More About This CD

Recorded during a one day session in late 2001 but released only a year and a half later, Electric Forest is a new collaboration between the ambient artists Matthew Florianz (also known as Liquid Morphine) and Erik T'Sas this time helped by a third musician, Joris de Man.

A bleak black and white cover and a minimal artwork: the visual side of Electronic Forest both fits well the rest of the HS Recordings roster and introduces the listener well to the music of this CD. Divided into two suites by the only sung track (Capricious), this album takes the utterly atmospheric and droney elements that these artists have delivered in the past, enriching them with more dynamic and accessible elements, may it be piano, some strings or a few beats.

Heavily drone based, the first suite (the first five tracks) still stays melodic and very soft, the repetitive background being more of a continuum of bleak but clear tones than anything gritty. The music flows delicately and with a lot of modesty, staying constantly extremely gentle and soft. Calm and beautiful, Electronic forest, then works like an synthetic and ambient craddle song, rocking you softly to sleep with its extremely soft tonal shifts and vasts hypnotic soundscapes, which culminate with Capricious, on which semi-whispers choirs add a very human touch to the music.

More organic and flowing, and a bit less massive, the second suite (from Ritual to Smoke) is a somewhat darker assemblage, in which shorter sounds get a bit more echoed, and in which the forest metaphor loses a bit of its relevancy to the profit of more wet sounds, rising images of seas and rivers more than of the trees pictured on the CD cover. And while the album is relatively long (70 minutes) for something so calm, you don't find yourself watching the clock on your CD player, for when Electronic Forest doesn't hypnotize you with its tone, it melts nicely in the background, forming a purely ambient fabric.

At time reminding slightly of some Cold Meat Industry release (most of all of the first two Morthound releases, and of the calmest of the calm Arcana tracks with Capricious, Electronic Forest is a surprisingly accessible and gentle album, in which the decidedly ambient approach never becomes too abstract or bleak. Obviously not the right thing to buy if you are looking for beats, this album should please both people into drones, but looking for a somewhat easy record, and fans of calm and contemplative ambient music.

Recycle Your Ears, Music Webzine

Recorded in a single afternoon in 2001, this recording captures three talented electronic musicians in an incredible zone. The spontaneous and improvisational nature of these 14 tracks provides an ambient space music experience of the highest order, and takes the listener on a mind expanding journey. Intricate compositions moving back and forth from light to dark, coupled with crisp production provide for superb listening. Bold and majestic ,this work often recalls some of the best space music of the seventies, but has little or no electronic percussion or sequencers. The sound is classic and elegant, but not derivative. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Dodds Wiley. Ambient.US

Vital Weekly

T.J. Norris

Electronic Forest (Matthew Florianz, Joris de Man and Erik t'Sas) releases an orchestral ambient project that has a lightness of being. This one hour+ excursion is a multi-layered fusion of dark entries and smoky mazes. Having started the recording process in 2001, this young trio had many twists along the way before seeing their project surface. But as it does it glides right alongside works by vidnaObmana, Robert Rich and Saul Stokes. Sand is one of those tracks that has a luminosity akin to floating above a mirror, suspended by its own reflection. This is clearly the type of work that is indicative of collaboration with filmmakers and others. Blending synths and guitars with other sound hybrids these guys have set out to make music evocative of late night suspense and early morning foggy ambiguity.

Jim Brenholts

Posted on the Hypnos forums

Electronic Forest is a set of laid out minimalism from Mathew Florianz, Erik T'Sas and Joris de Man. The evolution of this e-music style is actually quite interesting and quite universal. It is easy to take it all the way back to Brian Eno in the mid 1970’s but that is not the end. There are definite similarities to Brian’s albums of that era. There are, however, stronger similarities to Sonic Seasonings, by Wendy Carlos. Taking giant leaps forward, Steve Roach and Robert Rich have experimented with dark minimalism as have Mathias Grassow and Alio Die. Mike Griffin launched Hypnos in the mid 1990’s and the style flourishes to this day. This is one of the stronger efforts of this style. Mathew, Erik and Joris surround their drone with dark atmospheres, experimental sounds and subtle melodies. The soundscapes are totally organic and mystical. There are plenty of clues but no answers.