It’s about time we heard a CD that is of the so-called ‘Berlin School’ of musicianship that is not some sound-a-like but is a genuinely, thoughtfully played, produced and crafted CD of compositions that for all the world sound like the musician is putting his heart and soul into its execution. The sheer flowing nature of the layers, string backdrops, sequencers & guitar/treatments here is one at which to marvel. I put this CD on expecting to be able to do a review in a couple of tracks and found myself completely transfixed to the thing for the duration! As this sort of music goes, this is one of the freshest examples that you’ll come across. You don’t buy this because you want some 70’s retread, although the influences that the musician has from that era still come through loud and clear (down to thanking Tangerine Dream/Chris Franke on the sleeve notes ‘for inspiration’), you buy this because you want to hear a startlingly good album of class synth music that you’ll enjoy a lot more than once, and you can’t say fairer than that.

591918
Weight: 150.00 g

Are you in search of that ultimate Mellotron album? Well, here’s an unusual CD featuring two cult status albums that were created using only Mellotrons! Along time ago, in a land, far, far away, there lived a musician by the name of Celluloid. He was an enigma – a recluse who wouldn’t write, wouldn’t contact or get in touch in any of the normal ways, until one day he phoned. That one call went on for ages, and he talked in hushed tones, telling me he was sure he was being followed, and other such dark stories. In short, the guy was bizarre, but the thing was, he was a Mellotron nut – the machine was virtually all he used, and he made two albums with it! The first was the ‘Mercury’ album, at the time, something I found quite riveting, being an instrumental album performed entirely on computer and Mellotron, full of vast sounding waves of synth-like cosmic music and Tron-performed full-sounding passages, a sort of mix of Synergy’s ‘Computer Experiments’ and Edgar Froese’s ‘Epsilon In Malaysian Pale’ albums. The time was the early 80’s and it was an unusual musical trip to say the least, but now, twenty years on, it sounds fantastic - Easily accessible, the record had healthy doses of Mellotron and it was a warm, full sounding recording that I found totally intriguing. It sold a few and then quickly disappeared, but luckily, Celluloid didn’t! After that the first LP, I mentioned to him that I would have loved to hear more Mellotron (!!!) on that first LP, so what did he do – only go and present me with a second LP made ENTIRELY on the thing – and it remains a total classic of the instrument to this day. The whole of that album, ‘Neptune’, is also featured on this CD, and anyone into Mellotrons just has to get it, because it is a totally unique recording! If you are into Mellotrons, then you really have to get this album – Its not the most musical example of the instrument at work that you’ll hear, but it has a charm that has made it part of my life for nearly 20 years – so now, let it be a part of yours for as long – because it is totally timeless!

782337
Weight: 150.00 g

With a name like Force Majeur, you really don’t need to be told what these guys are about …with a name like that!! No surprise, then, that it's an unashamed Tangerine Dream style album, only this time it's yet another view of how the great band's music has influenced others. This one comes from an angle that rests more alongside Froese's ‘Pinnacles’ album and the obvious reference points to the group themselves point to the ‘Force Majeur’ LP. One of the real strong points of the album is the fact that the music is brim full of melody, and this is where the Vangelis influences are most prominent. As the music soundscapes the galactic realms of the cosmos itself, you will note that, just like the aforementioned more famous albums, this is also deceptively simple sounding on first hearing, but further plays reveal plenty of hidden depths and subtleties. Even the TD fans who may have become a bit disenchanted with the whole retro thing, will be surprised and delighted by this album, while the rest of you really should get into what really is a first class album. The tracks are all mid-length, the production, playing and arrangements are strong and dynamic and the music is solidly melodic and rhythmic – It’s no ground-breaker, but it does show all the tried and tested retroists a thing or two and it’s well enjoyable for sure.

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Weight: 150.00 g

Now this is superb! First just bask in the fantastic symphonic opening tracks where the group really go for it, unusually, as driving percussive rhythms chart a course for the strings and synths to follow like an orchestra charging towards crates of free champagne! The density and intensity become a thing of great beauty in the hands of this band, as the overall mix of choral/string keyboards, electronics and bass combine with stirring melodies, giving rise to a piece that makes the blood flow and the heart race. By the time you reach the into to track 3, the mood has settled to a more tranquil, full-sounding tapestry of string textures, as whispered female voices emerge to gorgeous effect over the ethereal instrumental backdrop. As the piece gathers up a storm, a supreme moment of rolling orchestral splendour is heard, then it drops back to the more cosmic mood as strings and a gently strolling piano melody and voice produce a warm and fuzzy glow in the dark. Elsewhere, on what is a much more varied and no less consistent album from this group, you’ll hear plenty of the lavish string-laden, electronic orchestral landscapes that serve to make this band so unique, as well as dark, almost gothic instrumental work that towers like a vulture on the horizon, as bass rumbles over multi-layered strings to form booming orchestral backdrops allied to some of their most stirring melodies yet witnessed. Overall, a truly remarkable CD, adding yet a new dimension to the ITN sound. It is easily an album without any flaws or faults and the music is totally timeless – the sort of thing you will be enjoying as much in twenty years time, as you undoubtedly will do so today. Perfect!

663220
Weight: 150.00 g

It’s no secret (now) that around the time that this CD was issued, I was coming to the conclusion that the whole sequencer/retro thing has been done to death, and that no one had what it took anymore to produce a half-decent album in this style. Then just to prove me wrong, none other than Mark Jenkins, a musician whose work we have promoted on and off through the last decade comes along with a work that not only beats many of the others into a cocked hat, but also is easily the finest complete album I have ever heard him do. This is one of those albums that is so strong, so heartfelt, so powerful and so darned addictive that I cannot imagine anyone’s synth music collection being complete without it, and that’s not a thing you can say about many synth music albums produced to day! In detail, he’s got the production, playing, arrangements, layers and sounds absolutely spot on – the attention to detail is superb and you are left thinking that if he’d produced this in the 80’s it could have been the stuff of legend. There are lashings of keyboards and sequencers, but the additional use, (not over-used either) of electric and acoustic guitars takes it into a whole new dimension – and here we’re not talking Froese re-runs but sheer class as in Mike Oldfield. There are heavenly synth choirs – the intro to track 4 is just gorgeous with the string-synths, choirs and bass sequencer ringing it out, then, as if out of nowhere, an electric guitar line soars majestically into the heavens. A huge sequencer line bubbles up below, then electronic drums enter and propel the piece forward, and the whole thing becomes an awesome musical spectacle, almost like early ‘live’ Mark Shreeve in many ways, and one immaculate seven minutes of quality synth music. By this time, you’ve already witnessed the magnificent ten-minute 2^nd track not to mention the rest, but believe me, this is only the beginning as the rest of the album testifies to perfection. With carefully selected samples, a hint of the Eastern impressively composed and played tracks, the album becomes one pleasure after another, with the sequencer rhythms and synths commanding everything, but in an urgent, vibrant, almost organic, manner, with melodies and surging passages leading the way. No disrespect to the musician, but I didn’t think he had it in him to create something this good out of an essentially tired and clapped-out genre. Impressed? You will be!

762536
Weight: 150.00 g

The second of two new-age albums from one of the I.C. label’s best selling artists. ‘Healing’ is just two long tracks. Thirty-four and forty minutes to be precise, and these are respectively split into 5 and 6 sub-sections. The sleeve notes quote: “The eternal parent was wrapped in the sleep of cosmic night, and nothing existed in manifestation, real nor seemingly” – Take from that what you will… sounds like a bit of a cannaboid experience if you ask me! As to the music - well track 1 opens with a drifting gong texture, before moving into a more spacey synth passage with slow and deep electronic percussion beats, gradually adding extra layers of eerie synths and melodic overtones as it goes. The 3^rd section adds an Eastern-chanting vocal, then the next is pure space synth drones cross-fading into a passage of dreamy melodic space synths with the odd gong chime or two and sparkling background synth effects coming in and out of the celestial picture. The passage that follows is more like a Tomita melody, distant, drifting and cosmic, but very, very effective. That flows into the closing five minutes of spacey synth textures with more backdrop effects, sparse electronic rhythms and other atmospheric conditions, with another Tomita like theme flowing in the mid-ground part of the mix.  The longer of the two tracks is second on the play-list and it follows a similar minimal musical path to the first, with lots of drifting passages, some with stronger melodic forces than others, but like the first one, the melodic parts tend to come in the latter parts of the track. Overall, this is more suited to that “meditative experience” rather than just something to listen to, but it is a better example of this genre than most - The vast experience that Kosmos has in the ‘EM’ business has seen to that.

656667
Weight: 150.00 g

One of two new-age albums from one of the old I.C. label’s best selling artists. ‘Spiritual’ is the more mainstream of the two, featuring 10 tracks of gentle flowing melodic synth music that run for anything between five and ten minutes a time. According to the album notes, Kosmos got his inspiration for these pieces from “sailing ships and slow journeys to the East”, and indeed there are references to lapping waves and sea effects filtered into some parts of the album, but they don’t appear that often and are certainly not obtrusive to the drifting, melodious musical sounds, which are more than capable of conjuring up the mind images required on the strength of the music alone. With a playing time of seventy-two minutes, there are some really nice melodic space music tracks to get lost in here - Track 4: ‘Eargasm’ and 5: ‘Polar Star’ are dreamy gems that most will really enjoy, and there’s even a long sequencer based space track for the Berlin school people to get into. ‘Mahe’ is another excellent dreamy cut, but the added rhythms make it sound more like the great traditional stuff he was doing for I.C. The album closes with the evocative ‘Mermaid’s Tears’ and it’s one of these beautiful, emotion filled, melodious tracks where the technology allows the composer to create the feel he wants by means of a synth sample that sounds very close to a human female voice. A well packaged, value for money CD if you enjoy the more melodic end of space music and high quality ‘New Age’.

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Weight: 150.00 g

1997 solo album from one half of the old IC label duo Software. Without any doubt, Mergener was the engine in that vehicle, and when you sample albums like this, you will hear why we draw that conclusion. Most tracks are around the eight to ten minute mark, and there is accompaniment in places from a second keyboards player, drummer and electric guitarist, but mostly it’s Mergener’s show – and what a show it is! This is excellent instrumental music with almost everything you could wish for in a quality ‘Electronic Music’ album, and they are all served up here in a perfectly balanced manner – Decent length tracks, superb atmospheric settings, emotion filled and exciting melody lines with rhythms from both the synth and sequencer variety that are brought into play just at the right time and place – A good balance of all this on one album is practically unparalleled in ‘EM’ today, and it is all here on this album in abundance!

664184
Weight: 150.00 g

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Two years on from the ‘Traveller’ album and it opens up in a classic mix of Pink Floyd styled seas of swirling keyboard sounds, electric guitar, organ and a wordless female voice that conjures echoes of the ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ intro, with hints of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ Floyd before that – All incredibly warm and emotive and it’s just the start of what you feel is going to be one phenomenal album, and it doesn’t disappoint. Fast, solid, multi-layered, phased sequencers begin the opening section of ‘Into The Great Wide Open’, as a thundering electronic drum rhythm booms out underneath and then a slice of hard-sounding ‘Audentity’-era Klaus Schulze simply takes off on a trip from which you won’t come down for a while. A lead synth melody shines out above this solid rhythmic force, and an ocean of string-synths and orchestral stabs, travel on to the end of what is a great track, and there’s a wealth more of equally fantastic music to be heard on this album. Yes, it’s all absolutely top quality stuff, that, while the Tangerine Dream (80’s era now) and Wavestar elements are still present, there is a fresh and vital, more modern approach to the rhythms with a kind of Schulze/Wahnfried atmosphere and structure now taking precedence over anything that went before. The feel is still firmly 70’s, with as excellent a production as you’ll find. Sparing, but soaring use of Gilmour-like electric guitar add extra colour, while slow-mid paced, solid electronic drum rhythms tend to be favoured more over the sequencer lines, but there are still acres of synth choirs, string-synth expanses and sinuous lead synths to enjoy. This is as strong, warm-hearted and simply breathtaking music as you’d have expected from the splendours of the last album, maintaining the standard but unafraid to tread new ground – a sheer delight!

855899
Weight: 150.00 g

This Austrian musician is one of CD Services biggest selling artists of all-time. His brand of instrumental symphonic music is the ultimate in musical escapism, and clearly influenced by late 60’s/early 70’s progressive bands like Genesis and the Moody Blues. This double CD was issued in 2001 and for those of you new to Gandalf’s music, you need to imagine a cross between Mike Oldfield, Enya (without most of the vocals) and classic Hackett era Genesis (or just Steve Hackett). Disc 1 alone is a continuously flowing, 17 track, seventy-six minute symphonic composition themed around Tolkien’s legendary ‘Lord Of The Rings’ story. This is a landmark recording that encompasses all the instruments normally associated with Gandalf – lots of keyboards for solos, strings and those heavenly, choral passages, electric & acoustic guitars, bass & percussion, plus the odd little bit of sitar. This is music with huge crossover potential, and all the symphonic touches that expose his musical roots are well showcased here. Disc 2 is a bonus limited edition, full-length album of ‘Rare & Precious Pieces’, containing some new arrangements and rare mixes selected from the last 20 years of his celebrated recording career, so it’s a kind of ‘Best Of’ with a difference, and a nice intro for the Gandalf novice. One track features Steve Hackett on guitar, and there’s also a previously unreleased piece, but most of the selected tracks are entirely different versions of tracks from other original albums. To complement the music on this album, the label have produced beautifully lavish, triple fold-out digi-pak packaging, with a matching full-colour booklet housed in the centre portion between the two disc holders – a classy piece of packaging to match the musical class of Gandalf.

441812
Weight: 250.00 g

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