A top artist in the ambient/space music genre, Indiana based musician Jeff Pearce is best known for his pioneering and influential style of ambient guitar music that he’s been recording since the early 1990s. Released as an extended version of the nearly 17 ½ long piece “Slowly Falling” from his 4-track album In Winter released in 2021, Slowly Falling (Extended Mix) is a long-form album comprised of the hour-long title piece. Composed entirely on electric guitar, Jeff employs his signature digital processing, delay effects and layering techniques to create ethereally shimmering and multi-faceted textures.
Drawing creative inspiration from the natural environment, changing seasons, astronomical and meteorological phenomena, Jeff’s music is observational in character, yet also exudes a deeply emotive and personal quality that’s seemingly wrapped in an inexpressible mystique that is once again exemplified on this majestic composition of space-ambient perfection.
Transpiring as one continuous sound passage that paints wintry images of a cold, northern terrain, “Slowly Falling” feels evocative of being cozily nestled inside an aurora glass cabin, while its translucent shapes and intangible shadows of softy-swirling sonic encompassment are sure to have the listener ‘slowly falling’ into a deep dream sequence!
~Candice Michelle for Journeyscapes
For more information please visit the artist's website. Slowly Falling (Extended Mix) is also available at Bandcamp and more!
San Diego based guitarist and ambient composer David Helpling released his debut album Between Green and Blue in 1996 on Spotted Peccary Music and has remained one of the most prominent artists on the label’s roster – and in the ambient/electronic music scene. Since his debut album’s landmark follow-up release, Sleeping on the Edge of the World, Helpling has subsequently composed music for film, released collaborative albums with Jon Jenkins, and collaborative tracks with chill-trance acts like Tigerforest and ELEON. Following his first space-ambient solo electric guitar album A Sea Without Memory in 2017, Helpling released the more melodically dynamic and oceanic inspired RUNE in 2019.
As if coming full circle with his latest album IN, Helpling revisits the rhythmic hallmarks of his initial albums and collaborations with Jon Jenkins, incorporates signature elements of his more recent albums, and adds newer subtleties of world, vocal and classical touches to his magnificent compendium of sound.
Comprised of 13 compositions spanning 1 ½ hours, IN is characterized by lush ambient sound passages of liquid electric guitars, drifting piano notes and echoing tribal-esque rhythms. A lot of Helpling’s earlier work was stylistically reminiscent of Patrick O’Hearn’s – a welcome comparison he received much praise for – and I’m incredibly overjoyed that he’s re-incorporated a lot of that feel throughout as a seeming nod to his musical past. Nevertheless, there are certainly other previously unfamiliar surprises here; among them includes the worldly sample-like vocals of Nidhi Bhatmuley on “This Burning Sky”, a sensual and soaring epic chill-out track and one of my favorites on the album.
Additionally, Miriam Stockley of Adiemus and AO Music lends her distinctive ethereal vocalise to the songs “Slipping” and “I Too Am Coming Home”, while instrumentalist guest performances grace the songs “The Bliss You’ve Always Carried” (featuring Benjy Wertheimer) and “You Already Are” (featuring Matthew Schoening).
Essentially electronic yet inherently organic, IN caressingly washes over the senses like warm ocean waves with its silky sonic layers magnified by panoptic reverberation. Conveying a perpetual state of daydream throughout, experiencing the music is like passing through mirrored halls of sound – variably projecting mental images of swimming and flying, the sand and sea, and the sun and stars – in a breathtaking overview of planet earth.
Stunningly beautiful in and out, IN is another ingenious leap forward for David Helpling, recalling the nostalgia of many memorable ambient/electronic music releases of the 1990s and early 2000s yet creatively and technologically rooted in the present decade.
A smooth lounge mix featuring liquid chill guitars!
ARTIST / TRACK / ALBUM-EP-SINGLE ELEON ft. Jeff Pearce / Floating Just Above You / Floating Just Above You Nicholas Gunn / Shine / Sound Condition La Estacion del Dar & Albert Candela / Deeper than the Ocean / Unno Majestica / How Does it Feel? / In the Midst of Stars Schiller & Mike Oldfield / Morning Dew / Day and Night Mythos / Progression / XXV Doug Blair / Between Two Worlds / Of Dreams and Fantasy David Helpling / Free Dive / RUNE Ken Verheecke / Breathe / Tripping the Light Fantastic Tsode ft. David Clavijo / Sunday Sun / The Quiet Music, The Sonorous Loneliness David Wright / The Lost Colony / The Lost Colony
I recall first hearing the music of San Diego based guitarist and ambient composer David Helpling upon discovering his second album, Sleeping On the Edge of the World, which was released on the prestigious Spotted Peccary Music label in 1999. Since then, he’s recorded three collaborative landmark albums with fellow ambient musician and label-mate Jon Jenkins, followed by a solo space-ambient album in 2017 titled A Sea Without Memory.
Having grown up near the Pacific Ocean, its waters were always a source of healing, serenity and wonder for Helpling, hence it’s not surprising that he’s looked to the sea again for the theme of his new album RUNE. Drawing upon Viking mythology, his latest creation is inspired by the Norse rune “laguz”, which translates to “water”. Likewise, the rune's symbol adorns the album’s tantalizing cover image, which Helpling conceptualized with the help of photographer Joseph Abreu and artwork designer Daniel Pipitone.
Spanning almost seventy minutes in length, RUNE features eight compositions that were masterfully sculpted with electric guitars and a custom rig. This impressive feat may come as a surprise to listeners who might otherwise mistake many of these sounds for synthesizers. Comprised of lushly layered guitar melodies and stringed rhythmic patterns, Helpling spins scintillating aural threads into fluidly spiraling arrangements that reverberate all throughout the listening space. Echoingly iridescent tones in the higher range seemingly mimic siren calls amid sustained undercurrents of mellifluous sound textures.
Perhaps a way to illustrate this listening experience is by imagining oneself suspended in water, only every inch of liquid occupying the enveloping environment is comprised of these otherworldly sonic vibrations. Conjuring a sense of both the natural and the mythical – dolphins swimming alongside mermaids, lost underwater kingdoms entwined among the colorful growth of coral reefs – these enchantingly beautiful transmissions seemingly open a pelagic portal and unveil an ancient hidden paradise.
While the technical process of recording, editing and mastering any composition entails logical thought process, the creation of music such as this inherently strikes me as one that more involves ‘channeling’ than it does ‘thinking’. I can only imagine the mental space Helpling entered while composing this breathtaking album.
One of the most sublimely euphoric moments is a piece called “Be”. Majestically unfolding into back-spiraling patterns of shimmering tonal harmonies, it perfectly conveys the song title's notion of freedom and openness. And although the music throughout is nothing short of blissful, there’s a certain sense of melancholy that underlies its sunlight scattered surface, perhaps resulting from the artist tapping into the empathic nature of the water element.
I recall Helpling citing the band U2 as one of his musical inspirations, and although he creates music of quite a different nature, that influence is certainly detectable at times. Additionally, while there are definite signature style differences between them, fans of both Erik Wøllo’s and Jeff Pearce’s pioneering ambient guitar works might concur that RUNE musically occupies a certain realm between the two.
Watching David Helpling’s musical evolution through the years has been fascinating, and this album is nothing short of another masterpiece among his magnificent body of work. Already one of the year’s top releases, listeners will want to unlock this musical treasure trove and discover the oceanic secrets of the RUNE! ~Candice Michelle
Available at Amazon, Bandcamp, Spotted Peccary and other music retail & streaming platforms. You can also check out our insightful interview with David Helpling conducted in late 2018 here.
We’re delighted to present a very special interview with Jeff Pearce. He’s an Indiana based musician who composes beautifully ethereal ambient guitar music, and is one of the pioneers of the ambient guitar style. Jeff has released a gorgeous new album called SKIES AND STARS just in time for some cooler weather here in the northern hemisphere. We’ll be speaking with Jeff about the inspiration behind his new album, as well as look back on his career which spans two-and-a-half decades. So please join us for an insightful conversation as we stargaze with guitars!
Jeff Pearce's music is available at Amazon, Bandcamp and other music retailers.
Indiana-based musician Jeff Pearce has been releasing music since the early 90s, debuting with an album in 1993 called Tenderness and Fatality. He followed up that recording in 1996 with The Hidden Rift, a landmark album that featured what would become Pearce’s unmistakable signature sound of composing ethereal ambient music entirely on electric guitar by applying innovative methods of digital processing, delay effects and layering techniques. Subsequently releasing other significant albums in this pioneering style, including two now-classics, To the Shores of Heaven (Hypnos, 2000) and Bleed (Hypnos, 2002), Pearce earned glowing praise in prominent publications such as Billboard magazine and Allmusic, with the latter naming him “one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time”.
Jeff Pearce would later record a couple of albums on solo Chapman Stick followed by an atmospheric piano album in 2012, until eventually making a stunning comeback on ambient guitar with the release of his 2014 award-winning album With Evening Above. While Pearce’s music has remained in that perfect zone ever since, his latest album, Skies and Stars, which has arrived just in time for the fall season, further expands on the deep sonic immersions of previous compositions like “Downdrift” and “A Long Winter’s Sleep”, as well as those found on his 2001 album The Light Beyond.
Spanning approximately 56-minutes long, Skies and Stars is comprised of three spellbindingly beautiful compositions. The first two tracks are longform excursions while the third cut is a shorter piece. Conceptualized around a theme of stargazing and sky-watching, Skies and Stars begins at twilight dusk with the piece “Evening Clouds”, as metallic, mist-filled swirls seemingly mimic the slow formations of cirrostratus clouds drifting across the sky. The fading incandescence of sunlight has almost disappeared from the horizon, as the composition gradually modifies into various intangible and imaginative shapes along its 28-minute course.
Ensuing next at nearly 24-minutes long, “The Stars Above My Childhood Home” is perhaps my personal favorite piece on the album. Stirring a deep sense of mystery, the night sets in with metamorphosing modulations of dreamily Delphic tonalities unveiling a sky full of constellations. Finally, at a standard 4-minutes long, “The Last Bright Lights” guides us through the nocturnal cycle's darkest point into the remainder of the night, as tenebrous tonal formations of fathomless expanses eventually dissolve with the astronomical dawn.
Another gorgeously brilliant album from Jeff Pearce, Skies and Stars seemingly transpires from the perspective of a listener-observer remaining on planet earth while peering out into the cosmos. In that sense, perhaps ‘deep sky’ music is an even more fitting description than ‘deep space’. If you’ve ever seen breathtaking photos of the Bolivian salt flats (or even experienced this wonder for yourself) in which a person is surrounded by the cosmos reflecting their light onto the surface below, listening to this album brought many of those images to mind, as well as that of navigating a ship in the open sea at night with only the stars as a compass.
As a longtime fan of his work for many years now, I highly recommend Skies and Stars to those who love Jeff Pearce’s ambient guitar albums along with any enthusiast of the ambient-space genre! ~Candice Michelle
For more information please visit the artist's website. This album is also available from Bandcamp, Amazon and other music retailers.
We’re honored to present a very special interview with Mark Dwane who’s just released an album called Martian Apparitions, a sequel of sorts to his 1988 landmark album The Monuments of Mars. Known for his signature brand of ambient symphonic and sci-fi inspired electronica, Mark creates highly imaginative soundworlds using electric guitar synthesis. Likewise, he’s carved out a unique niche with his music, which explores fascinating themes surrounding historical mysteries, ancient mythologies and unexplained phenomena. So please join us for some otherworldly conversation as we investigate the inexplicable!
Music from several Mark Dwane albums can be heard throughout the interview and are available at Amazon. His three most recent albums are also available in Hi-Res digital download from Bandcamp.
Toward
the Horizon is the collaborative debut album by electronic music veteran
Craig Padilla and electric guitar wizard Marvin Allen. Beautifully sculpted from
analog and digital synthesizers and featuring classic Berlin School sequencing,
these retro-futuristic sound passages are further illuminated by soulfully
stratospheric guitar figures immersed in shimmering multi-tonalities.
Alternating throughout between electrified rhythmic patterns and free-floating
cosmic expanses, Toward the Horizon is a mesmerizing masterwork of
otherworldly time-traveling dreamscapes! ~Candice Michelle
Available at Amazon and other retail and
streaming platforms.
Here's an interview with electronic music composer, guitarist and producer Cass Anawaty (who is one-half of the duo Majestica) and guitarist Doug Blair, which was conducted at the recent Heart Dance Records Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. In this segment, we talk about some of the current projects Cass has worked on, particularly in the ambient/chill/downtempo realm, including the latest Majestica release, along with Doug’s trippy new album titled Horizon.
Music from the albums Auriga to Orion and In theMidst of Stars by Majestica, as well as Horizon by Doug Blair, can be heard throughout this interview.
