Modell, Rod

Artists: Rod Modell & Michael Mantra
P: 2003
The long awaited reissue of this classic album originally released by AMPLEXUS in 2003. Sold out for years, finally you have the choice to hear these fabolous "suspended-sounds" from two masters of ambient music. Published in jewel box with totally restored artwork.
Radio Fore is, like Sonic Continuum, an album comprised of two thirty minute atmospheric tracks. However, we find these two artists pursuing a somewhat less nebulous path than their previous ambient work. This particular work appears to be inspired by the SETI project--but do not quite expect a work of deep, dark interstellar ambience like Lagowski's project, or the early work of David Reeves. The first track, titled "Arecibo (sleeping under the big dish)" begins in a suitably psychoactive style, with quietly druggy cyclical synth tones. After forty seconds or so, this melts into the background to provide space for an ominous bassy pulsation. I hesitate to call it a beat, though it does have that propulsive nature. This pulsation occupies the forefront of all the sound in this particular track. Behind the bass vibration, all manners of interesting sound collagings hiss and drone. However, it's all obscured by the "beat" track. Over the course of thirty minutes, I found myself wishing this quasi-beat would fade into the distance and let the trance take over. "Hey, guys, this isn't supposed to be a dark dance floor! I'm underneath a big transmission dish, and I want to see UFOs!" Sadly, it never does let up, it never sinks into the background of the track, and eventually it becomes so familiar that it is rather annoying. Not an auspicious start for this particular release.

Artist: Rod Modell & Michael Mantra
P: 1997
Rod Modell and Michael Mantra's first collaboration is also the first release by either artist on Hypnos Recordings. Comprised of two 35-minute pieces, Sonic Continuum works best at low volume, especially when played while sleeping or relaxing. These long, slow-moving pieces work their way into the background of your awareness, and create a shift in your sense of where -- and when -- you're listening. Imagine it's 4 a.m., and you are sitting alone under a pier at a beach. Sounds of voices float down from above you, and crashing waves form a background in the darkness. Though there is little you can see around you, the sounds give you a sense of your surroundings. The voices murmur quietly, and you feel pleasantly alone, secure in a private place. The binaural "brain tuning" techniques employed in this recording induce a strange, but calming psychological effect... sort of relaxing, but also sort of mind-bending.

 

Artist: Rod Modell
P: 2005
80-minutes long infinite-repeat sonic atmosphere for low-level ambient playback by rod modell aka deepchord. "electromagnetic-etheric systems approach" was created to accompany the large-scale conceptual art work of michigan based artist kate armstrong-blanchard.
 

Artist: V/A
P: 2000
Compilation of the Amplexus Edition releases.

Here the last copy!

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: V/A
P: 1999
Here's another excellent ambient anthology for those into the darker end of the genre. Featuring nine artists, the sampler takes from both new and veteran musicians, to deliver up a diverse yet flowing 74 minute CD. Kevin Keller opens the disc with samples of voices whispering. From it he creates a slow 12 minute warm drift similar to musicians like Robert Scott Thompson. Illinois synthesist James Johnson's Closure is at least half as long as Keller's track, yet the style is very similar, with muted and shifting chords gently floating on the air, melodic and peace-inducing. Dean DeBenedictis takes a much different approach, far more abstract and surreal, although there is a similar underlying melodic pattern underneath the Schnitzler like rattling and scuttling. As the tracks progresses along its eight minute length, it grows more fascinating with treated water sounds and voices. It is over far too soon. Ma Ja Le return the focus to melody, and the nine minutes Images Remain is full of crystal, ethereal chords floating up, a far different sound than their CD with Vir Unis. A piece one can lose themself in, with longing and melancholy, this would have fit perfectly on The Ambient Expanse. Rod Modell's Ipperwash Twilight leaps out of the speakers with incredible sonic clarity, and you immediately know you're in the presence of a creative force. Strange, but slightly melodic synths with a wide array of tones and field recordings spread sheets of sound over percolating sequencers, and the strange scaling and effects, successfully create an incredibly alien landscape. This is visionary music, alone worth the price of this disc. Dave Fulton's piece is also odd, with steely sequencer and loads of metallic industrial sounds that starts at a low volume that increases over most the track's length. It's dissonant melody provides sort of a lull in the overall CD flow, and sets up veteran Loren Nerell's Liquid Metal Stasis, an intense drone with microtonal bell sounds, volcanic bubbling, and other rich and colorful tonal shading. We definitely can never hear enough from Nerell. Scott Fraser's Straight Lines is another drone where the subtlety hinges on the changes of tones of the synthesizers. At eight minutes, it progresses through number of colorings, remaining surprisingly dynamic. As he often does, Steve Roach closes the set, his contribution the 7 1/2 minute Bottomless, and here we see the least urban track on the anthology evoking the wide expanses and chthonic depths of consciousness. A more chilly track than Roach usually produces, but no less evocative for it. A strong anthology, and one of the more impressive of the type in recent memory."
1999  Mike McLatchey / Expose Magazine