ARCHON ORCHESTRA - 'Pong' CD (Shadowplay Release / Muzyka Voln / Monopoly Records)
The CD cover of this band's debut album shows a collage with a fragment of a Renaissance painting on which biblical saints look at the "sky" above them and see the game "Pong" being played there (a cult arcade game from 1972, first game by Atari). What could this marvellous picture mean? Let the listener decide. The main instrument on this CD is the organ, in fast mechanical sequences, typical for the Berlin school of electronic music. Simple compositional structure meets vivid expression, liturgical atmosphere and a sublime metaphysical line running through the whole concept of the project. Archon Orchestra deal with clearly structured music lying in the intermediate plane between the so called 'holy minimalism' and 'repetitive music'. Recommended for lovers of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Recoil ("Hydrology").
UK 10.50£
Europe 11.50£
World 12.50£
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CYCLOTIMIA - 'Celestis: Space Ceremonial Music' CD (Shadowplay Release / Zhelezobeton / Monopoly Records)
An album inspired by the activity of the American aerospace company Space Services Inc. which among other things dispatches human ashes in space. For more than 30 years Space Services Inc. has been a leader company in the sphere of private space missions of scientific and educational character. By agreement with Space Services Inc. a copy of "Celestis" CD will be launched in space on board of the rocket with ashes of 179 people from different countries and will be the official soundtrack for the memorial "Legacy" flight. Musically "Celestis" fundamentally differs from their previous works - real old-school atmospheres using vintage devices. File alongside Brian Eno, Klaus Schulze, Download, Coil, Bad Sector and even The Future Sound Of London or The Orb. 2010 reissue with bonus track 'Another Time Another Place'.
CYCLOTIMIA - 'Sci-Fi Music (Soundtrack To A Nonexistent Movie)' CD (Shadowplay Release / Zhelezobeton / Monopoly Records)
As the title suggests, the new work by the Russian masters of electronic soundscapes represents a score to an imaginary sci-fi movie. The musicians are admirers of old-school Sci-Fi / Cyberpunk genres and for a long time they have felt a desire to make some music inspired by soundtracks of sci-fi blockbusters from 1970-80s... Spaceship battles, alien colonies, teleportation and mysterious droid ceremonies are only part of the images created by this music. The album contains both dynamic rhythmic "hits" and disturbing space ambient as well as avant-garde neoclassical pieces. Ltd x 500 copies.
"Styx" is the most mainstream work in the Cyclotimia discography. The music is free of their usual experimental and academic explorations; here the emphasis is made on the rhythms. Eleven compositions depict the sickly technogenic reality of the planet wrapped by networks of global capital, media glamour and ideological obsessions. In ancient Greek mythology the Styx was the embodiment of primeval dread and gloom, from which the first living creatures emerged. This was a personification of the underworld river whose pestilent currents seclude life from death. Similarly to this mythic river, currents of credits, percent, funds, financial quotations, capital issues, barrels of oil and advertising spaces flow on the Cyclotimia album to the accompaniment of hard, sterile and atmospheric electronic music. Recommended for fans of Skinny Puppy, Clock DVA, Laibach, Front Line Assembly. Ltd x 500 copies.
"TimeBank" is a collection of exclusive unreleased compositions recorded by Cyclotimia from 2003-2007. A post-industrial "dish" containing cyber jazz and IDM, neoclassical and trademark technological ambient, old-school electronics and atmospheric new age, experimental and much more. Despite the seeming stylistic incompatibility the band has succeeded in creating an album with a spectacular plot similar to a good Hollywood thriller. A special jewel on the album is the track 'Nocturne' combining aerial melodies and uneasy sonic cinematography. Also worth mentioning is the "live" 10-minute prog-industrial suite "Economic Meditation", imbued with psychedelic drama. Ltd x 500 copies.
SPHERE REX - 'For Electronics And Piano' CD (Shadowplay Release / Monopoly Records / Muzyka Voln)
Sphere Rex is the solo project of MK (Cyclotimia), playing ambient in a traditional vein (uncommon for today), combining minimalism and a background style of electronic music a la Brian Eno and piano improvisations based on proto-ambient ideas of Erik Satie. This music is able to calm down and lull to sleep like alpha-wave rhythms or paint weird images guided by the surreal titles of compositions in one's imagination. For the goals of complete authenticity only analogue devices were used in recordings, as well as tube pre-amps and compressors from 60s-70s. Ltd x 500 copies. Russian import.
