Announcing BINARY (Hypnos sub-label), and two new CD releases
In its first five years, Hypnos Recordings has established itself
as an explorer of atmospheric and minimal ambient recordings. One
of the most common requests received, and one which coincides with
my personal musical interests, is that Hypnos should become involved
in more dynamic forms of electronic music, everything from
experimental electronica, to more rhythmic trance, and classic
European-influenced e-music.
To that end, the BINARY sub-label has been established, to give
voice to artists both new and familiar, who were previously working
in forms more kinetic than would have fit with Hypnos. The first two
CD releases both have a bit of "classic e-music" flavor, heavily
utilizing analog sequencers and synthesizers. Definitely not for
people who hate music that sounds electronic.
∗ ∗ ∗
The Binary label debut is INTO THE LIQUID UNKNOWN by Paul Ellis (best
known as 1/3 of Dweller at the Threshold, a group whose new disc
OUROBORUS is the other new release on Hypnos/Binary -- see below), a
bright and distinctive piece of modern electronic music. Those of you
who are more interested in true e-music -- shifting synthesizer
patterns, beautiful resonances, expressions of the soul of the machine
--
will delight in this fantastic, fresh recording.
Using a dash of classic European e-music as a reference point, but
never for a minute sounding like an artist exploring any path buts
Ellis's own, INTO THE LIQUID UNKNOWN supplies that modern synth music
"fix" for listeners who remember their excitement at first hearing
Wendy Carlos, Jean-Michel Jarre, Synergy, or early Tangerine Dream...
but for people who already own all those albums and don't want to hear
them re-done.
Like the first albums of Alpha Wave Movement and Synthetic Block,
this album utilizes just the right limited measure of "classic" and
moves on from there to create something new.
Ellis takes the listener on a nearly exhausting musical
roller-coaster of pulsing arpeggios, cascading mechanistic sequences,
many-layered melodic passages, and gradually to brief calm passages,
before cranking the energy and complexity level up again.
∗ ∗ ∗
OUROBORUS by Dweller at the Threshold is the first Binary release by
a group whose members include Dave Fulton (whose collaboration THE
MOST DISTANT POINT KNOWN with Hypnos founder M Griffin was released on
Hypnos, to much acclaim, in 2000), Paul Ellis (whose solo album INTO
THE LIQUID UNKNOWN is the Binary label debut, also released this
month), and John Duval. The first Dweller album, NO BOUNDARY CONDITION
(released on Eurock) had a stronger Tangerine Dream influence, but the
group has since moved further into deep, deep space. Though some
measure of digital technology is in use here, one of the features
identifying Dweller's sound is the heavy use of analog modular
synthesizers. Fulton relies heavily on a refrigerator-sized bank of
Doepfer modular synths and a Synthesis Technologies (MOTM) system,
while Duval uses "The Fist of God," a massive Serge Modular system.
The use of all this expensive, esoteric analog synthesis gear is no
mere "synth geek's vanity" -- the sound of Dweller at the Threshold
possesses a character and clarity that would simply not be possible
with modern digital synthesizers. An audience member at a recent DATT
concert in Portland was overheard afterward saying "I haven't heard
something that good since Tangerine Dream was young." That isn't to
say that Dweller intends to mimic the German synth music greats -- just
that their sound has enough substance to thrill even the most jaded e-
music fan.
Both CDs are available now at the Hypnos Online Store:
http://www.hypnos.com/Merchant/merchant.mv Audio clips will be available soon at the Hypnos/Binary site:
http://www.hypnos.com/binaryPlease cross post this at will!
dave