Griffin, Mike

Artist: Mike Griffin & Dave Fulton
P: 2002
IMPRINT updates the sound and concept of the duo's previous recording, while still exploring the concept of balancing the artists's divergent backgrounds and influences. Griffin leans more toward the ambient & abstract end of things while Fulton's influence runs toward Berlin school, sequencer music and prog rock, but what may seem at first a mismatch in fact brings about a blending of two complementary styles.
IMPRINT is a bit more dynamic and brighter-sounding, whereas THE MOST DISTANT POINT KNOWN was more slow-moving and nocturnal. The duo hope ambient fans may be surprised how much they enjoy the sequencer & analog synth elements, while those who approach the project from the "old school" point of view will like the many-layered complexity and atmospheric quality.

Artist: Mike Griffin
P: 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.

Artist: Mike Griffin
P: 2005
LTD 200
In a very real sense, this is a "sequel" to this year's previous M Griffin release on Hypnos Secret Sounds, Sounds are Hidden Inside Objects. The style is pure, atmospheric minimal drone, very deep and evocative and mysterious, complex enough that it is neither truly dark nor light.

Artist: Mike Griffin
P: 2005
LTD 200
Sounds Are Hidden Inside Objects features four lengthy dark textural pieces of first-rate drones and other atmospherics. Though it has been years since his last solo release Sudden Dark, Griffin seems to pick up very much where he left off. This stark ambient music conjures up images of wind-swept desolate planets or a lonely sojourn into the outer reaches of space. "Iyon Aaz" is filled with metallic resonant drones and deep swirling echoes of sound. Melody is neither implied nor intended. "Ido Ereme" delves deeper still into hazy sonic reverberations. Low rumbles are ideal for testing your stereo system, experiencing the music by vibration instead of by ear. "Ixe Om" combines the metallic quality of the first track with the deep expansiveness of the second. The result is a not so distant cousin to Steve Roach's The Magnificent Void. Last up is "Inye Adieme," easily the brightest of the bunch. Ethereal soothing tones fade in, and although restless underpinnings remain, the mood is just a touch more relaxed throughout. It is safe to say, however, that the new age label will never apply here. And that is a very good thing.

Artist: Mike Griffin
P: 2006
LTD 200
Limited-edition CDR single including 2 tracks from The Pulse Meditations, plus two extended remixes. Almost 45 minutes of music at a great "give it a try" price.

Artist: Mike Griffin
P: 1997
Subtle and atmospheric minimal ambient by the Hypnos founder. Griffin's own Sudden Dark is indicative of the label's high caliber. Multicolored waves of electronics gust and billow across stark, forbidden landscapes; sonic blips sometimes appear on the horizon and form disturbing cyclic eddies ("Gyre") while on "Atmosphera," tones that resemble the gradual erosion of heavy metals seep into great aquifers of liquid nitrogen. Griffin's pieces in fact suggest various sorts of placid states and environments ("The Sound of Ringing Sleep," "Immobile," "Displace," "Almost Invisible"), and the closing of one's eyes during the immersion in these environments greatly aid in the actualization of the pieces' titles. Subtle and superfine."

Artist: Mike Griffin
P: 2006
LTD 200
Hypnos founder Mike Griffin works with a different set of tools, creating deep, hypnotic ambient recordings entirely from electronically treated bass guitar.

Artist: V/A
P: 1998
Michael Halcyon presents Oscillations is a very good compilation of the first releases of the Halcyon recodings Label. New and respected Ambient titles.

Artist:  Vidna Obamana, Ron Boots
Alpha Wave Movement, Jeff Pearce, u.a.
P: 1998
This double CD features 142 minutes of previously unreleased material by musicians exploring the non-physical realm. This 2-CD set released on the Hypnos label is a must for devotees of drifting space synth music.