The second offering, \"Of Darkness And Re-Creation\", was the process of trying to deal with these struggles and reflect on them. \"Traces Of Nothingness\" is simply the reaction, result and the path ahead in this ongoing, seemingly endless darkness. A slightly more melodic, sad and obscure side of Svartsinn that still keeps the cold and dark atmosphere that defines his sound. First 1000 copies in special Digipack. 8 Tracks. Running time; 50:57 Track list: Traces Of Nothingness / No Passage To The Innermost... / Lost In Reveries / Misanthropic Odyssey / Through Apathetic Eyes / All The Colours Are Fading / ...But The Fire Burns No More / Emptiness Is Form... (more/buy) | |
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Visions - Lapse
(Cyclic Law category) (Price: $13.99) New solo work from Frdric Arbour (Instincts/Longing For Dawn/Cyclic Law). This sonic venture takes us on an intense, solemn ambient journey through the minds eye and beyond. A transcendantal voyage through thick, droning layers immersed in richly obscure, ever evolving abstract sonorities fused with mysticaly charged passages, this is a relentless visionary experience through time and space, to realms beyond our imagination. First 1000 copies in Gatefold sleeve. 7 Tracks. Running time; 56:00 Track list: Abyssal Gaze / Auroral Glare / Visions / Passage / Lapsing / Devoid Of Shadows / Lightless... (more/buy) | |
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Gustaf Hildebrand - Primordial Resonance
(Cyclic Law category) (Price: $13.99) Gustaf\'s second full lenght is a unique, evolved experience offering you to embark upon an odyssey through ancient and lifeless surroundings. Sweeping ambient soundscapes and delicate textures mingle with the distant shrieks of surreal machinery - conjuring up images of abandoned and forgotten places, clouded skies and dead cities where time has been standing still. A captured moment from a strange no man\'s land lit by a perpetual gloom, Primordial Resonance is a voyage only limited by the imagination of the listener. First 1000 copies come in an oversized fold out cover (A5). 6 Tracks. Running time; 45:19 Track list: Omega Continuum / Post Oblivion Fields / The Hollow Structures / Omnivoid / Ruins of a Failed Utopia / Wanderer of Strange Spheres... (more/buy) | |
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Northaunt - Horizons
(Cyclic Law category) (Price: $13.99) 3rd full length album from Norway\'s most renowned Ambient Atmospheric act. HORIZONS is a collection of 7 long ambient landscapes, lonely sceneries on the verge of night, places we long for, places we have been, sanctuaries from mankind. This is desolation made audible, carefully constructed and layered with deep drones, melancholic tonalities and outdoor field recordings which makes this Northaunt\'s most haunting release so far. Includes a bonus Video file with an alternate version of the track \"The Wilderness\" First 2000 copies in a 6 panel Digipack 7 Tracks + Video. Running time; 60.00 Track list: Until Dawn Do Us Part / Night Came To Us / Horizons / The Autumn Sky / Night Alone / With The Stars As Witness / The Wilderness Bonus Video File: The Wilderness (Alternate Version)... (more/buy) | |
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New Risen Throne - Whispers of the Approaching Wastefulness
(Cyclic Law category) (Price: $13.99) The latest offering and first for Cyclic Law of one of Italy\'s finest Black Ambient master. The main concept and transpiring feeling of this album and the title \"Whispers of the approaching wastefulness\" can best be described as the \"steps\" or \"journey\" leading to the acknowledgment of the approaching end of all things. \"Whispers\" represent doubts and thoughts about the prevalent decadence that is around and deep within us and \"wastefulness\" translates to the imminent, definitive end of all things, to oblivion... The album is divided into 3 chapters: I - Oblivious to unknown threat (first signs) Tracks 1 & 2, II - Acquisition of knowledge (signs) Tracks 3, 4 & 5, III - Advent of a definitive wastefulness (final signs) Track 6. NEW RISEN THRONE\'s latest opus offers a bleak and sorrow filled soundtrack celebrating death with little hope for rebirth... This Enhanced CD features an exclusive bonus video clip of the track \"Unknown (II)\" First 1000 copies comes in a 6 panel textured cardboard sleeve. 6 Tracks. Running time; 44:00 Track List: Signs Of The Approaching Wastefulness (I) / Blowing Funeral Chant / Signs Of The Approaching Wastefulness (II) / Prophet (III) / Aporrheton / Signs Of The Approaching Wastefulness (III)... (more/buy) | |
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Tholen - Sternklang
(Cyclic Law category) (Price: $13.99) Sternklang is the expression of the intimate encounter with the whole, the direct connection with the stars and the vast universe, the sense of complete union with all the overdimensional attributes of what sourrounds us. With THOLEN, Eisen, the man behind this project has given us an aurally materialized glimpse of his numerous stargazing evenings...where the soundscapes are revealed while the stars seemed to gather and sing out of their primordial and powerful environment. The darkest hour is always the one before sunrise... In fold out gatefold cardboard sleeve. 1 Track. Running Time: 1:11:07 Track List: Sternklang1 / Sternklang2 / Sternklang3 / Sternklang4... (more/buy) | |
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Sinke Dus - Akrasia
(Cyclic Law category) (Price: $13.99) Akrasia is an old question dealing with the weakness of the will. To behave \"akratically\" is when one acts against his better judgement, committing acts that are known to be wrong but yet still going through with the motion. Markus Lonebrink wanted to explore not so much the philosophical issues at hand, but rather the subjective experience of akrasia itself. To learn of the underlying motives of when one acts akratically. Certain events in the akratic process felt natural to him and it was those he tried to integrate into these soundscapes. There are no conclusions described in the music, but there might be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and perhaps the shadow of a hint of why we humans sometimes act as irrationally as we do. A shared quest to gain better knowledge of oneself through this self-revisionistic ambient journey filled with ethereally lush passages that give way to a truly visionary and immersive experience. The album also features a special collaboration with Pr Bostrom of KAMMARHEIT. In fold out gatefold cardboard sleeve. 7 Tracks. Running Time: 45:50 Track List: The Premonition / Acedia / Remnants / That Which Was Lost / The Abyss / That Which Lies Beyond / Fortitude... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.04 (later)
More new items just added to the Hypnos Online Store
from the Neu Harmony label -- imports from England.
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AirSculpture - TranceAtlantic (2 CD)
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $16.99) 2005. "These recordings were taken from the band's US tour in 2004. The first disc features Parts 1 to 3 of 'Walk The Locust' from their 'Gatherings' concert. The second disc features the three-part title track, which was taken from the late night live radio concert they did after the gig. Despite the word \'trance\' in the title there is nothing remotely dancey about this album but rather, (as well as the obvious pun), it refers to the effect the music will probably have on you. Even though there are some great sequences and rhythms here this isn\'t, for the most part, AirSculpture in sledgehammer mode. Rather they are being truer to their name, creating wonderful, spellbinding structures - works of art in their own right, out of pure air.\" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Max van Richter - Resurrection
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2002. "In keeping with the Arcane albums, 'Resurrection' encapsulates and extends the classic melodic/sequencer style which TD used to perfection in the early 80\'s. Debate still occasionally surfaces about the pro\'s and con\'s of using comparisons in reviews, but when you hear an album like this it is totally appropriate to make comparison with the very best EM ever made. Had Schmoelling or Froese released this as a long lost TD solo work no-one would have batted an eyelid as to its credentials, and it\'s stature as one of the best solo albums to emerge from the scene. It is totally magnificent, totally captivating, totally essential.\" --Reviewed by GG at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Javi Canovas - Light Echoes
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2006. "Javi will be a new name to many but he has, over the last few years, been perfecting his art. In 2005 he put his toe in the water with a self-produced album \'Impasse\'. It was well received amongst sequencer nuts. This early promise was not a \'flash in the pan\' as \'Light Echoes\' is a real cracker. The title makes it sound as if the album might be rather mellow but nothing could be further from the truth, as it is a hard-core sequencer belting epic where his complex sequences are allowed to let rip almost throughout. I loved this album.\" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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The Omega Syndicate - Phonosphere
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2004. "Lovely, thick analogue cosmic whooshing might sound like quite a standard way of beginning a track but there are ways of doing it- and there is The Omega Syndicate way of doing it! In electronic music the choice of sounds is vital and these really are impressive- indeed they are some of the best space sounds I have ever heard. Out of this stellar bliss first one high register sequence then another massively bass-laden one surge forwards. Again the sounds are awesome. They constantly morph and move in and out of the mix almost like gusts of wind surging one way then another in a storm, wreaking havoc as they go. Indeed you could say it is completely self-sufficient containing rhythm, melody, power and atmosphere all in its ever-shifting pattern of notes.\" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Otarion - Creator
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2002. "This doesn't fit into any particular category. It takes the best elements from retro, modern rhythmic, atmospheric- everything really, and puts them together to form one of the most enjoyable albums I have ever heard. \'Evolution\' was a triumph but on \'Creator\' the sound is even bigger, the hooks even stronger and there is so much of that mysterious factor that is hard to put your finger on that just makes you want to shout out in pleasure. Even the artwork created by Marcus Hildebrandt and put together by Gary Hall is stunning.\" --Reviewed bt DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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The Omega Syndicate - Apocalypse
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2006. "The coolest of cosmic sounds get the title track underway. This is really moody stuff. Three minutes in and a stunning (and I mean stunning!) melodic sequence strikes up along with some menacing cosmic guitar playing which adds that extra bite without dominating too much. There is the feel of pent up power about to explode. \'The Lycanthropic Principle\' cranks the sequences up immediately. A wonderful bass laden one erupts from the speakers accompanied by sympathetic rhythms and excellent tuneful pads. Extra bite is added in the form of superb guitar riffs nestling in the middle of the mix. Then to make this exquisite combination still better in comes the most stunning lead line duelling with the guitar. Some say that guitars can sometimes spoil EM but surely that can\'t be said of this, it just works so well. If Tangerine Dream had come up with a track like this in the last 20 years people would be in ecstatic bliss. It really is something special. \'Pixie\'s Playground\' is another winner. Shimmering metallic drones mix with sonic tinklings, a heavenly flutey synth line floating above it all. A bouncy melodic loop adds a little extra movement which is soon stepped up a gear as another wonderful bass sequence rolls into formation. \'The Global Extinction of the Wireless\' begins rather moodily with a melancholy melody just hanging in the air above delicate fizzing drones. A rapid tinkling sequence cuts through the calmness. A second joins it along with restrained guitar licks. Yet another sequence is chucked into the brew and we are now storming along in almost \'Force Majeure\' fashion. Things continue to gain added oomph, the guitar taking the main melodic duties but keeping fairly restrained, letting the sequences provide the powerful salvos. \'Masque\' starts like there is a UFO coming down to land then yet another awesome sequence rolls forward with steam hissing from its vapour trail. What we have here is of classic Arc proportions. The lead lines, one after another, are all b rilliant and could have come straight from Ian Boddy as Mark wielded the mighty modular." --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.04
More new items just added to the Hypnos Online Store
from the Neu Harmony label -- imports from England.
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Mark Shreeve - Embryo
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) "Originally released in 1980 on cassette, this was Mark Shreeves debut outing in the world of Electronic Music. This CD release gives everyone the opportunity to hear the music as it was originally intended, with the sonorous clarity and dynamics of the digital domain. Just to clear up any potential confusion, this isnt a dodgy bootleg of a cassette copy , this is a full blown official CD release sourced from the master tapes, and it sounds superb. As the title suggests, this is an embryonic journey through some early EM influences, primarily Schulze and Tangerine Dream of the 70s. " --Reviewed by GG at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Syndromeda - The Alien Abduction Phenomenon
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2001. "This is superb atmospheric picture music of the very highest order, conjuring up images of desolate alien landscapes. This album has it all, some of the best atmospheric passages you could ever ask for, but also rhythms and sequences which will shake the foundations. Amazing!" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Syndromeda - In Touch with the Stars
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2001. "What we have here is Syndromeda's performance at Jodrell Bank earlier this year. Its all new material recorded especially for the concert and what a gig it was. If you weren't there listening to this CD is the next best thing. The dark rumbling drones created for the beginning of the opener 'So So Far Away' are so deep they got a pile of CDs I had placed near a speaker to fall over. They were ideal for the cosmic setting of this performance, it was like being near some star about to go super nova. There is so much power here and yet at the same time a sort of peacefulness. This album has some of the meanest, deepest atmospherics as well as awesome sequences and rhythms. It should give the speakers a real work out - play loud!" --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Mike Andrews - Time & Science
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2002. "A lovely, dreamy lead line floats above windy effects and shimmering drones. A powerful lead melody surges from the speakers over vast pads and explosions. Its extremely exciting, almost apocalyptic stuff.I think this album would appeal to fans of Otarion and Andy Pickford as it is music which is both immense in scale as well as melodically superb." --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Andy Pickford & Paul Nagle: S.T.D.M. - Ramayana
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2002. "This is an incredible album! The music is flowing, sometimes gently but at other times like a raging current. There are elements of trance in here but rhythmically much more inventive and the sequences stronger than much of that style. The melodies are also superb, often subtle but always captivating." --Reviewed by DL at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Arcane - 33 1/3 RPM
(Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2004. "It was long rumored that the seminal 'Teach Yourself To Crash Cars' album was planned as a double. The myth grew when a copy of 'Pt 2' was supposedly spotted in a backstreet record shop in Berlin, next to TD's 'The Keep' LP. It wasn't until Buchloh's studio was being relocated that rumour became reality. In amongst a box of various EM albums was a white label master which simply had written on it 'Arcane 33 1/3 RPM'. It was unmistakably the long lost part 2, and this is a digitally remastered transcription of those sacred grooves which is presented here as the first two tracks. In keeping with the vinyl origins the packaging is a microcosm of gatefold reminiscence, with the CD itself mimicking its long-play forebears. It is hugely effective, and the moody imagery fits the concept to perfection. Overall this is an enthralling album, and the key features that make Arcane one of the very top EM bands of the moment can be found in abundance. The remastering has been handled very well, the packaging is great, it really is another outstanding chapter in this band's already illustrious portfolio. Quite simply a "must buy". --Reviewed by GG at Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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2008.04.03
Lena's been very busy adding lots of new items to the Hypnos Online Store
and this time, we have items imported from the Neu Harmony label in England.
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Jim Kirkwood - Tower of Darkness (Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 1993. "Tower of Darkness' is a fair representation of Jim Kirkwood\'s work - eerie, Gothic, atmospheric and powerful all at once." -- Reviewed by Stuart J. Harris... (more/buy) | |
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Otarion - Evolution (Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2000. "Mesmeric sequencing combine with the most infectious melodies to produce a hugely stylish collection of EM at its very best." --reviewed by DL from Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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Paul Ellis - Appears to Vanish (Neu Harmony category) (Price: $13.99) 2000. "A lone organ sound gives the beginning of the first part a rather Gothic feel. This is compounded still further when at just over a minute it is replaced by angelic wordless vocal effects. You can just imagine the mist swirling round some abandoned monastery where the echoes of its long dead inhabitants still reverberate from one ruined wall to another. These all disappear before three minutes, the mood well and truly set as a deep note repeatedly resonates from the speakers and an ominous melodic motif makes proceedings seem even more sinister. In case you have been thinking that you have heard of this artist before but can\'t quite place him it might help to tell you that he is one half of Dweller at the Threshold.\" --reviewed by DL from Synth Music Direct... (more/buy) | |
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