Dessin Bizarre – Air Frais

Dessin Bizarre is a musical project of a Russian composer Ivan Krasnov. His musical ship travels in the calming waters of ambient and his feeds and makes it more beautiful with the influences coming from post-rock. Ivan is a self-taught musician. His music is based on a lighter feel accompanied by simplicity combined with different acoustic techniques and sound-processing during sound recording.

Drifting through the crystal air with the ambient music of the "Air Frais" album you will go deep down to the inner man. You will flow with the swell gravity waves of atmospheric sound and possibly find at the end of journey answers you always wanted to know. The true art of relaxation joy and meditation.

He created "Eidfjord" under the impression after a trip to Norway, with its cold, penetrating enveloping fogs, flowing sparkling waterfalls and mossy Atlantean mountains. Immediately, place Eidfjord, opened for him the whole palette of beauty, serenity and unity with nature.

"In all the compositions I used natural noises and sounds from these places: the water, the creaking of the wooden bridge pier, silent play of the polar night." says Ivan.

As an extension, the purity and depth reflected in the "Air Frais" and the gray shroud of brooding cliffs in pressure, when the sky and water merge into one gray gradient. And at the end - the flow track reflecting the net surface of the water.

Secoya – Ghosts

Secoya is an ambient/experimental project of George Robinson, a producer from Bristol, UK. He started his musical journey by playing piano at early age. As he grew older, he discovered different types of music and different ways of creating them. George's music is often lo-fi and possesses an ability to evoke emotions provided by his surroundings, green countryside and darker cities. This combination flowing from mixture of ambient, experimental, lo-fi and classical music aims to capture and evoke certain emotions.

George's music is characterised by commonly extensive dynamic changes. These contrasting atmospheres develop in nostalgic and melodic brand of ambient music.

“90% of my music is made at about 8 am, while I'm still in bed.” Secoya

Ghosts is the debut album from Secoya. The album combines reverb laden melodies and nostalgic chord progressions with a lo-fi feel to create an aural reflection of Robinson’s thoughts, feelings and surroundings at that time. The joyful tone and interesting textures on this album bring back the happy memories that everyone has. Another interesting detail about the album is our label founder Taner Torun did all the album artworks.

Listening to Secoya is like a gate opens to past for all of us. Get ready go through old movies, amusement parks and dusty things in the attic.

Halcyon Chamber – Halcyon Chamber

Halcyon Chamber is an electronic ambient project born on December 31st, 2013 during an unforgiving winter ice storm. Jason Baron created a basement studio where melodic soundscapes were coaxed from classical and digital instrumentation, providing warm refuge. Halcyon Chamber intertwines analog synthesizers, female vocalizations, classical strings, meditative sections, and shimmering melody. A gentle, evolving mixture of chamber music and electricity.

The Halcyon is a mythical bird with the power to calm the rough seas and quiet the waves during the harsh winter solstice. Each song is considered to be an individual halcyon chamber, a small containment of this mythical calmness into a fleeting physical existence.

Halcyon Chamber’s self-titled initial release carefully balances electronic, classical, ambient, and meditative influences. Moog synthesis, classical violin, cello, and effects-laden guitars coalesce in ambitious harmony. Female vocalizations become another component of the sound, yet do not dominate the structure. Listeners will drift among cold winds, expansive deserts, and cinematic melodic textures.

Row Boat – In Between

Postrock has become so varied and broad along the music spectrum that many people find it hard to explain these days. This would also explain Mark Wardale’s latest album release ‘In Between’. A mix of numbing piano sounds, ambience, subdued electronica and ‘dirty’ strings produce the different shades that make up the light and dark of romance in note form. New sounds and feelings are evoked whilst a sense of familiarity lingers and comforts.

‘In Between’ was an idea, an interpretation of romance, written in note form for listeners to relate to in a different and unexpected way. Love can have so many meanings, good, bad, confusing. This album was written to show not just the light side, but the darker and unexplored sides of romance.

What makes the album so unique is the creative collaboration between musician ‘Mark Wardale’ and writer, reviewer and all round music lover ‘Daniela Patrizi’ on ‘In Between’ to create the perfect artwork and imagery in reference to the music.

The 40 minutes of music itself meets all listening expectations, from the strong and empowering piano’s and ambience of ‘Meet me at the Colosseum’ and ‘Later That Day’, to the darker edgy and more reflective songs like “The Dying Art of Romance” and “Hollow.”

Astrowind – Somewhere The Music Had Been Played

Astrowind (Kirils Lomunovs) is Latvia based sound and video artist. Starting from the early 90-ties he represents essential experimental electronic music and alternative musical stage of Latvia.

For the last few years in consequence of his own activities his music was published in such countries as Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, USA, Ukraine and Russia.

Deep interest of sound exploration led K. Lomunovs to participate and establish several dissimilar musical projects and to try to invent his own sound.

Being true to analog sound and experiment in the form of live improvisation with old Soviet and Japanese analog synthesizers and effects K. Lomunovs invented experimental and authentic music style - Paleopsychedelic ambient and also realized a Glitch-Hop project Kriipis Tulo. The style of Paleopsychedelic ambient brightly represented and continues to develope within Astrowind project established by K. Lomunovs in 2006.

“Somewhere The Music Had Been Played” represents Paleopsychedelic ambient again. Once issued on "Resting Bell” label in 2007, edited version this feature certainly worth to be reissued in more "touchable" media today in full-length.

Recorded on tape recorder during live improvisations at Tokctoka studio in Riga in August 2007, but it still represents contemporary sound.

All the tracks are left untreated and unprocessed as they were on original tapes. All where improvised on analog hardware. Analog synths and echo machines speak a language each one understands well. Astrowin brings out unordinary nostalgic melancholic paleopsychedelic experimental ambient music with a distinctly spatial nature and territorial associative relation to a region of Baltic Sea.

AL_X – Shunt

Liverpool electronic music artist Al_X (Alex Dunford) returns with a new 22 track album, ‘Shunt’. A less ‘song’ oriented album that his debut release, but it sees him move into a more comfortable soundtrack based genre.

The album started life as a small 4 track EP, but over the last year, grew to a huge 70 minute soundtrack to Al_X’s dreams and nightmares. “I always have trouble sleeping, and when I do, I have very vivid dreams and nightmares, and they stay with me for a few days. The subject seems to be quite dark or deals with large spaces, so I can try and work with what I can remember, and attempt to put that into music with various instruments and textures”, Alex states. “It’s a concept album, I suppose, but a very close one at that”, he adds.

Recorded towards the end of 2012 and most of 2013, utilising large halls, field recordings, analogue equipment, AL_X has produced an album that would grace most soundtracks.

Starting with ambient textures, Al_X takes us on a journey through folk, electronica, ambient, new age, but to name a few, and then back to his signature folk / electronica, to end the album on a rather uplifting tilt, taking us through a lot of emotions along the way.

Shunt once again features collaborations from Jeff Jepson, Dom Kearne and Kirsten Sharp.

Inner Trip – Initiate

Inner Trip' is the solo project of Saman N (born 1984, graphic artist and musician) formed in 2011. Saman lives in Iran. With his debut album "Somewhere Near The Pulse" he has overcome the prejudice and made a good start on his musical journey. The album received good response from listeners & music writers.

Inner Trip continues the journey with his sophomore album. Nine pieces from nine different lands of music make the second album of Inner Trip which entitled "Initiate". In a closer view, the album is based on electronic and ambient atmosphere with some touches of oriental music. Although there are two songs with vocals, "Initiate" is almost an instrumental album.

Saman says "Inner Trip's dough, imagination and dream, have a bold role on my music. Each track has a deal with my inner fantastic world." Initiate might be the right choice to discover what lies beneath.

REVIEWS

Beach Sloth

Inner Trip makes a hauntingly sad album with 'Initiate'. No light it is let in through its almost unnerving sense of clam. Much of this is nearly pure ambient. This is atmospheric music at its most intense. The album start with a pinging rhythm before it builds up into an enormous piece. Some of these pieces are extremely minimal. ‘Maya’ barely has a pulse; it lingers as a quiet moody track. On the absolute opposite side of this is the track ‘Reincarnation’ which gets extremely loud (in comparison to the rest of the album). Watch the volume levels on this particular track as it almost shocks with its sheer burst of energy. For me the lower-key songs are fascinating. Overall this is a sad album. The quiet adds to the downbeat mood. It is rather gorgeous in its quietness.

A Closer Listen / James Catchpole

Inner Trip’s personal touch over Initiate sets it apart from other releases; this is his music and his history, opening up as it does a rejuvenating honesty and a quickly established trust between both the artist and the listener. Inner Trip takes a voyage deep within ourselves, as each piece delves deeply inside our own circular thoughts and the immense labyrinth of the mind. The music is designed to kindle our own search for inner peace, and it resounds effectively as the initiation to the process. With Inner Trip taking us by the hand, our deepening meditation is in very safe hands. Safe is a very dangerous word for musicians, yet there is a reassurance of coming back to what we know; we may have been here before, or in a world similar to this somewhere long ago in our past, a place that is vaguely recalled and yet strangely distant on remembering. Whatever thoughts arise from Inner Trip’s music, the imagery may likely be shared by all, as one consciousness. Initiate can change perceptions; it may be that this young musician is the ignition that is so needed.

MRU / Vanessa Baker

Less than a year after Somewhere Near the Pulse, Inner Trip has completed his second album, Initiate. The nine tracks are largely ambient, with a hint of an electronic and modern classical sound thrown in for variety. The Iranian artist, also known for his graphic art as Saman N, admits to taking inspiration from cinematic soundtracks. While the influence is noticeable as the narrative flow and heavy reliance on piano recall a certain familiarity, Inner Trip’s sound goes beyond cliché, exploring a musical identity that is all his own.

He claims to have gone deep inside himself for the production of Initiate, trying to ignore outside influences as much as possible. As a result, the tone of the album is very dreamy and visual, calling to the mind soothing, ethereal images of grand, scenic landscapes from around the globe. Each song comes from a different location, bringing listeners on a journey to far away lands without ever leaving the comfort of their own minds. Two of the tracks feature soft yet strong vocals that perfectly complement the natural instrumental sounds they’re paired with. Whether you’re searching for background music for a romantic dinner or a relaxing bubble bath, or just want something to unwind to, Inner Trip provides the perfect soundtrack. This album really does inspire listeners to take a trip within themselves toward clam and inner peace.

Sound Shock / Calum Robson

Saman’s ambition is evident; to create cloud-destined ambience that never grounds itself until the final note finishes. And he succeeds in keeping the listener anywhere but reality. Inner Trip’s electronic diversity ensures this with a sound made up of strange samplings, symphonic strings, classical choir, psychedelic utterances and even featuring instrumentation from clarinet, mandolin and piano. There are dark vocals on occasion too – the trippy effects, strange beats and punches of psych electronica on ‘Consciousness’ are accompanied by deep vocals steeped in a curiously lulling dread and given an almost spoken word quality. Any fan of Ulver’s experimental exploits will appreciate the ambient electronics of the project and it’s surely only a matter of time before this talented musician is appreciated on a wider scale. Assume relaxed position on the recliner chair, burn the incense, initiate ‘Initiate’, lock your eyes shut and begin.

Caleidoscoop / Jan Willem Broek

The Fluttery Records steadily continue delivering great music from around the world, mostly in the postrock corner. 28 year old Saman N., a musician and graphic designer from Iran (Tehran), who makes electronic music with his musical vehicle Inner Trip. His goal here is giving you a new imaginary soundtrack. Last year, he made his debut with his wonderful CD Somewhere Near The Pulse containing his extraordinarily original compositions in which crossovers of neoclassical, ambient, electronica and trip come together. In his new album Initiate, the neoclassical splendor with breathtaking (electronic) orchestrations here is beautifully complemented by the glitchy electronics, piano parts, gently pulsating beats, field recordings, dark vocals and beautiful samples of soprano and chorus. The music goes regularly to the bone, very beautiful. Breathtaking, isolationist music where you imagine yourself on wintry landscapes full of beautiful, moving images.

You get the cinematic music of Phylr, the chilling music of the dark and Heinali, postrock of Labradford (just listen to "Consciousness"). There are also influences from Massive Attack, Gargle, Olan Mill, Craig Armstrong, Clint Mansell and Pleq found in this intimate music. Saman creates a mysterious magical reality that you just totally go dreaming. An overwhelming sequel to the already strong debut. Grand!

Monochromie – Angels and Demons

"Angels and Demons" is Monochromie's debut album. Built from piano melodies, tinged with synthetic textures and industrial sounds, his music shines and darkens into one single movement. Along with 13 songs on the album, we travel between heaven and earth, light and gravity, among angels and demons which inhabit our worlds and Monochromie’s music.

Sigur Ros, Pan American, Explosion in the Sky, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion, Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto or Frederic Chopin, Erik Sati and the sonatas or impromptus of Franz Schubert are among the many influences of the artist.

In a constant round trip between a soothing breath and a noisy storm, Monochromie’s music plays with our deep emotions and produces the new colors in the palette already rich and contrasted of Fluttery Records artists.

REVIEWS

Sound Colour Vibration / Erik Otis

What makes Angels and Demons a really different album than anything else coming out right now is the consistency of different worlds sitting boldly and perfectly together and exactly how they relate to one another. The piano work is classical in direction and the field of electronics gives the piano harmonies a very different aura. When analyzing classical forms of music, I have always envisioned this type of bridge being created where modern musings into sound collages can sit side by side with chamber influenced composition work. Fields of lush soundscapes create a euphoria inside of Angels and Demons, leaving the possibilities of sound to the imagination and not just what comes into the speakers. Music this colorful and open to interpretation elevates my senses in the widest spaces possible. This elevation puts me into a really relaxed and calm state, allowing myself to enter the music in a completely unabridged way. One of the stand out pieces for me is the track “Erosion”. With a faint trace of electronic percussion, the mix becomes saturated into a field of mutated static and beautiful melodies. It’s a sound that makes me feel a deep sense of inner peace and it’s an impact upon initial listening that has stuck in my mind since the moment I made contact. The layers that swell up and encircle the music is breath taking and it’s the type of direction in composition that I absolutely love about modern music. I have really been enjoying a lot of ambient music coming out this year and Angels and Demons from Monochromie is a new direction in this field of music. If you love records that are minimal in design, highly colorful and drifts into unusual sheets of landscapes that unfold in the most intricate forms, you have to hear this record.

MRU / Vanessa Baker

The calming melodies are kept fresh with synthetic textures and industrial sounds that invigorate the music’s pace, adding energy just when listeners have been eased into the soothing world of Monochromie. “Gorace Zarzewie,” Polish for “Hot Embers,” is the album’s final track, and provides the only vocals, hauntingly beautiful and spoken, rather than sung, by a woman. The piece returns the listener to the same angelic place the album began, but changed. For his foray into the musical world, Monochromie’s efforts are mature and strong. Angels and Demons brings the listener on a pleasant and varied ride, communicating its theme confidently and without words. The sounds speak for themselves, simultaneously capturing the ears and emotions of listeners, and not letting go.

A Closer Listen / John Kantos

It doesn’t happen often that we hear an album we have a hard time categorizing, but that is what happened when listening to the debut album of Wilson Trouve aka Monochromie. The album’s artwork immediately immerses us into a world of dark horizons, unusual images and the strangest color formations. Trouve creates soundtracks to these almost surrealistic images, soundtracks that encompass a variety of emotions and sound experiments. The album’s musical style drifts from ambient electronic to melodic piano pieces, and from there to shoegazing static and distortion. Monochromie seems to follow certain paths, at times more minimal, at others more cinematic, but he often deviates from each path, mixing different elements, producing a sound that is rough and abstract, tense and dreamlike at the same time. Being a visual artist perhaps has enabled Trouve to notice the subtleties in each sound and how they can be combined to accompany images and stories, or create their own. He also cites a number of post-rock bands (as we used to call them) such as Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Ros as influences, and since his sound doesn’t bear many similarities to that of the aforementioned artists, it is safe to say that what he drew from their music is the ability to paint emotional soundscapes in a way that is very personal. As we continue listening, Angels and Demons becomes hypnotic, yet has the familiarity of a story we used to be told as children. This could be why Trouve chose to close the album with “Gorace Zarzewie”, the only track with vocals (in Polish), which delivers images of an enchanted, pristine forest and has to be considered one of the album’s highlights, along with the ambient electronica of “Erosion.” What it does best however is point out what Monochromie excels at: making music that is full of hope and fear, vivid colors and darkness, feels like a dream, but has the mundanity of life.

William Henry Prince

Sensual cycles and small cascades.There is a famous statement by French writer Andre Breton: “It all leads one to believe that a certain place exists in the mind where life and death, real and imaginary, past and future, the expressible and inexpressible, high and low cease to be perceived contradictorily”. ‘Monochromie – Angels and Demons’ isn’t a work of surrealism, but it does take you on a vacation to somewhere close. I had a great friend, Simon Carroll, a potter, who loved how glazes would often rivulet if applied too liberally. It was a wonder and a treasure for him. It was a small but beautiful part of the whole process of his expression. There was a predictable chaos to it – the glaze would river downwards, yes, but in a way that was always unique, depending on texture, surface and shape. It could hijack other substances, mix, change colour, even appear to disappear.

Throughout this album, there is subversion at work beneath the piano and light. It isn’t a darkness or violence, but the droning, fizzing synths introduce the idea of change, transience and uncertainty. Rather than unsettle, they give breadth to the sound and the experience. All the thirteen tracks are vastly enjoyable, offering trips through different landscapes and planes, allowing the listener to interpret, explore and create. The keyboards and pianos spike, cascade and flow in sensual little cycles. Though nowhere near the sparseness of Philip Glass or Erik Satie, there is a lot of room here, some nice quiet spaces.

Caleidoscoop / Jan Willem Broek

The Fluttery label is still amazing me. The combination of artists from around the world, the quality of the artists and the ever-widening range of musical styles. The common thread seems more and more melancholy of how the music goes, hard or soft, or even experimentally accessible. New on the label, the French artist Wilson Trouvé, who is showing his monochrome debut Angels And Demons. Monochromatic light is light of a wavelength or color. Also in art monochrome work is an onecolor work. That principle is what the music of Trouvé certainly typifies. The genres he crosses is true modern classic, neoclassic, glitch, ambient and post-rock, but he knows there is a consistent set of melancholy to create. So instead of the various styles to separate, he brings together music and let them breathe the same atmosphere. Monochrome diversity it would paradoxically be called. The 13 instrumental compositions present here, are often built around the polyphonic piano sounds, both evoke Erik Satie and Chopin as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nils Frahm, Max Richter and Sylvain Chauveau. That he continued to fill with wave-like textures that are reminiscent of the Cocteau Twins, glitch in the manner of Fennesz and Alva Noto, postrock the mysterious realms of the old Sigur Rós, the ambient of Harold Budd and Brian Eno, the desolate beauty of Library Tapes, the gritty shoegaze of Bitcrush and intense orchestrations of Ólafur Arnalds. But precisely because he managed all these facets in a natural way to exist side by side, getting his music a distinctive monochromatic sound, which minimaler than the above examples. In the final track you hear even a certain Anna in Polish speaking through the music, which is a nice effect. An album with many ingredients, but a tender face shows. Depth, emotion splendor so beautiful and knows how to shine in Autumn.

Mescaline-Injection

Post-rock without rock, rock without guitars, so to speak. Maybe this is what Wilson Trouve from France presented with his solo project Monochromie. On his album Angels and Demons, he goes on a similar expedition as thousands of instrumental bands that this genre has produced in recent years. But "Angels and Demons" is more converted in the paths of experimental sound art. Part of the guitar (the rhythm comes from the heart, anyway) embodies here especially drones and swirling ambient surfaces. The piano excels with some beautiful melodies, accompanied by noise of gentle click'n'cut-tinkering that bring to the music on the one hand a high coefficient of tensions and high contrasts, on the other hand, there is sometimes sacred moments with devout synthesizers. The monumental size of generous fine details are really worth listening moments. "Angels and Demons" is a relaxing low-key album that invites you to linger melancholy, and it could be as much appreciated by post-rock friends than by fans of drones and electronic sounds.

Beach Sloth

Monochromie represents a natural evolution. It began with Max Richter's low-key modern classical Forays into. Leyland Kirby expanded this palette by placing a greater emphasis on the electronic. What is does Monochromie follow-up on Kirby's ideas and infuses them with Considerable amounts of distortion. At times the levels of distortion are nearly unbelievable. Many times this distortion veers into Pita's emphasis on making Mego or even more dramatic through classical volume controls.

The beginning of the album is deceptively calm. Monochromie lulls the listener with gentle piano on 'Skylines'. Things progress from there into territory considerably noisier. 'A Sunny Afternoon "is nearly giddy in its absolute hopefulness. It is a happy, bright, colorful piece. 'Erosion' is perhaps my favorite piece on the album. Here Monochromie details of the effects of the slow degradation of the basic loop. In a way this is similar to William Basinski's disintegration loops. Like William's work there is an almost romantic quality to the piece's slow demise. Layers upon layers of distortion and noise are thrown on top of the piano yet Continues to strive through the static. Another track 'Undefined Field' takes a similar approach in nature yet it is low key. Leyland Kirby is directly felt on 'Frozen Sea' which sounds directly inspired by him. The slow build and heavy electronic wheezes are reminiscent of Kirby's work.

'Angels and Demons' is a constant struggle between the classical and electronic elements. This pits the organic against the digital. Listening to the struggle between the two separate elements makes it infinitely interesting. Hope neither side ever wins.

Think Muzik

Citing Influences ranging from Explosions in the Sky to Frederic Chopin to Franz Schubert, Monochromie is well-versed in several styles of music, Including ambient, electronic, post-rock and even classical. This variety is well presented throughout the album. "Angels and Demons" relies on electronic ambient music played in tandem with heavily distorted spheres of live instruments to create melody, which is a tactic employ many post-rock bands. This album has no vocals. The music at times sounds uplifting and proud, and at others downtrodden and sad. These kinds of contrasts are present at every turn during this album. I can proudly give this album better marks than many of the other post-rock albums I have reviewed 'of late. This is on par with Hammock's new offering, and even better than Inner Trip and Home Never. I highly recommend this to fans of down tempo music and electronic music, as well as the average fan not experienced in the post-rock.

AL_X – AL_X

"Writer, electronic music producer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and serial collaborator Alex Dunford has, after a long and tortuous gestation period, finally released a masterful album of exquisite, reverberant melancholy, full of keen, persistent melodies and darkly sculpted, piano-driven soundscapes under the name of Al_X.

With the aid of co-writers and vocalists (Jeff Jepson, Dom Veron, Kate Smith), themselves coming from worlds more akin to folk/blues/jazz/other, the album brings together vintage drum machines and synths, toy instruments, strings and string loops, acoustic guitars, Reverbs, Delays, and miscellaneous tools from Alex's menagerie of gear into a seamless and cinematic whole. The album is reminiscent of Brian Eno, Sigur Ros, Depeche Mode, Radiohead and Recoil. With these influences in mind, Alex takes us on journey through his tastes, his mind, and his favorite instruments in this collection of cinematic pieces and soundscape driven songs".

REVIEWS

Evil Sponge

The record kicks off appropriate enough with Intro, a nice ambient upswell to start the album. Then he launches into it with Here Before the centerpiece of which is a female vocalist, who has a high-pitched girly voice, like Alison Shaw from The Cranes. The music grows until it achieves a nice density, with layers of synths almost swamping her voice, before fading out to an outro of strings. Very lovely.

Bloom takes some mid-tempoed beats and the fast tremoloed guitar from a Lights Out Asia record, and adds in layers of strings and keyboards. There is one point that is gorgeous -- the guitars are whirring so fast they create a faint ambient blur and Dunford adds in a tinkling keyboard bit. Very nice. The general Tortoise-ness carries on in our fourth track, Lose You, which features our second vocalist. I think. It is another female voice, but she sounds a little higher pitched and more human as opposed to that Alison Shaw little girl/pixie squeal. Under this, there are some spacey electro sounds, a deep bass beat, and loud strings. This song gets loud and fun, like Tortoise remixed by late era Underworld.

Overall, i have to say that i enjoy most of this record. It gets a little dull in the middle, and i do wish for some kind of liner notes to explain what the heck was happening with the vocals. However, if you like electro pop, then this is a pretty fine choice.

Sea of Tranquility

AL_X is multi instrumentalist Alex Dunford, from the city of Liverpool England, hometown to many a famous artist. The music AL_X makes on his selftitled debut album can be categorized under Electronic music, influenced by famous electronc bands as we have like Sigur Ros, Depeche Mode and the like.

The music is a combined effort of great synth tones with nasty twists & turns as we also hear drum machines, music loops etc. All the music is composed, produced and all instrumentation played by AleX Dunford.

A bundle of nicely composed soundscapes is brought to the listener and I must say it is really really entertaining to listen to this music. It has an enlightning feel to it, and truly is able to cheer you up when you are having trouble enjoying yourself.

A Nasty Suprise

Fluttery Records is a most appropriate label for one-man-band AL_X, Alex Dunford. On February 10, the writer, producer and all-around instrumentalist from Liverpool released his first LP, and it is certainly fluttery. The self-titled album has a unique ambiance that flutters through your head, droops your eyelids lower, and floats you almost to serenity.

On the surface, “AL_X” is an experimental electronic album; Dunford uses plenty of synthesized sounds and drum machines along with strings and a piano. The tracks vary from heavily industrial, tech tunes to overproduced sonatas.

The tracks that sick to either of those extremes, though worth listening too, are not the strength of “AL_X.” The beauty of the album comes from slowly meshing the harmonies of digitalism with orchestral strings and piano. This is most apparent in the first four tracks.

The song “Intro” would fit seamlessly to the soundtrack of a psychologically thrilling movie – just at the final plot twist. It rises in intensity as the wandering ambiance builds up with more and more layers of repetition.

The third track, “Bloom,” is for the movie’s happy ending. It is the loveliest track we’ve heard this year, and is the highlight of “AL_X.” It is led in by a new wave hum akin to the sounds of M83. It rises and falls throughout the track, much like the whir of Sigur Ros’s “Takk.”

Once Dunford starts adding to the groundwork of “Bloom,” it results in a digital sonata. Bells chime in, piano chords strike, and orchestral strings shout. Dunford scratches a beat around the harmonies making a song you can both groove and cry to at the same time.

The closing track, “Hymn for Moya / If There is a Light,” is as weak a closer as there is. There is a haunting hymn with piano atop that doesn’t go anywhere. It is more of a rambling song that could have been condensed and used as a dividing track on the album.

But that’s what “L.A.G.,” a two-minute piano solo, already does; in the fifth slot, it divides the memorable songs from the forgettable songs.

The latter half of “AL_X” does have two bright spots. The glitch-tune “What is to be Done” and the humbler “Roadkill” are enjoyable.

Astrowind Fresh Wind – In The Valley Of Dreams

Many Astrowind’s tracks are themed in outer space and its secrets – ambient music attempts to grasp the unknown.

Astrowind offers a spiral of accumulated experience of what has been seen, heard, dreamt and read, the desire to get away beyond the horizon of consciousness and sub-consciousness through musical experience.

The album is dedicated to the cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov - the first man in outer space and a person who has always appealed to the author. Such tracks as The Case with Colonel Aleksey Leonov, Lost and Found on The Moon, Mute Pilots and Aleksey Leonov See Dreams are also inspired by the movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact (a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) which tells the story of an American-Russian space crew flying to the Jupiter System on a ship named after Aleksey Leonov. The author hopes that Aleksey Leonov will hear this record. This tracks greet him.
The album’s title track, Wind on the Plain, has been named after Debussy’s Le Vent de la plaine. This is a tribute to the composer who has been an inspiration for Astrowind for a long time.

The album was recorded in collaboration with Mahi Bukimi. Kriipis Tulo is grateful to Mahi Bukimi for his contribution in the recording of this album.

The album provides a fusion of nostalgic echoes of Soviet news broadcasts, an echo of old radio sets and the cinematic patina of artwork by censored Soviet filmmakers. These are islands of memory, the past overcoming the future.

REVIEWS

Against The Odds / Chris Antonoff

Kriipis Tulo is a prominent sound designer whose long been regarded as one of the key figures of the Latvian electronic music scene. In his latest release he made heavy use of vintage synthesizers for a truly dark, eerie and cold feeling. Listening to Fresh Wind In The Valley Of Dreams will set one's mind to wander in various directions only to find melancholy and desperation waiting at the end. You can really feel the beauty and the coldness of the digital in Tulo's music which offers an intricate and spectacular transition into a whole another dimension of existence. His music creates beautiful, harsh and desolate soundscapes in which your imagination to roam. If our everyday life becomes a pattern of zeros and ones Kriipis Tulo's music may very well be the soundtrack if it enriched by the machines' cold embrace. With its complexity and unorthodox approach Tulo's album is sure to find its way to many new followers in the realm of experimental music.

A Closer Listen / Jeremy Bye

Space has long been a source of fascination and inspiration for electronic musicians; clips from NASA recordings have been used to give an extra depth to ambient works pretty much since the genre began. Kriipis Tulo, the Latvian musician who records as Astrowind, is no different. Fresh Wind In The Valley Of Dreams is inspired by – and dedicated to – cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov, the first man to walk in space and, later, the commander of the Russian half of the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975 which saw the United States and the Soviet Union work together in space for the first time.

As might be expected, clips of Leonov’s space flights make their way into Tulo’s work but they just about avoid cliché and remain unobtrusive. It is perhaps that first space-walk that informs this album more, with a real sense of weightlessness in many of the tracks; with little in way of percussion or bass, the synths and organs here sound as if they are floating without anything to anchor them to the earth. It certainly makes for an atmospheric ambient album, and there’s enough detail, outside of the radio clips, to hold the interest. Alternatively, aside from the slightly clunky transitions between tracks it’s possible to let the album play in the background and imagine drifting weightless in space oneself.

If there’s one failing of Fresh Wind In The Valley Of Dreams, it’s that Tulo favours atmosphere over anything distinctive or memorable in his arrangements. The downside of the consistency across the album is that it lacks a little character and it’s really only the piano on the penultimate track “Nocturne for Different Moons” that adds something new to the mix. As it stands, though, Astrowind has made a thoughtful album to soundtrack our dreams, as we gaze to the skies and wonder.

Migrate Music News / Jordan C. Small

Kriipis’ tracks are so far out there that I believe that he has come in contact with aliens through his voyage through space and sound. He presents his artwork in a way that allows the listener to feel as though they are sitting next to him in the cockpit of a rocketship, and the only thing there is to hear is the deafening sound of the rocket fuel buring behind them; that sound is exactly what Kriipis is attempting to portray to the listener. Although the rhythm is subtle, it is still possible to sense Kriipis’ portrayal of time. Kriipis’ art can only be described as profound, but only so if you, reader, close your eyes and imagine a vast void of outer space in front of you. This is a very well put together album.

We at Migrate only have mad props to give. Myself, being very interested in the vast reaches of space as well, am very intrigued by Kriipis Tulo’s exploration into deep space. Lastly, I must say that this album would be a perfect addition to any astrological collection of bits and bobs, but also just any old record collection. So, reader, I suggest you buy this album, get your telescope out on the front lawn, and listen to this record while gazing at the stars; you might hear more than you bargained for.

Track List

Dessin Bizarre - Air Frais

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Secoya - Ghosts

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Halcyon Chamber - Halcyon Chamber

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Row Boat - In Between

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Astrowind - Somewhere The Music Had Been Played

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AL_X - Shunt

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Inner Trip - Initiate

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Monochromie - Angels and Demons

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AL_X - AL_X

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Astrowind Fresh Wind - In The Valley Of Dreams

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