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AMAZING SOUNDS No.93 / October 28, 2000
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IN THE VIRTUAL SHOPS OF AMAZING SOUNDS AND AT-MOOSS RECORDS YOU
WILL FIND A SELECTION OF INSTRUMENTAL ELECTRONIC MUSIC MADE WITH
ANALOGIC AND LAST GENERATION SYNTHESIZERS

http://www.amazings.com/mailorder.html

http://www.arrakis.es/~at-mooss

====================

CONTENTS:

NEWS

THE REVOLUTION OF ELECTRONICS WITHIN MUSIC.Chapter 6: The 1980s:
THE CONSOLIDATION OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC (Part 2). As we promised,
the series The Revolution Of Electronics Within Music will
periodically visit us so as to unwind a true history of electronic
music.

REVIEWS:
JEFF PEARCE: "TO THE SHORES OF HEAVEN" Hypnos
MASALA: "LUCID DREAMS" Materiali Sonori
PERCY HOWARD: "INCIDENTAL SEDUCTIONS" Materiali Sonori
BRIAN WAYY: "XCULTURES" Intentcity
DAVID & STEVE GORDON: "DRUM MEDICINE" Sequoia Records / Earth
Vision Music / BSC Music / Prudence

====================

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====================

NEWS

NEW RELEASES / RE-RELEASES / DISTRIBUTIONS
(For more information and sound clips, use the links)

Yanni: "If I Could Tell You"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004Y2XL/thesciencebookbo

Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel: "Paradise"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004ZDMD/thesciencebookbo

Dieter Moebius, Conny Plank, Mayo Thompson: "Ludwig's Law"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000G28K/thesciencebookbo

Steven Halpern: "Serenity Suite"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IJH4/thesciencebookbo

Steven Halpern, Starr Fuentes: "Divine Intervention"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JPO6/thesciencebookbo

Steven Halpern: "Music For Accelerated Learning"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000HY6G/thesciencebookbo

Vas: "In The Garden Of Souls"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004SZDO/thesciencebookbo

Walela: "Walela"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003NHBN/thesciencebookbo

====================

THE REVOLUTION OF ELECTRONICS WITHIN MUSIC
Chapter 6:
The 1980s: THE CONSOLIDATION OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC (Part 2)
By JORGE MUNNSHE

Many are the electronic musicians cropping up in the eighties,
too many for me to dare claim that the selection of names that I
am including next is representative enough.
CONSTANCE DEMBY started her musical activity in the sixties.
She was a member of the band CENTRAL MAINE POWER AND LIGHT
COMPANY. In the seventies she began her solo career as a composer
of innovative music. Her first album, SKIES ABOVE SKIES, was
released in 1978. In the mid eighties she became internationally
known.
Greek musician YANNI settled in California at age eighteen.
After being a member of a progressive rock band, he started his
solo career with the album OPTIMYSTIQUE in 1980. He reached
international success in the mid eighties with the release of his
second album and the re-release of his first one.
North American composer SUZANNE CIANI was a pioneer of
electronic music in the early seventies. For several years, she
devoted herself to exploring the possibilities provided by the new
technologies, and she made music for numerous television
advertisements as well as for other productions. In 1979 SEVEN
WAVES was released, the first independent album in her stage as a
solo artist. In the mid eighties, she reached international
success with her albums. Since the late eighties, she has chosen
to approach acoustic instruments rather than the electronic ones,
and has proved she is a highly talented pianist.
STEVE ROACH was born in the United States in 1955. He founded
the synthesist band MOEBIUS at the beginning of his career, and,
in 1978, he began to give numerous solo synthesizer concerts. His
first solo album was released in 1982. He has also collaborated
with other electronic artists.
ROBERT RICH started to build his own synthesizers and
experiment with them in 1976 at age thirteen. His interest in the
states of trance and lucid dreams led him to study Psychology at
the University of Stanford. His nocturnal "Sleep Concerts", first
performed in 1982 for a sleeping audience at a dorm in Stanford,
and his "Trance Concerts" to be listened to before going to sleep,
have become legendary in the area of San Francisco, United States.
Rich has also worked at the CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in
Music and Acoustics), where he started to experiment with a system
of tuning based on the natural harmonic series. He has published
numerous articles on electronic music and alternative tonal
scales.
From an early age trained as a self-taught pianist, American
composer TIM STORY began to play with synthesizers in the mid
seventies. In the early eighties, his first albums were released
by a small Norwegian label. The re-release of one of these albums
by Windham Hill in 1989 launched him into word stardom. Since
then, and having released as well in Hearts of Space and Eurock,
his popularity has not ceased to grow.
DAVID SUN has been composing and playing his own music since
the early eighties. He has released albums that have been well
accepted at an international level. He also is a pioneer in the
composition of music for relaxation.
SERGE BLENNER was born in France in 1955, began to compose
electronic music in the mid seventies, and started his album
career in 1979. He lives and works in Germany since several years
ago.
HIMEKAMI is basically Yoshiaki Hoshi, a Japanese composer born
in 1946, who is accompanied by other musicians. In 1971, Hoshi was
awarded First Prize of a national Japanese contest of performers
of electronic organ. His activity as a performer gave way to his
task as a composer later on. His first album was released in 1981.
He has also composed some soundtracks. In 1993, he was the musical
director of the opening ceremony of the World Championship of
Alpine Sports, held in Japan.
Born in 1963 in Germany, MATHIAS GRASSOW started his musical
career in the early eighties. Although at the beginning it wasn't
easy for him, as time went by he has succeeded in reaching an
important post within the avantgarde electronic music.
STEVE HILLMAN is a British synthesist whose first works were
released in the early eighties. He has given successful concerts
in Great Britain. In his albums, his wife Linda has often
collaborated with him.
RICHARD BURMER released his first album as a composer of
electronic music in 1984. During the second half of the eighties
he reached international success, despite the fact that he has not
been very prolific.
British composer RON BERRY started as a guitarist of Rock in
the sixties. In the early seventies, his interest changed towards
the exploration of new sound paths. In 1974 he built his first
synthesizer himself and started to experiment with it. His skills
as an electronic engineer allowed him to get enough command of
musical technology as to be able to exploit the possibilities
offered by synthesizers, getting such posts as for instance one as
a technician at the musical department at the University of
Durham. In 1982, his first solo work was released, followed by
others since then. Berry combines the recording of his albums with
the composition of video soundtracks.
KEVIN BRAHENY has a solid trajectory in the field of musical
technology, having collaborated with several scientists, among
them SERGE TCHEREPNIN, in the designing of analogic synthesizers.
This, together with his experience as a performer of wind
instruments, was the basis for him to become one of the first
musicians to widely use wind controlled synthesizers (that is to
say, synthesizers played like a wind instrument). His debut as a
composer in 1980, with the release of his album "LULLABY FOR THE
HEARTS OF SPACE", marked the beginnings of an interesting career.
French synthesist JOEL FAJERMAN, born in 1948, started
his career as a Rock performer. In 1973 he specialized in
synthesizers. In the late seventies he started to compose
music for television advertisements, television series and
radio and TV programmes. Fame reached him in the early
eighties thanks to his wonderful soundtrack for the
documentary series L'AVENTURE DES PLANTES, devoted to the
life of the plants.
Canadian composer PASCAL LANGUIRAND started his album
career as a synthesist in 1978, yet it was in the mid
eighties when he reached international recognition with the
great success of his LIVING ON VIDEO in TRANS-X.
American composer LARAAJI became famous in the eighties,
after cultivating an aureola of enigmatic musician because of
his mystic personality as well as his spontaneous
performances in parks and squares in New York.
With the release of his first work in 1983, RAY LYNCH
was revealed as a synthesist who had the sensitivity typical
of a composer of Classical Music, and his success increased
with his next albums.
JONN SERRIE started his album career in 1987, and at
once he harvested a great world success both from critics and
the audience. To this no doubt contributed his talent,
already proved since several years before with his activity
composing music for planetariums.
The case of RUDIGER LORENZ was not very usual. A Rocker during
over 20 years (the seventies, the sixties and part of the
fifties), in the eighties he turned to electronic music, while at
the same time he started a prolific solo career, which made him
much more famous than his life devoted to Beat and Rock. His
compositions, which have been well accepted, are centered on a
very sophisticated Techno with some classicist passages and a few
drops of Rock. His son TIM, a guitarist, sometimes collaborated
with him.
PETER SCHAEFER was a revelation artist in the eighties. A
clear member of the Computer Generation, he learned to program
from a very early age. This, together with his prolific,
imaginative creativity, as well as his full command of keyboards,
placed him as one of the most noteworthy new German synthesists.
His albums are full of daring ideas.
MARTIN KORNBERGER and VOLKER KUHN formed a duo that in the mid
eighties passed from being virtually unknown to having fans in
several countries. The music they made then has an innovative
musical structure where rhythm also has melodic functions, and
they advanced themselves to the ideas that were to dominate the
electronic Pop of the nineties. KORNBERGER, who in 1981 obtained a
remarkable post at the Festival of Electronic Music organized by
the firm Roland, acted as the brains of the duo, whereas KUHN
played the role of virtuoso of the electric guitar.
The phenomenon BERND SCHOLL attracts a lot of attention. A
former Rocker in his teenage years, he turned to synthesizers in
1980 to make a kind of music that turned him into one of the
visible heads of "ecologist" electronic music. A supporter of
GREEN PEACE and of having technology preserve nature instead of
destroying it, SCHOLL became famous in Germany, and also reached a
relevant post within the international scene. To his albums we
must add his magnificient concerts, which have also contributed to
his popularity.
The son of a jazz trumpet player, JESSE CLARK was a revelation
artist in the eighties. This American synthesist fusions Pop
influences with the most classical trends of electronic music as
well as melodic orchestral forms on the same line as such
composers as JOHN WILLIAMS. The result is a kind of music that may
be normal in the future, perhaps, as a result of
the growing universal unification of styles registered im the
world musical scene. CLARK has kept himself somewhat apart from
the conventional distribution circuits, which is why his music is
not very well known.
BERND KISTENMACHER represented the most conservative wing of
the analog sound in Germany during the eighties. His music, which
in the nineties has evolved towards the acquisition of techno
elements although maintaining the original spirit, is nourished by
the electronic environment of the seventies. KISTENMACHER has
always considered the new trends of electronic music nearest to
Pop that appeared in the eighties as not very creative ones. In
his works of the eighties we find this taste for cold, efficient
high tech, as well as this mysterious solemnity that characterized
the best musical moments of the great electronic geniuses of the
seventies, all this supported by the greatest power of the musical
technology of the eighties and the nineties.
ASHOK PREMA is an Hindi musician settled in the United Kingdom
who became known in the eighties as a refreshing unifier among the
musical forms from India and the modern Western Pop, within the
framework of electronic music, following the already mentioned
collective trend of unifying styles so as to give way to a greater
musical wealth and originality. Defined as the Eastern KLAUS
SCHULZE, and quite influenced by TANGERINE DREAM as well, his
career has not meant for him the ascent to stardom, yet he has
achieved a solid acceptance on the part of the most expert fans of
electronic music.
SOFTWARE, a duo founded by Peter Mergener and Michael
Weisser, reached high peaks of admiration among the fans of
cosmic electronic music in the eighties, becoming a synonym
for great talent and avantgarde ideas. Also influenced by
KLAUS SCHULZE in the beginning, the members of Software did
not take long to cultivate their own style, whose original
concept was, according to them, to explore the future through
music.
MARK SHREEVE gave an impressive turn to Techno and Electronic
Pop in the eighties, achieving compositions of an overwhelming
rhythm. No wonder he composed a theme from his album LEGION with
CHRISTOPHER FRANKE, the master of the sequencer who contributed in
a decisive manner to the triumph of TANGERINE DREAM. The music by
SHREEVE is highly sophisticated, leaving far behind the Techno
wave typical of the eighties, while in the nineties, when the
collective scene has ended up by approaching the structures of the
musician in the previous decade, his music has become even more
daring indeed. In Great Britain, he has been defined as the
British JEAN MICHEL JARRE.
British composer IAN BODDY was one of the leaders of the
musical electronic avantgarde in Great Britain during the
eighties. Having released several albums, he enjoys a well
deserved popularity among the most experienced fans, which was
most remarkable in his great success within the festival U.K
ELECTRONICA, as well as in many other live performances, and in
the increasingly greater popularity his works have outside his
country.

For more information about the available releases by those artists
and sound clips, use these links:

CONSTANCE DEMBY

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/49136/thesciencebookbo

YANNI

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/33680/thesciencebookbo

SUZANNE CIANI

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/33684/thesciencebookbo

STEVE ROACH

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/37247/thesciencebookbo

ROBERT RICH

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/49142/thesciencebookbo

TIM STORY

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/49148/thesciencebookbo

DAVID SUN

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/33587/thesciencebookbo

SERGE BLENNER

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JJ22/thesciencebookbo

HIMEKAMI

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/94102/thesciencebookbo

MATHIAS GRASSOW

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/125495/thesciencebookbo

STEVE HILLMAN

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/59999/thesciencebookbo

RICHARD BURMER

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/37248/thesciencebookbo

KEVIN BRAHENY

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/49134/thesciencebookbo

PASCAL LANGUIRAND (TRANS-X)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/155327/thesciencebookbo

LARAAJI

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/61756/thesciencebookbo

RAY LYNCH

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/44563/thesciencebookbo

JONN SERRIE

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/85242/thesciencebookbo

BERND SCHOLL

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/175505/thesciencebookbo

BERND KISTENMACHER

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/209406/thesciencebookbo

PETER MERGENER

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/artist-search/Peter%20Mergener/thesciencebookbo

SOFTWARE

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00002696I/thesciencebookbo

IAN BODDY

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/159181/thesciencebookbo

====================

REVIEWS:

JEFF PEARCE:
"TO THE SHORES OF HEAVEN"
Hypnos
In these 11 themes of Ambient and Atmospheric Music, the artist
takes the audience through a musical voyage along the heavenly
shores, as indicated by the title of the CD. By using
electronically processed guitar sounds, the music flows softly
onwards, floating towards otherwordly soundscapes, at times with
melancholy touches, at times optimistic, always delicately
expressive, communicating a wide range of feelings and emotions,
with ethereal sounds, cosmic textures and a careful musical
sensitivity that make of this album an ideal vehicle for
relaxation and meditation. No doubt this CD will appeal to the
fans of Jeff Pearce's music as well as the lovers of Ambient and
Atmospheric Music.in general. Jeff Pearce shows once again his
expertise as a musician, continuing with the work he initiated in
his previous albums, among which we find "Tenderness and
Fatality", "the Hidden Rift", "True Stories" ( a collaboration
with Vidna Obmana), "Vestiges", and "Daylight Slowly".
ARIELLE MALREAUX

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004SV3F/thesciencebookbo

If you wish to purchase any recordings by this artist you only
have to use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/190084/thesciencebookbo

MASALA:
"LUCID DREAMS"
Materiali Sonori
This album is a fresh combination of influences coming from
Atmospheric Pop, World Music and Ambient. Elements from all these
trends converge into a waterfall of creative vitality. Driven by
their creative impulse, the musicians of Masala have taken the
themes of lucid dreams as a point of reference for the music they
have created. Thus we find that all the pieces are like imaginary
voyages towards fascinating places and ages.
MARCELLA CIRIGNOLA

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000009QN0/thesciencebookbo

PERCY HOWARD:
"INCIDENTAL SEDUCTIONS"
Materiali Sonori
This is an album whose 11 themes consist of original songs between
pop and jazz. The songs, with a lyric, traditional make-up, at
times present a certain darkish ambience, with contrapuntal
rhythms and harmonies typical of jazz. The lyrics reflect on the
nature of love, passion, lust with satanic touches, seduction, and
even heavenly love. The voice of the artist shapes a solid
tapestry with the instruments accompanying him, and he expresses
his most personal ideas with great conviction. This is no doubt a
CD that presents the evolution in the musical career of Percy
Howard as a singer and songwriter that will certainly appeal to
the fans of this accomplished artist.
SIMONETTA VALLI

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004D3B7/thesciencebookbo

If you wish to purchase any recordings by this artist you only
have to use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/192416/thesciencebookbo

BRIAN WAYY:
"XCULTURES"
Intentcity
In this album Wayy presents a wide range of sounds from all over
the world, where pop traits are intertwined with World Music
melodies in a very successful way. The CD includes thirteen themes
of an eclectic origin, where vocals, ancient and modern
instruments, a careful rhythmic, lively, at times melancholy,
structure, appears together with Chinese or Japanese folk
textures, which give way to traditional Senegalese airs, samples
of Morocchian chants, Sudanese melodies, African music, Indian
melodies, Spanish touches, Russian traits, Pygmy shades, as well
as English lyrics, in a wide variety of ethnic airs from all over
the world, in a successful fusion that includes a careful
instrumentation and modern rhythms, aimed at a wide audience. Wayy
created this CD so as to devote a third of the artist royalties to
alleviating the hunger and poverty of the children throughout the
world .
EMMA DORS

DAVID & STEVE GORDON:
"DRUM MEDICINE"
Sequoia Records / Earth Vision Music / BSC Music / Prudence
By combining the New Instrumental Music with the essence of the
Folklore of the Native Americans, David and Steve Gordon have
created a series of themes based on percussive rhythms with tribal
traits, ethereal environments sustained by synthesizers, and
melodies that combine a classical romanticism with the mysticism
of Indian traditions. All this, together with subtle touches of
Jazz and Pop, besides some almost subliminal brush-strokes of
Ambient.
MARCELLA CIRIGNOLA

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JK1F/thesciencebookbo

If you wish to purchase any recordings by David & Steve Gordon you
only have to use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/artist-glance/-/165272/thesciencebookbo

====================

We are preparing an international directory of record companies,
artists, festivals, radio shows, zines, webs, journalists,
associations, and other organizations & people working in the
field of electronic music, Ambient, New Instrumental,
Experimental, World Music, and so on. The inserts are free. The
persons or firms wishing to be included can send us a file of no
more than 600 words with the data they consider as being of
interest (contact addresses - snail mail, telephone number, fax,
email, URL... -) and an explanatory text on their activities in
English) to: amazings@...

We are also preparing an encyclopaedia of composers of electronic
music. The artists wishing to be included can send us a biography
(with a list of works and contact address if they wish to) of no
more than 900 words, in English, to amazings@.... Inserts
are free.

The persons or firms having a page in internet related in some way
to the alternative musics can communicate the URL, as well as a
brief description of its contents, to webmaster@..., and
we will set a link from our web to theirs (The insert of a link in
our web is free whenever it is corresponded with a similar link
from their web to our web)

====================

Our warmest greetings for our readers and until the next edition
of Amazing Sounds.

====================

For further information about this newsletter and back issues:

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