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BRAND, STEVE - Looking into the other

Format: CD-R Label & Cat.Number: AFE Records afe094lcd Release Year: 2007 Note: oversized full-colour / fold-out cardboard cover / lim. 100 copies / SPECIAL OFFER now! Price (incl. 19% VAT): €10.00 More Info STEVE BRAND (also known before as AUGUR) mixes electronics, field recordings and sounds from "real" instruments for a very mellow deep ambient journey, similar to ALIO DIE or ROBERT RICH... but he also has parts of very "pure" concrete sounds, that are more challenging... Great full-colour artwork / cover, showing nature, symbols, stones. "Steve Brand has been creating sound art and visual art since the mid-80's. From 1995 to 2003 he was active as Augur, creating obscure and organic music which was released on many labels worldwide, including The Foundry, Manifold, Alluvial, Self-Abuse and others. During the years he had the chance to collaborate with artists such as Jeph Jerman (Hands To, Animist Orchestra), Rick Kitch (I Am Umbrella, Lucky Cricket), PBK, James P. Keeler (Wilt), Brooke Oates (Birds of Tin), etc. His atmospheres, alarmingly austere, with varying shades of gray, are drenched in allusion and a heightened sense of cinematic noir for the listener. According to his own words, "emotional aspects of a recording always come first". Consisting of six long tracks, "Looking Into the Other" takes up where "Awakensong" (...released on Afe in April 2006...) left off, expanding the exploration of twilight worlds. The album utilizes bells, synthesizers, voice, various flutes, medicine drums, cymbals, fiddle, rattles, prayer bowls, etc. "Looking Into the Other" begins with the ritual horns introduction of "The Flower of Life", a piece full of pathos which is subsequently filled with morbid sythesizers lines and insects sounds provided by Johnathan Benham. "Where Two Rivers Meet" starts as a percussive number and then proceeds with keyboards and flute intertwining each other before percussions re-emerge towards the end of the track. Clocking at more than thirteen minutes, "Djehuti, the Architect" is one of the longest and most complex tracks on the album. Its structure keeps on changing as different percussions, cymbal, voices and synthesizers flow in and out of the mix. Listening to this track is quite an experience. "Columns of Light" it's a quieter and dreamy piece constructed on floating keyboards sequences and background rattles, bells, chimes and other small objects / hand-held percussions. "Looking Into the Other", the title-track, was already featured on our 10th year celebrative on-line compilation in late 2005, the one on this album is an improved version. With its flutes, voices, phased drones and repetitive drumming, this track has a strong introspective quality. The fourteen minutes long "Wrapped in Leaves" closes the album with a mocking laugh. A shorter version of this track previously appeared on the "Things Asunder" compilation released by The Foundry. Once again, with this work Steve Brand has created an high quality and excellent album of deeply emotional music, and proved himself as one of the most inspired authors in contemporary Ritual Ambient. "I am reaching into the interior realities, the meaning behind the symbols we accept as everyday reality, into the dream of the abundant natural self that knows no boundaries or limitations." [label description] www.aferecords.com