progressive / post metal

black metal / doom

electronic / coldwave

heavy metal versions of eighties hits

progressive / psychedelic rock

noise rock / industrial

noise rock / sludge

stoner rock / psychedelic rock

death metal

alternative rock

alternative rock / dream pop

indie rock / alternative

death metal

death metal

death metal / black metal

ambient

alternative rock / grunge / stoner rock

heavy metal

facebook

doom / drone / black metal

post rock / progressive rock

electronic / ambient

Refractions On The Lake is an album by Floating Machine, released on August 25, by Mindspring Music. Almost fifty five minutes long, the record has nine tracks: Unexpected Visitor, Momentum, Strange Things Happen On The Fields, Deforestation, Train From Vienna, Taboo, Someone Knows Our Plan, Refractions On The Lake and Second Chances. An exceedingly good, lucid and vivid minimalist album, its relaxing and serene atmosphere is deeply surreal, but at the same time committed to a realistic paradigm of evolutionary and creative principles, that expose salutary melodies aimed to incorporate the essential substance of an emotional significance. With simple, but beautiful harmonies, Refractions On The Lake is a subjective, but fundamentally aggrandizing work, that seeks on the horizon of its primordial enchantment the true existential composition of a subtle, yet extraordinary musical cosmogony. 

The intricate nature of its artistic proposal vehemently contrasts with the simplicity of its musical anatomy. With a sonorous integration that feels pure, although entirely abstract from the beginning, at the same time it’s possible to feel profoundly circumstantial perceptive elements emerging from the music, and displaying a state of sentimental correlation that corresponds to the perennial quest for a higher purpose, upon which the soul desperately searches for.    

With a calm and seductive horizon that conquers the infinity in a quest for knowledge and transience, Refractions On The Lake is the perfect album to relax; your mind will travel to the most distant and everlasting places of the universe, that seems to be subtlety elevating to a dimensional scale the perceptions of your own glorious sensibility, where all essential permanence escalates to real possibilities, adjacent to the realm of a conscience eager to be displayed as the monarch of a veracious elemental substance that consolidates the strength of your existence.   

Undoubtedly a beautiful album, Refractions On The Lake is a wonderful and attractive work, that can be qualified as a secure, reliable and excellent choice for ambient music lovers. Although you can’t expect exactly anything new, this record is a great option for enthusiasts of the genre, and certainly, has creative merits that deserves to be appreciated.   


Wagner

ambient / experimental

ambient / electronic / downtempo

doom / sludge metal

ambient / classical

punk / antifolk

progressive metal

death metal / industrial

black metal

shoegaze / alternative rock / dark rock

facebook

ambient / downtempo

electronic / techno / experimental

Hypermedium

black metal

drone / ambient / minimal

noise

techno

post hardcore

ambient / electronic

A reasonably good work, Perennial Expansion is the 95th album released by American net-label Cold Fiction Music, which has been officially out since August 12. Despite its irrevocable extensive lenght – at ninety five minutes long, it is certainly one of the most extensive albums that I have heard on the genre –, and following the usual ordinary patterns of ambient music, Perennial Expansion has, undeniably, a lot of qualities to be categorized as a favorite. With twelve tracks – being them Escape Velocity [Mix I], October Dub, Perennial Expansion, Lumi, Zodiak, Escape Velocity [Mix III], Freedom of the Heart, Perennial Expansion II, Zodiak II, Desert Wind, TB4E and Leaving Orbit –, the record undoubtedly explores intelligently the wider probabilities offered by the genre. While there is absolutely no innovative elements, or anything that you haven't heard in a lot of other albums of the genre before, there is a genuine veracity and a consistent atmosphere of electronic intensity brilliantly inserted on the musical horizons of the work.   

The length of the album certainly compromises a little the mutual integrity of the work, and only if you really like this genre of music you will be completely satisfied and capable of appreciating its reasonable artistic merits. Nevertheless, its quite fascinating, and like most albums on the genre, its perfect for meditative and relaxing moments, that virtually introduces the listener to an ever increasing gradual device of a perpetual iconic dream invariably lost in a descending perspective of intense serenity. Which is something transmitted through the abyssal vastness of sincere melodies, expanded throughout the primordial horizontal vicinities of discreet harmonies widely elevated at the sensible sidelines of the dimensional body of the music.   

While there is a certain lack of originality permeating the creative ordeal of the general musical framework, Perennial Expansion is an interesting exemplar of ambient music with subtle and discreet techno soundscapes and colorful nuances, with the highest chance of becoming a favorite among genre enthusiasts.    

Highly recommended for its ethereal, intense and marvelously intelligent scope, Perennial Expansion provides to the listener a great time of major and soft electronic easy-listening music. If you are an ardent enthusiast of the genre, you will not be disappointed in any way, whatsoever. Almost terrific at certain passages, Perennial Expansion lives at the greatness of its title: the music certainly engineers a perfect pathway for a drastic, pleasurable and perennial expansion of mind and throught.    


Wagner

electronic / ambient

A very smooth ambient album, a little more than one hour long, Only With Myself has nine nameless tracks, only listed in alphabetical order, from A to I. Although a typical ambient music album – very skilled and modest – the melodies are moderately interesting: in an uncompromised atmosphere of lower inhibitions, incredibly discreet deep toned harmonies floats through a labyrinth of disparaging intensity, smoothed by the wings of an organic, but profoundly vast serenity.   

Though remarkable, there is nothing on Only With Myself that you haven’t heard in another albums of the genre before. Nevertheless, there is such a vigorous and pulsating formidable linearity in the music, whose subtle minimalist arrangements and tendencies gives a special charm to the style of the artist. With patience, a profound taste for density, and a detailed intricacy pervasively crafted on simplicity, there is an astonishing musical conjuncture lying beneath the graceful structure of this album. So you have to listen to it attentively, to really decipher the most ingenious prospects hidden beneath its artistic singularities. 

Nevertheless, I should point it out the fact that the album would be quite boring for uninitiated listeners. People who really are not into the genre will literally die from monotony, possibly. Only With Myself concerns exclusively people who really love minimalist ambient music; otherwise, there is not a single chance for audiences who qualify this type of music as tedious to really appreciate it.

While Only With Myself can’t be properly categorized as a great album, there is indeed a formidable level of lucidity and originality brilliantly inserted into its craft. Highly recommended to higher level enthusiasts of ambient music, this record is a striking and pungent ambient piece, that really has a charm, an intensity and a vicissitude of its own. It’s virtually impossible to deny the peculiar flavor of this album, and its subtle genuine nuances, gracefully inserted into the genre with a sensible imponderability.     


Wagner

electronic / ambient

Cold Tear Records

With six tracks, but only four songs (the last two tracks are variations on the title track by other equally inventive artists) – being them Gaia Speaks, Night Temple, Sky Whale, Spirit of Abyss, Sky Whale (Echo Delta Remix) and Sky Whale (Brickman Remix) – this new album by Alexander Saykov reflects exactly the dense intonations and colorful perspectives of his musical personality and ambitions. In a deep wave of poetic, but at the same time exceedingly taciturn oceans of melancholy and haze, Alexander Saykov composes monuments of explicit beauty, where your soul will be able to navigate to the deepest subterranean caves of a wonderful vicinity of sensorial pleasure.   

With a serenity that juxtaposes the marvelous universe of a magnificent correlation of pure sentiments, the music of Alexander Saykov materializes it’s components in a completely different path, with a whole new deal of ambitions: it’s the nucleus of its fragrant sonorous prosperities that analyzes dreams in the purest state of its melodic context, while surrounds in a secure distance the wonderful grace of a taste that perpetuates over the infinity of its consistence the mutual comprehension of its own musical dissonances. Nonetheless, while there is a certain abundance of common features within his music – that may seem too overly replicated in the genre, at least in what concerns harmonic or technical dispositions – there is a formidable degree of authenticity on this work, that really dilutes over the exponentially creative ordeal of Alexander Saykov’s art the true considerations of a universe rich in proverbial textures, strictly made at the perennial inquest of a glorifying sound. 

While the album is, indeed, marvelous, it is possible to feel that something is missing. This may appear as consequence of a constant rhythm and a theme in common, that has little melodic variations. Nevertheless, there is a systematic consistency and a charismatic fever imbedded in these tracks, that sound confortable not only in the first few seconds, but for the rest of the album as well.

A beautiful record with wonderful harmonies, perfect for relaxing, Sky Whale is a vigorous standalone groundwork, that highlights the most important and exclusive features of ambient music, with a deep intensity that dissipates reason to capture a salutary universe that is lost in the solitary configuration of our isolated sonorous realities.   


Wagner

electronic / ambient

Released in July 24 by Cold Tear Records, Reflection in Time is the most recent album by electronic ambient music artist Heavenchord. Almost one hour in length, the album has only six very long tracks: Depth of Field, Retro Dub, Goodbye Summer, Le Secret Du Voyage, Pattern in Chaos and Space Dialogue. With a more formal, standardized, mathematical and carefully synchronic approach, that uses silent intervals in between notes as much as it uses efficiently melodic lapses, Reflection in Time is the typical electronic music album with futuristic notes and surrealistic overtones, somewhat reminiscent of Kraftwerk, but with more “plausible”, structured and punctuated melodies, elongated at the vicinities of dissident harmonies, that walk by its own established rules of rhythmic dissonance and perpetual dogmas of unconventional creativity.

With some peculiar characteristics of its own, Reflection in Time is a more pure and lucid album, that envisions a clarifying pattern to its own monumental ambitions. Nevertheless, the album is undoubtedly recommended to audiences who are really passionate about the genre. Given the organic nature of its prevalent sonorous anatomy, and the pure sensitive alignment of its musical proposition, some sense of monotony is inevitable throughout the album. Interesting also as a purely ambient musical piece, propitious for elevators, offices or factories waiting rooms, Reflection in Time converts the sinuous purity of sound into a more elevated distraction, sometimes getting close to perfect for brief moments of relaxation. Despite the predictable nature of the work, there is a spontaneous synergy that easily flows into the rhythm, converging through a realm of harmonious coherence that celebrates the confident platitude of a creative energy that adheres strictly to a platform of sound destined to revive the main principles of a minimalist genre, that has very strict program of rules and sensibilities. 

Despite the lack of innovation, Reflection in Time maintains itself as an ardent exponent of the genre, being faithful to the general principles of ambient music, without being merely a generic or derivative work. While the record may not appear too sublime nor aggrandizing to a certain degree, it obviously has its merits, specially taking into consideration how profoundly the artist inserted himself into the genre, being subtle, discreet and evasive, but exceedingly creative, original and balanced at the same time, having sculpted a record that is brilliant in practical and technical aspects as well. Certainly, Reflection in Time deserves to be considered a lesson in ambient music.

While the album highlights itself more for its technical brilliance, there is great music on it. But evidently, the record will be deeply appreciated only by audiences who are already profoundly familiarized with the genre.    


Wagner

techno / breakcore

About ten to twelve kilometers away from my balcony, thousands of people from allover the globe are currently shaking their asses off at the world's biggest dance festival, Tomorrowland. I can hear the pumping beats and I can see the fireworks. Yesterday, there was also a second festival that I could hear, specialized in world music. On my balcony, the combination of both resulted in a strange blend of trance beats and rhythms, so strange that today I decided to finally get this Duran Duran Duran review written. This album is strange too. It too is dance music but not the cheesy rubbish that they throw at you at Tomorrowland.

Of course, many people might already be familiar with Duran Duran Duran. I vaguely remember a festival in Belgium years ago where this act played and I vaguely remember myself shaking and grooving. I was quite drunk at that time but for some reason the name has always been in my mind since. I considered Duran Duran Duran to be an electronic rhythmic noise band. Listening to this album, his first since 2010, that thought might have not been so far off. THere is plenty of noise to be found on this album, but also heaps of pumping beats.

Duran Duran Duran blends these beats with noise, hardcore, breakcore, glitch, idm and strange soundscapes.The result is an album that grabs you by the throat and onto the dancefloor. So yeah, this thing is highly danceable, just listen to smashers like 'Pearls and Strawberries' or 'Drug Life' and your feet will be moving in no time. Fans of acts like Unit Moebius, Enduser, Kid 606 and so on will certainly enjoy the hyperactive 'Sexus'. My advice? Check it out, especially if you're a fan of alternative electronic dance music. You won't regret it...


​Serge

drone / ambient

Eric Quach is an extremely busy man. He travels the world to perform and record music. With his solo project Thisquietarmy, he has an estimated 40+ releases under his belt and performed all over the globe. He also plays in Aidan Baker's Hypnodrone Ensemble and collaborated with a plethora or artists. 

Today, he released a brand new album, named 'Democracy Of Dust'. The album was recorded using a variety of synthesizers in Sao Paulo in 2016. Later that year, in Berlin, guitars were added and eventually earlier this year, he finalized the whole thing in Montreal. 

The result is an exciting blend of electronic sequences and the well-known guitar drones of Thisquietarmy. Post rock, downtempo electronics, shoegaze and ambient go hand in hand on this album and they do it pretty damn good too. It's like Suicide meets Deutsch Nepal meets Aidan Baker, something like that. The pulsating sequences give the music and extra drive, something I can only applaud. 

I tried to find a favorite track on this album but that's not an easy task, on the very contrary. Perhaps it is the energetic 'Transhumanism', which drives on an awesome synthetic bass line but it might also be opener 'Welcome to Mendacity'. In the end, I think it's safe to say that this whole album is my favorite track on this album and maybe, just maybe, it's also my favorite Thisquietarmy album.

I love how the drone/ambient scene evolves. Thisquietarmy certainly has a hand in that continuous evolution. He explores the boundaries of several genres like he has been doing with black metal, doom and ambient and now he successfully explores the world of electronics and synths. Rhythm takes a prominent place on this album but, like 'The Harbinger' shows, there is still plenty of room for intense guitar noise.

In all, this is a excellent album, a certain highlight in Thisquietarmy's career. Of course, this comes highly recommended. It's surprising, emotive and immersive, like every good Thisquietarmy release. 


​Serge

experimental / dark jazz

Here on Merchants Of Air, we receive albums through a number of media. Some people send CDs, others send emails, yet other contact us through our social media and here and there someone talks to me personally on a gig or festival. To be honest, I mostly forget about all but the first two. Facebook messages tend to get lost in the massive heap of notifications on that platform but once in a while an exception occurs. Those exceptions are usually caused by one or a few keywords. This time, the phrase "dark jazz" grabbed my attention, as it usually does. So, since I don't feel like playing heavy stuff, I decided to check it out.

Autger is a Russian one man project who claims to make "night music". What that is exactly? Well, in this case it seems to be slow, dark and eerie, inspired by doom and black metal but balancing on the edge between dark jazz, dark ambient and dark wave. The result is intriguing, like the bastard son of Dale Cooper Quartet and Sephiroth. Dark jazz tunes and soundscapes float freely over electronic percussion. Here and there an eerie vocal sample completes the gloomy, mysterious atmosphere. 

For a die-hard dark jazz fan, this album might take some getting used to, or at least the opening song, 'Der Untergang Der Welt'. It's a strange tune that combines electronic beats with drones and only gradually explores the regions of dark jazz. But once it grasps you, it won't let go until the dark and gentle 'Prophecy' sets your mind at ease. 'Libellus Adversus Deum, Regem Et Regnum' opens with some noise, some almost hidden voices and suddenly comes up with something I can only compare to industrial electronics. 

That track has some more surprises up its sleeve. Hell, Autechre suddenly comes to mind and that puts us right into the IDM scene. This album is starting to feel like a slow music megamix and I'm starting to like it a lot. On 'Regicide', the dark jazz is far off, unless it's a Scorn remix of Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Orchestra. Yes, Scorn. I don't think I need to tell you that this is quite a varied and surprising piece of work. My advice? Check it out but do it with an open mind. I don't think you will regret it.


​Serge