EARTHEN

Alpha Wave Movement at its best!

Keeping on with this 2015, great prog-electronic year, Gregory Kyryluk a.k.a. Alpha Wave Movement releases "EARTHEN", his proportional contribution to this "greatness".

Conjuring minimalism with expansion, EARTHEN above all is flawless, as far as music composition goes. It in fact blends all the best attributes of Kyryluk's electronic quest.

This album confirms his findings but mainly his own musical language. Without departing from the famous Berlin School's electronic canons, or the "Ambient" or "New Age" or "Dark Ambient" probable taggings, he makes it clear that he also has something to offer in return and not just novel "electronic sounds", he is talking about original electronic MUSIC COMPOSITION,.. small feat!

The catalogue of his personal musical discoveries runs all along the way, therefore this album is rich and diverse in textures, colors, tempo and environments, making it all a "never knowing what will happen next" perfect ride.

As far as the rating goes, not having heard yet his 2013 "Architexture of Silence", which has perfect (but few) ratings here in PA, I will nevertheless rate it the same.

*****5 "flawless and original" PA stars!

`Earthen' is the twentieth studio release to appear under the Alpha Wave Movement banner, an alias for Gregory Kyryluk's progressive electronic/ambient/New Age project. Each new album sees the artist further honing his talents in fascinating directions, and this may just be one of his most subtle, exploratory and expansive works to date. Despite the Berlin School style of electronics often bringing to mind cosmic environments and deep space surroundings, never once do the six extended instrumental compositions on offer here ever actually sound other-wordly. Instead a very earthy, grounded and deeply personal quality makes this is a contemplative journey inward, as opposed to shooting for the stars and galaxies beyond.

The soothing opener `Immerse' gradually unfolds with gently undulating waves of electronic veils and teases of spectral choirs, electric piano tip-toes twinkling like stars in a the night sky cocooning a barren desert and quickening ticking loops teeming with life sound like the birth of a brand new world. Meditative submerged chimes and panning arching electronics sliver through the title track, a kaleidoscope of deeply introspective, dream-like and comforting moods, even confronting in little moments, and some sighing patterns briefly remind of the more romantic qualities of Steve Roach's `Structures from Silence'.

`Pulseforms' is laced with mystery, as subtle rippling beats and trickling loops grow in urgency and retreat to the background throughout an alluring and enveloping expanse. Approaching electronic swells are defeated with waves of slowly emerging Eastern flavoured bliss in `Source', `Helios' is a slowly evolving darker drone of haunting textures with brief wistful glimpses that vanish in an instant, and lengthy sustained ebbing and flowing synths rise around low-key field recordings of nature on sublime album closer `Forest'.

Already having delivered numerous high-quality electronic works in a captivating mix of the above mentioned styles, some of which may even be able to considered something close to modern electronic classics (`Architexture of Silence' and `Yasumu' instantly come to mind), Kyryluk has delivered one of the most subtle and satisfying works of his twenty-plus year career with this project. `Earthen' requires great patience and endless replays before the compositions carefully reveal their intelligence and sophistication, and it will reward greatly those listeners with the perseverance to discover its many nuances. The New Age elements never once take on those banal, overly pretty elements that represent the worst qualities of the tag, and while the artist may take little influences from the Progressive Electronic masters, his music never ends up imitating them for a second.

`Earthen' is a celebration of the spirit, the soul and nature itself, and is not only a standout release for Gregory Kyryluk and the Alpha Wave Movement, but one of the progressive electronic highlights of 2015.

Five stars.

This is the latest from ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT and comparing it with the only other release by this project that I own("Architexture Of Silence") i'd rate this one a little higher as I find it more to my tastes with a slightly darker tone to it at times. Once again the cover art is worth mentioning as they are on almost all of his releases.

"Immerse" features spacey sounds that wash in and out slowly as some relaxed keyboard-like sounds join in. They are eventually replaced by faster moving electronics as the spacey waves continue. An electronic beat before 7 minutes arrives before it turns very spacey late to end it. "Earthen" has these spacey synths that bleep, flow and twitter. Sounds start to pulse slowly after 5 minutes then piano-like sounds join in before it turns back to those spacey sounds drifting in and out.

"Pulseforms" has this beat that builds in the dark atmosphere as spacey sounds start to wash in and out. An electronic beat arrives 4 minutes in as the spacey sounds continue. "Source" has these dark droning sounds that come and go as piano-like sounds arrive around 3 minutes as the dark drones continue. "Helios" again is dark as spacey sounds drift in and out. "Forest" has these slow moving waves as keys and bird-like sounds help out.

I've really enjoyed the two albums I have by this project, and while I prefer RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL and HELDON I can't help but recommend ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT highly to all you Electronic fans out there.

Another collection of beautiful space/New Age songs from Gregory Kyryluk--this time with a Terran focus. Gregory is here employing some new techniques with sequences changing pitches and notes being bent and warped, however, his old habit of using exceedingly long periods of time to let sounds, themes, and sections develop is once again present here. The sounds are beautifully engineered and crystal clear (when he wants them to be), and the journeys are pleasant and satisfying. My one complaint is that I don't feel a lot of emotion conveyed in both the melodies and the development of the songs--there is very little feeling of tension buildup to a 'conflict resolution.' "Pusleforms" is a very pleasant song as it does transition and build after the first third of the way into the song, but even still there is not enough internal tension and build to feel that the artist brings us to peak of the conflict and then a satisfying resolution.

Five star songs: the beautiful, lazy, sleepy-dreamy, 5. "Helios" (12:53) (my favorite on the album) (9/10); 3. "Pulseforms" (10:25) (9/10); the early ENO-esque play with slow attack and decays, 4. "Source" (13:09) (8.5/10)

Four star songs: 1. "Immerse" (13:03) (8.5/10); 2. "Earthen" (11:45) (8.5/10), and; the neo-Berlin School slow sequenced nature sound-enhanced, 6. "Forest" (7:43) (8.5/10).

Again, all of this music sounds as if it could have come off of an early DAVID & STEVE GORDON album except for the incredible sound production here (which is why I rated slightly upward on most of the songs: though I felt as if I was hearing nothing particularly new or exciting, it was all extraordinarily well recorded and engineered).

A solid four star album; well recommended to others--especially those looking for particularly well-produced sound.