martian chronicles.nfo
The Martian Chronicles
Label: Hypnos - hyp3159
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 03 Oct 2011
Genre: Electronic
Style: Drone, Ambient
Tracklist
1 The Long Years 14:38
2 Dead Cities 15:03
3 Blue Fire 13:19
4 End Of A Changeling 2:49
5 Canals 8:10
6 Flamebirds Waiting For The Storm 10:05
7 Unremembered 9:55
Companies etc
Copyright (c) - Seren Ffordd
Mixed At - StarWeb Studio
Manufactured By - Disc Makers
Record Company - Hypnos Recordings
Credits
Layout, Mastered By [Final] - Mike Griffin*
Synthesizer, Sampler, Effects [Field Recordings, Treated Acoustic Sources],
Mixed By, Cover [Art] - Seren Ffordd
Notes
Recorded between 2006 and 2009.
Seren Ffordd and Oophoi 2011
Comes in a 4-panel digipak.
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from
http://serenffordd.bandcamp.com/album/the-martian-chronicles
The Martian Chronicles was released after Oophoi and I had passed music back and
forth for over three years while working on the project. The music that forms
the base of the track `Unremembered' was the first piece sent by myself to
Oophoi to start the album (which also developed independently into the album
MooN by Seren Ffordd). After a period of working together Oophoi suggested we
honour Ray Bradbury and his book `The Martian Chronicles'. I had the great
pleasure of re-reading the book after many years - finding I still remembered
the characters and the strange otherworldly nature of the landscapes beings and
complicated timelines. The track `End of a Changeling' includes every piece of
music created by Oophoi for the album - those heard in earlier tracks and those
yet to come. The music was mixed to a crescendo at the end, recreating a
specific part of the book in sonic form. The tracks also play with the mixed
timelines of the novel - each one connected to a chapter, but in reverse order
to the book. Sadly Ray Bradbury passed away shortly after the album was released
and will be sorely missed.
I hope you enjoy the music.
Review Bert Strolenberg:
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"The Martian Chronicles" is a 74-minute longform album inspired by Ray
Bradbury's short science fiction story by the same name. It is the first
Gasparetti) and Welsh soundscape composer Seren Ffordd (aka Andy Benford). What
we got here is a deep and immersive work of cinematic ambient that took about
three years in the making. The seven tracks feature vast, dark and slow morphing
drone textures along field recordings and percussion, making up an intense trip
into a mysterious and alienating world with psychedelic edges. "The Martian
Chronicles" is a spacious recording meant for deeper and focussed listening,
that seems to submerge the listener even more when heard with a good pair of
headphones. If you're into dense ambient art works with both subtle changes
along fine environmental sounds, this quality album is for you.
Review in Textura:
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Speaking of extraterrestrial, The Martian Chronicles, the first collaboration
between long-time Hypnos contributors Seren Ffordd & Oophoi, takes its name from
a story collection by Ray Bradbury (by the way, Seren Ffordd, the alias adopted
by Andy Benford is Welsh for Star Road, Way of Stars, or Milky Way, while
Italian ambient-drone composer Gianluigi Gasparetti is the man behind Oophoi).
The seventy-four-minute set elaborates on its sci-fi connection in seven
ethereal moodscapes the duo recorded between 2006 and 2009 using synths,
samples, percussion, and field recordings as the primary sources (the album was
mixed at Benford's StarWeb studio, aptly enough). The journey is mysterious,
deep, and immersive, especially when the settings flow uninterruptedly from one
to the next. The second track, "Dead Cities," already finds us inhabiting deep
space, as suggested by the lulling ebb and flow of the gaseous exhalations that
dominate its early goings. A choir seems to faintly intone alongside the
instrumental sounds (also during "Canals"), though that could simply be a
hallucinatory response to the alien sounds in play. Cavernous rumblings
convincingly conjure the vast emptiness of space before "Blue Fire" brings a
rather more serene mood to the album. An occasional real-world sound, such as
the chirping birds and rain downpour in "Flamebirds Waiting for the Storm," adds
a more concrete dimension to the generally abstract character of the sound
design. Regardless of mood, the tracks unfold slowly, a move that in turn
heightens their immersive potential, and there's a grandiosity to the pair's
material, not to mention drama and depth. Though it's very much in the deep
ambient tradition, The Martian Chronicles is also a superb example of the genre
and one aficionados would do well to investigate.
released 03 October 2011
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Music and sounds recorded by Seren Ffordd in the Starweb studio and Oophoi in the Kiva.
Final mix made by Seren Ffordd in the Starweb studio.
Cover art by Seren Ffordd.
Cover layout and final mastering by Mike Griffin of Hypnos.
Album released by Hypnos - www.hypnos.com
CD available via Hypnos.com or Serenffordd@hypnos.com
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from
http://www.hypnos.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HOS&Product_Code=hyp3159
The Martian Chronicles, inspired by Ray Bradbury's story collection of the same
name, sounds very much like the soundtrack to a mysterious and strange science
These seven tracks, while slow, moody and at times weirdly alien, also evoke a
drama and emotional depth absent from much recent ambient music. It's a complex
and beautiful mixture of electronic instruments, field recordings and
percussion.
These artists will both likely be familiar to Hypnos listeners. Seren Ffordd has
released several albums on our Hypnos Secret Sound imprint, and also contributed
to the Hypnos compilation Sounds of a Universe Overheard. The name Seren Ffordd
(real name Andy Benford) is Welsh for Star Road, Way of Stars or Milky Way.
2006, and his Nebulae group project album Path of White Clouds in 2011, all on
persona burst onto the ambient music scene in the late 1990s and quickly became
one of the most talented and prolific sound artists around. He founded the
now-defunct labels Umbra and Penumbra, which released the earliest recordings of
Seren Ffordd. After working together in this capacity for several years The
Martian Chronicles is their first collaboration, but not their last; the pair
has already completed another full album worth of material.
We at Hypnos are proud to bring you this collaborative work from two of the most
interesting and talented ambient musicians out there, and we hope you'll enjoy
it as much as we do.
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