BIOMA - Max Corbacho & Bruno Sanfilippo

This release from 2011 offers 59 minutes of environmental ambience.

Environmental source sounds flavor this electronic look at the world around us shorn of any signs of intrusive industrialization.

While both musicians are known for their extremely minimal ambient compositions, this release displays a more pronounced sonic presence. Here, the electronics sparkle and twinkle as if approximating glorious sunlight bathing the landscape.

Field recordings (birds, insects, leaves chittering in the wind) play a vital role in this music, not just as embellishment but functioning as a full-fledged contributor to the composition, guiding the musicians in their pursuit of capturing the mood of a pleasant vale full of lush vegetation and the numerous lifeforms that make their homes there. These environment sounds blend perfectly with the glittering electronics, setting the tone as well as the mood conveyed by the final gestalt.

After a while, deeper pulsations creep into the mix, heralding a phase in which an earthier temperament comes into play. Signs of daytime life dwindle to be replaced by nocturnal sounds. A serenity settles into the auralscape. There are pinnacles here, marking moments of dark beauty.

Eventually daybreak comes, bringing with it an awakening that is smoothly communicated to the audience through crisp harmonic ascensions.

This soundscape superbly captures the sonic breath and flow of a pastoral environment, not just because of the field recordings used to enhance the music, but more directly accountable to the musicians' attention to evoking the disposition of nature in its purest form. Each synthetic tonality rings with a holistic demeanor, a softness that allows the harmonic presence to seep into the listener's psyche.

Review by Matt howarth/Sonic Curiosity