Alpha Wave Movement is Gregory T. Kyryluk. Based in Florida, Kyryluk has been experimenting during the late Nineties with atmospheric electronics. AWM is the vehicle for these ambient expressions, while through his Open Canvas identity he explores the combination of such ambience with peaceful world textures. Whether exploring spontaneous improvisation or utilizing today's modern sequencer technologies, Kyryluk produces electronic music that achieves a remarkably serene mood.
"Music is silence in a desert or the wind passing through the magnificent pines of a mountain forest," says Kyryluk in the biographical data on his website. "It is also like the pulse of the blood through the body. Music is departure, destination & arrival. I offer you the ticket you choose the destination."
ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT: The Edge of Infinity (CD on Groove Unlimited)
This CD from 1997 features 54 minutes of elegant ambience.
Take an eerie tension generated by stately tonalities, punctuate this murky atmosphere with delicate textures that rise from the distance to linger on the sonic horizon. Add a few unobtrusive (and sometimes unrhythmic) percussions, again placed at remote vantage from the audience. The result is ambience with an edge, seething with undercurrents of astral potential, but seething quietly without animosity. Introduce passages of soothing keyboards, chords that mingle with the calm tones in a manner to induce relaxation.
Most notable is AWM's tendency to utilize dark moods to create holistic sonic tapestries, channeling softly growling electronics into patterns that inspire uplifting responses. Frequently, more lively harmonics are introduced into the flow, stirring the soundscapes into swaying melodies comprised of crystalline notes that sparkle like gems in an ethereal waterfall raining from a sky of fluffy clouds. This fusion of dark and light produces a balance that marks each composition with a fullness that defies the music's apparent sparseness.
The music possesses pronounced melodic qualities that are harnessed in tracks averaging five minutes in length. This prevents the tuneage from becoming tedious or repetitious, while allowing the minimal structure to achieve its sedative purpose.
ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT: Drifted into Deeper Lands (CD on Groove Unlimited)
This CD from 2000 offers 56 minutes of soothing electronic compositions.
This release offers longer-form examples of AWM's delicate ambience, allowing the music the opportunity to evolve and display more complex sonic expressions during lengths of seven to thirteen minutes.
A stronger melodic presence exists among these compositions, motivating the soundscapes with pleasantly urgent sequencers and faint percussives. Keyboards provide more substance to these atmospheric panoramas with their subtly evolving cycles, while relaxed rhythms add sedentary punctuation to the open-ended sonic declarations. The flow of sound still retains an overall calm, however, like an approaching weather climate containing an assortment of tenuous air currents aswirl with luxurious and stately eddies. Shakers rattle in the distance, generating the impression of leaves turning in these fragile breezes.
With these tracks, Kyryluk delves into exploring soundscapes inspired by earthly elements, concentrating on environments which possess timeless attributes (like deserts and large forests). Often, though, the topic of the songs remains unspecified, allowing the listener to attach a locale of their own choice to the music.
Assisting Kyryluk on this release is Jeff Pearce, who supplies ambient guitar for two of the CD's seven tracks.
ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT: A Distant Signal (CD on Harmonic Resonance Recordings)
This release from late 2002 offers 61 minutes of melodic ambience.
Visit the galaxy firsthand through the sonic expertise of AWM. Sit back and allow the peaceful electronic soundscapes to envelope you with their spiraling pitches and heavenly textures. Languid tonalities manifest as limitless voids, dark realms that are full of twinkling life in the form of delicately synthetic sounds bubbling in a crystalline ether. A full range is employed with the electronics, utilizing feathery tones in tandem with ponderously thick notes. This juxtaposition always remains allied to the calmer side of the scale, unfurling soothing melodies rich with a cosmic splendor.
Overlapping drones are spun like ghostly taffy through the air, providing a fragile axis for keyboard cycles and soft E-perc rhythms. These percussions chitter with unobtrusive subtlety, adding gentle beats that appropriately motivate the languid harmonic passages without distraction or vigorous perturbation. Which is not to imply that AWM's music is ponderously sedate, for several tracks exhibit delectably uptempo rhythms accompanying the dreamy electronics. These enhancements flesh out the mix, producing an icy but full sound that never loses its tenderly tenuous nature.
The heavens portrayed by AWM are majestically lush and aglitter with intelligent disposition. These interstellar regions possess no dark menace or desperate enigmas. All mysteries conjured by this music are holistic and full of ultimate promise.
ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT & JIM COLE: Bislama (CD on on Spectral Spiral Music)
This CD from 2002 features 64 minutes of collaborative soundscapes, blending AWM's delicate ambience with the unique and haunting non-lyrical vocals of Jim Cole (aka Spectral Voices).
Rich with atmospheric qualities, this music displays a more exotic undercurrent as AWM utilizes sounds and styles sourced from the Micronesian Islands. These ethnic strains infect the soundscapes with the tangibility of sun-drenched beaches and lazily drooping jungles. Languid percussives establish floating rhythms that assist these extrinsic impressions, evoking serene ceremonies conducted under sanguine moonlight.
The intertwining presence of Cole's ethereal vocal effects strengthens this ceremonial flair with haunting results. Often quite unrecognizable as sounds originating from the human throat, these eerie vocalizations exhibit remarkable range and definition. Cole's voice floats like a disembodied spirit communicating more with the audience's soul than their intellect, stirring deeply submerged instincts with ghostly timbre.
The melodies have similar effect, touching depths of the human consciousness long neutralized by industrialized civilization. Yet the electronic nature of the music contrasts any primitive qualities, imbuing the soundscapes with a distinctly modern sonic aroma. The coexistence of these electronic textures and subtly tribal sentiments creates a unique perspective that is refreshing. Deeply synthetic tonalities mix with anthropological airs, producing a unification of humanity's heritage and future potential.
OPEN CANVAS: Induimani (CD on Waveform)
This release from 2000 features 56 minutes of ethnocentric electronic music by AWM's Gregory Kyryluk.
A mantric consciousness permeates this sinuous music. Far Eastern percussives intermingle with harp and ethereal electronics, producing an exotic excursion into mysterious realms populated by mammoth ancient temples and alpine highlands that loom with stately wisdom. Strings of orchestral and acoustical nature are included, elevating the music to even loftier vantage. There are even accordion strains (albeit generated synthetically) filtering amid the delicate mix. The whispers of gentle flutes can also be heard, punctuating the wordless choral threads that snake like organic breezes among the harmonic valleys.
With this music, Kyryluk infuses his indigenous ambience with lively rhythms and uplifting melodies. His application of third world sounds is wondrously tempered with modern sensibilities that adamantly adhere to ancestral purity. Tradition becomes fused with technology, abandoning urban cognizance and achieving a splendid rapport with transcendental empathy. East meets West with loving union, producing invigorating melodies that exude wisdom with a sultry rhythm. An insightful balance is struck between the two cultures.
While this music is clearly intended to supplement meditation, its appeal reaches much farther, touching the soul of electronic audiophiles with tuneage that displays a superb compositional sense. The blend of ethnic instruments and modern electronics is breathtaking to witness, and a delight to experience.
This CD features a Blue Apple Mix by Delino Castro of the track "Liquid Shiva" which features additional vocal undulations by Agon Medea.
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