Space Station - Transmission

'Transmission' is an excellent album of classic spacemusic with a modern touch by Portugal-based producer Bernard Lampreia, ranging from rhythmic sequences and synth solos to deep ethereal soundscapes and cinematic energy. If you're a fan of the "Berlin-school" sound, don't miss this album!
available for free download on bandcamp

Robert Carty - Photonic Movements

Platonic Movements by veteran producer Robert Carty, released for free on the Earth Mantra netlabel is some of the finest deep, atmospheric spacemusic i've heard in a while. a richly detailed mix of subtle Berlin-school sequencer touches, floating pads, soaring leads and sparkling stardust make for an intensely rewarding immersive listening experience.
available as flac and mp3 from archive.org

Siddhartha Barnhoorn - Pillars of Light

for his debut solo release, prolific film and television composer Siddhartha Barnhoorn presents Pillars of Light, a mini-album of deep cinematic spacemusic which could be the soundtrack for an as-yet unmade scifi thriller. as the music unfolds, images appear in the mind's eye of epic space battles above the horizon of a distant world, colliding planets, gigantic spacecraft soaring through burning nebulae, and maybe even a secret meeting of two alien lovers under a purple twilight sky of vibrant stars. highly recommended listening for fans of ambient music with a vastness measured in lightyears.

URM - stratification

One sub-genre of ambient music which hasn't gotten much attention here on the blog is classic Berlin-school spacemusic. Stratification, released for free on the ping things label, skillfully combines the classic elements established by pioneers like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze-- long evolving arpeggiated sequences, light electronic percussion  and deep echoing soundscapes in a one-hour flight into analog synth heaven.

Nettless - Phobos and Deimos

with the double album Phobos and Deimos, released to the world by the ambient über-netlabel Earth Mantra, finnish producer Nettless graces us with 2 hours of blissful spacemusic. 129 minutes of deepest empty coldness, brightest white-hot light, shining quasars, streaming supernovae, and massive galaxy clusters- lightyears distant yet beaming into your ears like tiny pinpricks of starlight...

Andrew Lahiff

infinite echoes.. lush organic soundscapes.. tribal rhythms from another dimension.. Andrew Lahiff produces spellbindingly deep atmospheric ambient in the grand Rich/Roach tradition.
several albums as well as a generous selection of free mp3s are available at andrewlahiff.com

Proton Kinoun – Apeiron

i actually had several other releases 'in the queue' to write about on this blog, but a new release came to my attention today that is so stunning that i absolutely had to write about it. 'Apeiron' is a new release on Omnitropic, a brand-new ambient and downtempo sublabel of Ektoplazm, who have quickly become one of my favorite new netlabels, as i mentioned previously.
Apeiron, by danish producer Proton Kinoun (aka Kasper Weensgaard), is a breathtaking flight into deep space-- massive slabs of star-dusted ambience, rich, deep, infinitely expanding, and occasionally punctuated by pulsating fractal rhythmic energy. if there was a perfect soundtrack for flying through white-hot, star-forming nebulae, this would be it. an absolute must-have for all fans of organic soundscapes and immersive spacemusic.

hiddenplace music mix 6: Rudy Adrian special

Download mp3 (160kbps, 85MB)

i try to always let the artists know when i feature their music on one of my mixes. when i wrote to New Zealand musician Rudy Adrian that i had featured one of his tracks on my macrocosm mix, he offered to put together a special selection of tracks for my mix series. i've thoroughly enjoyed everything i've heard from Mr Adrian, so i readily agreed. the resulting mix of tracks, taken from a few of his earlier albums, is a blend of soft organic sounds as heard on Desert Realms, well as some more rhythmic, sequencer-based spacemusic. and as a special bonus, Rudy included an exclusive live in-studio improvisation to end the mix. definitely a treat for all fans of synth-based ambient music!

tracklisting:

(00:18) Sub Antarctica from SubAntarctica
(11:57) Kinetic Flow from Kinetic Flow
(31:10) Turquoise from Kinetic Flow
(41:33) Le Songe Du Singe from Kinetic Flow
(54:57) Happy Memories from Kinetic Flow
(59:47) Ancestral Legacy from MoonWater
(63:49) greeting/introduction from Rudy Adrian
(66:30) "Unique track"

photo: Smails Beach, Dunedin, New Zealand by S. M. Stewert

AmbiScience

one of my favorite apps for the ipod touch lately has been the AmbiScience series from Tesla Software. these apps play loops of ambient music which can be combined with various brainwave entrainment sounds, including settings for increased alertness, meditation, and deep sleep (i definitely recommend reading up on brainwave entrainment if youre not familiar with it already, its really fascinating). the apps work great as a sleep aid, and a timer is included which will shut down the app after a certain time. even without the entrainment options, the ambient loops are very enjoyable to listen to, well-produced and usually long enough so that the loop is not immediately noticeable. the Pure Sleep and Brain Power editions feature more organic sounds somewhat in the style of Steve Roach or Michael Stearns, and Androids Odyssey naturally has a more electronic, classic sequencer spacemusic feel.
and as an added bonus, An Android's Odyssey is free at the iTunes store for the next few days. definitely recommended for fans of ambient music who own an iPhone or iPod touch!

Bernard Reeb - Lumina magica

on Lumina magica , french artist Bernard Reeb creates a really excellent album of pure ambient electronic spacemusic in the grand european tradition: deep, blissful, expansive and transporting. the album is available for free mp3 download on both the « les Cristaux Liquident » netlabel website and the artists personal site. and if you wish to support the artist, this album (and several others) are also available for purchase as lossless FLAC downloads from musiczeit .

The Circular Ruins - Retrospective 2009

on an earlier post, i featured an album by Anthony Paul Kerby, aka Nunc Sans. he also produces music under the name The Circular Ruins, and he recently released a free retrospective of tracks from several of his albums under that name. the music is deep hypnotic ambient spacemusic with subdued rhythmic elements. although compiled from albums spanning over several years, the compilation maintains a strong artistic vision and aesthetic. it should be noted that one track features offthesky, a favorite artist of hiddenplace music who will no doubt be well known by many of my readers. in all, this retrospective serves as an excellent introduction to the artist, as well as a thoroughly enjoyable album in its own right.

hiddenplace music mix 5: macrocosm

Download mp3 (160kbps, 63MB)

a mix of a few of my favorite deep, spacious ambient tracks from 2008. warm synth waves by Altus, icy winter environments from Shiftless, spaced-out piano by Ben Woods, stunning vocal-based headphone candy by Tertium Auris, spectral desert ambience by Rudy Adrian...

playlist:
(00:22) Altus - Subspherical [Macro]
(03:39) Altus - Wood Grain [Macro]
(06:50) Shiftless - Icicles [ap3002]
(09:10) Coax - Quiet Minds reprise [ap3002]
(11:22) El Zoológico - Nada [pj002]
(12:58) Ben Woods - Realms of Detachment [OWL-33]
(19:12) Tertium Auris - Vox Auris I - III [DHS0040]
(38:21) The Dandelion Council - The Face of the Mountain [ah028]
(39:52) Rudy Adrian - Desert Realms
(47:34) Tone Ghost Ether - Gamelan Moon Landing [earman051]
...

Kit Watkins & Tone Ghost Ether

during its heyday (ie when it was still free), mp3.com was a perfect gateway to explore new styles of music. i found a lot of great artists there, many of whom i still listen to today. one artist i found at that time was Kit Watkins. Mr Watkins has been recording music since the 70s- from playing in the progressive jazz/rock band Happy the Man, to his own solo work, to his ambient improvisational group Tone Ghost Ether. his multi-instrumental solo albums explore jazz and world music-inspired ambient sounds and textures, with a uniquely positive and peaceful vibe. a distinctive element in Kit's music is his expressive use of the wind synth, which gives his melodies and leads a flowing, lyrical quality not easily achieved with keyboards and sequencers.
i was quite glad to notice that he recently re-released many of his older works as high quality mp3 downloads on the netlabel Earth Mantra. one standout in this collection is certainly his live performance at the ambient music festival The Gathering, including the longform postlude piece Music for the End. Mr Watkins puts on a stunning multi-instrumental performance, making excellent use of extended loops to create live overdubs and rich instrumental textures. other standouts include the two-disc meditative drone album Thought Tones, as well as the soft, luminous sounds of Condor Sail Curves and the world music-flavored Guard Lock Skin, both from his side project Tone Ghost Ether. endlessly deep and luxurious textures for spacefans...

Tertium Auris - Vox Stridens

on Vox Stridens italian composer, conductor, and vocal researcher Marco Tonini aka Tertium Auris presents a startlingly beautiful album of dark abstract ambient pieces composed entirely of vocal samples. hundreds of carefully edited samples of his own overtone singing, choirs, an opera singer, and other experimental vocal techniques are mixed and processed into deep, sonorous soundscapes of fascinating complexity and chrystaline beauty. at once peaceful and unsettling, somber yet angelic, this brilliantly produced album comes very highly recommended for fans of all types of ambient music.

Kahvi Collective - Robot Dreams

the kahvi collective, still one of my top netlabels, has put out another excellent commercial release. as i have written before, all the artists i feature on this blog deserve your support for their hard work, and this is a perfect opportunity to 'show some love.'
Robot Dreams, released as part of kahvi's 10-year anniversary(!) celebration, is a massive compilation with 23 tracks in all. nearly all the kahvi all-stars are here, along with some artists who i am not familiar with, and they have all submitted great music. i found it actually quite difficult to pick favorite tracks, because each piece is really excellent. even a couple artists whose previous releases i wasn't particularly fond of surprised me with some really nice submissions (i wont name any names here, but lets just leave it that its an excellent compilation all around)
the tracks are naturally held together by the signature kahvi sound: bright, glittery electronics with a penchant for wide, expansive soundscapes. the mood ranges from delicate and chilled to intense and cinematic, some tracks are more beat-oriented, some less.
one standout track is certainly KiloWatts' Foothold Herald's Summit View, an epic 12-minute journey through thick, frantic, idm-esque beats and bloops (which is practically a mini-ep on its own). also for the idm-heads, there is the vocoder funk of brioskj's oxegen, the furious, pulsing, lead-driven Beneath a Steel Sky by kahvi curator 4T-Thieves, and the glitchy chimes and cruchy beats of AngelFace by Aaron Jansinski.
those in a more chillout/ambient mood should certainly check out the quiet piano+nature atmospheres of Moon Kiss by Acrillic Colors, the scifi spacemusic of the title track by coax, or the warmly pleasant go inwards by general fuzz.
other standout tracks include WindsOfNeptune by introspective, workbench's euphoric track ascent, and the densely layered Summer's Gold by Xurba.
as of this posting, the compilation is available only beatport.com for 1,99€ per track (perhaps rather unfortunate for my american readers, but still worth purchasing at least a few tracks, imho..) it should be available on other digital outlets shortly. appropriate purchase links, along with info about all the artists are available here.
*edit: Robot Dreams now available on emusic!

Algol - Deep Thoughts About Universe

one of the greatest pleasures of internet audio 'crate digging' is finding an obscure netlabel, downloading a few releases with low expectations, and being surprised with some really good quality music.
one of my recent discoveries, Enough Records presents a dauntingly long list of releases by artists nearly all previously unknown to me, but 'Deep Thoughts About Universe' immediately caught my eye because of my endless obsession with space and space music. Siberian composer Danil Kazantsev creates deep, expansive electronic spacemusic which incorporates a myriad of influences, yet never sounds derivative. longform tracks with endless layers of electronic sounds and effects are expertly mixed, constantly shifting and changing, always holding the listener in rapt attention, even through 10 minute+ long tracks. Deep Thoughts would make a perfect soundtrack to a retro chic sci-fi film, a brilliantly composed modern take on classic electronic spacemusic.
the full release can be downloaded on scene.org, or archive.org.

Janne Hanhisuanto - Padmospheres

readers of this blog may know that i am a fan of gentle, floating beatless ambience. as with many forms of art, this style of music sounds deceptively simple, and yet is surprisingly difficult to produce with just the right proportions of sound. most 'ambient' works found on various netlabels veer heavily in the experimental direction-- perhaps interesting to listen to intellectually, but usually not pleasant to the ears.
'Padmospheres' from finnish musician Janne Hanhisuanto is certainly the exception to the rule, and a rare treasure among the vast collection of netaudio ambient. deep floating pads, quiet field recordings and found sound drenched in reverb, delicately simple piano passages, all mixed to perfection... and yet compelling and original enough to not fall into the cheesy 'new age' category. with 4 excellent long-form ambient compositions and beautiful artwork, i gladly add this release to my sadly short list of masterpieces of ambient netaudio.

Crisopa - Medicamentosa

expansive ambient downtempo idm today from spain. in the first track of 'Medicamentosa' Madrid musician Crisopa combines samples from NASA TV with gently unfolding melodic ambience & subtle rhythms. electronic music has no shortage of obscure vocal samples, but i found the choice of sampling NASA's streaming video station to be the perfect compliment to this music. the spacious ambient sounds of this release are artfully enveloped in a field of noise and interference, evoking the experience of watching NASA TV-- the low resolution and high compression partly obscuring some of the most breathtaking images of our planet i have ever seen. a fitting soundtrack for a flight of the mind through innerspace..

Phrozenlight

[once again abruptly shifting gears, into dark ambient territory] dutch composer Phrozenlight is one of the most prolific electronic music producers ive come across. typically releasing 2 or 3 hour-long compositions per month, most of his extensive catalogue is available for download at archive.org. this is not music for everyone-- slowly evolving, abstract, dark ambient spaces, usually with little or no harmonic or 'musical' elements. yet for fans of the genre, his music is always excellently produced with consistent quality and careful attention to sound and texture. his recent release, Sunday Afternoon recently provided an excellent soundtrack to one hour of my day with the usual deftly sequenced deep spacey textures, accented by an otherworldly melody which slowly evolves into a berlin school-style analogue sequence-- pleasantly and fascinatingly reminiscent of the classic spacemusic series Dark Side of the Moog by veteran producers Pete Namlook and Klaus Schulze (of Tangerine Dream). when the dark autumn months call for a quiet introspective journey into deep space, Phrozenlight's music fits the bill quite nicely.

Altus

now for another complete change of pace - spacey ambient music from canadian musician Altus. at times reminiscent of Jonn Serrie, Chuck Wild (Liquid Mind), Thom Brennan, or Steve Roach in his more melodic moments. peaceful synth pad chords with just the right touches of ambient sounds and atmosphere. almost all of his excellent releases are available as hi-quality mp3s for free download, released under a Creative Commons license. especially recommended are: The Wanderer, Autumn Breeze, Winter Embrace, Excursion One, Elements - Air. if youre a fan of ambient spacemusic, dont miss this very prolific musician!