25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2013

Some years are better than others and 2013 was much better than most.  Right now, you can Vote in the Best of Echoes 2013 Listener Poll.   But, this list is different.  This is compiled by the brain trust of Echoes.  These are the CDs we played on the show in 2013 that we thought represented the best, and most innovative aspects of the Echoes soundscape in this past year.  If your favorites aren’t on here, I’m not surprised.  This was one of the most outstanding years ever for Echoes music.  A lot of the albums left off could just as well have been put on.  But we had to pick 25 so here they are. You can see a straight list at the end.

25 ESSENTIAL ECHOES CDS FOR 2013

NUMBER ONE
1  Ludovico Einaudi  In a Time Lapse
Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi is a giant in Europe but still just lapping at America’s shores.  But he swept over Echoes years ago. The Echoes CD of the Month in March, In a Time Lapse is a defining album on which Einaudi pulled out all the stops, synthesizing a 21^st century classicism that is all-embracing in its musical influences, and all-enveloping in its emotional sweep.

2  Rhian Sheehan   Stories from Elsewhere
New Zealand composer Rhian Sheehan may have created one of the most sublime shadings of ambient chamber music on his 7th album, Stories from Elsewhere.  It’s a magical CD of soaring strings, surging rhythms, childlike music boxes and ambient expanses that sounds both familiar and timeless. It was a CD of the Month in May.

3  Olivier Libaux  Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age
Why this album wasn’t more popular is one of the mysteries of 2013.  I suspect that confusing branding, poor distribution and limited marketing kept this CD under the radar.  Olivier Libaux is part of the New Wave/Punk cover band Nouvelle Vague but he stepped out on his own to record an entire CD of tunes by Queens of the Stone Age.  All the high priests of hip at Pitchfork, Stereogum and Popmatters completely missed this album where Libaux, accompanied by singers including Emilianna Torinni and Inara George, accomplishes a sublime re-imagining of this alt-metal band’s music. It was a CD of the Month in July.

4  Moby   Innocents
The hipsters missed Libaux, but many called this Moby’s best album since Play.  I think it’s just a continuation of his atmospheric, introspective trilogy that began with Wait for Me and Destroyed.  A CD of the Month in November,  Innocents is the most soothing melancholy.

5 Ólafur Arnalds   For Now I Am Winter
Both sophisticated and edgy, Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds inhabits his own sonic universe, balancing emotions and mood on a laser’s edge of strings echoing out of frozen skies and electronics trawling the substrata.  For Now I Am Winter is his most mature work to date and a CD of the Month in April.

6  Jeff Greinke Scenes from a Train
Ambient music veteran Jeff Greinke reveals a grasp of orchestration never evident in his music before in this album of exotic chamber music with acoustic horns and strings.

7  Jah Wobble & Marconi Union Anomic
Although Anomic only came out in early 2013, I feel like I’ve been listening to it for years.  It has that sense of the classic about it. Bassist Jah Wobble brings his deep dub bass lines to Marconi Unions haunting electronic themes.

8 Hammock Oblivion Hymns
Following up their 2012 CD of the Year, Departure Songs, Hammock goes deeper into their ambient chamber music with children’s choirs emerging out of swirling deeply processed guitars.  It will be the first CD of the Month of 2014.

9 Bombay Dub Orchestra  Tales from the Grand Bazaar
Despite the presence of reggae rhyhm legends Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on some tracks,  this is actually the most serene and melodically driven album yet of BDO’s merging of eastern music, electronic grooves and Bollywood strings.

10 Azam Ali & Loga Torkian   Lamentation of Swans-A Journey Towards Silence
The leaders of Niyaz released a deeply intimate and personal album with Azam Ali returning to her wordless vocals in this album of slow, sensual rhythms and darkly arabesque melodies.

11 Ulrich Schnauss A Long Way To Fall
A wonderfully melodic, groove driven album of synthesizer wonder as Ulrich Schnauss explores childhood memories with electronic dreams.

12 Agnes Obel Aventine
For her sophomore album, Danish singer Agnes Obel turns in another gem of haunting chamber pop.

13 Rachel Zeffira  The Deserters
And speaking of chamber pop, Rachel Zeffira turns her opera-trained soprano into a caressing hush; mixes circus organ with a song about suicide; and uses oboe arrangements that sound like The Left Banke’s “Pretty Ballerina.” The Deserters was the CD of the Month in June.

14 Sigur Ros  Kveikur
Sigur Ros kick out the jams on this album of delirious, roiling textures and Jonsi’s falsetto melodies of prayer.

15 William Tyler   Impossible Truth
Tyler takes John Fahey into the 21^st century, weaving fingerstyle guitar melodies that are like long epic tapes.  He’s known as an acoustic player but has lots of electric on Impossible Truth.

16 Akara  The World Beyond
With the heaven sent voice of Femke Weidema and the elaborate orchestrations of Joshua Penman, Akara creates a transglobal progressive sound that is out of this world on The World Beyond, the Echoes CD of the Month in October.

17 Mree   Winterwell
Serene dream pop from a 19 year old singer who comes from a singer-songwriter tradition but creates Enya like choirs with her voice on this lush and powerful album.

18 Colin Edwin & Jon Durant  Burnt Belief
Timed for release on December 21, the day after the Mayan calendar stopped and the world ended, Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin and prog guitarist Jon Durant unleashed this album of post progressive rock moods.  We’re still here and thankfully, so is Burnt Belief.

19 David Helpling & Jon Jenkins   Found
David Helpling and Jon Jenkins’ bring an orchestral approach to electronic music, where the orchestra is completely plugged-in, the timbres otherworldly, and the percussion tracks swept in on storms.  It was a great CD of the Month to end 2013.

20 Jeff Johnson, Brian Dunning & Wendy Goodwin  Winterfold
This trio of keyboards, flutes and violin creates a music full of snow brushed melodies and lush arrangements with a hint of Celtic aire.

21 Syriana    Road to Damascus
This record came in under the radar from Real World.  It’s an exuberant mix of music from the Middle East to Ireland with musicians from Algeria, Ireland, Jordan, UK, Palestine but with hints of surf guitar and film noir scores.

22 Juliette Commagere   Human
Singer Juliette Commagere creates a beautiful and introspective electronic song cycle framing her sonorous soprano with a sound that recalls 80’s synth-pop but darker.

23 Anoushka Shankar Traces of You
With sister Norah Jones and producer/instrumentalist Nitin Sawhney, sitarist Anoushka Shankar creates a tribute to her father Ravi Shankar that continues his eclectic approach to east-west fusion.

24 HEM   Departure & Farewell
When you’re contemplating loss, betrayal and redemption, put on Hem’s introspective album about their own break-up and reunion with the caressing voice of Sally Ellyson.

25 Tonight Sky Tonight Sky
Tonight Sky is Jason Holstrom and he’s taken The Beach Boys’ harmonies and sent them into electronica space on this album of songs that manage to make you feel good while still being full of dark atmospheres.  Surf’s up again.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))
See below for a Spotify playlist of songs from all 25 albums save one.

25 ESSENTIAL ECHOES CDs FOR 2013

1. Ludovico Einaudi – In a Time Lapse (Ponderosa Music & Art)
2. Rhian Sheehan – Stories from Elsewhere (Darla Records)
3. Olivier Libaux – Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age (Music for Music Lovers)
4. Moby – Innocents (Mute)
5. Ólafur Arnalds – For Now I Am Winter (Mercury Classics)
6. Jeff Greinke – Scenes From A Train (Infectious Music)
7. Jah Wobble & Marconi Union – Anomic (30 Hertz)
8. Hammock – Oblivion Hymns (Hammock Music)
9. Bombay Dub Orchestra – Tales from the Grand Bazaar (Six Degrees)
10. Azam Ali and Loga R Torkian – Lamentation of Swans (Terrestrial Lane Productions)
11. Ulrich Schnauss – A Long Way to Fall (Domino Records)
12. Agnes Obel – Aventine (Pias America)
13. Rachel Zeffira – The Deserters (Paper Bag)
14. Sigur Ros – Kveikur (XL Recordings)
15. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge Records)
16. Akara – The World Beyond (Merkaba Music)
17. Mree – Winterwell (Mree Music)
18. Jon Durant and Colin Edwin – Burnt Belief (Alchemy Records)
19. David Helpling & Jon Jenkins – Found (Spotted Peccary)
20. Jeff Johnson Brian Dunning & Wendy Goodwin – Winterfold (Ark Records)
21. Syriana – The Road to Damascus (Real World)
22. Juliette Commagere – Human (Aeronaut Records)
23. Anoushka Shankar – Traces of You (Deutsche Grammophon)
24. Hem – Departure and Farewell (Redeye)
25. Tonight Sky – Tonight Sky (Tonight Sky)

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

GIVE THE GIFT OF THE ECHOES CD OF THE MONTH CLUB

Nine of the CDs in this list were Echoes CDs of the Month, and the other three could’ve been on this list. Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club now and you can put David Helping and Jon Jenkins’ Found under somebodies Christmas tree.  It’s our December  CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR

GIVE THEM THE GIFT OF TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

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Here’s a Spotify Playlist of tracks from all 25 CDs.  Jeff Johnson, Brian Dunning & Wendy Goodwin’s Winterfold isn’t on it, so I put a previous recording by Jeff Johnson in as a placeholder.

M & M’s Lead Echoes Top 25 for August

Ambient Music from Greece and Dreampop from North Jersey

Melorman,  Mree and Marconi Union hold the one , two and three positions for most played albums in August on Echoes.  Melorman’s Waves was the Echoes August CD of the Month.  Mree’s Winterwell is the impressive sophomore album from the 19-year old Taiwanese-Bulgarian-American singer from northern New Jersey.   Her ethereal songs have stacked vocals that recall Enya and plaintive melodies that never fail to enchant.  Mree leads a pack of vocal albums on the list, 12, which is the most ever in the Echoes Top 25.

Mree’s Winterwell

But ambient music abounds including the third M in our list, Marconi Union & Jah Wobble with their CD Anomic, which gets better with every listen.  Then there’s the beautiful ambient chamber music Jeff Greinke.  He’s a longtime favorite on Echoes and his new album Scenes from a Train is a beautiful work of acoustic chamber music that further reveals the composer in this experimental artist.  And dig his label name: Infectious Music.  Anyway you take it, it’s true.  Here’s the Top 25 for August

ECHOES TOP 25 for August 2013

1. Melorman – Waves (Sun Sea Sky Productions)
2. Mree – Winterwell (Mree Music)
3. Jah Wobble & Marconi Union – Anomic (30 Hertz)
4. Northcape – Exploration and Ascent (Sun Sea Sky Productions)
5. Ludovico Einaudi – In a Time Lapse (Ponderosa Music)
6. Una – The Laughing Man (Una)
7. Allison Moyet – The Minutes (Metropolis Records)
8. Tricky – False Idols (False Idols)
9. Hem – Departure and Farewell (Redeye Label)
10. Jeff Greinke – Scenes From A Train (Infectious Music)
11. Olivier Libaux – Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age (Music for Music Lovers)
12. Tom Caufield – Nature and the Constant Illusion (Bohemian Embassy)
13. Washed Out – Paracosm (Sub Pop)
14. Hooverphonic – The Night Before (Columbia Europe)
15. Delerium – Music Box Opera (Nettwerk Records)
16. Sankt Otten – Messias Maschine (Denovali Records)
17. Glenn Jones – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey)
18. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge Records)
19. Karl Hyde – Edgeland (Deluxe Version) (UMe)
20. Dido – Girl Who Got Away (RCA)
21. George Wallace – Soul Ascending
22. Sigur Ros – Kveikur (XL Recordings)
23. Rachel Zeffira – The Deserters (Paper Bag)
24. Laki Mera – Turn all Memory to White Noise (Just Music)
25. John Parish – Screenplay (Thrill Jockey)

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club and you’llget great CDs like Melorman’s Waves. Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and see what you’ve been missing.

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Echoes Top 25 for July 2013.

Queens of the Stone Age, reinvented, Leads Echoes Top 25

… Like Clockwork by Queens of the Stone Age made Number One on the Billboard Top 200, but Olivier Libaux‘s Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age was Number One on Echoes.  Libaux’s UNQOTSA ,  in which he creates intimate, melancholic versions of tunes from this raging heavy metal band, is one of the surprise albums of 2013.  With an incredible cast of singers, including Inara George, Susan Dillane and Clare Manhchon, Libaux has made this music his own.  It shouldn’t be too much of surprise though.  Libaux is co-founder of the French cover band, Nouvelle Vague which has been turning punk and new wave tunes into Bossa Nova, lounge and folk songs for years.  It was the Echoes July CD of the Month.  You can read a review and listen to complete tracks here.

Coming behind Libaux is the unexpected collaboration between Jah Wobble, former bassist with Public Image Limited, and the ambient band, Marconi Union.  They created a great CD of space dub music called Anomic.  Give a listen to their Echoes Interview.  Wobble is a riot.

Interestingly, eleven of the Top 25 artists have never made this list before.  Here’s the complete list.

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR JULY

1. Olivier Libaux – Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age (Music for Music Lovers)
2. Jah Wobble & Marconi Union – Anomic (30 Hertz)
3. Tricky – False Idols (False Idols)
4. Signal Hill – Chase the Ghost (Sun Sea Sky Productions)
5. Richard Bone – Images from a Parallel World (AD Music)
6. Azam Ali and Loga R Torkian – Lamentation of Swans (Terrestrial Lane Productions)
7. Still Corners – Strange Pleasures (Sub Pop)
8. Northcape – Exploration and Ascent (SunSeaSky)
9. Tom Caufield – Nature and the Constant Illusion (Bohemian Embassy)
10. Roger Eno/Plumbline – Endless City/Concrete Garden (Hydrogen Dukebox)
11. Lightning Dust – Fantasy (Jagjaguwar)
12. Laki Mera – Turn all Memory to White Noise (Just Music)
13. Brian Keane – Copper (OST) (Valley Entertainment)
14. The National – Trouble Will Find Me (4AD Records)
15. Three Fields – Sky (EP) (Installed Worlds)
16. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge Records)
17. Bill Frisell – Big Sur (Sony Masterworks)
18. Melorman – Waves (Sun Sea Sky Productions)
19. Mree – Winterwell (Mree Music)
20. Jeff Greinke – Scenes From A Train (Infectious Music)
21. Seven Saturdays – Seven Saturdays (Lunada)
22. Rachel Zeffira – The Deserters (Paper Bag)
23. Arborea – Fortress of the Sun (Esp Disk Ltd)
24. Sigur Ros – Kveikur (XL Recordings)
25. Hooverphonic – The Night Before (Columbia Europe)

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club. With the Echoes CD of the Month Club, you get great CDs like Olivier Libauxs Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age. Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and see what you’ve been missing.

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Jah Wobble & Marconi Union Echoes Podcast.

Hear the Echoes Podcast with  Marconi Union & Jah Wobble

Jamie Crossley & Richard Talbot of Marconi Union Live on Echoes 2006

In a surprising collaboration, English ambient band Marconi Union teams up with dub bassist Jah Wobble, best known for his work with Public Image, Ltd.  They talk about their album of deep-dub space music called Anomic.

Highlights include:

Jah Wobble on Marconi Union: I was surprised how romantic some of the vibes were, you know, for me it’s a romantic record. It reminds me of some of the John Barry compositions, Ipcress File and stuff like that.

Jah Wobble

Jah Wobble on Tangerine Dream: I know you’re a Tangerine Dream fan, aren’t you?  And I was.  I discovered them because I heard them when I was on Virgin Records with PIL   Tangerine Dream were the antidote for me then to the great big groove music, you know.

Jah Wobble on Classical music in Dub:  I’m not joking, really.  I’d love to make an orchestration with some classical music with dub.

Hear more in the Echoes interview with Jah Wobble and Richard Talbot from Marconi Union in the Echoes Podcast.

Here’s a video from Anomic:

Here’s a video from Marconi Union’s last album, Different Colours, an Echoes CD of the Month.

Here’s Jah Wobble with Julie Campbell as Psychic Life.

FURTHER LISTENING: Marconi Union Interview 2012

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Find your local Echoes station or streaming options here.

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Interview: Marconi Union & Jah Wobble

Hear an interview with Marconi Union & Jah Wobble tonight on Echoes

In a surprising collaboration, English ambient band Marconi Union teams up with dub bassist Jah Wobble, best known for his work with Public Image, Ltd.  They talk about their album of deep-dub space music called Anomic.

Highlights include:

Jah Wobble on Marconi Union: I was surprised how romantic some of the vibes were, you know, for me it’s a romantic record. It reminds me of some of the John Barry compositions, Ipcress File and stuff like that.

Jah Wobble on Tangerine Dream: I know you’re a Tangerine Dream fan, aren’t you?  And I was.  I discovered them because I heard them when I was on Virgin Records with PIL   Tangerine Dream were the antidote for me then to the great big groove music, you know.

Jah Wobble on Classical music in Dub:  I’m not joking, really.  I’d love to make an orchestration with some classical music with dub.

Hear more in the Echoes interview with Jah Wobble and Richard Talbot from Marconi Union tonight on Echoes.

Here’s a video from Anomic:

Here’s a video from Marconi Union’s last album, Different Colours, an Echoes CD of the Month.

Here’s Jah Wobble with Julie Campbell as Psychic Life.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Find your local Echoes station or streaming options here.

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Think of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Echoes Top 25-Rachel Zeffira Shines in June.

Echoes Top 25 for June features Dream-Pop, Ambient Chamber Music and Space Music.

Rachel Zefirra – The Deserters

The Echoes Top 25 is led by singer-songwriter Rachel Zeffira whose album, The Deserters was the Echoes CD of the Month.  This chamber pop singer is joined by several other vocal ensembles in the Top 25 including Karl Hyde, Olivier Libaux, Seven Saturdays and Still Corners.  In fact, eleven of the Top 25 are vocal groups marking a bit of a sea change in where Echoes music is going.  But there’s still plenty of ambient and space music out there including the number two album, Exploration and Ascent by Northcape and Jah Wobble & Marconi Union’s deep space dub album, Anomic.  Here’s the complete list of The Echoes Top 25 for June.

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR JUNE

1. Rachel Zeffira – The Deserters (Paper Bag)
2. Northcape – Exploration and Ascent (SunSeaSky)
3. Ólafur Arnalds – For Now I Am Winter (Mercury Classics)
4. Karl Hyde – Edgeland (UMe)
5. Ludovico Einaudi – In a Time Lapse (Ponderosa Music & Art)
6. Olivier Libaux – Uncovered Queens of the Stone Age (Music for Music Lovers)
7. Peals – Walking Field (Thrill Jockey)
8. Seven Saturdays – Seven Saturdays (Lunada)
9. Still Corners – Strange Pleasures (Sub Pop)
10. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge Records)
11. Wall – Shoestring (Big Picnic)
12. Jah Wobble & Marconi Union – Anomic (30 Hertz)
13. Axess – Aviator (Spheric)
14. Amatorski – Same Stars we Shared (Munic)
15. Stephen DeRuby – Awakening
16. Rena Jones – Echoes (Cartesian Binary Recordings)
17. Dido – Girl Who Got Away (RCA)
18. Allison Moyet – The Minutes (Metropolis)
19. Hooverphonic – The Night Before (Columbia Europe)
20. Rhian Sheehan – Stories from Elsewhere (Darla Records)
21. Syriana – The Road to Damascus (Real World)
22. Shaman’s Dream – Prana Pulse (Sounds True)
23. Sigur Ros – Kveikur (XL Recordings)
24. Ian Boddy – Liverdelphia (DiN)
25. John Parish – Screenplay (Thrill Jockey)

See the Best of Echoes 2013….So Far

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club. With the Echoes CD of the Month Club, you get great CDs like Rachel Zeffira’s The Deserters.  Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club and see what you’ve been missing.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album.  Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio

Marconi Union Live.

Marconi Union live on Echoes 2006

The English ambient band called Marconi Union played their first live performance ever in an Echoes Living Room Concert back in 2006 in The Fortress in London.  There have been scant few performances since, but now they’ve recorded a live session for a film called The Redwall Sessions with an additional member on drums, rounding them up to a quartet.  They play music from their 2012 album, Different Colours, an Echoes CD of the Month in July.  They also appear on January’s CD of the Month, The Ambient Zone – Just Music Cafe Volume 4.  There’s a video of it up on YouTube now.  Cue it to about 3:30 in where the music really starts after some slow, off-camera,  interview materiel.  These guys need to do another Echoes show soon!

~John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.  With the Echoes CD of the Month Club, you get great CDs like A Long Way to Fall.  Club members will get this album 10 days before release.  Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club  and see what you’ve been missing.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line.  Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album.

Enter The Ambient Zone – Echoes January CD of the Month

The Ambient Zone – Just Music Café Volume 4 starts 2013 on a  serene note

Within the electronic folds and acoustic shifts of The Ambient Zone – Just Music Café Volume 4, is a sound world that’s both exploratory and serene. Just Music is the UK label whose impeccable roster ranges from deep ambient artists like Marconi Union, Jon Hopkins and Digitonal to singer songwriters such as  Loner and Dan Arborise.  They all appear on this CD with new music, compiled and sequenced by DJ Ben Mynott.

Marconi Union’s “Weightless” is your gateway into the zone.  It’s been dubbed “the most relaxing song ever” by British Academy for Sound Therapy and certified by Time Magazine.  There’s no mistaking the deep sonic massage of this work which lolls about like a ship crossing an endless placid ocean.  This work  hangs like an umbrella over The Ambient Zone, embracing a world of classical elegance, electronic atmospheres and even Spanish guitar orchestrations from Andrea Terrano.
Digitonal’s “Sense”

Digitonal, whose album, Save Your Light for Darker Days  (an Echoes CD of the Month in 2008), was a definitive work of ambient chamber music, bring us a tantalizing taste of their long-awaited follow-up with “Sense,” a seductive, loungy walk with Andy Dobson’s clarinets, not your usual ambient axe, blowing Satie-like breezes through a dark and smoky atmosphere.
Echaskech’s “Little Rays”

Echaskech is a multi-media duo that has been bubbling under the ambient surface for a while.  Their “Little Rays” is a tense, slowly building work that’s part Philip Glass and part Arvo Pärt with an ostinato sequencer pattern and slowly building chords that sweep out like a stingray’s wings in slow motion.  It’s startling how deep and emotionally resonant a few simple chords can be. And then the rhythm track clicks in, moving you through a cinematic landscape.
Honeyroot “Radiant”

Likewise Honeyroot, a slightly more dance oriented outfit with origins in the 1980s new wave bands ABC and Heaven 17, trades in pop facades for deeper ambient textures.  Their album and song, “Sound Echo Location” signaled their new downtempo electronic direction in 2003. “Radiant” is just that: a mid-tempo song of dappled acoustic guitars, breathy female voices and lysergic-laced melodies.

The shadow of Brian Eno hangs over The Ambient Zone.  His penchant for poignant melancholy and atmosphere informs every track here, none more so than those of of two Eno associates who appear on The Ambient Zone.  Jon Hopkins remixes his own song, “A Drifting Up” as “A Drifting Down.”  He strips out the trance rhythm track of the former in favor of a suspended free fall of shimmering electronic strings.  Leo Abraham’s pensive “Seeing Stars,” one of the few previously released tracks here, is no less breathtaking than it was seven years ago on his debut album, Honeytrap.
Leo Abrahams “Under the Glow”

While I would’ve liked to have heard vocal tracks from singer-songwriters Dan Arborise and Loner, instead of the pleasant but relatively inconsequential instrumental tracks they contribute, The Ambient Zone works as both an artist showcase and an immersive excursion into ambient sound.  The Ambient Zone is an album that feels like the world is peeling away, layer by layer, into multi-colored panoramas, just for you.

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Further Reading:
Marconi Union “Distance” Echoes July CD of the Month
Marconi Union Channels Ambient Miles
Digitonal “Save Your Light for Darker Days Echoes September 2008 CD of the Month
Leo Abrahams “The Grape & The Grain” Echoes May 2009 CD of the Month
Loner Echoes Interview Podcast

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.  With the Echoes CD of the Month Club, you get great CDs like The Ambient Zone – Just Music Café Volume 4 coming to you each month.  Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club  and see what you’ve been missing.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line.  Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album.

Echoes Top 25 for July: Marconi Calling.

ECHOES TOP 25 FOR JULY

MARCONI UNION TRANSMITS TO THE TOP

1. Marconi Union – Different Colours (Just Music)
2. Icebreaker – Apollo (Cantaloupe)
3. Todd Boston – Touched by the Sun (Gita Records)
4. Abalye Cissoko and Volker Goetze – Amanke Dionti (Motema)
5. Raygun Ballet – World That Wasn’t (Raygun Ballet)
6. Wall Matthews – The Dreaming Light (Wall Matthews)
7. Mike Wall – A Time for Healing (Open Ear Studios)
8. Sebastian Plano – The Arrhythmical Part of Hearts
9. Sync 24 – Comfortable Void (Ultimae)
10. Tom Caufield – It Happens to Eve (Bohemian Embassy)
11. Janel and Anthony – Where is Home (Cuneiform)
12. UMA – Meeting Unknown (Umamusic)
13. Daren Keck – Quiet Hillside (Wayfarer Records)
14. Erik Wollo – Airborne (Projekt)
15. John Surman – Saltash Bells (ECM)
16. Fall on Your Sword – Lola Versus (Original Score) (Lakeshore Records)
17. Adam Hurst – Obscura (Adam Hurst)
18. Alu – Madhouse Masquerade (Alu Music) 
19. Hilary Hahn and Hauschka – Silfra +
20. Niyaz – Sumud (Six Degress)
21. Coyote Jump – Waking from the Roots (Canyon)
22. Van Larkins – Wandering Hands (Candyrat)
23. Johann Johannson – Copenhagen Dreams
24. Stefano Barone – Danze Altalenanze (Candyrat)
25. Lights Out Asia – Hy-Brasil (N5md)

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

The Echoes July CD of the Month was  Marconi Union’s  Different Colours.   Click on the link for review and several complete tracks.  You get great CDs like this by becoming a member of the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Follow the link and see what you’ve been missing.

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You can see past Top 25s here.

Ambient Noir Moods from Marconi Union.

THE ECHOES CD OF THE MONTH FOR JULY
Marconi Union’s Different Colours

Hear Marconi Union interviewed tonight 8/29/2012 on Echoes.

Six years years ago, Marconi Union entranced us with their second album, Distance.  It was music that emerged from a smoke shrouded city, both luxurious in its atmospheres and dangerous in its menace.  Heroic melodies were tinged by forlorn fragility, built on electronic pulses that moved you through the works on a conveyor belt of sound.  The band got a little more abstract on subsequent albums such as Tokyo, but now they’ve returned to form with Different Colours and in fact, have become more melodic and inviting.

Marconi Union’s “First Light”

Without actually altering the core Marconi Union sound, the  addition of Duncan Meadows to the duo of Richard Talbot and Jamie Crossley has had a significant impact .   While Talbot and Crossley are musicians in the post-modern electronic folk sense, that is, self-taught, Meadows is classically-trained, with a penchant for jazz.  He has chops.

Charming video for “Flying (In Crimson Skies)

Meadows adds a deeper harmonic sensibility to Marconi Union, and a more interesting rhythmic pulse, as heard on tracks like the heroic “Flying (in Crimson Skies.)”  It’s driven by a ride cymbal pulse in polyrhythmic counterpoint to marimba, all of which are played, not programmed.  On top of that, Crossley launches a long guitar solo with Robert Fripp-like sustain that arcs through the sky like a searchlights in slow motion.   His guitar lines are simple, but in the remorseless landscape of “Broken Colours,” they emerge like the sun, scattering through clouds.

Marconi Union’s “Time Lapse”

“Time Lapse” is another ride-cymbal-driven piece, acting like the sequencer pulse on an old Tangerine Dream album.  And like the Dream’s classic grooves, the steady vamp drives you through a landscape of musical moments that drift by like scenes through a train window. Richard Talbot and Jamie Crossley create beautifully layered ambient dreamscapes.  Real world sounds, subtle shifts and hidden references, mix in with their intricate digital textures.  It can be abstract and hazy until Meadows comes in with a Harold Budd-like piano line that it brings it all into focus.

Marconi Union’s “Alone Together”

No track exemplifies the newer, more organically-oriented  sound of Marconi Union than “Always Numb.”  It’s a floating atmosphere, but you can hear that there are musicians actually playing, and not merely programming, together.

Different Colours is Marconi Union’s most mature and distinctive album yet, a faultless CD of electronica film noir moodiness  from beginning to end.

Hear the Echoes interview with Marconi Union:

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

You can order mp3s of Marconi Union’sDifferent Colourson iTunes.

You get great CDs like Marconi Union’sDifferent Coloursby becoming a member of the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Follow the link and see what you’ve been missing.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news.