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Various Artists Invisible Soundtracks Macro 3 Leaf |
Yes, here we go again for another abstract futuristic lounge
experience. Bringing together weird but oh so nice electronic chill music is the motto of the Invisible Soundtracks series,
here already in its third flavour. The Leaf label brings together artists Manitoba, DruckWelle,
Nacht Plank, Susumu Yokota, Rob Ellis, 310, Rothko, Beige, Freeform, Keiron Phelan & David Sheppard, Op:l Bastards, Sore
and Steal, Broadway Project, Bass Communion, B. Fleischmann and finally also Oscar. Electronica is again all over the place, with enough emphasis on variation, exploration & weirdness to make this album an interesting trip. Druckwelle and "Unterachtering" is a perfect example, featuring complex drumlines with spooky synth on top. A totally different thing and in fact a totally new experience is Rob Ellis and "Two movements from symphonies of wind up instruments", bringing a sort of pure organ play, with almost a touch of classical church organ music but maintaining an electronica feel. Extremely deep and warm is Rothko and "Suddenly becomes light" This almost soundscape-like track, with rumbling subbass sounds and peacefull guitar play will bring every serious chiller into other dimensions. Perhaps, the most far away record comes from Sore and Steal and "Staying home, April 73". This very sparse minimal track gets almost all its strong emotional load from a few slow airy moog sounds. Without a doubt superb creative work from these artists who can pack such a load of atmospheres into so less sound, simply stunning and a must to check this out. But there is so much more to explore on this 3rd edition of Invisible Soundtracks. It's good to see the ambient scene is still alive and serves all time chillers with excellent food. Definitely recommended. ez/aug 2000 |
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Various Artists Invisible Soundtracks Macro 3 Leaf |
Invisible Soundtracks contains so-called soundtracks for imaginary movies. Now this is no new concept, but the people at Leaf records managed to take it just a few steps further ... All featured artists had to give their favourite soundtrack composer, director, actor and film. They even thought up an imaginary research facility called "The Los Angeles Institute of Virtual Technology" to support their concept with "scientific results".
So basicly this is an ambient (in the sense of the musical genre and the literal meaning of the word) compilation with very filmic pieces of music. The tracks are very diverse with styles ranging from dark soundscapes containing strange cracks and hisses to gentle, lingering tunes or experimental electronica. The general idea is to provide music that surrounds the listener with scenic sounds atmosphere so he is fully immersed in the unique atmosphere and makes him dream virtual films. If one sees track titles such as "Air Conditioning" or "Symphonies of Wind-up Instruments", you can imagine their was a lot of room for improvisation on and exploration of sound. I haven't heard such a fine selection of ambient music in a long time. So I hope we'll be able to discover more fine work from artists like Druckwelle, Susumu Yokota, Rob Ellis, Beige, OP:L Bastard, Oskar, Keiron Phelan & David Sheppard, Freeform, Manitoba, Sore and Steal, Nacht Plank, 310, Rothko, Broadway Project, Bass Communion, B.Fleischman, ... in the near future. Say Vegin |