So this afternoon, I received an email from Echoes, that included the top 25 albums for the month of December 2013. The album at number 9 was Hydrosphere by Divine Matrix. Since I deal all the time with things related to the hydrosphere, i.e. wetlands, storm water regulations, I thought it was a good album for me. Not that the album really had anything to do with those things the theme of the album is obviously water! The album was the second electronic ambient album that I listened to today. The first album was Jeff Greinke’s album Cities in Fog 1 & 2. Greinke’s album is a lot darker than Hydrosphere. Overall, I like Hydrosphere better because of its mellower mood.
What the Safari discovered, as it explored Divine Matrix, was that Divine Matrix is a pseudonym electronic artist Steve Barnes, created to free himself from being slotted in any particular genre. Barnes wanted to experiment with sound and song structure. What he created is a very laid back album (as I listen again to the track Hydrosphere, it’s the most upbeat track on the album). Steve says of the project ;
“I wanted a project where my creativity could run free. With such an amazing sound palette at our fingertips made available now by all the modern technology, it really is a great time to be an electronic musician”
and here’s more about the album from AD Music
The theme of the album is, unsurprisingly, water, and even though the tracks are all terrific individual musical statements, they also move effortlessly from one to the next and present a coherent ‘whole’ concept album. The melodic themes are strong, sometimes carried along with gentle foot tapping rhythms, other times they drift along atop great sequences. Tracks like ‘Drifting on the Tide’ and ‘The Diving Bell’ are swept along amidst swirling pads and atmospherics. ‘Bermuda Triangle’ with it’s ‘mayday’ calling for help gives us a real sense of mystery and the unknown, while ‘Deep Blue’ is an awesomely beautiful, drifting piece of sequenced space music.
Read More at: http://www.admusiconline.com/main/divine-matrix.php#sthash.WP5yLhdh.dpuf
After listening to the album, I came home and started exploring the AD Music catalog and it seems the Safari could like a number of the label’s artists. Damn, do I need MORE to listen to, damn straight I do. I looked for a video from Hydrosphere but I didn’t find any so let’s drift into the morning hours with “The Crystal Womb” from Divine Matrix’s debut album Invisible Landscapes, which may need to be listened to tomorrow. Ah,I need to type up some soil logs – that album should be a great soundtrack for the morning!