Surface 10

Artist: Various
P: 1997
Some very nice interpretations from very well known musician about pieces from the master of ambient.

Here the last copy!

Artist: Dean De Benedictis
P: 2005
Dean De Benedictis, has envisioned a vital work of instrumental compositions, exploring the art of electronic music with a refreshing integrity. Blending traditional electronic tones and structures with acoustic elements, he has sculpted an album that is raw and direct. In essence, he has captured a heart of true electronic music, while suggesting more thought-provoking themes.
De Benedictis realizes this vision through various electronic tonalities, samples, and acoustic instruments such as mayahachi flute, bamboo flutes, cello, piano, voice, guitars, hand drums, and percussion – applying all, with the passion and inspiration of the masters before him.
Salvaging the Past is not only an homage to the electronic music of the past, but expands the vocabulary of the present.
To the listener:
Our physical realm is comprised of drastically separate entities mix-matching and ambiguously aligning into one harmonious collage. Such is the underlying principal behind "Salvaging The Past.” It is not the first time I've based a project on this philosophy. So much of my unreleased work had been inspired by this principle, and specifically by a variety of traditional ambient music genres, that eventually I felt compelled to tie this particular work together... how could I not? With some songs containing an intense electronic base and others a pure acoustic base, creating the mood for "Salvaging The Past" was tricky, but I do feel that we brought the music together as best as possible. As always, it is all from the same soul.
Dean De Benedictis

Artist: Deborah Martin & Dean de Benedictis (Surface 10)
P: 2022
Inspired by the mysteries of the afterlife, Chaos in Premonition returns to the fantastical world Spotted Peccary artists Deborah Martin and Dean De Benedictis built in their first collaboration as Desensitized. Like their previous work Hemispherica Portalis, Martin and De Benedictis recorded their latest release live in the studio together, forming nine pieces from edited improvisations. Blending instrumentation such as clay ocarinas, flutes and Tibetan bowls with a variety of digital and analog synthesizers, Chaos in Premonition is an album that invites contradictions and makes peace with them, the only way to approach the question that inspired it: who are we and what made us?  The title track “Chaos in Premonition” begins in quiet vastness and rises to a bewildering crescendo, then fades to an ethereal chorus. Percussive chimes like raindrops in a cavern rise slowly from shadowy depths, evoking the cosmic. From there, the piece builds a sonic mosaic of skittering breakbeats, glitched fragments and glimmering arpeggiations: the birth of a world from quietude. On “Abundant Time” counter-rhythmic clock samples and heartbeats ebb and flow around sinuous drones and gently plucked strings. The two artists employ a rich amalgamation of acoustic and electronic elements throughout the work. With “Immortals and Their Graves,” De Benedictis’s Mayahachi flute moves from calm lulls to sweeping trills to rhythmic stutterings and back again, capturing in its amorphousness the peaks and valleys of a life. Even vocal elements appear in the finale “Sleep of Innocence” which finds Martin and De Benedictis humming in harmony over celestial chimes, an otherworldly lullaby. Just when one feeling takes hold, it darts away—unknowable, and yet a seamless compositional flow offers a well crafted consistency with every track. Martin describes the joy of collaboration as discovery; as each artist brings their own unique identity, how their compositional styles will blend is a mystery until uncovered. She continues: “That is what I find most exciting, the endless potential and possibility.” De Benedictis says “the essence and originality of Desensitized lies in how Deborah and I are so different.” From asynchronous perspectives comes sonic synchronicity. On Chaos in Premonition, this accomplished duo embrace their collaborative name Desensitized and weave the ancient and futuristic into an otherworldly tapestry all their own. 

Artist: Surface 10
P: 2023
DIN 77
LTD 300 Copies
Surface 10 is the moniker of Californian electronic musician Dean De Benedictis. He has previously released albums on the DiN label with In Vitro Tide (DiN8) & Surface Tensions (DiN24). Finishing a hiatus of over a decade, which saw him pursuing several film projects, he returns to DiN with a stunningly original new album, “A Stray Ending” (DiN77).

The DiN label has always actively encouraged the blurring of genre boundaries and with this new opus Dean has certainly done that with influences as far flung as Electronica, Ambient, IDM, Berlin School, Glitch, Progressive Jazz Fusion, World and Cinematic music. Such a heady mixture is immediately apparent on the opener “Neverheart” with its achingly beautiful and haunting chordal themes overlaid with an intertwining tapestry of percussion and glitched out effects. The album rises and falls through layers of dazzling sound design and compositional complexity to reach its apex with the freak-out intensity of “Azz”. The following track “Dorothy Spearhead” is perhaps the most concise piece on show here, with its vocal melodic hook and danceable drum groove. This leads into the spectacular “Non Fi” which propels the listener on an epic tour de force of electronic invention before the album closes with the melancholic shimmering beauty of “Universal Winter (Rework)”.

This new album from Surface 10 is almost beyond categorisation and is full of so many inventive and detailed sonic and musical elements that it will give the listener something new to focus in on each and every listen. Another truly unique addition to the DiN catalogue.

Artist: Various Artists
P: 1996
A collection of tracks from different electronic musicians, that play favourite TD tracks in their own style.

Here the last copy!

Artist: V/A
P: 2008   
DIN 30
LTD 1000 Copies
iNDEX03 is the third DiN compilation album and includes two tracks each from the titles DiN21 - 29. The artists include Robert Rich, Ian Boddy, Tetsu Inoue, Radio Massacre International, Surface 10, Parallel Worlds, Hoffmann-Hoock/Wöstheinrich & ARC.

As with the previous two DiN compilation albums, iNDEX01 (DiN10) and iNDEX02 (DiN20), DiN label boss Ian Boddy has mixed and cross-faded the 18 pieces into a continuous ambient mix that not only showcases the albums on the disc but presents an exciting and varied album in it's own right. It also highlights the varied and intruiging music that the DiN label conjures up on it's releases from deep analogue synth grooves through glitchy, digital soundscapes to powerful, epic ambient atmospheres. An intoxicating mix of the old and new beautifully presented in a slimline cardboard wallet with an extra front flap which just adds to the value and collectability of this disc