berlin school

The Tenth Planet is the latest CD from synth artist David Wright, and captures the music from two live planetarium performances that he did earlier this year.

Wright is a UK keyboardist, synthesist and composer, and his style grows out of the classic tradition of Berlin-school synth artists like Tangerine Dream and the more melodic approach of synth artists like Vangelis. He’s also the founder of the AD Music label, which specializes in synth music, and part of the ambient/electronic rock band Code Indigo and the synth duo Callisto.

Synthtopia has reviewed several of Wright’s earlier CDs, including his solo CDs Deeper and Continuum, and Code Indigo releases Timecode and Chill.

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Spheric Music, Das Label für Elektronische Musik, recently sent us a “best of” CD by Lambert Ringlage, Essential.

Lambert (Ringlage performs under his first name) has been creating and publishing music since the late 1980’s. He published several solo cassette tapes independently early on, and since the early 90’s he has published multiple CDs. Lambert’s not well-known in the US, but his music is available from Amazon and other Internet music stores.

Essential is a collection of tracks, released in 2000, of solo synth music. Most of the tracks are taken from earlier albums, but there are also two previously unreleased tracks, Floating In Magic and Glider.

The tracks on Essential are in the classic synth-music style; while they are full of synths and drum machines, they bear little influence of more recent electronica. Throughout the CD, Lambert uses layers of bright interlocking synth sequences, blending analog and digital synths and spicing them here and there with samples.

Highlights of the CD include SUN, a hypnotic, sequence-driven track; Two Worlds, which offers a break from the sequences and explores a more ambient, reflective mood, before building into a more driving second half; and White Light, which recalls the Hyperborea days of TD.

Fans of Elektronische Musik, especially the early digital sound of Berlin-school artists like Tangerine Dream, will want to check out Lambert. There are sample tracks of his music at the Spheric Music site.

Tracks:

• Light Sky
• Sun
• Successive Pictures
• Energetic
• Two Worlds
• Return
• Voyage To Nowhere
• Open Sky
• White Light
• Floating In Magic
• Glider

Zero-G’s Analogue Sequencer Loops (ASL) is a sound library by Ian Boddy, a synthesist that carries the torch for classic 70’s Berlin-school style electronic music.

The library is presented in Native Instruments Intakt format, which means that it’s a pain to register, but compatible with just about anything (it supports VST 2.0, DXi, ASIO, AU, RTAS, Mac & PC). It combines over 1,000 loops with the power of Intakt, letting you take Boddy’s loops and mangle them with downsampling, filtering, distortion, delay effects and more.

The library is described as “100% pure analogue.” It’s hard to tell what that means anymore, when you’ve got digital samples of analog synths running through digitally-modelled analog filters. Nevertheless, with Analogue Sequencer Loops, Boddy and Zero-G capture the essence of classic analog synthesis, with an emphasis on 70’s Berlin-school sequencer sounds.

About the Audio Library

According to Zero-G, Analogue Sequencer Loops is intended to complement Boddy’s Zero-G Morphology virtual instrument, which features Boddy doing his thing with atmospheric soundscapes and effects. We didn’t have a chance to work with Morphology, but A.S.L. is an interesting and flexible collection by itself.

Boddy uses classic analogue synths and hardware analogue sequencers, and they are captured exquisitely in 24-bit sound. The audio loops are broken down into seven categories: Analogue Drums, Bass Sequences, Electronic Percussion, FX Loops, Hi-Hat & Noise Loops, Melodic Sequences & Sine & Pure Sequences. Within each category, loops are organized by BMP, ranging from 90-150.

ASL doesn’t immediately wow you, like some sound libraries. Because of the limited capabilities of old-school sequencers, the loops are all fairly simple. But Boddy does a great job of providing starting points for creating music with that classic analog sound.

Take one of Boddy’s bass sequences and mangle it a bit, like modulating the cutoff with a slow LFO, add a little distortion and delay, and you’ve quickly got something with a lot of life and interest to it.

Zero-G provides a great Berlin-school demo using ASL that gives you a taste of one way the library could be used.

All-in-all, it’s a very nice sample libary. It doesn’t offer the instant gratification of effect laden loops or construction kits, but it instead provides you with some great building blocks, packaged in a powerful virtual instrument that lets you easily take the raw material and manipulate it to your will.

Gear List

Sound Sources :

• Moog IIIC (extended) modular
• Roland System 100M modular
• Doepfer A100 modular
• Analogue Systems modular
• Analogue Solutions Concussor percussion modules
• ARP 2600
• Minimoog
• Moog Voyager
• Oberheim Xpander
• VCS 3

Sequencing:

• Moog 960 sequential controller x 2
• Roland 100M 182 sequencer
• Roalnd 100M 184 polyphonic keyboard arpeggiator
• Analogue Systems RS-200 sequential controller
• Analogue Solutions CV8 – 8 step CV sequencer x 2
• Analogue Solutions GT8 – 8 step gate sequencer x 2
• Analogue Solutions MC01- Master Clock with clock dividers
• Analogue Solutions FS01 – Fill In / Quad Switcher
• Doepfer A100 – various Seq Switch/Clock Dividers/Clock Sequencers

Supported Interfaces:

• VST 2.0, DXi, ASIO, Audio Units, Core Audio, RTAS, Mac & PC

Recommended Retail Price

• $199.95 US Dollars / 169 Euros / £114.95 pounds sterling)

Minimum Requirements

• Windows XP, Pentium III/ Athlon 400 MHz, 256 MB RAM
• Mac OS 10.2.6 or higher, G3 500 MHz, 256 MB RAM

Recommended System

• Windows XP, Pentium III/ Athlon 700 MHz, 512 MB
• Mac OS 10.2.6 or higher, G4 733, 512 MB

More information and sound samples are available at the Zero-G site.

Beyond City Light is another great CD from Spotted Peccary Records. If you’re not familiar with the label, check out the Spotted Peccary podcast. It features music and interviews from musicians on the label.

Beyond City Light is gorgeous collection of ambient/space music tracks from Jon Jenkins. The music on Beyond City Light is uplifting and warm, but not without having a little edge of mystery and wonder. The tracks range from more ambient/space music pieces, such as The Calling, or Deep Sleep and Dying Embers, to the more new age sound of Zzyzx Road. There’s even a bit of Berlin-school sequencer work on Through City Light.

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Alpha Wave Movement is one of the recording guises of synthesist Gregory Kyryluk. Kyryluk invokes the synth gods on Drifted Into Deeper Lands, and has put together a great CD that is a must-have for fans of ambient, synth, and space music.

Alpha Wave Movement’s CDs explore classic synth music genres, but make them sound fresh and new, and Drifted Into Deeper Lands is no exception.

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