MOTM

Announcing BINARY (Hypnos sub-label), and two new CD releases

 In its first five years, Hypnos Recordings has established itself 
 as an explorer of atmospheric and minimal ambient recordings.  One 
 of the most common requests received, and one which coincides with 
 my personal musical interests, is that Hypnos should become involved 
 in more dynamic forms of electronic music, everything from 
 experimental electronica, to more rhythmic trance, and classic 
 European-influenced e-music.  

 To that end, the BINARY sub-label has been established, to give 
 voice to artists both new and familiar, who were previously working 
 in forms more kinetic than would have fit with Hypnos.  The first two 
 CD releases both have a bit of "classic e-music" flavor, heavily 
 utilizing analog sequencers and synthesizers.  Definitely not for 
 people who hate music that sounds electronic.


  * * *

 The Binary label debut is INTO THE LIQUID UNKNOWN by Paul Ellis (best 
 known as 1/3 of Dweller at the Threshold, a group whose new disc 
 OUROBORUS is the other new release on Hypnos/Binary -- see below), a 
 bright and distinctive piece of modern electronic music.  Those of you 
 who are more interested in true e-music -- shifting synthesizer 
 patterns, beautiful resonances, expressions of the soul of the machine 
-- 
 will delight in this fantastic, fresh recording.
  
 Using a dash of classic European e-music as a reference point, but 
never for a minute sounding like an artist exploring any path buts 
Ellis's own, INTO THE LIQUID UNKNOWN supplies that modern synth music 
"fix" for listeners who remember their excitement at first hearing 
Wendy Carlos,  Jean-Michel Jarre, Synergy, or early Tangerine Dream... 
but for people who already own all those albums and don't want to hear 
them re-done.  
 Like the first albums of Alpha Wave Movement and Synthetic Block,
this album utilizes just the right limited measure of "classic" and 
moves on from there to create something new.
  
 Ellis takes the listener on a nearly exhausting musical
roller-coaster of pulsing arpeggios, cascading mechanistic sequences, 
many-layered melodic passages, and gradually to brief calm passages, 
before cranking the energy and complexity level up again.  

  * * *

 OUROBORUS by Dweller at the Threshold is the first Binary release by
a group whose members include Dave Fulton (whose collaboration THE
MOST DISTANT POINT KNOWN with Hypnos founder M Griffin was released on 
Hypnos, to much acclaim, in 2000), Paul Ellis (whose  solo album INTO 
THE LIQUID UNKNOWN is the Binary label debut, also released this 
month), and John Duval.  The first Dweller album, NO BOUNDARY CONDITION 
(released on Eurock) had a stronger Tangerine Dream influence, but the 
group has since moved further into deep, deep space.  Though some 
measure of digital technology is in use here, one of the features 
identifying Dweller's sound is the heavy use of analog modular 
synthesizers.  Fulton relies heavily on a refrigerator-sized bank of 
Doepfer modular synths and a Synthesis Technologies (MOTM) system, 
while Duval uses "The Fist of God," a massive Serge Modular system.

The use of all this expensive, esoteric analog synthesis gear is no 
mere "synth geek's vanity" -- the sound of Dweller at the Threshold 
possesses a character and clarity that would simply not be possible 
with modern digital synthesizers.  An audience member at a recent DATT 
concert in Portland was overheard afterward saying "I haven't heard 
something that good since Tangerine Dream was young."  That isn't to 
say that Dweller intends to mimic the German synth music greats -- just 
that their sound has enough substance to thrill even the most jaded e-
music fan.

 Both CDs are available now at the Hypnos Online Store: 
   http://www.hypnos.com/Merchant/merchant.mv

 Audio clips will be available soon at the Hypnos/Binary site:  
   http://www.hypnos.com/binary

Please cross post this at will!

dave