Sonic Space: The Sounds of Quantum Music By Matt Howarth Special to SPACE.com posted: 03:01 pm ET 25 May 2000
SONIC SPACE 8
Instrumental electronic
music can evoke myriad responses in the audience, from fanciful to ambient.
Such music can be attributed a variety of personas by the musicians, from
surging astral dances to languid cosmic voyages.
Let's explore a few musicians
who celebrate the glories of hard science.
DWELLER AT THE THRESHOLD:
Generation/Transmission/Illumination
(CD onEurock Records)
Power is generated, then
transmitted -- providing you with illumination. This relationship can take
many forms and interpretations. Dweller at the Threshold apply this equation
to music that is inspired by the passage of such power through interstellar
space. Whether these signals originate from Earth or visit our world from
afar -- this is an interpretation left for the listener to decide.
Although comprised of 15
tracks, this music flows into a languid 53-minute length. The tone is ambient,
but sports several energetic passages and peaks. Synthesizer melodies cavort
with versatile keyboard riffs and shuddering pulses and piercing tones.
Cyclic constructions interweave with more complex structures, allowing
the slow assembly of sonic layers the opportunity to develop into intense
pinnacles. Even when the passages are calm, there is no deficiency of power
surging as an undercurrent for the lush auralscape.
Dave Fulton is one of the
three members of Dweller at the Threshold. This 52-minute solo outing by
Fulton is certainly a superb electronic endeavor, capturing the cosmic
sparkle of quantum physics and applying trancey keyboard patterns to harness
such forces. Soft electronic riffs blend with breathing tonalities, sweeping
to a mildly melodic sense. This music captures the feel of astral horizons,
both vast and microscopic. You drift through regions of shimmering atmospherics,
a tourist in this sonic landscape filled with exotic worlds...or are they
minuscule clusters of electrical charges masquerading as planets?
The catalytic effect of this
music is deeply ambient. The melodics are cerebral and delicate, but not
fragile, seething with a captured charge that slowly burns itself into
your psyche.
Newt is Daniel Meyer (from
Haujobb) and Tehanu (from Forma Tadre). This is an electronic instrumental
project, applying E-perc beats to alien territory, forbiddingly dark auralscapes
of the strangest sort. Refreshingly, the music has a strong melodic presence
even without the rhythm. Even when the music gets abstract, it retains
an element of flow that often builds into lusher melodies.
Harsh sounds mix with sultry
in the construction of these tunes. Weird effects reverberate and ricochet
around the mix. Lively and entertaining, the music on this 64-minute CD
is a curious blend of ambient sensibilities with industrial attitude.
A 51-minute long CD EP "Phaseshifting"
(also on Quantum Loop Records) pursues variations and alternate tracks
from the album. These extra pieces are just as intriguing as their LP versions,
frequently mutating far beyond the original forms.
Similar in sound to the old
European electronics scene, this 60 minute CD displays considerable vibrancy
and sonic enthusiasm. The music strains to escape ambient ground, bursting
with energetic riffs and inspired melodies. Whether the mode be frolicking
celebrations or desperate dirges, the interweaving sweeping keyboards,
haunting electronics and sinuous E-perc achieve a glorious grandeur. While
the celebrations scamper in heavenly heights, the dirges reach from gloom
into hopeful illumination. The soft wail of a masterful guitar injects
a breathtaking appeal to the ethereal energy of the driving synthesizers.
Fans of '70s Tangerine
Dream and Klaus Schulze will be ecstatic with this album (and the band's
"Ether" release).
Spinning keyboard patterns,
rolling sequencer tones, pulsing ricochet notes...one would almost think
one had stumbled upon an unreleased masterpiece from the European electronics
scene of the Seventies. But no -- it's veteran synthesist Mark Shreeve
and J. Goddard as Red Shift!
Wondrous dueling rhythms
are heavily laced with surging crescendos; this is lively music that cavorts
across a normally ambient landscape. Patterns accrete through repetition,
slowly mutating and merging with the rhythms that arise. The pieces are
ongoing evolutions, wringing an entertaining series of variations on each
theme. Some very tasty guitarwork can be expected, adding fiery glisten
to the heavenly chords.
Only 13 of this CD's 65 minutes
are studio recordings, the rest featuring live music from their Jodrell
Bank Planetarium performance in 1996. This is space music conceived in
the shadow of the eyes and ears that our race points skyward.
SPACETIME CONTINUUM: Double
Fun Zone (CD on Astralwerks)
Spacetime Continuum is Jonah
Sharp.
Easy-going electronic music.
Nimble E-perc livens the gentle tone of the music. Saxophone riffs pepper
the mix, adding a funky edge to the trance. Keyboards prance through a
backdrop of electronics, blending with a pleasantly energetic flair.
Despite the subtle pep found
on this 63-minute CD from 1999, the general mood of the music is one of
relaxation. The compositions interlace serpentine rhythms with dreamy electronics,
producing a meditative sound that is alive with interesting breaks and
hypnotic cycles. Yet all the while, the music retains an entertaining driving
tempo.
Imagine -- a relaxation soundtrack
that bristles with dance sensibilities.
DR. FIORELLA TERENZI:
Music
from the Galaxies (CD on Island Records)
For her doctoral thesis,
this
astrophysicist transmuted radio signals from distant galaxies into
sound waves. For her debut record of electronic music, Terenzi chose to
collaborate with this distant galaxy, producing 39 minutes of space music.
The sounds are actually quite
harsh during six of the seven songs, lashing out with almost vicious impact.
Growling, screeching, spinning, pulsing, many sounds that are undeniably
cosmic in nature (very reminiscent to the alien sounds that comprise the
Forbidden
Planetmovie soundtrack). These noises are structured into pulsing
waves which overlap in ambient compositions, unfolding like solar winds
coursing through an turgid vacuum. Sound mirrors arrangement here, with
both aspects conjuring the void of deep space-- but not an empty cold void,
for space, like this music, is littered with wondrous moments.
The last song [RealAudio
sample] adds traditional earthly instruments to the electronics: orchestra,
ethnic percussion, flute, harp ... but the galactic voice will not be upstaged,
overtaking the piece for a passage before the soft hand drum and acoustic
guitar reappear, only to become enveloped by the extraterrestrial roar
of the crescendo.
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