Ministry of Inside Things

Artists: The Ministry of Inside Things
P: 2008
Ambient Elsewhere feels dark and isolated when compared to the two earlier releases by The Ministry of Inside Things. While Everlasting Moment explored the edges, dynamics and tension of space and atmosphere, and Contact Point embraced the more unified themes of cosmic, biospheric and macrocosmic interaction, Ambient Elsewhere moves through a strange new territory in-between and outside of traditional Spacemusic. Drawn from a range of chilling themes, this album sonifies wintertime, desolate landscapes and the soul's midnight. Moving through the timbral badlands of the empty quarter, Ambient Elsewhere offers up a courageous intimacy. Always bringing their own influences and innovation to the music process, MoIT produces a sound that is uniquely individual and personal.
The Ministry of Inside Things released their new double CD at their performance at The Gatherings Concert Series on 20 September 2008. The music from Ambient Elsewhere has been drawn from several recent tour performances and features definitive live versions of classic MoIT pieces like "Love Attack" and "Naylor's Run". The album contains two one hour long suites of spacemusic and easily flows through a variety of themes, energy levels and styles.

Artists: The Ministry of Inside Things
P: 2006
Contact Point is the second live release by MoIT, and feels warm and earthly compared to their debut double CD set Everlasting Moment. While their earlier album explored the edges, dynamics and tension of space and atmosphere, Contact Point presents the more unified themes of cosmic, biospheric and macrocosmic interaction. Through the use of environmental field recordings, drifting melodies and soft sonic textures set against submerged drones, billowing sequencer patterns and breezy guitar and synth lead lines, Contact Point depicts the mystery and beauty of telluric ideals. While their music touches on many of the hallmarks of Berlin-School Spacemusic, MoIT brings their own influences and innovation to the process. The result is a sound that is uniquely individual. Music from Contact Point has been drawn from several live performances and features definitive concert versions of classic MoIT pieces such as "Fortescue", "Serenity Cove" and "Nightscene". The disc plays for about one hour, easily flowing through a variety of themes, moods and styles of Spacemusic.
 The Ministry of Inside Things is the Philadelphia-based space music duo of Chuck van Zyl (synths) and Art Cohen (guitar). Individually, both Chuck and Art have been involved in the Philadelphia electronic/space music scene for well over 20 years. Chuck is best known for hosting the Philadelphia radio show Star's End. He has a number of solo releases (cassette and CD) as well as collaborations with Peter Gulch of the Nightcrawlers. Art has a number of solo releases as well. Chuck and Art formed The Ministry of Inside Things about 6 years ago and have released two CDs of live material, EVERLASTING MOMENT (2002) and CONTACT POINT. Their music is firmly rooted in the Berlin space music school of Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra, and Klaus Schulze. There are seven tracks on CONTACT POINT that take you from quiet ambience to energetic rhythms. The obvious comparisons are with Tangerine Dream (cyclical pulsating sequencer patterns), but I also detect the influence of Pink Floyd's "Echoes". On top of this are some artistic found sounds peppered throughout the CD (lapping water and chirping crickets). The duo of Chuck and Art, with their musical roots in two different genres (electronic and rock), work together to craft beautiful music that can stand the test of time. Highly recommended to all fans of space music.
Henry Schneider (Aug06)
Recorded live at the following venues:

· Third Floor from the Sun, Gloucester City, NJ - 31 January 2003.
· Novins Planetarium, Toms River, NJ - 5 March 2004.
· Beck's Decks, Bridgeton, NJ - 23 July 2004.
· Voices Beyond the Dome, Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh, PA - 25 June 2005.

Artist: Robert Rich, Steve Roach,
The Ministry of Inside Things u.a.
P: 2002
Tracks 1-6 recorded live at The Gathering concert series, Houston Hall, Philadelphia, PA.

Here the last copy!

Artist: Budd, Serrie, Van Zyl, u.a.
P: 2004
Every day, host John Diliberto tunes in and chills out to an ambient world on Echoes, a soundscape of music, concerts and interviews on Public Radio International stations and on-line at echoes.org. Each year we produce a CD of tracks from our favorite recent Living Room Concerts, performances recorded just for Echoes in musicians' homes and studios or the Echoes Living Room.