Various Artists

Artist: V/A
P: 1990
Erdenklang released a special serie of collections about the best artists from a certain country of east europe. Some musicians were already known, some were known afterwards and some are real highlights at the time the cds were made.

This collection was all about artists from Poland!

Artist: V/A
P: 1990
Erdenklang released a special serie of collections about the best artists from a certain country of east europe. Some musicians were already known, some were known afterwards and some are real highlights at the time the cds were made.

This collection was all about artists from CSFR!

Artist: V/A
P: 1991
Erdenklang released a special serie of collections about the best artists from a certain country of east europe. Some musicians were already known, some were known afterwards and some are real highlights at the time the cds were made.

This collection was all about artists from East Germany!

Artist: Various Artists
P: 1996
This compilation features the most interesting artists from China.

Artist: Various Artists
P: 1997
This compilation features the most interesting artists from China.

Artist: Vidna Obamana, Steve Roach,u.a.
P: 1994
Just look at the names in the tracklist above - if you are into this type of ambient music you know without a doubt that this is a winning formula. And this fine collection of artists totally fail to let us down. Weird but fascinating ethnic rhythm with electronic enhancements-a-plenty, O YUKI CONJUGATE's track with it's breathy human voice punctuation serves us well as a starting off point, and establishes the high quality of the album. VIDNA OBMANA follows perfectly with a whispy dream vision accompanied by minimal percussion which could have been taken directly from the previous track. Relaxing and just that little bit mysterious. STEVE ROACH takes a similar ethnic percussion and accompanies it with electronic drift and the sound of a thunder storm. JORGE REYES takes us on a journey through the past, making a music evocative of ancient civilizations and the sounds of nature which accompanied those who lived in such ancient times and places. HYBRYDS take us somewhere else, away from more 'primitive' cultures. Although I have never heard their music for aquariums, this strikes me as being along similar lines, with water gurgling and whale-like sounds wailing away in the background. TEMPS PERDU? forgot to nip to the loo before recording this, so had to go during it's creation. Besides the last few drops shaken out, we drift through a place not dissimilar to VANGELIS's take on the "Blade Runner" future, with pattering ethnic drums and a variety of wind instruments all combining into a passive, calming atmosphere. DINO OON & KONRAD KRAFT head more towards a growling Isolationism without losing the overall string of effect this album seems to create. The tune is more forward, more obvious, less atmospheric. VOICE OF EYE's piece, although drifting and calm, has dark and disturbing edges which remind me of NIN's theme to "SE7EN". JEFF GREINKE attempts to calm our nerves back down with a gentle tube of shifting sustains. Simple as it is, there's a whole lot going on here, although it sounds like one moment frozen in time. ALIO DIE, those purveyors of unimaginable beauty, bring us a dark and disturbing revisit to the land JORGE REYES took us to, now infected by VOICE OF EYE's darkness. Dark, mysterious ethnic world in which a thing - dragon or malign beast - dwells in the shadows, waiting for night. PAUL SCHÜTZE brings us up to date with a Jazz which seems to combine the elements of all those mentioned above, keeping a slightly disquiet, unnerving feeling to the music. His is a world not of peace and calm, but of hidden dangers, of eyes watching your every move. Easy listening doesn't guarantee ease-of-listening. HUMAN FLESH are something else again, with an orchestrated mirror-vision of calm. Very different from anything previously. Lighter, brighter, a balm for the ears and the nerves. And finally, of course, TUU take us for one more visit to the ethnic realms. Almost as calming as the previous track, TUU make a beautiful music which, with it's Asian-sounding drums, makes for a fascinating listening experience.
An album which was probably darker than anticipated (which is no bad thing). Combining beauty and ugliness in equal shares.And of course well worth investing in.

Artist: Solitaire, Robert Rich,u.a.
P: 1995
This CD features mostly unreleased atmospheric and ambient tracks from the best ambientmusicians around that timeperiod.

Artist: Kitaro, Luis Perez, u.a.
P: 1998
This compilation is from the artists of the DOMO label around 1998.
The first cut is typical "Space Music" from Kitaro, with lots of zingy synthesizer. It's pleasant, and has a sort of Japanese folk-tune undertone with generic World Music style drumming. Hard to describe, but very enjoyable to listen to.
The variations on the CD take you from Asia to Outer Space, but always pleasantly so. It's a nice mix.

Artist: R.Rich, M.Stearns, Alio Die u.a.
P: 2001
Best Of Hearts of Space artists from the 80s and 90s.

Artist: Steve Hillage, Node, Ellis u.a.
P: 1995
Why does echo sound so magical? Why do reverberations - from psychedelia and dub to ambient and avant-rock - evoke the sacred? Maybe it's because they hark back to when our prehistoric ancestors enacted rites in caves and grottoes, or maybe it's an echo of our personal prehistory: womb-time, when sound reaches the unborn chils via the fleshly amplifier of the mother's body - ultra-resonant, dubbed up. Whatever the precise sonic implements deployed (guitars with Labradford and Flying Saucer Attack, digital technology with Me-Sheen and Single Cell Orchestra), the primary instruments used by most of the artists on this compilation are echo, reverb and delay. These they use to create space - vast and enfolding or cavernous and desolate. Sometimes the effect is blissfull, conjuring up an "intimate immensity". Sometimes it's unnerving, a miasma in which the self succumbs to non-differentiation. But whether it offers nirvana or entropy, one thig is clear: ambience isn't just a logical extension of psychedelic music, it is psychedelia's "endless end" - an ever-receding frontier.
Music to fly by