PRESS > Ars Lucis

( Matt Howarth, Sonic Curiosity )

This release from 2009 offers 74 minutes of regal ambience.Corbacho plays sequencing, synthesizers, and atmospheres.Ethereal electronics achieve a stately presence that remains rich with sedative properties.Vaporous textures unfurl to fill the chamber, then undulate to bring these attenuated layers into endearing contact with each other, merging to produce a delicate density that retains a demonstrative softness.

All of the auxiliary electronics share this mellow touch. Twinkling with crystalline beauty, the tones reverberate with an airy character as if the sounds themselves can convey an airborne buoyancy.Although melodic hints lurk within the fluid mix, this music relies mainly on harmonic structure to achieve its idyllic dreaminess.

While these compositions embody a discriminating celestial flair, their expansive presence is imbued with a divine elegance that excellently captures the awe inspired by viewing cathedral architecture (which from the song titles we learn is the album’s general topic). The simplicity involved is quite deceptive, for what seems to be sparse is in actuality a lavish compendium of gentle pulsations. These lucid creations divulge majestic splendor with each tenuous passage.

(Morpheus Music & The Mall Magazine)

Beatless, minimal ambient air. As if painting with the sonic equivalent of light, Max Corbacho establishes a deep, resonant, anticipatory expanse and fills it with shafts and shards of shifting colour and density. Broad beams and hazes of tone drift in unhurried solemnity, rising heavenward in weightless clouds or massing gradually into translucent omnipresence. The ponderous large-scale undulations of these evolving, spacious atmospheres are illuminated with lustrous glimmers, sparkles and radiances of a more fleeting nature. Ripples and fluctuations that pass through the weight of the air with faster motion. There is a reverential dignity to this music that beautifully captures something of the architecture and luminance of the cover imagery; this graceful lustre, this art of light.

Ars Lucis comes in a jewel case with a two panel insert. Imagery is centred on a series of photographs of the Basilica of St Denis in Paris, France. Elegant grey columns and arches are presented rising like huge plumes of stone supporting luminous stained glass windows. The glowing blue, indigo and violets hues of the tinted panes beam all the brighter amid the starkness of stone. The front cover opens out into a two page panorama where the imagery is allowed to glow without distraction. On the rear cover track titles are set out alongside timings for each piece. The flip side of the insert once more gives much space to the glorious visual impact of the abbey church with information displayed to the left: production details, credits, thanks and website addresses.

Max Corbacho's ninth album follows the progression into deep, silken ambience set by previous releases Breathstream and The Talisman. The album is released via the ad21 label that Max maintains with kindred spirit Bruno Sanfilippo. Ars Lucis contains seven transcendent compositions that range in length from the eighteen minute seven second conclusion Mirabilis Structura to the two minute fifty one second brevity of Keystone Meditation. In total almost seventy four minutes of sublime melody-free magnificence. If you have enjoyed the direction of Max's most recent previous albums, then this one will be a joy to you. The Max Corbacho website provides clips to listen to, as does the ad21 website.

(Phil Derby / Electroambient Space)

Max Corbacho’s music is getting increasingly ambient with each new release. If he gets any more relaxed than Ars Lucis, by the time his next album comes out I will only make it through the first two minutes before I drift off into blissful slumber. Corbacho truly is “in the zone” lately, the pure float zone. This is formless, non-melodic music that nonetheless has depth and warmth in abundance. Variances between tracks are subtle yet distinct. For example, “Narthex” has a particularly bright, shimmering tone to it, whereas “Light-Matrix Portal” has a richer, more expansive sound. Still, the basic principle is the same throughout – take a few delicate layers of sound, blend them subtly and smoothly together, and maintain the mood for several minutes with gradual changes. Corbacho does an excellent job of blending lighter and darker elements together, such that the end result should please both dark ambient and new age listeners, although it may not be “pretty” enough for the latter. For true ambient fans, this is as good as it gets.

© 2010 Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

(Marius-Christian Burcea, producer/host "Journeys to the Infinite")

If Goethe called architecture frozen music, it seems that Max Corbacho succeeded in his latest recording to release music from stone without losing the sacred geometries. ARS LUCIS delivers a perfect flow of space, sound and silence manifested in seven tracks of pure meditative harmonies. Every piece of music shine with aural beauty from a quiet inner centre opening to the infinite. Delicate resonances are melting into an uncognoscible light, calling the senses to perceive beyond any form, infusing the mind with spaciousness that permeats and pervades an entire world of subtle experiences. Listening effortlessly, finally you will feel your entire being as a unique stained glass window  crossed by abundant luminous waves projecting a radiant display of color on distant ethereal planes. ARS LUCIS proves to be an effective tool for expanding consciousness and a treasure for fans of deep ambient music.

Bert Strolember (Sonicimmersion)

After the gentle ambience of his 2008-release "BreathStream", Max Corbacho takes us to ambient heaven with his release "Ars Lucis". Those familiar with his work know what he's capable of, spending lots of time in his studio sculpturing and harmonizing a continuous flow of expansive textures, which now have ended up in deep, captivating meditative realms. As Max explains, a main theme runs smoothly through all tracks of the album in a subtle way, "spreading mystical, delicate scents through labyrinthine passages ascending and spiralling to the vaults".

The contemplative, dreamy sphere (with a touch of Steve Roach) created by this long form, highly atmospheric music is a welcome counterpoint for nowadays fast and hectic life. The almost 74–minute outcome on “Ars Lucis” is velvet, celestial music that drift along in multiple colours and through subsequent different sonic zones around its beautiful core. This grand and spacious music reaches for expansive worlds of splendour, of which the mood is already set by the great photography of a French cathedral on the cd-cover.

Nice going, Max!