Max Richter – Voices / Sleep App
Max Richter’s incredibly well timed album on the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights *** The app version of his Sleep project helps you sleep, meditate or focus …
Tag: app
Brian Eno – Lux
Considering the musical background of the Godfather of Ambient / Generative Music, the introductory notes for Brian Eno‘s new album “Lux“ are extremely short.
Of course: for those interested, Brian Eno does not need any further introduction.
Compared to its two predecessors released on Warp Records, “Small Craft on a Milk Sea” and “Drums Between the Bells”, this release is quite different. No relatively short poppy collaboration tracks this time: “Lux“ is a slowly developing, 75 minute composition.
A return to “classic ambient” form, the kind of “music for thinking” Eno has created from the early eighties. A genre that since then has further developed and has diverted into a lot of different branches: drone, dark ambient, dance ambient, improv, soundscapes, field recordings. Each sub-genre with their own leading artists venturing into new territories.
But, at the very root of it all, there’s only one true Master.
Robert Rich – Somnium (App)
Robert Rich originally released Somnium in 2001 on DVD-Audio. The DVD format was dictated by the length of the three-part piece: it clocks in over 7 (SEVEN!) hours.
Apart from his vast catalogue of ambient music, Rich also is known for his unique Sleep Concerts in the 1980’s. Somnium was a logical follow up to these concerts: it was designed to guide you through a good night’s sleep.
Starting relatively ‘active’, then dozing off slowly into undisturbed deep sleep, before slowly becoming more lighter and ‘active’ again, Somnia could be the best medicine for anyone suffering insomnia.
(And that’s a big compliment in this context!).
But even when you’re not sleeping to it, it’s a pleasurable listen – although probably only few would sit out the entire album listening actively.
Somnium has become a landmark monument of ambient drone music. Not only conceptually, but also because of the endless calm and beauty of the musical environment.
Almost 10 years after its initial release, this project return in the (revolutionary?) form of an App Album. Designed to run endlessly on your iPhone/iPod, it can play uninterrupted for much longer than the original seven hours. It will simply run until you stop it, or until your iPhone/iPod batteries run out.