Helios - Yume

It's been three years since Helios graced us with a full-length album and in that time, those who followed him on social media may have seen the many soundtracks and scores he's been working on for the likes of Facebook, Apple and Google. A fitting job for such a talented artist and good on him for paying the bills through his talent, but it's been at the expense of his fans, craving new material under the Helios name. 

A successful Kickstarter campaign this year helped kick Keith's newest album into gear and we're now once again graced with his gentle, post-rock, ambient-blanketed touch.

Die-hard Helios fans will be pleased to know the sound we grew to love hasn't departed. A slightly more confident approach and some subtle experimentation and depth across instruments is more present; perhaps brought on by his recent soundtrack work. Uptempo tracks such as Pearls, and slow-burning melodies in Sing The Same Song Twice, are balanced against the grainy warm colors of album-ender, Embrace - my favorite track of the bunch, and Sonora Lac; featuring a gentle, teasing climax that so many Helios tracks sign off with. 

Keith's style is echoed in many of the artists we hear today and rightly so, from classical soundtrack influences, to guitar-licks, Helios' music continues to reign supreme. It's weird listening to this three years after his last album and thinking of all the artists I've listened to in this period that ring true to his sound. It's not to say Helios coined this style, but he was definitely one of the first influences for me, personally, in accessing the more post-rock / instrumental side of ambient music. I'm still to see him live, and live by his Live At The Triple Door, recording. 

I'm still a firmer admirer of his lighter, more textured ambient music such as Vargtimme, and his more recent Moeity, but there's no denying Helios still has the power to transcend genres and pull together a wide-encompassing, perfected sound that touches the soul. 

Available on Bandcamp in Digital and CD formats, with vinyl coming soon.

Neglect - Western Romance Novels

One thing I noticed whilst living in Portland (Oregon), is the ridiculous amount of talent, passion and enthusiasm for ambient music. The community is a fantastic crowd, and I was lucky to meet a few, even DJ alongside, and witness low-key gigs first-hand on many rainy mid-week evenings. I've been meaning to do a separate Portals feature on the city (which will come soon) as the scene is a haven for ambient music lovers, but until then, there's some great music emerging from my previous home which is too good not to share.

Lifelike Family are one of the collectives holding the community together through numerous local gigs and a consistent label presence. Both their shows and releases feature home-grown talent, focusing on some of the many ambient, drone, experimental artists that call Portland, or the greater PNW, home. The label has focused on digital and tape releases (yes, of course tapes are a thing in Portland) but in this case, the label suits the format. It's home grown, with releases in local stores and passed to friends, just like the good old days. And the music, for the most part is grainy, textured and immersive, perfect for the extra analog feels.

Their latest release comes from Neglect - local Portland artist Joseph Valentino. I was unfortunately unable to see Joseph perform during my time up there, and after being nudged in the direction of this release, I'm gutted I missed out.

Neglect's album, Western Romance Novels, seems to pull from a wide array of influences, forming some beautiful tones and textures. The entire album has the feel and patience of a Pop Ambient compilation, with gentle looping strings on tracks such as I Am At Home... opener, We All Want To Belong... and title track Western Romance Novels.

Expansive drones give the album some depth and measure, on The Presence Of Life and organic, evolving guitars liven up the journey on my favorite track of the bunch, Kayenta. Ocotillo Wells reminds me of Marsen Jules' finest pieces with its seductive Castilian guitar licks and ever-expanding delay. Ulf Lohmann or Klimek simplicity also comes to mind - both early Pop Ambient contributors, and you can even pair it with some Harold Budd or Brian Eno if you wanted a 35000ft view - the backgrounds have been perfected and the accentuating instruments subtle and poignant in nature. 

Comparing an entire album to a certain style or series, isn't a habit I want to keep - and you can argue any comparisons to Eno or Budd are pointless, but given Neglect will be new to many of us, I wanted to set the scene and make it a little more accessible to those willing to adventure. Put it this way, even if this album popped out of Wolfgang Voigt's Pop Ambient selections, I wouldn't have been surprised, which is some of the highest praise I can give for Neglect and his superb album, Western Romance Novels. 

I see how much hard work Lifelike and it's many artists and friends put into the label and shows, so supporting music like this is important. But when it's this good, they deserve every praise they can muster. So go like their Facebook page to catch an upcoming show, and chuck a few bucks their way on Bandcamp, either on this album or the many other greats that Jay + Ryan and the Lifelike crew are cultivating. 

Western Romance Novels is available on tape, or for name your own price via the Lifelike Family Bandcamp.

Donnacha Costello - Love From Dust

What seems like an eternity ago, I contributed to Donnacha Costello's fundraising campaign to help him build an album focused on the EMS Synthi - an instrument he had been on the waiting list for 13 years. Despite the overwhelming success of the campaign, Donnacha purchased the Buchla Music Easel instead of the more expensive EMS, but that didn't effect the amazing output which has recently seen the light of day on his latest ambient album, Love From Dust. 

Minimalism, perfected, Love From Dust is a set of warm analog tones, textures and slowly developing pieces that epitomise the vintage sound the synthesizer's creator would have dream't of. This isn't an experimental take on the  synth's capabilities; instead, it's a demonstration of a rare, sought after instrument at the hands of one of it's finest handlers, where all tracks were recorded as live direct to 2-track, with no overdubs or looping. Donnacha's ambient work on his album Together Is The New Alone is testament to his minimal and melodic take on ambient music, and the Buchla Music Easel has enabled Donnacha to take us to even newer places.

His intentions are clear from the very beginning, teasing out a beautiful bouncing melody on Niigata Moment; the warm sound of the synth easing you into the record. Donnacha then dives deeper with my favourite track, Ten Ton. Simple layers build across ten minutes, cascading into a fuzzy drone, demonstrating the elegant, yet raw power of the synthesizer at hand. 

Like the beginning of a sci-fi movie, Asteroid twinkles with mystery with an ominous undercurrent slowly appearing. The beauty of this once far away light, now quickly descending and appearing closer by the second, jarring against the uneasy orchestra that narrates its fall from grace. 

A vivid blinking of lights in Klar picks up the pace, demonstrating subtle changes in tone you'd normally hear underpinning a glowing techno track, helping you picture the Buchla Music Easel at work as Donnacha peers over his instrument, fine-tuning and iterating one button at a time.

Farewell, another favourite of mine, enjoys tones of space ambient we've come to find from the likes of Stellardrone, until the magic of the synthesizer comes to the foreground - a pulsating muddy drone juxtaposes the sparkling, elegant swirls that rise above it. 

Donnacha has always been one to find enjoyable melodies in his ambient works, and he's also one for subtle chord changes across expansive, yet minimal landscapes. This approach comes to fruition in Everything Is Going To Be, as a warping melody slowly degrades over 11-minutes. 

And finally, Unconditional, like a more subdued brother of the opening track, Niigata Moment; the slow rolling synth lulls your eyelids to a close - a perfect book-end to an exemplary album, and one of Donnacha's finest ambient productions yet.  

Available on Bandcamp.

Read more on Donnacha here, where I dive into some of my favourite tracks from his esteemed Color Series.

36 - Void Dance

It's fascinating to hear and follow an artist's journey in real-time. Imagine how many hours we all spend reflecting on notorious albums; analyzing their sound; when it changed; when it got better; which albums started to resonate; which albums you wished they didn't make. Boards of Canada, for example - a fascinating story of development; from the defining sound of Music Has The Right To Children, to the more psychedelic Geogaddi and the apocalyptic tone of Tomorrow's Harvest; it's the nuances in an artist's sound which help us relate and grow alongside them. But more often that not, it's done in retrospect. 

Some fifteen-plus releases after 36's (Dennis Huddleston) 2009 album Hypersona, I'm still hanging on to his ever-evolving catalog with attentive ears. I'm not sure if Dennis feels the same way about this album, but Void Dance, is, a defining moment for me as a listener and voyeur of his beautiful sound.

Void Dance begins with a very recognizable, yet distinctly more refined 36 sound. The soaring strings of Hold On reminding us of Dennis' Places Series release, Heather Spa - echoing desolation and destruction. The intensity quietens for Equinox, as if the event we just witnessed billows plumes of slowly spiralling smoke, and debris is washed ashore a quiet, yet previously beautiful beach, as you peer down from a tiny window miles above. 

Stasis Eject, taken from the previously released EP Pulse Dive (as is the title track Pulse Dive), marks the beginning of the more electronic sounding tracks; lifted straight from an empty shuttle hurtling around Earth's atmosphere - tension, shrouded in an envelope of silence, slowly growing as your suspected realization quickens. 

An interlude of BoC sounding synths signals a change in horizon - a new earth, a new planet maybe, in Meshi Echelon. The inquisitive and melodic Nova, sparkles and quickens with intrepidation, setting up the majestic Pulse Dive. This track, as mentioned before, was taken from 36's earlier EP and is a shining example of Dennis's new approach. Compare with early Global Communication if you will, it's productions like Pulse Dive that will go on to define Dennis' evolution, and when surrounded a quality album such as this, are given the true space and light to stand-out. 

The new life; the new planet; you paid witness to with Pulse Dive, is brought back down to ground level with Tomorrow's World, again, teasing another special moment in the following title track Void Dance. Featuring significantly more distinct elements than previous tracks, and evolving throughout the six-minutes, the evocative strings and glorious melody pair nicely as significant book-ends with the earlier Pulse Dive.

The first day draws to dusk, and a curtain of Diamond Rain slowly descends into the unrecognizable valleys you're sat beneath, spurring a moment of reflection in Sine Dust, finished with a soft gentle whisper from a fellow traveller, or indeed your inner-self.

As the album comes to a close, so does your journey into this new world as you slowly settle down for the night, and the soft, yet haunting sound of The Last Light, lulls you into a dreary state.

I often find Dennis' work to make for perfect mix endings - his introspective emotion is so vivid, especially in previous albums. Ending Void Dance; Endless, is however, one of his most evocative tracks yet, and a perfect reminder of the 36 power. Gone is the melancholy and instead, a feeling of fulfilment and opportunity, amongst the slowly descending pads and soaring synths, tethering a fine-line between all-out trance and bvdub style euphoria.

As you can probably tell by now from my own personal narrative, Void Dance is a masterpiece in storytelling. The 36 sound we've followed for years has evolved, and with it, born brilliant tracks such as Pulse Dive and the title track Void Dance. But more importantly, Dennis didn't let these tracks sit alone or amongst a sub-par album. Instead, he has crafted an articulate journey that accentuates this new style - the innovative, the norm, the style we recognize and the tracks we don't, into an album worth a thousand visuals. It's one thing crafting a couple of tracks and moving your sound forward, it's another positioning this within an entire record.

Void Dance is available to pre-order on CD and digital now at 3six.net

Thore Pfeiffer - Im Blickfeld

Thore Pfeiffer landed unexpectedly earlier this year with two tracks on Kompakt's 2015 edition of Pop Ambient. It's a compilation that has on many occasions, ended up being the first step into the ambient 'mainstream' for artists such as Leandro Fresco, Markus Guentner and even Donnacha Costello. Seeing Thore's name on this years edition mean't only one thing - Mr Wolfgang Voigt had found a new ambient prodigy to help spearhead the already infamous compilation series. 

Following 2015's Pop Ambient compilation, Kompakt announced that the series would be getting its very own artist album releases. Leandro Fresco kicked things off with a stunning sound that we've loved since his first appearance in 2003 and now it's the turn of Thore Pfeiffer.

Im Blickfeld spans 11-tracks of gentle loop-based melodies that softly roll, tease and lull you closer to Thore's delicate and intricate touch. There's an immediate resonance with most Pop Ambient material that seems to play on this type of approach - it's Kompakt's trademark sound after-all, yet Thore has induced a gentle swirl of folk simplicity compared to previous executions.

The opening track, Allzu Nah, is perhaps the finest example and differentiator from previous Pop Ambient sound. Like watching a black-and-white film of a country fairground, that stalls, stops, and injects new faces in an almost playful yet haunting manner. 

Was Ihr Wolt seems to book-end Thore's gentle approach at the start of the album, with a consistent alluring pulse, backed by subtle keys and a slowly emerging high-pitched detail. This track sets up the second section of the album which goes on to focus more on guitar and strings, with Nirgwendo providing the most energy out of the bunch, akin to a dimly lit moment from an 80's film-score, only to then twist into a more avant-garde approach on Kolibri - where plucked strings take center stage. 

The final third of the album then descends into much warmer territory with Ebene - the stand-out track for me, featuring dark, driving swathes of color, transitioning into Falke - a beautiful airy filtered track that immediately revives the more recognized Pop Ambient sound.

Finishing on the fifteen-minute long Gipfel, the looping strings play ode to the addictive simplicity we find throughout the album. Thore's embrace of the Pop Ambient sound is clear to hear, but after years of tinkering from scratch, he's found a perfectly balanced palette that focuses purely on the distinct Pop Ambient sound. His relatively new approach to music production has perhaps, enabled him to focus on the quality and confidence of his approach instead of complicating, layering and diluting years of work. 

Im Blickfeld is available now on Kompakt.

I had the chance to shoot Thore a few questions below to get to know a bit more about how he came to be, and his approach to production. 

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ASIP: Hi Thore, what are you up to right now?

TP: I'm at home resting in my living room and sure enough,  pleased to answer your questions.

ASIP: How did your relationship with Kompkat come about?

TP: I had conventionally sent a demo to Kompakt. After a while, I had already stopped anticipating an answer then there was an email of Wolfgang Voigt and he asked me if I wanted to be featured on the next Pop Ambient compilation. Of course I said yes.

ASIP: There’s hope for us all! How did you begin producing music?

TP: At the very beginning, Thomas Gwosdz taught me everything I needed to know to make my first steps in producing. Everything further came by self-education.

ASIP: And what or who introduced you to ambient music specifically?

TP: In the Nineties I listened a lot of projects like "GAS","Biosphere" and others. Later on Thomas Gwosdz introduced me to the first Pop Ambient sampler. This stuff really fascinated me and got me hooked. From then on I knew it was this kind of music I wanted to make.

ASIP: So where did you go from there? Has this been your focus since the 90’s?

TP: I am open to all kinds of music and always looking for new styles and sounds. I tend to get bored if I would just concentrate on one music genre.                                                                                 

ASIP: You say that old-skool hip hop and rap were one of your first forays into music - do you still like that kind of music today?      

TP: Yes, right, I still like to listen to old material every once in a while. The more recent stuff is not my cup of tea to be honest. I don’t really follow today’s Rap/Hip Hop scene. The last Rap record I bought was “Hotsaucecommiteeparttwo" by the Beastie Boys which I still like a lot.

ASIP: How would you describe your approach to music production?

TP: Almost every time a sample is the initial point of a new track. I experiment with it and manipulate it until I am satisfied with the result. Next I continue to gather further sounds around the sample.

Recently I use Ableton Live 9, FL Studio, Korg Electribe A and some acoustic instruments such as a Chinese flute. Sometimes when I am abroad I record all sorts of sounds with a mobile recording device.  

ASIP: The album sounds like it features lots of instruments - especially strings. Are they played live?

TP: Most of the material I used on the album consists of samples of ethnical/world music, German "Volksmusik" and classical music. Every once in a while I use Korg Electribe, as well as some field recordings.

ASIP:  “Volksmusik” – can you give us an introduction to this type of music?

TP: It’s a traditional German music with a very unique sound, featuring instruments like the Tuba, Accordion and the Zither. It’s the tone of the instruments which resonates with me rather than the music itself. 

ASIP: I sense elements of "The Orb’s Okie Dokie It’s The Orb On Kompakt” on your album, or at the very least, some Thomas Fehlmann in there… where they an influence on this album at all?  

TP: Funny and interesting question! But no, The Orb album and the stuff by Fehlmann did not influence me, at least not knowingly ;-) But these records are in my shelf and I like them a lot.

ASIP: What are some of your favourite records?

TP: There are several records such as: "The Cure - Disintegration, NIN - The Downward Spiral, Depeche Mode - Violator, Grandmaster Flash - The Message and Elvis Presley - That's The Way It Is" All my records were an important part of my early life.

ASIP: So what inspired the album? You reference art and painting as a big part of your approach - can you tell us a bit more about that?

TP: The total package of a record is very important to me. Music and cover art need to match, it needs to be one piece. While I was producing the recent album, pictures of landscapes flashed upon my inner eye, a hunter on a stand, having his eye on everything. Hence the title  “Im Blickfeld” i.e.  “Field Of Vision”. There’s definitely some sort of interplay of music and pictures within my head whilst producing.

ASIP: What did you have in-mind when producing the individual tracks on the album? Do they represent an approach similar to the artwork?

TP: A movie was running through my brain while producing the track “Kolibri” for example. I saw the bird flying from one blossom to the next looking for nectar. Very quickly it became clear that “Kolibri” would be the name of the track.

ASIP: What do you do outside of music to relax or escape?

TP: I am a passionate amateur chef. I love to prepare delicate food with fresh ingredients. Cooking always has a terrifically relaxing effect on me. It is as remedial to me as music. Plus, on sunny days I love to ease off at the Rhine riverbank having a couple of beers.