This breathtaking electro-acoustic record, coming from a prolific collaboration between the talented British composer Joby Talbot ' member of the creative team that produced the ballet 'Chroma' for the Royal Ballet, whose curriculum twinkles for a plenty of awarded works, such as his first major orchestral opera 'Luminescence', premiered by the BBC Philarmonic, boasting an enviable profile as a film and Tv composer as well ' and the quick wit by Benjamin Wynn aka Deru - an electronic musician and sound designer from Los Angeles, counting many releases labeled by Delikatessen Records, Neo Ouija, Ghostly International, Mush, Merck, whose passion for art and architecture seems to live in concord with his high interest in music technology innovations and his talent in carving marvelous synthetic symphonies -, was intended to act as the score for Wayne McGregor's ballet Genus, based on Charles Darwin's theories and discoveries of evolution, being a really topical matter aroused by media due to the increasing interest in genetic research. I'll skip the subject of Darwinism ' you'll find a huge amount of stuff about this matter -, but it's impossible to pass over the impressive charm of the evoked atmosphere in this release as well as its narrative homogeneity, doing its part side by side the documentary inflection of this opus (there are some excerpts taken from Darwin's notes, among which the scientist's ones describing the exact moment of the discovery of evolution, hieratically beginning with the words 'I think..' forestalling his famous diagram as well as many other quotations), so as the whole atmosphere of Genus seems a musical adaptation of the evolutionary graph, translated into a fable-like musical language.

The first four tracks, grouped into just one title, Transmutation, sound more austere and tenser: the initial crackling fading into slightly delayed modulated voices which seem coming from distant places, before they begin flowing around the sound sphere and finally amalgamating into undulating choirs, is going to carry your imagination to the very first evolutionary phases and smelling the scent of that primordial soup Darwin speaks about. The somewhat-liturgical atmosphere, maybe influenced by the location where it was recorded I the end of July 2007 ' St-Michael's Church at Highgate in London - is partially broken by the mechanical sound-clicks by Deru dropped into the gloomy smoky soup in the second track, partially reminding to my mind that kind of sound sculptures Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto usually mould together. The Transmutations follow an ascending whirl-like movement with many dramatic and sometimes obscure moments (that's maybe cause their project has sometimes been compared to the one by the esteemed Mexican composer Murcof'¦ even if Talbot & Deru's sound is not so dim) till the erupting togetherness of all sounding elements reach a critical point. After that moment, according to the words by Joby Talbot, the music 'fractures and collapses into the ambient sounds of the storm that raged outside the church where we recording', a magical moment you could breathe in the second (and more idylliac) part of Genus, featuring a touching performance as solo violinist by Louisa Fuller and the choral one by The Duke Quartet ' it seems that at the end of the recording of the suite Genus, flood waters begun cascading through the building's interiors! -.

The final movement, The Great Tree of Life, shows the perfect amalgamation between classical music elements and the buzz of minimal electronics and it definitively depicts in a lovingly magnificent way the final revelation of the English naturalist, i.e. the discovery of the mechanism by which life has covered the surface of the earth 'with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications'. Available in a deluxe edition (strictly limited to 100 copies) with hardcover sleeve and a 20-page booklet, Genus contains also two intriguing video-clips and a sort of documentary on the matter. Hauntingly sublime workout!

Glitch music can be structured ' I guess, that this is the most important result, a listener of this special kind of Electronica music can extract out of this release. To release it via the label Mille Plateaux, part of the Vertical label group, fits well, since this label has taken a leading role to offer this experimental form of Electronica music since years. By completely trusting into the abilities to transform all rhythmical ingredients into that Glitch/Clicks 'n' Cuts genre, the accompanying music rather consists of minimal field recordings, noisy soundscapes and at times obscure frequency manipulations. This is a very own form of Avantgarde/Electronica, although very minimal operated. Not useable for Chill-Out sessions, as I guess, that the overall cold sound environment would rather scare the audience. No stuff for the dancefloors either, as this music turns too far into the experimental genre. Rather music especially dedicated to fans of Glitch and IDM, who aren't afraid of to check out a more dark and drowning fx-modulated sound design under a good pair of headphones.

A new production of the Russian underground Electronica-scene brought to us by Lagunamuch Records. I/DEX seems to be a one-man project, consisting of the Belarusian Electronica-musician Vitaly Harmash. Under his pseudonym I/DEX, Vitaly was able to come out with three previous releases, mostly all available as downloads via the Ukrainian Nexsound and the French Cold Room netlabels. 'Layers' comes out in a beautiful digipack-artwork, created once again by Artur Berent (ABSTRACT AVENUE) ' not his first graphical work, but one of his finest so far. 'Layers' is an aptly chosen title for this album full of atmospheric and in parts hypnotic soundscapes, which at least transforms this album to be a much more experimental-minded outfit than any of the previous discovered releases of this fine Moscow-based label. This sound environmental reminds in parts a bit on MEWARK, also out on Lagunamuch, and similar featured experiments under the Reason software area. But against to MEWARK or FLEXKIKS, 'Layers' leaves out nearly all rhythmically attitudes ' which makes it at least a bit challenging, to follow all tracks on album length, if you're in a rush. This music isn't designed to spin it as a simple background noise, it rather needs attention. More experimental-minded stuff than expected, this release offers beauty, but also fragility synth sound environments. Worth to spend some time for a listen.

Another new netlabel focusing on 'the darker side of IDM and post-industrial music', as they like to declare. I have my own and quite critical theory on those labels, as especially the rather experimental-minded Electronica
(net-) labels are growing like mushrooms out of the ground. Whoever will be able to follow all label activities and releases, if especially this kind of music is available in uncountable numbers? Who is seriously able to separate the wheat from the chaff? If there wouldn't be a signed artist of this label (Mr. Sascha LPF 12 Lemon ' cheers mate!) penetrating me with uncountable mails and the usage of MySpace blogs, to check out the quality of the roster of this new and promising label, whoever knows, if I'd ever pay attention on them? After listening this very first release of Abstrakt Reflections, I came to the result, that ignorance to the efforts of this label would mean avoidance of quality and layered Dark Electronica/IDM music ' things I consume like water and air. APPARENT SYMMETRY is a US-based solo project of Zach H. and under this moniker he's able to offer us an attractive form of Downtempo-/ Ambient-Electronica music, which features a crunchy rhythm work very near to the ideas and allows comparisons to such cult artists like GRIDLOCK, or some of the recent Tympanik Audio projects like ACCESS TO ARASAKA, SUBHEIM, or CANDLE NINE. Zach sets the quality on a high level without simply copying his idols ' his true, layered Industrial ambience touches the eardrums. 'Skybending' is the name of the most addictive tune, chosen out of this masterpiece here, which includes brillant piano inserts placed in a fragile synths-sound environment and subtle inserted rhythm works. 'Mourn' is a spectacular Dark Industrial/Ambient album, which surpirises through its matured sound design, which is lightyears better, tahn anyone does expect from a newcomer. Keep it on both, label and artist ' this is a must-download-item.

The new sampler from Prikosovenie label is centered upon the five elements. The first element is earth, and is the most world oriented centered upon african rhythms and harmonic chants, and is centered upon "Materia Prima" a mesmerizing song by Jean-Paul Trutet. Water is the element which is symbolized by quiet voices and soft sounds of flutes and harp, the peak of this part is the intimate voice of Julien Jacob. Fire is the element of the household and, so, we enter in ethereal territories with Dendelion Wine, Dizzi Dulcimer and Stellamara. The use of ancient instruments is nothing new these days but the intricate lines of "Dizzi jig" is worth of a listening... a really enjoyable pieces. Air include the most resonance based tunes in theory, but in practice is the logical prosecution of the previous part. Personally i would switch the Caprice tune "memory" with "XVII" by Dendelion Wine in the tracklist but the elements separation is not to be taken seriously, of course. The space part includes the most ambient and drone music from this label and feature two notably tracks "L'impatiente" a track by Lys centered upon an hypnotic carillon and field recordings with a stunning musical result. This album is closed by "Pruits stellaire" by Daniel Perret and Crista Galli, based upon harmonic chants and resonance with could be a soundtrack for some meditations.
This compilation has a direction: from the world music to the ambient, and cosmic, music. So it's not the classic sampler of 16 songs a label thinks should be of some interest. It's a good introduction for a label which seems to have a clear vision of the sound it would be associated with. If you like new-age it's worth of a listening because it contains al least two gems at the end of this long sampler.