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Thursday, July 29, 2010
Displaying 1 through 10 of 76 total records.
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ARTIST: ALIO DIE
TITLE: Under An Holy Ritual
LABEL: PROJEKT |
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| DESCRIPTION: Under an Holy Ritual" is a ritual ambient milestone and probably the most highly regarded release from this Italian ambient composer. |
| ITEM NUMBER: 09575 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $12.99 |
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ARTIST: ALIO DIE & JACK OR JIVE
TITLE: Mei-Jyu
LABEL: PROJEKT |
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| DESCRIPTION: Alio Die's ambient soundscapes with Chako's seductively layered ethereal vocals
MEI-JYU is an ethereal-ritual-ambient collaboration between Italian sound manipulator Stefano Musso (aka Alio Die) and the Japanese duo Chako and Makoto Hattori (Jack or Jive). On MEI-JYU, introspective ambient music by Musso joins with Chako’s ethereal-otherwordly vocals. Opening parallel dimensions and suppoting the dreamy quality of Chako’s voice, the music is derived from acoustic zither sounds, improvisations done on the waters of a brook, and environmental sounds of bells or radio. The atmospheres of the tracks vary, but the glowing quality between sounds and voice is decidedly original here. Growing up from the dark ambient sounds and loops, the music flows harmoniously.
The word “Meijyu” derives from the Zen practice. Meijyu resides in one’s palm and it is like a jewel, a precious stone, a clear crystal. Everyone has Meijyu inside. People look for shining objects in the outside world. If we focus on Meijyu with all our might, it will shine through us; Meijyu then teaches us that man can shine from the inside.
After nearly 15 solo albums a piece, an appreciation for each other's music formed a natural bond between these artists. On MEI-JYU, songs can be relaxing and melancholy, dark ambient, multi-dimensional, bucolic, ritual, minimalistic. The voice is always inspired and spontaneous; the quality of a sincere prayer opens to different rooms full of emotions. A child-like pure quality sometimes creates a sweet tension, but the unique voice can also be quite strong and lightly dramatic. The ritual approach to music by these artists creates something beautiful here, delicate and deep, magic landscapes for the soul. |
| ITEM NUMBER: 06576 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $13.99 |
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ARTIST: ALIO DIE & MARTINA
TITLE: Eleusian Lullaby
LABEL: PROJEKT |
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| DESCRIPTION: Eleusian Lullaby is a sensual ethereal-ambient collaboration between Italian soundsculptor Stefano Musso (aka Alio Die) and Italian singer Martina Galvagni. It is the third release in Projekt's series of Alio Die's vocal collaborations following 2001's Apsaras (with Amelia Cuni) and 2005's Mei-Jyu (with Jack or Jive).
Eleusian Lullaby blends the natural, warm and earthy ambient compositions of Alio Die with the elegant, neo-classical voice of Martina, merging notes and silence into an expanded dreamscape. This is lullaby music like an aural caress from darkness into the light. The combination of the vocal melodies with the abstract qualities of the loops and instruments creates a suspended near-dream space, intimate and sensual at the same time.
The opening track, 'The Oniroid Sleep,' displays a foggy atmosphere where the voices wash beneath the acoustic layers of the cithara, sitar, kalimba and field recordings. On the second track, 'A Drone Song for Alienor,' the voice is clearer and more upfront with all its powerful beauty apparent creating an intense and fragile song with a neo-classical approach. The third song, 'Eleusian Lullaby,' was created as a totally free improvisation of psaltery and voice; the text is sung in a dialect of the Engadina language (Switzerland). Drones and loops were added later from the original recordings.
60 minutes of music, composed by acoustical improvisations with voice, psaltery, zither, cithara, bells, metals and field recordings. The original recordings were made in locations in the woods and in ancient medieval places then processed and layered by Alio Die at Temple Studio in 2005-2006.
Listen to this trance music in the dark and be lead to a tranquil earthly garden. Like in the best lullabies, you are caressed as you are transported to a mysterious parallel soundworld of peace and harmony. |
| ITEM NUMBER: 09176 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $13.99 |
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ARTIST: ALL MY FAITH LOST
TITLE: The Hours
LABEL: PROJEKT |
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| DESCRIPTION: Romantic, melancholic, seductive. Acoustic, ethereal, lush. Sensual, beautiful and stirring. All are good words to describe The Hours passionate search through the soul. The Italian due of Viola and Federico create graceful and elegant music for fans of Heavenly Voices, Ethereal & Dark Folk soundscapes. All My Faith Lost's second album quickly follows their 2005 debut on Cold Meat Industry. The album is slow and tranquil, featuring male and female vocals which serve as instruments contributing to the soundscape of acoustic guitar, flute, piano, violin, and cello. All My Faith Lost... unlock a beautifully tender and delicate world, a view into the soul of delicate seduction.
"Federico and Viola, who are both responsible for the lyrical content, also share the lead vocal duties. The vocals are used like instruments, in that they are whispered and subdued, so that the narrative becomes secondary to the texture and tone. The synths are used to fill out the overall sound, but the acoustic guitar, flute, piano, violin, and viola are the true driving forces. This CD is for times of solitude and quiet introspection that will take you far away from the madding crowd." VIRUS MAGAZINE |
| ITEM NUMBER: 09027 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $13.99 |
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ARTIST: AS LONELY AS DAVE BOWMAN
TITLE: Pod
LABEL: PROJEKT |
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| DESCRIPTION: POD is released as a DVD-sized digi-pak in a limited hand-numbered first edition of 900 (hand-numbered by Sam). An ultra-limited edition of 36 was released in February, with the digi-pak inside a blue plexiglass box — those sold out in just a few days! When this editions sells through, a new version - in an entirely different packaging format - will be created.
POD brings a new and chilling element to the ambient music genre known as drone. Inspired by the vast isolation of cold, dark space, the absence of human civilization, and the texture of pure sound, there is a curiosity and fascination with those forces that leads to discovery. As Lonely as Dave Bowman becomes a pioneer in the next stage of ambient drone.
With a chillingly isolated core of sound that detaches and draws back into itself like droplets of mercury, POD crafts a singular sound of metaphoric loneliness that is not just a strand that drifts through space but is an enveloping, permeating cloud. It travels in an infinite trajectory, exploring the realm of the unknown as if a breathing entity, expanding and contracting into eternity. It eventually evolves into a robotic drone, a swarm of emotion and memory.
As Lonely as Dave Bowman is an electronic space music deep-ambient side-project from Sam Rosenthal, Projekt and black tape for a blue girl founder. The images came first. Sam's young son Sasha took the photos one afternoon while playing with Sam's camera. Noticing they were striking enough to be an album cover, Sam decided to create a musical world to compliment the amorphous look the photos captured. Inspired by Sasha's love for the films 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Sam worked in the studio in new and organic ways. Forsaking his usual melodic and lyrical approach to song-writing, he quickly developed musical pieces that are principally texture and spacial landscapes, created from a meaningful flow of synthetically produced loops and old-fashioned outboard effects.
Is the limitless expanse of space outside the realm of the planet Earth a selective environment for life or is it a cold, dark vacuum that leaves only unimagined emptiness in its wake? Will long periods of separation from humanity support the explorer or will it birth a long, never-ending core of loneliness with tendrils that reach Earth, wrapping its inhabitants in despair and uncertainty? POD provides shape and essence to these philosophical questions that permeate our thinking selves with unanswerable possibilities. The sound ponders the moment and the eternity that extends beyond it, developing a continuous flow that goes on forever in swells and ebbs like an ocean of time. |
| ITEM NUMBER: 08407 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $7.29 |
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ARTIST: ATTRITION
TITLE: All Mine Enemys Whispers (The Story pf Mary Ann Cotton)
LABEL: PROJEKT |
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| DESCRIPTION: A surreal nightmareish journey into the mind of a Victorian serial killer from this darkAmbient pioneer. Mary Ann Cotton was Britain's greatest female mass murderer. Poisoning upwards of 20 of her own children and partenrs with arsenic. She was arrested, tried and hanged in 1873. Attrition's Martin Bowes is a descendant of the arresting officer, Police Sergeant Tom McCutcheon.
Completed on Oct. 31, 2007, this is no ordinary Halloween album; Mary Ann Cotton's story (augmented by the real-life connection between the album's composer and the killer herself) will do a much better job keeping you up at night than any slasher film killer or long-haired Japanese ghost child. The music is a haunting brew of electronic soundscapes, neo-classical strings, and eerie children's voices. Shuffling sounds, anxiously scraped strings and electronic drones create the mood, while ex-Courtney Love band violinist Emilie Autumn conjures up a momentary sense of pity for the condemned killer with her sorrowful vocal rendition on the album's climax, a submersive darkAmbient gem which incorporates the hymn "Rock of Ages."
All mine enemys whispers features Ned Kirby of Stromkern, Erica Mulkey of Unwoman and Rasputina, and Laurie Reade of High Blue Star and Pigface. |
| ITEM NUMBER: 09426 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $13.99 |
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ARTIST: AUTUMN’S GREY SOLACE
TITLE: Shades of Grey
LABEL: PROJEKT |
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| DESCRIPTION: Ever mindful of the lineage they have established, Autumn's Grey Solace stays true to their musical roots while introducing a driving and aggressive intensity to some tracks on Shades Of Grey, their fourth album. The album begins with "Treasure Box," a lush combination of layered female vocal harmonies and sugar-glazed guitars, slightly evocative of the Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll period. It is the second track, “Cold Sea," which finds this duo venturing into new sonic territories. The vocals are suave and attractive while the guitars are swirly and wet and driving; this track has an intensity not heard before from the band. It’s not quite “rock,” but it could certainly be described as “ethereal rock!" They quickly recede into the melancholy with “Last Tear," taking shoegazing down into the sub-contra with heavily effected 7-string guitar chords and abysmally deep bass lines. Erin Welton expands her vocal stylings on this track, creating some of her most expressive vocals ever. The middle of the album progresses with beautifully crystalline compositions, including the dreampop title track, “Shades Of Grey." Near the end of the album, songs like the dreamy “Edge Of The World” and “Still" retain the soft, heavenly qualities that Autumn’s Grey Solace is known for on their previous albums.
Knowing that you need a little bit of light to define the shadows, Shades Of Grey takes the shoegazer genre in new directions and beyond, showing that Autumn’s Grey Solace is evolving, yet retains the characteristics that have made their music popular with fans of the ethereal, shoegazer and dreampop genres. Shades Of Grey is incredible, leaving the listener breathless. |
| ITEM NUMBER: 07896 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $13.99 |
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Displaying 1 through 10 of 76 total records.
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