Internationally acclaimed harpist Alina Bzhezhinska and Ibiza-based producer Tulshi announce their collaborative album ‘Whispers of Rain’.

Spore is the second disc in Vidna Obmana's (Dirk Serries) trilogy based on Dante's Inferno. This is also quite a departure for Serries. He uses quite an array of eclectic devices to create this experimental - almost avant-garde - album. The most interesting sounds are from the overtone flutes and fujaras. Serries has commented that this is not an ambient CD. That is correct. This CD is interesting enough to be the focus of deep listening. It is not innocuous enough to be ignored as background music. It demands attention. The rhythms and atmospheres complement each other smoothly. The experimental sounds are neither dominant nor dominated. This disc is certainly electronic, definitely experimental, and decidedly Vidna Obmana. It will appeal to fans of Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Jorge Reyes, and Ma Ja Le.

The fictitious tour of far-away lands continues, as anonymous artist Glåsbird follows the scratchy, folk-ambience of Norskfjǫrðr with a return to lonely arctic-island sounds. Novaya Zemlya is a Russian-owned island, stretching from just off the mainland between the Kara and Barents seas, with two islands split by the Matochkin Strait.

Duality is at once sacred and playful. It is both dark and light, organic and refined, masculine and feminine. Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard partners with Pieter Bourke, formerly of Aussie band Eden, to create this compositional dance of partnership that is classical, ancient, and thoroughly modern. Gerrard's voice is multitracked at times, conjuring a cathedral choir and the droning chants of monks. Drums and synth snake from desert to brilliant stormy sky to shaking earth and the bodies that inhabit those spaces. There are lush multiple layers of strings, bagpipe drone, and, quite literally, the laughter of children. The vocals sans "real" words and multicultural instrumentation will be familiar to Dead Can Dance listeners. Yet there is something more exclusive, more womblike about the music of Bourke and Gerrard; rather than two distinct bodies making music, like mother and in utero child sharing blood and breath, they are mutually dependent.

This 8 CD box set of 128 tracks will blow your mind with a wide range of chill out music from various artists. It ranges from artists of the 70s such as Brian and Roger Eno, Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Genesis, to world music from artists like Shelia Chandra, Govinda, Joi, Baaba Maal, to classical themes by Ennio Morricone, Tasmin Little, Michael Nyman and Barrington Pheloung, to New Age and Celtic music from Enigma, Matt Molloy, Mae McKenna, David Byrne, Sacred Spirit, Adiemus, Douglas Spotted Eagle, Yulara, Clear Sound Project, Penquin Cafe Orchestra plus many many more varieties of artists and music. This box set will satisfy everyones taste and mood for chillout music.

Using only analog equipment, Radio Massacre International forges huge atmospheres and a sound that fits perfectly in the new-millennium digital domain. While their sound recalls the Berlin school of the early '70s, it also stands proudly with modern digital e-music. Republic contains three long-form compositions that cross all borders. Radio Massacre International is able to perform deep minimalism, experimental sci-fi passages, and dark ambient atmospheres. They compliment and surround those elements with the dense sequences expected of the Berlin school. This is excellent evolutionary Berlin school electronica. Radio Massacre International is on a plane with Ron Boots, Ian Boddy, Klaus Schulze, and Paul Ellis.

Andre Konchalovsky's 1986 film Shy People, would seem the perfect vehicle for a Tangerine Dream score. Alternately pensive and paranoid, full of taut drama and dreamy expanses as well as moments of true psychological horror, Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Paul Haslinger not only scored the film, but produced and engineered the recording, too.

Sakamoto's all-star blend of Western and Eastern music styles is a triumphant success for the composer, and a consistently good listen. On the title track he takes a traditional Japanese folk song and blends it into a funk groove provided by Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, and Sly Dunbar. Unlike Byrne and Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, this blend of cultures is coming from the opposing angle and stays truer to the source material. But that track is only one of Sakamoto's approaches, and on several other tracks he joins with Laswell to create a crisp, techno-cultural hybrid that sounds like nothing except like pure Sakamoto. On "Risky," a subdued Iggy Pop lends vocals and lyrics, and doesn't come across as an interloper. And on "Okinawa Song," Sakamoto seamlessly integrates the southern island culture into his grand scheme.

It all starts here for Radio Massacre International. That most creative English band that almost single handedly brought back the Berlin School trio format back to prominence. All three perform on a raft full of analog keyboard equipment (mellotron, Moog's, etc…), while one doubles up on electric guitar. Sound familiar? Sure it does. Not that RMI was content to just sit in that same zone, as many of their albums followed other trends of German Kosmische, but primarily RMI were all about sequencer and atmospheric mid to late 70s Tangerine Dream. And the double CD Frozen North is the perfect place to start . We are talking 2 hours and 15 minutes of Encore meets Rubycon. Not a mere copy, but rather a completely unique take on a classic sound. To say it is essential for fans of Berlin School elektronik music would be understating the matter.