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MoonWater is also an enhanced CD and includes a video piece with music by Rudy Adrian and Nick Prosser (baroque flute).
All music written, recorded and performed by Rudy Adrian MoonWater is the FIRST US release by internationally renowned musician and New Zealand native Rudy Adrian. This new body of work is the culmination of On MoonWater, Rudy dives deep again into subtlety and meditative minimalism, using a single synthesizer–a Yamaha SY77. MoonWater is a beautifully crafted study in deeply serene and contemplative soundscapes. Press Information |
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US-based ambient producer Rudy Adrian has been releasing albums since the late nineties, both as limited CDR runs and through labels such as Groove Unlimited, and Moonwater represents his first release on Pennsylvania ambient specialist imprint Lotuspike. Originally conceived as the result of unforeseen studio mishaps; both Adrian’s newer computer setup and sampler stopped working more or less simultaneously, forcing him to work only using a 512k Macintosh and a single synthesiser, the Yamaha SY77, in many senses, Moonwater shows Adrian returning by necessity to the sonic landscapes that coloured his earlier works. From the outset, the murky sleeve art depicting full moon rise over a beach landscapes suggest the familiar stock-in-trade totems of New Age ambient music, preconceptions firmly backed up by the contents of this disc.
The opening title track certainly sounds akin to the sort of atmospheric yet calming music that Michael Stearns might have selected to soundtrack a magnificent time-lapse scene of clouds moving over the Utah desert in ‘Baraka’, warm harmonic synth pads bleeding out beneath ringing tones and the distant whir of insects. ‘Midnightfantasyangel Part 1’ meanwhile manages to inject a somewhat more foreboding edge, with exotic, vaguely Middle Eastern tones and dark looming sub-bass swells adding a tangibly ominous edge, but throughout proceedings are tempered with an overall reassuring vibe. Indeed, pretty much all of the nine tracks gathered here are aglow with warm harmonic tones and a reassuringly optimistic vibe that’s often a little more Ken Davis than Tangerine Dream. As late-night chilled background listening, ‘Moonwater’ certainly fulfills its purpose, but I personally found that it veered frequently a little too close to pastel New Age crystal shop ambience to prove a truly engaging listen. Chris Downton |
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Rudy Adrian is equally at home doing all-out sequencer blitzes or doing mellow ambient and new age music. MoonWater falls squarely in the latter category, a blissful reverie of soothing sonics. Crickets and gently lapping water start the title track, followed by warm synth pads. “MidnightFantasyAngel, part 1” approaches similar new age territory to The Healing Lake, predominantly a piano piece with a couple bright shimmering electronic touches deftly mixed in. “Summer Fields” is perhaps softest of all, just a couple of quietly floating synths that seem to melt into the background; absolutely lovely. “Ancestral Legacy” features beautiful wood flute. “The Legend of Kristy Lynn” is shrouded in ethereal mystery, delicate and flowing. “Under Orion” is classic space music in the style of Jonn Serrie. The last two tracks are excerpts from a live recording from December 2003, and fit very well with the rest. MoonWater is thoroughly relaxing and peaceful from beginning to end. Phil Derby / Electroambient Space |
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In this work, synthesist Rudy Adrian explores areas little trodden of Ambient, discovering unreal worlds of contrasting sounds to our ears, which the author knows how to skillfully braid in kaleidoscopic textures. The music is mostly of a cosmic personality. The evolution of the pieces tends to be slow, hypnotic, and it makes our imagination fly to other planes of reality, at times evoking the same sensations of dreams. Edgar Kogler |
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Rudy Adrian is one of the most talented and imaginative composers of electronic music among this generations of synth artists. For years he has successfully spanned and infused many different areas of electronic music within his compositions. From his successful Sequencer Sketches Volumes series of cds through his various improvisational live performances, Rudy has had the distinction and accolades of creating some of today's most original and exciting works of electronic music.
His most recent recording, titled MoonWater and released on the Lotuspike label, is another milestone in his career and a credit to his remarkable talent as a composer. Relying solely on rich atmospheric textures and floating ambient soundscapes Rudy has created another masterpiece of sound and style. 2007. John Garaguso |
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With MoonWater (63'26"), Rudy Adrian celebrates the touching and easy moods of environmental musical fantasy. This work hopes to take the listener out of the real world, with all its uncertainty and isolation, and into Adrian's personal Eden. The nine idyllic compositions are quieting to the mind and envision a harmonious and tame nature. Adrian unitizes a number of interesting methods to portray and convey his convictions including, native flute, field recordings, lilting piano melodies, pleasant synthesizer tones and his own voice, all routed through cavernous reverberation. The grandeur of MoonWater's consonant harmonies is grounded by detailed and imaginative electronic modulations just beneath an aural glow which seems to surround each composition. The result is beautifully flowing and transporting music, contemplative for the mind yet warming to the heart. 2006. Chuck van Zyl / Star's End |
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This release from 2006 offers 63 minutes of foggy ambience. Tenuous textures of ethereal substance provide a swirling foundation for sedate piano passages that express solemn chords in a relaxed fashion. Sparkling, understated effects drift throughout the mix like mobile starscapes. Periodic swells cascade over the harmonics, lending brief instances of vitality, then things recede to the customary pool of tranquillity. Waves of fragile tones drift with vaporous consistency, generating a foggy overcast. Peering through this hazy firmament are layers of additional electronic mist which provide a gradual interchange of rarefied atmospheric disposition. These exchanges occur with great lassitude, defying observation and generating an easygoing transference of silvery effluvium. The chords waft like theoretical condensation, elusive and flimsy as they create a moody flow. Buried in the mix are sounds of twinkling definition that infuse the illusion of remote celestial events. This deceptive presence gives the soundscapes a feeling of expansive reach, linking the stately moon with the placid oceans of earth. These compositions are sparse, with only a hint of melodic content. The tunes rely more on harmonic ebbs and flows to accomplish their existence. The last two tracks comprise two-thirds of a live performance around Christmas of 2003. Matt Howarth / Sonic Curiosity |
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