discography: LOW SKY (2011)

EugeneKha – LOW SKY
Recorded: 2009-2010 at White Art Studio
Released: 2011-03-13
Label: Earth Mantra (US)
Style: Ambient, Space Music
Time: 67:50
Digital quality: mp3, 320 kbps
Size: 159 mb
All music by Evgenij V. Kharitonov (EugeneKha)
Original photograph by Anna Kharitonova


Track-listing:

1. After The Storm (3:11)
2. Bad Dream (5:48)
3. Sometime (In Memoriam Evgenij Glemba) (6:01)
4. Forest Piano (3:10)
5. Chinese Souvenir (Live At White Art Studio) (12:57)
6. November 2010 (6:26)
7. Saturn (2:15)
8. Low Sky (Live at White Art Studio, 29 Nov. 2010) (9:58)
9. Solar Tube (4:34)
10. November Night (8:27)
11. Waterday (Live at White Art Studio 28 Nov. 2010) (5:03)

EARTH MANTRA REVIEW:
Our friend Evgenij Kharitonov returns to Earth Mantra with another resplendent
collection of ambient electronic pieces called "Low Sky".

One of the hallmarks of Kharitonov's music is his surprising diversity. Every
time we think we have figured out what genre label to apply to his music, he
produces a new release that confounds our previous definitions. Thus far, on
Earth Mantra alone, Evgenij has covered territory as far separated as dark
ambience, light ambience, space music, electronic new age, textural ambience,
and experimentalism. And now, with "Low Sky", he delivers a single album that
neatly encapsulates this broad array of ambient subgenres, an assembly of
delightfully varying pieces that showcases Evgenij's multifaceted talents, and
serves as a perfect introduction to his masterful work.

One might be tempted to think of this diversity as a dissimilarity, a random
collection of unrelated tracks. One would be wrong to do so, however, for there
are several common threads between these pieces that pull them all together into
a truly satisfying album.

One such thread is the remarkable tonality of the music. In past releases,
Evgenij has danced on the fringe of tonality, taking care to include as much
texture and structure as lushness and musicality. With "Low Sky", however, he
completely embraces melody and tone, Even the title track, ostensibly a drone
study with noise overtones, keeps one foot firmly in the realm of concrete
tonality. We think fans of light ambience and of space music will find much to
love in this album.

The other common thread is the sound design. Evgenij has long demonstrated his
mastery of sound sculpture, his ability to take relatively simple,
straightforward elements and cleverly combine them into music of great depth and
interest. With "Low Sky", he applies this singular talent to the world of tonal
space music, yielding a collection of pieces that simply blows us away.
Remarkable, remarkable work.

So with great pleasure, Earth Mantra unveils "Low Sky", the latest release by
Russian maestro EugeneKha. A genuinely great album that we highly recommend to
all of our listening audience.

As always, all Earth Mantra releases are available under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license. For commercial use,
please contact us.

2011© Darrell BURGAN (aka PALANCAR)

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ANOTHER REVIEW:

The clouds hang low, engulfing the tops of buildings. They are so dense you wonder whether the rest of the building even exists anymore. You could go inside, take the vertical submarine up the heavens and be transported to the heavens. Offices mingle amongst clouds and water droplets. At any moment the pressure would drop and all the cubicles and corner offices would rain down upon the earth in a bureaucratic nightmare.
Low Sky is like the elevator music for a video game inside the submarine. Bits of aural information whiz by you while drones cascade around the chamber ascending upwards. EugeneKha adds layers from many cultures and beats to create phenomenal tapestries for the spirit. The electronic washes and quaint melodies flood the ear canals, leaving behind a haze that rises into the brain and in front of the eyes, making it easy to stumble into furniture.
There is a lack of consistency to this album. It goes from drenching drones (some very somber and tear-jerking) to melodic electronic songs you could almost dance to. There is not a clear segue in between. Given its length, this release could easily have been split in two and the distant feeling stemming from the conflicting moods could be avoided.

Sethmol Recordings.
2011-03-21


These parallels between resonant sound and ecological promise are even more pronounced in a recent work from Eugene Kha. His newest EP - "Low Sky" - comes via the appropriately-named Earth Mantra label. Although we've touched upon the raison d'etre of Mr. Kha's work on multiple occasions, it's nonetheless useful to see how his efforts of 2011 are framed by Earth Mantra. The netlabel's staff sketch his catalog in terms of "dark ambience, light ambience, space music, electronic new age, textural ambience, and experimentalism[!]."
...dark ambience, light ambience, space music...

David McFyden. Sounds of Natural Slumber // Far From Moscow. – 2011. – 15 March