Transcendence $2.58

About Transcendence

The 1995 recording of Transcendence is a classic electronic music album, and this 2007 reissue includes two bonus tracks from the same time period. Starting with the pulsing bass tones of The Passage of Moments, this is a wonderful opening track, light and airy with just the right melodic touches. Transcendences features a cool bubbly sequence that pings back and forth hypnotically. Thumping bass and beats add interest but still keep things soft. The repetitious electronic sounds of Melting Boundaries have mechanical precision but warmth as well. Terra Nocturna floats slowly along with a touch of melancholy. One of my favorites is the lively bouncy Artifacts & Prophecies, whose shuffling beat and catchy tune is the sort that stays in your head all day long. The original disc closed with Veil of the Twilight Moon, an ethereal piece that seemed a perfect closing. As such the bonus tracks feel like an epilogue, but they still fit rather well. In Zero Gravity fades in soft and low and maintains a relaxed pace throughout. The Evolution of Dawn is lighter still, and works well as the new conclusion for this new and improved version of a classic.

2007 Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

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Transcendence opens with a pulsing bass line while subtle synths swirl in the background. I was thinking, "Fairly standard ambient stuff." Then, a cool guitar sound comes in along with another synth washing over you. That's when I realized that this debut release from Alpha Wave Movement was something different and special. The first song, "The Passage of Moments" is a great ambient cruiser, combining the patient washes of synthesizer with an increasingly insistent rhythm of bass drum and synth bass, all with that great guitar sound. It's more accessible than I can describe because the elements work so well together. The music is not particularly dark, which I'm personally grateful for, but it's not lightweight either. It's trippy, spacy, and very infectious. It's also very fluid, in that it's constantly morphing and never stays the some for long.

The title track starts out very hauntingly, with mysterious synth noises and minor key washes in the background. Then a bubbly synth tone enters and we're into some seriously cool ambient dub music. The rhythms are subdued at first (another plus in my book) but the song is still more of a cruiser than a chill-out piece. Eventually, the dub presence becomes more pronounced, but it's always pleasantly in the background. The recording quality on the whole CD is very good - crystal clear and well mixed. There's a lot of stuff going on here. I'd recommend headphones for this recording, at least for one of your first listens.

For comparison's sake, Alpha Wave Movement's music is more indicative of the less frenetic ambient dub artists. If you like a lot of the stuff on the first two Baramundi samplers, this release is a good bet. However, Transcendence has the added benefit of longer songs (only two of the seven cuts are less than six minutes long) and the production is richer by far than many offerings on ambient dub samplers.

There's the beautiful cascading sounds and washes of "Terra Nocturna" with its great synth bass undercurrent counterpointed by synth piano, and the eerie "Artifacts and Prophecies" which starts out like space music and then morphs into a slow rhythmic descent into darkness and otherworldly percussive elements. The album closer, the ten minute-plus "Veil of the Twilight Moon," is more in a floating mode than most of what comes before. Synth chords fade in and out and a warm feeling is evinced through the sustained synth washes that ebb and flow. After all the beats and rhythms, choosing this as the last song seems appropriate so the listener can truly "chill out" and float into a relaxed state of being.

Clearly, Alpha Wave Movement (who already has at least one newer release out) is a rising star on the horizon where ambient dub, ambient, and electronic music meet. I hope that Transcendence is merely the beginning of a long career. We'll be fortunate indeed if that is the case.

Bill Binkelman, Wind & Wire (from the 1996 publication)

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Its rare that every cut on an album is outstanding, but on this remarkable release each of seven compositions is exceptionally powerful and unusually inspiring. Alpha Wave Movement combine ambient atmospherics, rumbling rhythms and dynamic drones into an incredibly compelling collection.

Jeff Berkwitz Writer / Sci-Fi Magazine, Asterism Magazine

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Alpha Wave Movement fashions graceful and radiant compositions on his cd "Transcendence", which gives a dulcet, dreamy charge. A strong first effort.

Titus Levi Keyboard Magazine