• CD,  Distribution

    Cyclotimia – Celestis

    mayo 20, 2016

    Cyclotimia – Celestis
    Label: Shadowplay Release – SPR 114, Zhelezobeton – ZHB-XXIX, Monopoly Records – none
    Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue
    Country: Russia
    Released: 30 Oct 2010
    Style: Downtempo, Experimental, Ambient

    Cyclotimia’s album “Celestis: Space Ceremonial Music” is inspired by the activity of a well-known American aerospace company Space Services Inc. which among other things specializes in sending human ashes into space (via their subsidiary Celestis Inc.). Moreover, the compact discs with this music have prowled the outer space twice while being on board rockets launched from the spaceport America in New Mexico. This happened for the first time in April 2007 (“Legacy” project), and for the second time in May 2010 (“Pioneer Flight” project). Cyclotimia’s music obtained the status of the official soundtrack to both events.

    “Celestis” definitely stands out in the discography of this project, known mainly for its post-industrial and avant-garde recordings. It would be no exaggeration to say that this is their most accessible work (in a good sense) correlating with the best examples of such acclaimed masters of the “space genre” as Jean-Michel Jarre or Klaus Schulze. At the same time the music on “Celestis” is in no way secondary, it is modern and quite craftily made.

    From the opening theme “Capsula” the album’s atmosphere plunges the listener into a world of spiritual experience, calls to take an imaginary space travel; fly towards Space along with the remains held in capsulas… It’s worth mentioning that the CD comes with a 12-page booklet narrating about the activities of the company. This release differs from the first edition (2007) as it contains an additional exclusive track “Another Time Another Place” – a 15-minute “space suite” recorded by the project in 2009.

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  • CD,  Distribution

    Neznamo – Aiwyâstô

    mayo 19, 2016

    Neznamo – Aiwyâstô
    Label: Muzyka Voln – MV-IX
    Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition, Numbered
    Country: Russia
    Released: 22 Apr 2015
    Style: Dark Ambient, Drone

    If somebody still doesn’t know, behind the Neznamo project stands the Moscow-based musician Dmitry Shilov who stepped on the path of ritual ambient music in 1996 under the stage name of Unknown. After releasing five albums on the “Strely Peruna” (“Perun’s Arrows”) label, the project temporarily fell in a lethargic sleep but woke up again in 2006 with a renewed name and approach.
    As Neznamo Dmitriy has released several mini-albums on his own label Moonsun Productions, as well as a number of collaboration works with several other acts from the Russian drone underground: Misery, Bardo, Lunar Abyss, Siyanie, etc… For those interested in the project’s roots and branches we can give some more keywords: Temnozor’, Medve Na Meche, Peal Grim, Magickal Things.
    “Aiwyâstô” is Neznamo’s first full-length album and first “factory-pressed” CD. The album consists of one 42-min long composition recorded in a deep transcendental state. Covered in ornaments of unhasting vibrations, flickering and parallel sound layers, dense string drone permeates the whole track. This music is for lovers of deep inner self diving. Towards the depths of pitch-dark sound where one can see all forms dissolving in emptiness and being reborn by it again in an endless game of space and imagination.

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  • CD,  Distribution

    Eonic – Secret Land

    mayo 19, 2016

    Eonic – Secret Land
    Label: Zhelezobeton – ZHB-XXVII
    Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition
    Country: Russia
    Released: 05 Apr 2010
    Style: Downtempo, Ambient

    Secret land lost in an unknown dimension… Like ancient ruins this place hides the traces of stories, which are told in this new album by the St. Petersburg project Eonic. This is their 6th release (and 2nd “professional” CD) and it easily combines different stylistic approaches, making its own way to the listener’s heart. Ethno-gothic in vein of Dead Can Dance and Arcana is layered over tout electronic rhythms a la Delerium and Enigma and spiced by pleasant psychedelic arrangements. Musicians don’t hesitate to step on the territory of pop-ambient and even new-age, and it just adds more lightness and airness to their energetic music. A firm and masterful work.

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