abasio

0~160 (it's a multiple vote poll guys, you don't have to pick only one)

Nice! Tell me how you like them when they arrive

Best of 2006 Results 2006 Best of 2005/and/isra couldn't find the official one official Results if you want the rest, search the year in the General Section

The Circular Ruins The Alchemy Concert Databloem 2005 Tracklist 1 Affinity Construct (14:02) 2 Their Subtle Purpose (12:21) 3 Calibration (4:08) 4 The Circle of Life (10:59) 5 Changing the World (5:54) 6 Exclusion (6:23) 7 The Flame's Shadow (12:22) 8 Alpha and Omega (3:12) The Alchemy Concert is a live concert from June 2004, broadcast by Atmoworks label on their Atmostreams web radio station. It was broadcast direct from the studio of The Circular Ruins in London, Ontario Canada & was performed on 2 keyboards feeding a variety of synthesisers. Released on Databloem in 2005, I get a feeling of time, natural darkness & science from this great live show. 1. Affinity Construct The first track to me represents time. I get the feeling of old father time through the entire piece. Grand sounds, huge chimes & while there is no drum beat, the whole thing manages to sound like the passing of time, the ticking of a clock. The sounds are all very wide open like I'm flying in a dream, out of my body, out of my reality so I can view it from the outside, I can see the time passing by me 6 from my view point, father time will be kind. 2. Their Subtle Purpose A much more subtle & relaxed track here. The sounds are very light & float around inside my head like fireflies on a warm summer's night. The synths push gently against the night air & the simple melody adds an extra element to this lush late night music. When I listen to this in summer it seems to fit the mood well, when I listen to it in winter it ignites a longing for those muggy summer nights my body seems to have forgotten but that my mind can never let go off. Later comes distant sounds of conversation and towards the end, comes in the same feeling of time as in the opening track. The synths stab and a counting kind of way. Tick Tock, Tick Tock. 3. Calibration That's how it's done, the vocal sample used at the start sets the mood. The continued use of samples is done very well, half muttered, short, dark sounding and deep. The same feeling of time is here but it's slowed down & the sharp synths play a melody that feels like it's setting up for something, a little short, I'd like to see where it might have gone if expanded. 4. The Circle of Life Slowed down again, the feeling of time is now pushed to the back, still there but as it's slowed down immeasurably it seems to have lost it's importance. Instead the music seems focused on the infinity, the never ending circle that we are a part of but will never come to fully understand. The calmness & the serenity can only come from an immortal concept with no beginning or end. Very nice & relaxed. 5. Changing The World Very soft percussion in this track over which is an amazing oscillating synth sound & some ultra trippy vocal. Do you want me to tell you what it is? It's the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It's a great track, so chilled but descriptive & dark in an old world, London back room sort of way. 6. Exclusion This track gives me the feeling of science. Beakers, test tubes, things bubbling in jars. Bunsen burners, pippets, acids & alkalies all stacked up on a shelf. The music itself is very minimal, with a few synths used here & there, droning along with a few whooshes & hints of melody but it continues the old London shop feel on very well. 7. The Flames Shadow A synth oscillates like the shadow of a flame flickers. Sounds shoot upwards like the gas above the flame of a burner alters the air it passes through visually. Ethereal voices come out of the darkness surrounding the sounds at times and violin like strings play under the ever present oscillation. Melodious at times, nothing but droning at others, beatless yet percussive! It is a great ambient track that while lacks the journey quality still doesn't get boring even though it's 12 minutes long. It's like the exploration of a room. It never goes anywhere but you just start to notice more & more details. 8. Alpha & Omega A nice short dark track to finish on. The mood is quite melancholic, the vocal sample at the start seems disappointed & all the sounds seem to focus downwards culminating it what sounds like a sonic shower, with the sounds cascading. Very nice sounds used overall. As always The Circular Ruins has delivered a top notch piece of ambient, it all feels so deep and meaningful when I listen to it. The tracks are so varied yet so in keeping with themselves that the album flows like a journey & keeps you interested until the very end.

The Circular Ruins - The Alchemy Concert

The Circular Ruins Realm of Possibility Databloem 2002 Tracklist 1 The Beginning Of All Things (6:20) 2 Realm Of Possibility (9:01) 3 Echoes From Stones Part 1 (5:53) 4 Excursion (7:13) 5 Ancient Island (12:58) 6 Truth And Waiting (5:45) 7 A Language For Shadows (14:42) 8 Echoes From Stones Part 2 (3:34) 9 Reverse Alchemy (5:47) The fifth album from The Circular Ruins, Anthony Paul Kerby from England but living in Canada & his first release on the Dutch label Databloem. The Circular Ruins is a story teller. Through his music he always manages to paint the most wonderful images in my head & then evolve the image into a story. This album is no different 1. The Beginning Of All Things The beginning of all things is a very electronic synthy work. Long synth drones in the background & synth chords playing melodically. Very subtle percussion eventually gets drowned out by chaotic whooshing sounds & to me it all sounds very spacey! Not lush floating through space but very powerful chaos spacey, like the birth of a star, a galaxy or a universe. Not having experienced any of these I'm not really sure but these are the images conjured in my head by this track. 2. Realm Of Possibility A more percussive & melodic track with the realm of possibility but keeping with a similar feel to the opening track. The chaos & the spaciness are still present but there is much more energy & movement now. Like the galaxy that has just been born is expanding rapidly through the dimensions of space, so much potential to be reached, changing everything as it goes. Again the synths are great & move melodically making this a very musical piece of ambient. Also the evolution of the track as it goes, building & changing is great. It follows on very well from the beginning of all things 3. Echoes From Stone - Part 1 We start off here with some natural sounds. Birds quietly singing & the sounds of distant water. Over this comes a deep oppressive drone which sounds like a cold harsh wind. Percussion that sounds like the intro to a D&B track before it kicks in with a heavy beat sounds really good when continued for longer than a few seconds. It all feels like the changing of a world. Terraforming a lush natural world into a cold barren one. 4. Excursion Sounds of waves lapping against the shore always place my brain right onto a cold beach in the early morning. Wrapped up tight against the elements I sit & watch the wonder of the ocean. Little electronic noises flit about in the air around me. Each noise manages to sound like a mechanical insect. I imagine that this track is the same as the previous track but in a different part of the world. The world is slowly being changed into a metallic wonderland of cold steel & busy machines. 5. Ancient Island A longer piece now. Very descriptive & can be summed up by the title, Ancient Island is right. I get a very old feel from this track. Isolated & deserted both spring to mind when thinking of adjectives for this music. Natural sounds, grand sounds, old sounds, mysterious sounds, obvious sounds, deep sounds from the depths, high pitch sounds shooting up to the sky all mix together very nicely. The slow tribal beat adds to the ancient island feel, as do the guttural cries barely perceivable except in headphones. There is one sound though in this track that sounds like it represents a volcano, it's hard to describe how it represents a volcano but it really gives me that feel. So a track that sounds like an ancient volcanic island with a pre industrial tribe living on it. Then the electronic wind comes to change everything. 6. Truth & Waiting Lighter sounds & more percussion now. Like an extra step in evolution. The music puts in mind of a futuristic society, with clean cities stretching into the sky with vehicles flying among the tops of the buildings in harmony with the birds high in the sky. The percussion towards the end shifts to a more shuffling beat & just as the music is stripped away you can here the sounds of children playing in the street far below. 7. A Language For Shadows Another long track here, it seems to be another step forward. A Utopian society can't last forever & will eventually fall into decadence & hedonism & finally into chaos & darkness. This track in my mind paints that story. A failed society, the shell of once great cities, the darkness brought on by too much light. The ambience on display is oppressive, the sounds colder & darker but as the track progresses you can hear hints of the light returning. First it's just some brief bird call but then other signs of life come back, high pitched electronic life & voices on the wind eventually on 12 minutes leading into a melody giving the feeling that the recovery from darkness is underway 8. Echoes From Stone - Part 2 Some really quick beats here. Almost jungle but lighter. These beats disappear and there is a vocal sample taken from Pär Lagerkvist's Aftonland (1953). The vocal is one that even after many repeat listens doesn't get old. The voice is perfect for the mood of the album message fits perfectly with the albums story. Someday only one of those we have long to go, the Earth will remember you just as it remembers the grass & the forests. Just as the soil remembers, just as the mountains remember the winds of peace will be as one ending, the sky the sea..... As we near the end of our story, the words seem fittingly nostalgic. 9. Reverse Alchemy Reverse Alchemy seems to me to be the opposite of creation. The opposite of the chaos of The Beginning Of All Things, it's a nice calm tearing apart of the walls of reality. As this universe is stripped away nothing can stop up or even put up a fight. The calmness of the destruction of this dimension, this realm is peaceful until the penultimate moment of fire then ultimate peace returns & the possibilities of that were endless are now non-existent. End. This album is an amazingly descriptive journey, like the story of an entire universe from it's chaotic creation evolving through the creation of a world, the pre industrial civilisation, the Utopia created & it's fall, it's nostalgic twilight & ultimate destruction. Like everything I've heard from The Circular Ruins, it's class through & through. Okay I've only heard 3 albums but I definitely want to get more. Great stuff, one of the best in the Databloem collection.

what do you like about it? I've not heard it yet

That would require me to turn off the music I am currently listening to, to potential have my ear drums battered by crap. Need some reassurances first

Damn

So I'll ask again. Does the music match the title?

My favourites from Databloem are Collection 1 : Opening 5 long ambient journeys through space, very nice stuff. A great place to start. The Circular Ruins - Realm of Possibility, Empathy Test & The Alchemy Concert The Circular Ruins are my favourite artist on the label. Lush ambient soundscapes Cymphonic - Strataradialis This is one of my favourite albums from 2007, very visual I'd choose from these if you fancy the very ambient sounds or Waki - Music For Waki People or Mutagene - Sleeping Possessions if you want more beats & energy

+1 Of course if a DJ ruins every mix it sounds shit but only in the transitions. If the DJ plays shit tunes it sounds shit all the way through!

Kwook - kwookyworld must go & listen to this in a darkened room with no distractions. laterz

A Bit short but looks nice. can't wait to get it!

I am curious about what you like with ambient tracks. Do you like short ambient tracks so the sound constantly changes or do you like long ambient tracks that have the time to evolve & tell a story? I was interested after this conversation in the reviews For me I really like long ambient tracks that tell a story. Journey tracks where the music has time to evolve & take us to far away places.. But it was rightly pointed out that that some artists take an idea & just stretch it out so that said idea becomes tired and boring. I'd agree with that but for boring I can just ignore & never listen to again. It really irks me though when I really like a track but it's over before I can get into it. When I feel like the artist could have made a nice long journey but couldn't be bothered. For me it's journey all the way. Favourite long journey Tracks Pete Namlook & Mixmaster Morris - Hymn 28:09 Jikkenteki - An Angel Takes Flight 27:22 Matt Coldrick & Matt Hillier - Air 23:27 Ishvara - Nomad 21:06 Ishq - Fluid Earth 20:02 The Infinity Project - Under The Overtones 19:58 Solar Fields - Air Song (8am version) 16:39 Solar Fields - Combinations 16:01 Kwook - KwookyWorld 15:22 Total Eclipse - Freefalling Upwards 15:21 The Civilised Electrons - Encounter (In an unexplored nebula) 15:07 Robert Rich & B.Lustmord - Omnipresent Boundary 15:00 Mystery of the Yeti - Welcome To All Extraterrestrials 14:55 Adham Shaikh - Journey To The Sun 14:15 Mathias Grassow & Thomas Weiss - Sights 13:43 Ishq - Cyandragonfly 13:27 Elve - Vale 13:23 Spielerei & Mantacoup - After The Shockwave 12:28 Kris Kylven & Syb-Sonic - Forgotten Souls 12:08 all of these are proper journeys unto themselves Favourite Short Tracks Carbon Based Lifeforms World Of Sleepers 5:17 Enigma - The Child In Us 5:06 Amos - Fläktsystem 5:05 Rena Jones - Aurora Borealis 4:53 Cymphonic - Unfoldment 4:12 Secede - Shrine 4:06 Celtic Cross - Louden 3:22 The Infinity Project - Blue Aura 3:19 Rena Jones - From Star To Seed 3:15 Jason Corder & Opium - Neromeccanico 2:46 Tripswitch - Tachyon 2:37 Abakus - Shared Light 2:27 Mahiane - Spathe 1:59 Healer - Ultrarapid 1:35 Enigma - Third Of It's Kind 0:19 The Infinity Project - High Insert 0:06 All of these tracks are great but I can't help wishing they were longer What do you like from your ambient?

Interesting! I'd agree that artists like Steve Roach tend to be too minimal for some but it all comes down to taste. I know some people on this forum that love steve roach to bits. I myself never got into his music. Artists like steve roach make too much music & fail to keep up the quality. I'm sure they make some good stuff but it's hard to find it when they release 3 albums a year (steve roach released 3 albums last year, 1 2CD & 2 3CDs and has already released a 2 CD in 2008) I just don't have the patience to sift through his mountains of production. A lot of ambient artists make too much stuff. If they could put more effort into one album I'm sure I'd be more interested in them. I also thought that the short tracks in lifeforms felt more like transmissions rather than real tracks but that's just my taste again. I really don't think ambient died, there has been some great stuff this century & I hope it continues

but of is too small a word & comes up with an error! Best probably would come up with too many results, I think hyppeN you are just going to have to look through the forum :drama:

I only ever got the vinyl of this. A very cum worthy album Azymuth is great, thankfully I also have it on The Future sound of ambient comp (3 or 4?)

A very poppish title, does the music match?

Shulman - Invention

Did I miss something?

Well, that's the beauty of opinions. One is not wright or wrong, you either agree or disagree! I like long tracks where an artist has time to expand his ideas into a story which I really think Mystical Sun could do Looping a track, as I have found does not have the same effect, just end up sounding like a long track that has no progression. I also don't like 15 minute tracks that don't go anywhere, I love though 15 minute tracks that do go somewhere & I think if Mystical Sun made long tracks they would go far. The music in this album is all good, and when I say that there are too many tracks that I already own, it doesn't affect my opinion if he made the music for the album before they were released on the compilations. At the end of the day I bought an album that I already owned 5 tracks. To me this was disappointing. But that's just my opinion, it's not right or wrong, just how I feel

Elysium - Fairytale